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Speaker 1: Yeah, rapp right up, podcast will speed up? You know

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Speaker 1: what's up? Great? Back in Lost Sands. Man, I've been

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Speaker 1: trying to get this guy on the programs come a

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Speaker 1: very long time. Man, it's very rare real life Jerry McGuire,

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Speaker 1: the biggest once age in the game. Man, Rich Paul,

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Speaker 1: how are you doing, sir? I'm great, great, and he

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Speaker 1: has been trying to get me on. But but it

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Speaker 1: wasn't all my fault. You know, ye messed up. Ye

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Speaker 1: you're a pretty big time as well. So you know

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Speaker 1: I had to wait my tire. I just called you back.

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Speaker 1: Maybe you got my things on our side. Yeah, well

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Speaker 1: I could represent you. Timing is important and what time

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Speaker 1: better than now? Right? Years? The time? And it's ten years. Man,

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Speaker 1: that's a little Lobos hit. Man. We tossed up real

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Speaker 1: quick Cluch Sports Group and its tip year ten years.

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Speaker 1: I can't believe it's ten me either, that's crazy. So

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Speaker 1: it is the hype real man, Like what to me

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Speaker 1: do you look at it? Whatuch Sports Group? And you know,

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Speaker 1: Rich Paul, this disruptive person in this space, like like,

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Speaker 1: how do you look at it now in perspective of

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Speaker 1: like now you have something so established right at the

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Speaker 1: same time, it still feels like you're constantly shaking the

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Speaker 1: game up. Yeah, I just think that, you know, ultimately,

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Speaker 1: people aren't just used to you know, the black face

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Speaker 1: and leadership, you know, and so that disruption came from

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Speaker 1: a place of what they really wanted to say is

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Speaker 1: he doesn't belong, You don't belong in that position. And

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Speaker 1: I feel that, you know, I feel the total opposite.

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Speaker 1: And I saw that when I decided to start the company.

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Speaker 1: Many people think, especially from the company that I decided

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Speaker 1: to leave, you know, the excuses, Oh, it was a

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Speaker 1: it was a plan all along, but it wasn't. It

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Speaker 1: wasn't a plan all along. It was just understanding of

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Speaker 1: what I thought my value was, and it was a

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Speaker 1: misunderstanding of uh, what they thought was important to me

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Speaker 1: and and who had the control sort of speak. And

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Speaker 1: so what I saw in the space was something that

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Speaker 1: didn't exist and what a lot of people said they

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Speaker 1: wished they had. If you talk to any you know,

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Speaker 1: athletes of yesterday, guys that spent a lot of time

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Speaker 1: in the league, you know, every time I see those guys,

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Speaker 1: they talked to me about just how important it is

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Speaker 1: for me to be in the road that I'm in.

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Speaker 1: And also for the company to present itself and position

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Speaker 1: itself veteran, No, absolutely, to position itself the way it has.

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Speaker 1: And you know, the competition, there's an entitlement from very

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Speaker 1: end because of the business card or the institution or

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Speaker 1: the or the big office, um or the fact that

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Speaker 1: this was our space and you actually you should be

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Speaker 1: working for us, you know. And and so there's a

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Speaker 1: constant critique. There's a constant just blatant lies throughout processes

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Speaker 1: of recruiting and things like that that takes place, uh

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Speaker 1: and and and specifically my direction. And they'll do anything

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Speaker 1: for an athlete to sign with anyone but me per se.

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Speaker 1: But yeah, but you know that still exists as strong

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Speaker 1: as it ever was. No, that's that's strong. But but

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Speaker 1: you gotta remember ten years prior it was this, This

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Speaker 1: isn't gonna last, you know, not to take them serious.

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Speaker 1: You know, it's only about Lebron so to speak. And

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Speaker 1: but now we're here, we're here in a real way

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Speaker 1: and and you know, um, we just had our tenth anniversary.

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Speaker 1: We had our our second annual retreat. And I said

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Speaker 1: on my on my i G post. You know, the

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Speaker 1: good thing is it was a great ten years and

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Speaker 1: and you know we look forward to Tim Moore great years, right,

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Speaker 1: just getting better as a company, me getting better as

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Speaker 1: a leader in my role um us doing because we

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Speaker 1: don't just represent players, to represent their families as well.

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Speaker 1: But in addition to that, I said, the bad news

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Speaker 1: is for the haters is we're just getting started company.

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Speaker 1: Your company has negotiated like two billion dollars in deals,

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Speaker 1: Like what do you think? Oh so good? But what

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Speaker 1: a regardless of the number, what do you think makes

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Speaker 1: Clutch so attractive to athletes? Again? You know someone I

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Speaker 1: think the face right, I think you know, you always

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Speaker 1: feel good to know that someone understands you. And you

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Speaker 1: gotta remember, for for many years, agents weren't looked at

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Speaker 1: And by the way, I'm I'm I'm the CEO of

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Speaker 1: the company, and so I play an agent role, but

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Speaker 1: that's not the only role I play. But in that

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Speaker 1: agent road, they weren't really looked at as credible people,

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Speaker 1: you know, people doing business with integrity. They were looked

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Speaker 1: at as somebody who can get me more money, and

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Speaker 1: that was that was the value that you know, they

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Speaker 1: weren't really looked and they're still not today, not looked

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Speaker 1: at someone who can help me throughout other aspects of life.

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Speaker 1: And I brought that to the game because for me,

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Speaker 1: it's more than the feet. I really give a ship

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Speaker 1: like I really because if I didn't, I wouldn't go

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Speaker 1: to the level so I go. I wouldn't sit in

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Speaker 1: the fires that I sit in with with with clients.

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Speaker 1: You know, we've seen it. We've seen the guy in

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Speaker 1: the picture when he's number one and not in the picture.

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Speaker 1: You know when things go bad, and so in boxing

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Speaker 1: you see like Don King go from one boxing in

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Speaker 1: the new champion. But I never wanted to be that,

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Speaker 1: right because this is not something that I started, you know,

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Speaker 1: specifically for a dollar. That wasn't the case. And the

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Speaker 1: disruption comes from, I think, a focus and the willingness

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Speaker 1: to you know, make the money but still continue to build,

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Speaker 1: have a little success, but still continue to keep a focus.

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Speaker 1: And I think that when you're winning, whatever that entails,

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Speaker 1: the focus has to increase, right, you have to get better.

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Speaker 1: I don't do this by myself. I have an unbelievable

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Speaker 1: team of people that come to work every day and

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Speaker 1: we just try to help each other and hold each

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Speaker 1: other accountable, but also help declient and help their families.

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Speaker 1: And you've got to remember, too, what they've done to

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Speaker 1: the athlete for so many years is give them everything

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Speaker 1: they want. Right. And when I say that, I'm saying

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Speaker 1: give it. Whether that's praise, whether that oh, you bought

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Speaker 1: this car, that's the only you got, the first one,

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Speaker 1: that's the first Bentley is the only one. That's all

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Speaker 1: sucker stuff, right, that's all. Yeah, it's all short terms,

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Speaker 1: but that's what they feel they need to say because

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Speaker 1: the relationship isn't strong. Right, you need money, Let me

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Speaker 1: get you that money. Let me get you more money.

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Speaker 1: And on the other side, as parents or as the athlete,

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Speaker 1: the more you give me in their mind, that's the

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Speaker 1: more I feel like you value who I am. You

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Speaker 1: think my son, or you think I'm the best player,

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Speaker 1: because and this is how the athletes mindset's trained for

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Speaker 1: so long. But as you and I, as we all know,

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Speaker 1: when you're done playing a sport, that's not the world

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Speaker 1: that we live in, right, And what that causes you

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Speaker 1: to do, it causes you to build bad happens, right,

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Speaker 1: just simple things. Right. I came in here and I said,

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Speaker 1: you know what, I was probably about a minute behind

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Speaker 1: or two minutes behind when I should have been here.

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Speaker 1: That's late. That's late in my book, and I apologize

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Speaker 1: for that. The first thing I said to you was

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Speaker 1: I apologize for being a few minutes late. Obviously, sunset

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Speaker 1: is what it is. And you know, whatever the excuse

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Speaker 1: may be, I lead with that because I have an

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Speaker 1: appreciation for your time and everyone else's time that's here

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Speaker 1: with this specific production. They don't teach the athlete that, right.

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Speaker 1: My thing is if I text you, you should text

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Speaker 1: me back, because if you text me and I don't

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Speaker 1: text you back, you have an issue with that, right

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Speaker 1: But because you feel like you're paying me, I should

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Speaker 1: be waiting on you. Life don't work like that, right

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Speaker 1: And when you build a business, because they're all businesses,

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Speaker 1: I have a business too. I have people that work

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Speaker 1: with me that I pay as well. Our time is important,

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Speaker 1: just as important as your time, and so I try

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Speaker 1: to educate and push that. And it don't work for

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Speaker 1: everybody right away. It don't sink in for everybody right away.

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Speaker 1: But you said, because everyone so used to be. If

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Speaker 1: you're a young age, you're the special. People are telling

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Speaker 1: you yes all the time, all the time, all the time,

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Speaker 1: and and you know it's simple things right in life,

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Speaker 1: and we learned through experience. We learned through our parents,

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Speaker 1: our grandparents. Just look at the guy's locker, right, If

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Speaker 1: you go into a locker room and the guy's locker

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Speaker 1: is junkie, I can almost guarantee their house is the

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Speaker 1: same way, right, because it's just the habits, okay, And

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna get to where I'm getting to. So you

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Speaker 1: got those two aspects, very simple detailed things. In the

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Speaker 1: event their houses like that, what do you think their

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Speaker 1: business acumen is? Want to be? Could be as messy

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Speaker 1: as now. Now when you say messy, don't talk to

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Speaker 1: me about I make a lot of money because I

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Speaker 1: don't really give a shit about that, right, And we've

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Speaker 1: been tricked with that for so long. That's the trick.

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Speaker 1: I make a lot of money. I made you a

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Speaker 1: lot of money. You got a lot of money. Whoop,

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Speaker 1: they fucking do? Right. We get that part. But what

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Speaker 1: about the other things that it takes to be a

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Speaker 1: great partner? Okay? Because on one hand, you're gonna say

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Speaker 1: to me, I want this, this, this, and this, But

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Speaker 1: on the other hand, there's things outside of your talent

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Speaker 1: that affects my capabilities to come through for you, and

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Speaker 1: we're a team. We're a team. So this is this

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Speaker 1: is the conversation that I'm having. I don't know what

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Speaker 1: other conversation guys is having with their guys. This is

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Speaker 1: the conversation I'm having. And when you're young, sometimes it

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Speaker 1: go through one and out the other. It doesn't get

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Speaker 1: to everybody. When you're pitching somebody in a and I

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Speaker 1: don't really pitch. I don't have nothing to sell. But

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Speaker 1: when you're in front of a family, this is not

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Speaker 1: the sexy conversation, especially when someone has come in and

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Speaker 1: put up something of your son in front of a

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Speaker 1: BMW or bands and it's like we go, yeah, but

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Speaker 1: but those deals don't even exist. But you're you're getting

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Speaker 1: full from that candy. We can get full from candy.

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Speaker 1: We can get full from you know, broccolini, a nice

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Speaker 1: piece of dover so and and a roasted potato, two

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Speaker 1: different meals, right, but you know, and so I think

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Speaker 1: that for me, that's what's important to me, and that's

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Speaker 1: why we we we we differentiate. And it was always

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Speaker 1: bigger than the finance part of it. Now, don't get

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Speaker 1: me wrong, I do a job. I want to get paid.

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Speaker 1: But again going back to the dirty locker, right, there's

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Speaker 1: no way you pay your bills on time in the

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Speaker 1: event you're because because and by the way, if you've

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Speaker 1: been told you're the best thing since slice spread, and

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Speaker 1: not only you may not feel like you why why

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Speaker 1: you know I can do it when I get ready?

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Speaker 1: But again, we all have American Express cards that don't

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Speaker 1: happen that it don't work like that, right, And so

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Speaker 1: just trying to help these guys get through the actual

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Speaker 1: playing years and really focus on life and what that entails,

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Speaker 1: because it don't make no sense to make the money

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Speaker 1: if after you've done playing you have all these bad

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Speaker 1: habits and you don't really know how to live, and

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Speaker 1: you don't really have infrastructure in place, and more importantly,

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Speaker 1: you don't have a mindset that allows you to think

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Speaker 1: clearly and be able to identify when I'm doing something

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Speaker 1: that's off kilter. Right, we see it all the time,

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Speaker 1: right And and by the way, this helps you choose

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Speaker 1: the right partner, because that's a you know, people don't understand,

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Speaker 1: and these guys deal with so much and the only

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Speaker 1: thing that money does is put a band aid over

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Speaker 1: open wound. And as you know, that thing needs to

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Speaker 1: be stitched up. Can't put a band aid over open

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Speaker 1: and so that band aid keeps getting ripped off. It

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Speaker 1: opens back up, you put another band aid on it.

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Speaker 1: That's the life that's there, that's their life in a nutshell.

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Speaker 1: And in most cases, most guys that have the dirty locker,

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Speaker 1: the success rate is very low. It's it don't last.

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Speaker 1: I'm telling you. Most careers are short, and it's so unfortunate.

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Speaker 1: But they'll pen, you know, the competition, a pen that

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Speaker 1: person against me and against us because for whatever reason,

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Speaker 1: as you know, it's still it's it's hard to do.

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Speaker 1: We still haven't gotten comfortable with doing business at a

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Speaker 1: high level with someone that looks like it's still it's

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Speaker 1: still not where it should be. Reader that you said,

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Speaker 1: like with the windfall of NBA wealth comes with the

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Speaker 1: black tax? What is what does that black tax? What

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Speaker 1: does that look like? Well, you know, unfortunately everyone quits everyone.

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Speaker 1: You know, there's an ecosystem that we live with. But

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Speaker 1: everyone can't be in the section with me. Right. I

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Speaker 1: need a barber, I need housekeeper, I need a driver.

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Speaker 1: I need security. More than ever, I need security. I

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Speaker 1: need just a quarterback, someone the quarterback. Certain things, but

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Speaker 1: if you only want to be responsible for the doing,

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Speaker 1: and if you're only looking for the credit, then you're

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Speaker 1: probably because in that case you lack the experience and

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Speaker 1: so therefore you're not gonna be putting that position right.

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Speaker 1: And then what happens is what they say I do,

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Speaker 1: which is I don't. People say, oh, well, if you

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Speaker 1: go with them, he's gonna drive a wedge and you're

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Speaker 1: not gonna get no, because if you go with us,

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Speaker 1: you're gonna get the truth. And if the truth hurts,

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Speaker 1: then you have to look in the mirror, not me.

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Speaker 1: You look in the mirror, right, because by the way

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Speaker 1: I lived it, I have everything that you that these

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Speaker 1: young people next to the athlete want to do and

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Speaker 1: want to accomplish. I have it on DVD. I took

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Speaker 1: every step I carry, I did everything I carry the

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Speaker 1: shoot by the way, I'm the CEO the company. I'll

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Speaker 1: carry the gym bag right now today. I'll carry the

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Speaker 1: gym bag with the client shoes in the gym bag

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Speaker 1: to the car right now today. Because I don't. This

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Speaker 1: is what I do, right, And so at the end

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Speaker 1: of the day, that's what I meant by that everyone

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Speaker 1: around you quit who told you to quit your job

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Speaker 1: because I made it. It don't work like that, Mom

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Speaker 1: and Dad, fantastic. You know, depending on your family structure

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Speaker 1: and depend on how much money you made. You know

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Speaker 1: you're getting in okay, that has to last you for

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Speaker 1: you got to multiply that or divide that times forty five.

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Speaker 1: That has to that has to last you over the

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Speaker 1: next forty five years. Most people don't make their money

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Speaker 1: to their fifty you know, in a real way, right,

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Speaker 1: these guys are twenty I got, I got. I have

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Speaker 1: clients that signed two men out of contract to two right,

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Speaker 1: and so it's it's a lot on them, man, it's

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Speaker 1: a lot on them. But as you can see and

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Speaker 1: hear in my tone, I really, I really care about it.

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Speaker 1: And I don't feel like I'm in competition with anybody

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Speaker 1: because I'm not. You know, if you get a client, great, fantastic,

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Speaker 1: what do you do? You know, it's it's everyone's not

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Speaker 1: because everyone's not for us or for me to represent.

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Speaker 1: And I understand that. But at the same time, I

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Speaker 1: appreciate those that I have been able to. I couldn't

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Speaker 1: do it without them, um, and I appreciate their courage

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Speaker 1: because it takes that right and and and again I

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Speaker 1: said it. I said it in the Instagram post. I said,

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Speaker 1: you know, the one thing I've learned through all the

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Speaker 1: triumphs and challenges and and wins and whatever loss is,

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Speaker 1: whatever you wanna call it, I learned that having the

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Speaker 1: number one pick isn't the end all be all, and

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Speaker 1: getting fired isn't the worst thing in the world. And

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Speaker 1: what I meant by that is it don't. And I

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Speaker 1: said after that, it's everything in between, that resilience to

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Speaker 1: continue to move forward, because when you work with people,

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Speaker 1: they can wake up on the wrong side of the bed.

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Speaker 1: Anything could take place. You've been around the music business forever.

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Speaker 1: You know how that works, and so you could do

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Speaker 1: everything right, but because someone close to them, it's coming

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Speaker 1: from a place of manipulation. And and one thing about it,

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Speaker 1: as you know, that survivor's remorse, that heart, that emotion

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Speaker 1: that you feel with somebody connected to you if they

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Speaker 1: feel like they want to remove you for whatever reason,

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Speaker 1: and whether they're getting something out of it or someone

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Speaker 1: else is pitching them to get something out of it.

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Speaker 1: I've been I've been through it all that that that happens.

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Speaker 1: So you just gotta keep going, man, And I tell

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Speaker 1: every young aspiring agent, male and female. I talked to

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Speaker 1: them all. I take the time out to speak to

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Speaker 1: everybody pretty much that that approaches me, and I say

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Speaker 1: that to them. It just takes. Don't try to get

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Speaker 1: ten clients, get one, Get one, and you know, do

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Speaker 1: the best job you can for that one, and then

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Speaker 1: build the next. I've been extremely fortunate, and we've been

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Speaker 1: um fortunately as a company. But no one gave us anything.

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Speaker 1: No one has given me anything but an opportunity, right,

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Speaker 1: and with that opportunity was up to me what I

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Speaker 1: what I chose to do with that opportunity. Current players

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Speaker 1: in the league, now, do you really represent the brand

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Speaker 1: in your mind that you got? Of course Lebron's Raymond Young? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: but we have I mean again, Mordan, I mean look,

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Speaker 1: our young or is unbelievable. Um we you know, whether

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Speaker 1: you are an All Star, Darius Garland first time All Star.

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Speaker 1: John T. Murray was the first time All Star. So

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Speaker 1: happy for those guys. Tyrese Maxie was a rising star

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Speaker 1: you know in Philadelphia. Anthony Edwards who was a rising

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Speaker 1: star you know, um, you know guys like again, we

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Speaker 1: talked about Darius Basley who Darius basically started in I L.

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Speaker 1: He really did when I did the internship with New

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Speaker 1: Balance with Darius. Basically that was the beginning of n

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Speaker 1: I M. That expedited in the whole n I L process.

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Speaker 1: That expedited because now there was another option. So you

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Speaker 1: don't want star players not going to university and they

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Speaker 1: can go and work at these different companies that they

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Speaker 1: really need, they really need this more than anything, you know,

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Speaker 1: but they lose the platform to play. Yeah, but he

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Speaker 1: still went first round and he got his money and

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Speaker 1: he got an education in the space that's authentic and

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Speaker 1: organic to what he does. So that was great. Uh

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Speaker 1: that we have Colin Sexton who signed with with with

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Speaker 1: with the Jazz, and Taylor horn Tucker who's with the

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Speaker 1: We have four guys in the Jazz, j Vanderbilt, a

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Speaker 1: couple other guys. But you know, Jordan Clarkson, you see him.

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Speaker 1: He's leading the Lululemon campaign now, which was different, you know,

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Speaker 1: first and only athletes to do that. Um, but we

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Speaker 1: have a tongue, you know, use of nerkut choose, who's

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Speaker 1: who's importland and just a great guy. You know, obviously

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Speaker 1: it's European and it took courage for him. If you

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Speaker 1: could have saw some of the messages he got when

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Speaker 1: he was shooting. He couldn't believe it. He could not

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Speaker 1: believe and I had to explain to him, this is

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Speaker 1: what it is, man, this is this is Oh, oh

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Speaker 1: it's it gets nasty. Oh it gets nasty. You don't

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Speaker 1: you know? If we keep it the clean, you don't

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Speaker 1: talk down on these people, you don't speak their name.

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Speaker 1: Because I come from a place where there's consequences for

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Speaker 1: doing that, right, and so I know what that's like.

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Speaker 1: So I don't need to go there. But I also

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Speaker 1: know what that's like. I come from that world where

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Speaker 1: you know, there's consequences. They don't come from that way.

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Speaker 1: And again, which is why I don't respect it. You know,

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Speaker 1: um anonymous quotes and things like that. When they did

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Speaker 1: when they did the anonymous article, people ask me like,

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Speaker 1: how do you feel. I don't feel nothing. It's anonymous, right,

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Speaker 1: I'm a man at the end of the day. If

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Speaker 1: I have something to say, I'm on the record. I'm

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Speaker 1: birth from that. I don't one thing about growing up

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Speaker 1: on the east side of Cleveland, the Glenville area, or

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Speaker 1: any area. Clear I'm from the Glmberal area, but any

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Speaker 1: place in Cleveland. You know you're gonna have to show it.

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Speaker 1: You know you're gonna have to show I don't care

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Speaker 1: how high up on the totem pole you are. You

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Speaker 1: know there's gonna come and time you're gonna have to

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Speaker 1: show it. And so I don't I don't really play

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Speaker 1: with that, you know. Um, I'm proud of what I've

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Speaker 1: been able to accomplish. I'm proud of what we've been

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Speaker 1: able to accomplish as a company, you know. And then

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Speaker 1: my mind is so focused on just the elevation again,

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Speaker 1: not just being an agent, you know, um, starting out

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Speaker 1: the trunk of my car to building a business, like

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Speaker 1: you said, And the numbers are the numbers. But what

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Speaker 1: I look at again, I was more impressed with the

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Speaker 1: character of people that we've been able to hire. You know,

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Speaker 1: my partner and see all the company she started with me,

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Speaker 1: fair left she you know, we talked about this all

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Speaker 1: the time, just being two people trying to figure this

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Speaker 1: thing out. Fair Her name is Farah and you know

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Speaker 1: you see Georgia here with me today, and just a

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Speaker 1: number of people, you know. Uh. I was able to

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Speaker 1: bring on a guy named Omar Wilkes, who dad is

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Speaker 1: you know Jamal Wilkes and um, you know, he came

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Speaker 1: from another place and it was just different for him. Um,

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Speaker 1: but he was also like, man, you know, I really

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Speaker 1: appreciate this because I only knew one aspect of it.

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Speaker 1: And so we've been able to build a great business.

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Speaker 1: But I'm not stopping there. You know, my as you know,

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Speaker 1: continues to to work. So I have a lot of

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Speaker 1: things that I want to do just from a business perspective.

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Speaker 1: But but it's not away from the business. It's organic

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Speaker 1: and authentic to the business, and it's inclusive, right and

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Speaker 1: so um, we'll continue to grow the team. Obviously we

394
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Speaker 1: went into football and that's been that's been great, and

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Speaker 1: you take your bumps in the road and that's part

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Speaker 1: of it, you know. But I think again, like I

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Speaker 1: talked about the next ten years, we're gonna be here.

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Speaker 1: We're not going anywhere, and we'll continue to to strengthen

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Speaker 1: that foundation and come through for the guys and and

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Speaker 1: be there when they're up and be there when they're down.

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Speaker 1: Definitely disrupted the foundation, you know, do you feel like

402
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Speaker 1: the system was threatened by you when they implemented the

403
00:23:46,240 --> 00:23:51,719
Speaker 1: rich Pole rule? Oh yeah, but but but you know

404
00:23:51,800 --> 00:23:55,840
Speaker 1: what again, people talk about that all the time. As

405
00:23:55,960 --> 00:24:00,720
Speaker 1: much as it was about me, it was more so, Okay,

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00:24:00,760 --> 00:24:03,800
Speaker 1: one slip through the cracks, we gotta worry about the

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00:24:03,840 --> 00:24:08,320
Speaker 1: next the other hundred. So I felt like that was

408
00:24:08,359 --> 00:24:12,240
Speaker 1: about that. That was a discouraging position that they were

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00:24:12,280 --> 00:24:17,439
Speaker 1: trying to put people in. And again, you can be

410
00:24:17,480 --> 00:24:22,359
Speaker 1: from the best institution in the world and not be

411
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Speaker 1: great in this business, right because you can be booked

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Speaker 1: smart and I have people skills. There's no books here,

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Speaker 1: you know, Ernest Hemingway right, you know, you know, you

414
00:24:36,359 --> 00:24:38,520
Speaker 1: have to have intuition, you have to have people skills.

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Speaker 1: You have to be able to align with someone that

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Speaker 1: they respect you enough to pick up the phone. Some

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Speaker 1: people have the trinkets that they dangle. Some people have

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Speaker 1: respect just eye contact. So speaking of book, you got

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Speaker 1: one coming out, man, yeah? One? Yeah, you know, Jack.

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Speaker 1: It was weird because I was going through just picking

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Speaker 1: you know, the publisher or whatnot, and I happen to

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Speaker 1: see it on Twitter. So I called Jam like, yo,

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Speaker 1: like what's going on here? And you started he was like, oh,

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Speaker 1: I didn't even know. I said, listen, you know, you

425
00:25:16,040 --> 00:25:18,719
Speaker 1: have to step up if you want my book, because

426
00:25:18,920 --> 00:25:21,879
Speaker 1: I'm down the road, So I can't just dis guard

427
00:25:21,960 --> 00:25:24,480
Speaker 1: what my team has worked on, but I need the

428
00:25:24,520 --> 00:25:27,240
Speaker 1: opportunity to you know, were family already had fully in

429
00:25:27,280 --> 00:25:32,320
Speaker 1: play down the road for sure. Yeah, but to host credit,

430
00:25:32,520 --> 00:25:36,600
Speaker 1: he's like, let me call you back. You know, they

431
00:25:36,640 --> 00:25:38,280
Speaker 1: called me back, and when he was like, I'm you know,

432
00:25:38,280 --> 00:25:42,640
Speaker 1: I'm stepping up, and uh, that's how it's supposed to go, right,

433
00:25:42,720 --> 00:25:45,359
Speaker 1: That's what we're getting these positions for. And so you

434
00:25:45,480 --> 00:25:48,600
Speaker 1: gotta try to keep it, keep leading by example when

435
00:25:48,640 --> 00:25:50,719
Speaker 1: you can work with your people, work with them, especially

436
00:25:50,760 --> 00:25:53,600
Speaker 1: if they're capable of doing the job. And so I

437
00:25:53,640 --> 00:25:58,240
Speaker 1: think oftentimes people get it conscrewed in terms of oh, man,

438
00:25:58,320 --> 00:26:01,280
Speaker 1: you got on, you should put me on. No, I

439
00:26:01,320 --> 00:26:03,800
Speaker 1: got on. You should put yourself in position where you're

440
00:26:03,840 --> 00:26:06,879
Speaker 1: capable of being put on. That way, when I do

441
00:26:07,040 --> 00:26:11,800
Speaker 1: give you an opportunity, we both look good. Yeah, And

442
00:26:12,119 --> 00:26:16,199
Speaker 1: so I think that again, we just have to continue

443
00:26:16,240 --> 00:26:21,480
Speaker 1: to fight the power. You know called Lucky Me, which

444
00:26:21,520 --> 00:26:23,159
Speaker 1: is a jay Z song. You said his music was

445
00:26:23,160 --> 00:26:26,040
Speaker 1: the soundtrack of your life. Yes, my favorite Lucky Me

446
00:26:26,200 --> 00:26:30,000
Speaker 1: is probably my favorite jay Z song. Um, and I

447
00:26:30,240 --> 00:26:33,280
Speaker 1: talked about that all the time. And so you know

448
00:26:33,320 --> 00:26:35,960
Speaker 1: when you're on the other side man, and coming from again,

449
00:26:36,000 --> 00:26:38,720
Speaker 1: my environment was when you step off the porch, you're

450
00:26:38,720 --> 00:26:42,720
Speaker 1: in the fire. And so these young kids today and

451
00:26:42,720 --> 00:26:45,520
Speaker 1: when I was growing up, there's no ways to life, right,

452
00:26:45,520 --> 00:26:47,680
Speaker 1: there's no app you can go to and guide you

453
00:26:47,760 --> 00:26:51,119
Speaker 1: properly throughout life. A lot of it we got through.

454
00:26:52,160 --> 00:26:54,760
Speaker 1: You know. Me, I was lucky enough to have my dad,

455
00:26:55,720 --> 00:26:59,920
Speaker 1: and the Lucky Me title is a double on time,

456
00:27:00,280 --> 00:27:03,320
Speaker 1: you know, because I was lucky in a lot of ways.

457
00:27:03,720 --> 00:27:06,000
Speaker 1: Then I was not so lucky, and in some ways

458
00:27:06,000 --> 00:27:09,800
Speaker 1: I created my own luck and so I just, um,

459
00:27:10,320 --> 00:27:13,640
Speaker 1: that stuck with me and then um, but the book

460
00:27:13,760 --> 00:27:17,080
Speaker 1: is it's not a puff piece. I think it's it's

461
00:27:17,080 --> 00:27:19,280
Speaker 1: going to hit home for a lot of people, regardless

462
00:27:19,720 --> 00:27:22,359
Speaker 1: you know, what ethnic background you're from or how you

463
00:27:22,400 --> 00:27:25,119
Speaker 1: grew up. Per se, I think you're gonna you know,

464
00:27:25,240 --> 00:27:29,520
Speaker 1: I've we've probably about semi five percent done. And um,

465
00:27:29,960 --> 00:27:35,639
Speaker 1: but the project, Yeah, his name is Jesse Washington. Yeah,

466
00:27:36,840 --> 00:27:39,919
Speaker 1: and he's doing he's doing an unbelievable job, man, he

467
00:27:40,040 --> 00:27:43,200
Speaker 1: really is. And uh he gets it out of you,

468
00:27:43,200 --> 00:27:46,560
Speaker 1: you know, and he's and he's doing he's making me

469
00:27:46,600 --> 00:27:49,600
Speaker 1: relive some moments that was probably a little traumatizing for me,

470
00:27:50,160 --> 00:27:52,720
Speaker 1: but it's but it's been therapeutic to get it out

471
00:27:53,119 --> 00:27:57,399
Speaker 1: as well. And so I'm excited about that. And I

472
00:27:57,440 --> 00:28:00,160
Speaker 1: just you know, I just always want to can teen

473
00:28:00,240 --> 00:28:05,160
Speaker 1: you to It's about the youth at this point. You know, Um,

474
00:28:05,200 --> 00:28:06,720
Speaker 1: we've come a long way. I've been able to come

475
00:28:06,720 --> 00:28:10,040
Speaker 1: a long way. You got again, just talking earlier, I

476
00:28:10,080 --> 00:28:13,119
Speaker 1: never dreamed of being able to sit on boards. I

477
00:28:13,119 --> 00:28:18,840
Speaker 1: didn't even know what that was. And and being on

478
00:28:18,880 --> 00:28:20,800
Speaker 1: the board of you know, when I partner with U

479
00:28:20,800 --> 00:28:23,320
Speaker 1: t A and them coming back and being on the

480
00:28:23,359 --> 00:28:25,679
Speaker 1: board of U t A. You know, the first thing

481
00:28:25,720 --> 00:28:28,040
Speaker 1: I talked to I said, I don't, I don't. I

482
00:28:28,080 --> 00:28:30,040
Speaker 1: just don't want to be on the board because I'm black,

483
00:28:31,119 --> 00:28:33,679
Speaker 1: you know. And I talked to the partners about that,

484
00:28:33,680 --> 00:28:36,000
Speaker 1: and they were like, no, you know you we need

485
00:28:36,119 --> 00:28:40,360
Speaker 1: you on the board. We need not just diversity in

486
00:28:40,480 --> 00:28:43,560
Speaker 1: terms of skin color, we need diversity in terms of

487
00:28:43,760 --> 00:28:48,120
Speaker 1: how people think. We're trying to continue to grow the business.

488
00:28:48,360 --> 00:28:50,800
Speaker 1: And you know, you've been able to do something that

489
00:28:51,440 --> 00:28:54,760
Speaker 1: most people cannot do. You know a lot of people

490
00:28:56,480 --> 00:28:59,760
Speaker 1: there's certain people born on third and I don't judge

491
00:29:00,040 --> 00:29:02,600
Speaker 1: what it's. It's you know, it's easier to get home

492
00:29:02,640 --> 00:29:05,600
Speaker 1: from third There's there's certain people that were knew somebody,

493
00:29:05,600 --> 00:29:07,880
Speaker 1: that knew somebody, that knew somebody, and yeah, you may

494
00:29:07,920 --> 00:29:11,840
Speaker 1: have known somebody, but most people stop at the at

495
00:29:11,840 --> 00:29:14,000
Speaker 1: the at the section of the club. They don't really

496
00:29:14,040 --> 00:29:17,840
Speaker 1: get past that aspect of it, because you lust for

497
00:29:17,960 --> 00:29:22,960
Speaker 1: things that you think are cool versus really sacrificing and

498
00:29:23,040 --> 00:29:26,320
Speaker 1: not being in those cool moments to actually build something.

499
00:29:26,760 --> 00:29:29,120
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, growing up in the Glenville section

500
00:29:29,160 --> 00:29:31,959
Speaker 1: of Cleveland, who are you listening to back in those days? Man,

501
00:29:32,000 --> 00:29:35,200
Speaker 1: I listen. One thing about me, you know, I listened

502
00:29:35,200 --> 00:29:38,440
Speaker 1: to everything and Cleveland is if you can break a

503
00:29:38,480 --> 00:29:41,440
Speaker 1: record in Cleveland, you're on your way. That's a tough crowd.

504
00:29:41,760 --> 00:29:45,960
Speaker 1: I mean, just ask Jeezy Acts. You know, actually actually

505
00:29:46,200 --> 00:29:51,120
Speaker 1: at anybody in the music business, right But Bone Thugs

506
00:29:51,160 --> 00:29:53,880
Speaker 1: was from Cleveland, so it was different. They was gonna

507
00:29:53,880 --> 00:29:56,440
Speaker 1: get our support no matter what I'm talking about, You're

508
00:29:56,480 --> 00:29:58,840
Speaker 1: not being from there. They called it the any Ohio

509
00:29:58,960 --> 00:30:00,560
Speaker 1: Valley period. You know, I was in needs a business

510
00:30:00,560 --> 00:30:03,040
Speaker 1: for a short time. You know, I'm so connected to it,

511
00:30:03,080 --> 00:30:05,880
Speaker 1: but I listened to everything from obviously you know you

512
00:30:06,000 --> 00:30:09,840
Speaker 1: hear the j de Nas, the Biggis, the mob deep,

513
00:30:10,120 --> 00:30:12,760
Speaker 1: but we listened to guys like mac maul. We listened

514
00:30:12,760 --> 00:30:16,520
Speaker 1: to guys like Brother Lynch Hung you know e forty

515
00:30:16,680 --> 00:30:20,760
Speaker 1: Um obviously short Dog then you know we had the

516
00:30:20,840 --> 00:30:25,400
Speaker 1: scar Faces of the world. You had you g K

517
00:30:25,520 --> 00:30:30,160
Speaker 1: is one of my favorite groups, undoubtedly, right, that's not

518
00:30:30,200 --> 00:30:34,120
Speaker 1: even you know, that's not a conversation, right And by

519
00:30:34,120 --> 00:30:36,640
Speaker 1: the way, eight Ball and mg G. What Tony Draper

520
00:30:36,680 --> 00:30:39,160
Speaker 1: did with Suave House back then, I said, you know,

521
00:30:39,680 --> 00:30:42,840
Speaker 1: I got a deep, deep, deep you know, roll the

522
00:30:42,920 --> 00:30:46,800
Speaker 1: decks of music because we was in it. What Pete

523
00:30:46,800 --> 00:30:50,400
Speaker 1: and didn't going down to New Orleans? What p did? What? What?

524
00:30:50,400 --> 00:30:54,440
Speaker 1: What Baby and Slim did? Like, those guys were coming.

525
00:30:54,960 --> 00:30:59,760
Speaker 1: Their albums came out more than shoes dropped, like and

526
00:31:00,080 --> 00:31:01,760
Speaker 1: every week, and you had to have them at him

527
00:31:02,280 --> 00:31:04,560
Speaker 1: and you had to have him and so we and

528
00:31:04,600 --> 00:31:08,080
Speaker 1: then obviously going to the East Coast from the Rutangs

529
00:31:08,080 --> 00:31:12,959
Speaker 1: to the a Zies too. Again, Um, it's not that

530
00:31:13,000 --> 00:31:16,360
Speaker 1: I mean big al Everything we listened to, we listened

531
00:31:16,400 --> 00:31:20,360
Speaker 1: to everything Glory you know, Um, murder music is one

532
00:31:20,400 --> 00:31:23,400
Speaker 1: of my favorites. So you know, we had it had

533
00:31:23,400 --> 00:31:25,480
Speaker 1: a deep and thing, like you said, even in Chicago,

534
00:31:26,000 --> 00:31:29,600
Speaker 1: you know from obviously you had Common, but you had Twister.

535
00:31:30,120 --> 00:31:32,640
Speaker 1: Then you had do or Die. Uh. And then when

536
00:31:32,720 --> 00:31:35,480
Speaker 1: Kanye came, you know, he just was. He took it

537
00:31:35,480 --> 00:31:38,360
Speaker 1: to a whole another level. And the West Coast is undeniable.

538
00:31:38,400 --> 00:31:42,040
Speaker 1: I remember I was listening to the DNC and I

539
00:31:42,280 --> 00:31:44,840
Speaker 1: might have been in third grade. I know exactly what

540
00:31:44,920 --> 00:31:46,800
Speaker 1: I had on when the formula came out, when that

541
00:31:46,920 --> 00:31:49,880
Speaker 1: album and that album came out, I knew exactly what

542
00:31:49,960 --> 00:31:53,080
Speaker 1: I wore to school that day. And and obviously n

543
00:31:53,200 --> 00:31:56,480
Speaker 1: w A was unbelievable, and then Easy did his thing,

544
00:31:56,560 --> 00:31:59,480
Speaker 1: and and then when when when Cube I remember when

545
00:31:59,520 --> 00:32:02,520
Speaker 1: Cube bro call from n w A and how that hit.

546
00:32:03,000 --> 00:32:07,440
Speaker 1: And then obviously I listened to Snoop Doggie Style because

547
00:32:07,440 --> 00:32:09,800
Speaker 1: I played many football and we used to take a

548
00:32:09,840 --> 00:32:13,200
Speaker 1: bus trip for the National Championship from Cleveland to Florida.

549
00:32:13,400 --> 00:32:16,200
Speaker 1: That's a long way. I listened to Doggies Style on

550
00:32:16,240 --> 00:32:19,200
Speaker 1: the walkman all the way there, all the way back,

551
00:32:19,320 --> 00:32:23,080
Speaker 1: you know, because you have to flip the tape, you know.

552
00:32:24,240 --> 00:32:26,680
Speaker 1: We Yeah, I grew up my father and my mother,

553
00:32:27,000 --> 00:32:30,600
Speaker 1: my brother's sister, my uncle's like and not just rap

554
00:32:30,680 --> 00:32:35,000
Speaker 1: but jazz, you know, all the old school uh musicians

555
00:32:35,000 --> 00:32:39,840
Speaker 1: and things like that. Um Cleveland is just that town though, right,

556
00:32:39,920 --> 00:32:42,600
Speaker 1: it's it's it's a melting pot of a lot of

557
00:32:42,600 --> 00:32:46,760
Speaker 1: different things. And so UM music was something that always

558
00:32:46,960 --> 00:32:49,400
Speaker 1: was special to me, even to the current guys today.

559
00:32:49,440 --> 00:32:52,640
Speaker 1: And with the entrepreneurial hustle like love me like throwbacks

560
00:32:52,640 --> 00:32:54,600
Speaker 1: with your thing, right you were hustling? Yeah? Was that

561
00:32:54,720 --> 00:32:57,000
Speaker 1: your thing that first you started meeting people in hip hop?

562
00:32:57,080 --> 00:33:02,880
Speaker 1: Do that that thing of being popular song and throw backs? Uh?

563
00:33:02,960 --> 00:33:05,640
Speaker 1: You know what? I never thought about that. I do

564
00:33:05,760 --> 00:33:09,000
Speaker 1: remember I was at Memorial weekend this might have been

565
00:33:09,000 --> 00:33:13,200
Speaker 1: on too, and I ran in a puff and him

566
00:33:13,240 --> 00:33:17,240
Speaker 1: and I had the same rams jersey on, and he

567
00:33:17,360 --> 00:33:20,040
Speaker 1: looking at me and you know, he's he don't, he's not.

568
00:33:20,280 --> 00:33:22,840
Speaker 1: He's looking my way. And let me just rephrase that,

569
00:33:22,880 --> 00:33:26,800
Speaker 1: he's looking my way and I'm looking his way. But

570
00:33:27,080 --> 00:33:28,880
Speaker 1: you know, and we was actually in there where he

571
00:33:29,000 --> 00:33:30,680
Speaker 1: forded him that. Now. I talked to for you about

572
00:33:30,680 --> 00:33:33,800
Speaker 1: this not too long ago Draymond's wedding. But um, during

573
00:33:33,840 --> 00:33:39,000
Speaker 1: that time, my man Alex, who is down in um Atlanta,

574
00:33:39,400 --> 00:33:41,680
Speaker 1: you know, does all a g entertainment. He had a

575
00:33:41,680 --> 00:33:43,880
Speaker 1: club They're called the Billboard, and I think he had

576
00:33:43,920 --> 00:33:46,200
Speaker 1: got puffed if I remember correctly. And I could be

577
00:33:46,240 --> 00:33:48,280
Speaker 1: a little off, but I'm not really off with these

578
00:33:48,280 --> 00:33:52,160
Speaker 1: types of things, so kind of you know, I was

579
00:33:52,240 --> 00:33:54,880
Speaker 1: in that in that whole mix. One day, I'm on

580
00:33:54,920 --> 00:33:57,920
Speaker 1: the bus. Jay is doing a liquid the Spright liquid

581
00:33:57,960 --> 00:34:02,760
Speaker 1: mixed to um and we're in Camden and Ja pulls

582
00:34:02,800 --> 00:34:05,840
Speaker 1: the bus over for us to get on the bus.

583
00:34:06,160 --> 00:34:09,239
Speaker 1: Me mad Randy Brown. He pulls the bus over for

584
00:34:09,280 --> 00:34:10,480
Speaker 1: us to go on the bus so we can roll

585
00:34:10,560 --> 00:34:15,240
Speaker 1: in with with him. And that night I got pictures

586
00:34:15,239 --> 00:34:17,799
Speaker 1: of this. I want to say for real, was on

587
00:34:17,840 --> 00:34:21,439
Speaker 1: the bus this night too, and we both He had

588
00:34:21,440 --> 00:34:23,480
Speaker 1: on the West Indian Air Force one. I had on

589
00:34:23,520 --> 00:34:26,680
Speaker 1: the West Indies too, and I had like Oakland A's

590
00:34:27,080 --> 00:34:29,880
Speaker 1: So you had that dynamic. And obviously once we start,

591
00:34:30,440 --> 00:34:33,080
Speaker 1: once we start really going up and see j all

592
00:34:33,080 --> 00:34:38,000
Speaker 1: the time. Obviously ran into um everybody pretty much and

593
00:34:38,040 --> 00:34:41,120
Speaker 1: we would be there with young guns and beans. Was

594
00:34:41,200 --> 00:34:42,919
Speaker 1: that like on the business front and see what Jay

595
00:34:43,200 --> 00:34:45,440
Speaker 1: was doing Rockefeller and their rock Nation to to you

596
00:34:45,520 --> 00:34:48,120
Speaker 1: and MATV and bron like business aspect of getting in

597
00:34:48,120 --> 00:34:52,240
Speaker 1: the game. Well, you know, we we always pay homage

598
00:34:52,239 --> 00:34:56,239
Speaker 1: to Hold because it was just again by example. You

599
00:34:56,239 --> 00:34:59,120
Speaker 1: know when you when you I always say one thing

600
00:34:59,120 --> 00:35:02,120
Speaker 1: about sports, you should. There's no way you should come

601
00:35:02,160 --> 00:35:05,799
Speaker 1: out of sports and not be better and not on

602
00:35:05,840 --> 00:35:10,520
Speaker 1: the court. Sports intersects with from a place of business,

603
00:35:11,040 --> 00:35:16,080
Speaker 1: with the most affluent people in the world. Right, You've

604
00:35:16,080 --> 00:35:19,960
Speaker 1: got owners, you got superstar athletes, you've got television networks,

605
00:35:20,000 --> 00:35:25,279
Speaker 1: ceo cmos of major brands. How could you not come

606
00:35:25,280 --> 00:35:28,600
Speaker 1: out of this better? The only way you don't come

607
00:35:28,600 --> 00:35:31,440
Speaker 1: out of this better is if you continue to do

608
00:35:31,520 --> 00:35:37,560
Speaker 1: what eat the ego? Right, most guys get full off ego.

609
00:35:38,120 --> 00:35:41,200
Speaker 1: And when you full off ego, all you see is you.

610
00:35:41,200 --> 00:35:47,160
Speaker 1: You don't like to be in rooms, right, And that's

611
00:35:47,239 --> 00:35:51,719
Speaker 1: so backwards and so what you know. I remember going

612
00:35:51,760 --> 00:35:55,200
Speaker 1: to the hose house and ran brands and things that

613
00:35:55,239 --> 00:35:57,800
Speaker 1: he talked about and said. And at the funniest I

614
00:35:57,840 --> 00:36:01,040
Speaker 1: remember acting Jay one day he has an automar had

615
00:36:01,080 --> 00:36:04,600
Speaker 1: a had a leather band on it, and you know,

616
00:36:04,680 --> 00:36:07,439
Speaker 1: back then everyone was into the ice style. And I asked,

617
00:36:07,600 --> 00:36:09,799
Speaker 1: I said, you know, let me we buy that watch

618
00:36:09,880 --> 00:36:11,719
Speaker 1: from me. He looked at me like you know, because

619
00:36:11,760 --> 00:36:17,719
Speaker 1: I looked fifteen. I'm like, you know, I'm I'm serious,

620
00:36:17,719 --> 00:36:20,480
Speaker 1: you know, but if you know him, he's not really

621
00:36:21,160 --> 00:36:24,120
Speaker 1: sell anything. But we we you know, we just one

622
00:36:24,120 --> 00:36:28,840
Speaker 1: thing about us. We we were always observing in different ways.

623
00:36:28,920 --> 00:36:32,880
Speaker 1: We all have different ways being randy being observed and

624
00:36:32,880 --> 00:36:35,799
Speaker 1: different and were and we were never so into ourselves

625
00:36:36,239 --> 00:36:39,440
Speaker 1: not to say to somebody, yeoh man, that's a nice shirt,

626
00:36:39,640 --> 00:36:42,200
Speaker 1: or you know, yeah, let me what was that like?

627
00:36:42,320 --> 00:36:46,200
Speaker 1: And and and as much this was yeah, but this

628
00:36:46,239 --> 00:36:49,440
Speaker 1: is years before rock Nation wasn't even a thought. When

629
00:36:49,560 --> 00:36:53,040
Speaker 1: this was We was there with Rockefeller. Um and I

630
00:36:53,080 --> 00:36:55,319
Speaker 1: get on jail about giving out to these rockets just

631
00:36:55,320 --> 00:37:00,799
Speaker 1: a whole. That's a whole. That's a whole. The conversation

632
00:37:00,880 --> 00:37:05,200
Speaker 1: we will have we haven't on our on our on

633
00:37:05,239 --> 00:37:10,439
Speaker 1: our text. You gotta relax a little bit there. But

634
00:37:10,440 --> 00:37:14,680
Speaker 1: but but you know, but um, we learned, you know,

635
00:37:14,760 --> 00:37:17,000
Speaker 1: just along the way it was you know, you know,

636
00:37:17,120 --> 00:37:21,040
Speaker 1: you learned from everybody, right, you learned. You know, we

637
00:37:21,040 --> 00:37:23,640
Speaker 1: was around guys like Stop, We was around at that

638
00:37:23,719 --> 00:37:26,759
Speaker 1: point being able to be around guys like Puff, being

639
00:37:26,760 --> 00:37:29,920
Speaker 1: able to be around guys like uh, Jimmy. But also

640
00:37:30,320 --> 00:37:33,720
Speaker 1: as much as that, you know, being welcomed by guys

641
00:37:33,800 --> 00:37:38,440
Speaker 1: like Lin Merritt, who was a big time exact u

642
00:37:38,600 --> 00:37:43,080
Speaker 1: at NAKI just retired at that time. And and then

643
00:37:43,800 --> 00:37:47,799
Speaker 1: just the older guys from my neighborhood. They don't give

644
00:37:47,840 --> 00:37:51,400
Speaker 1: you a day off, right because they know that a

645
00:37:51,480 --> 00:37:54,640
Speaker 1: day off can mean your life in a lot of instances.

646
00:37:54,719 --> 00:37:57,960
Speaker 1: And so you always had to So I come from that,

647
00:37:58,360 --> 00:38:01,880
Speaker 1: and again I don't know anything else, and I'm unapologetic

648
00:38:01,920 --> 00:38:05,839
Speaker 1: about it, because you know, you you live long enough,

649
00:38:05,880 --> 00:38:08,000
Speaker 1: my dad, you should always say, just keep living, son.

650
00:38:08,239 --> 00:38:10,600
Speaker 1: You live long enough, you start to start to see things.

651
00:38:10,640 --> 00:38:14,399
Speaker 1: And so I'm gonna miss some people. But we were

652
00:38:14,440 --> 00:38:16,600
Speaker 1: able to learn a lot from a lot of different

653
00:38:16,600 --> 00:38:19,680
Speaker 1: people and as and you should right, many people this

654
00:38:19,760 --> 00:38:23,759
Speaker 1: whole idea. I did it myself, not really, you know,

655
00:38:23,920 --> 00:38:27,319
Speaker 1: in terms of I understand what that means and why

656
00:38:27,440 --> 00:38:30,520
Speaker 1: some people say that. And you yourself has to have

657
00:38:30,640 --> 00:38:33,160
Speaker 1: to have to dry, you have to get up and

658
00:38:33,200 --> 00:38:36,560
Speaker 1: put forth the effort to want to be entirely doing

659
00:38:36,600 --> 00:38:39,360
Speaker 1: it yourself. But no one's entirely self made, because it

660
00:38:39,440 --> 00:38:43,640
Speaker 1: takes team, it takes allies, it takes accomplices, you know,

661
00:38:43,680 --> 00:38:49,920
Speaker 1: it takes different things, but um being around in that environment,

662
00:38:50,160 --> 00:38:53,160
Speaker 1: you also learned what not to do, which is in

663
00:38:53,200 --> 00:38:56,560
Speaker 1: a lot of ways more important. You know, like I knew,

664
00:38:56,600 --> 00:39:00,200
Speaker 1: for a fact, if I'm going to see how I'm

665
00:39:00,239 --> 00:39:02,919
Speaker 1: by myself, he's in the back of a may back.

666
00:39:03,040 --> 00:39:10,879
Speaker 1: It's one seat, what I'm saying, the window, and and

667
00:39:10,880 --> 00:39:13,480
Speaker 1: and my friends knew to meet me there. That's just

668
00:39:13,520 --> 00:39:15,439
Speaker 1: how it works. You get what I'm saying. And there's

669
00:39:15,480 --> 00:39:18,600
Speaker 1: sometimes we went together when we went as you know,

670
00:39:18,640 --> 00:39:20,879
Speaker 1: when it was the four of us, obviously we got

671
00:39:20,880 --> 00:39:23,799
Speaker 1: our own transportation and things like that. So you learn things.

672
00:39:23,800 --> 00:39:29,600
Speaker 1: But we learned things from everybody, you know, you know,

673
00:39:29,600 --> 00:39:33,560
Speaker 1: because there was very buttoned up guys being around. We

674
00:39:33,640 --> 00:39:38,760
Speaker 1: was around Kevin Miles, he was around, um l A. Reids,

675
00:39:38,920 --> 00:39:42,319
Speaker 1: We was around and these are people in music, uh,

676
00:39:42,360 --> 00:39:45,480
Speaker 1: and then again being around other athletes and sports. But

677
00:39:45,640 --> 00:39:47,560
Speaker 1: there was times when we when we first came in,

678
00:39:48,640 --> 00:39:52,600
Speaker 1: people looked at us and definitely mapping myself like why

679
00:39:52,640 --> 00:39:54,520
Speaker 1: y'all got this? So on while y'all, you know, while

680
00:39:54,600 --> 00:39:58,040
Speaker 1: you and I talked to everybody. I talked from time

681
00:39:58,080 --> 00:40:00,960
Speaker 1: I get into the arena and the guy taking my

682
00:40:01,040 --> 00:40:03,560
Speaker 1: car keys, hey man, thank you I really appreciate that

683
00:40:04,719 --> 00:40:09,360
Speaker 1: to SCALP because it's an ecosystem and I wasn't doing

684
00:40:09,360 --> 00:40:13,560
Speaker 1: it to receive something back. It's just you. My dad

685
00:40:13,600 --> 00:40:17,960
Speaker 1: always taught me everyone deserves your respect. Everyone deserves your respect.

686
00:40:18,280 --> 00:40:21,120
Speaker 1: And I go through my life like that. And so

687
00:40:21,160 --> 00:40:25,239
Speaker 1: now what has helped me, you know, I become you know,

688
00:40:25,440 --> 00:40:28,160
Speaker 1: friends with people that I never thought I would even

689
00:40:28,200 --> 00:40:33,279
Speaker 1: be friends with. Right, Um, I spent time with Chris

690
00:40:33,360 --> 00:40:36,600
Speaker 1: David's from New but it was an incredible guys, Dad,

691
00:40:36,800 --> 00:40:40,680
Speaker 1: you know, Jim, they built an incredible business. But as

692
00:40:40,719 --> 00:40:42,960
Speaker 1: we spent we spent the day together and what we

693
00:40:43,080 --> 00:40:45,560
Speaker 1: both came out of it with was like we have

694
00:40:45,719 --> 00:40:49,040
Speaker 1: so much in common and such a like minded interest

695
00:40:49,080 --> 00:40:52,400
Speaker 1: and it was just a great, a great hang, you know.

696
00:40:52,520 --> 00:40:55,919
Speaker 1: And and the kids in my neighborhood, they can't see

697
00:40:55,920 --> 00:41:00,440
Speaker 1: that far, right, and the things I've been able to do,

698
00:41:00,640 --> 00:41:03,080
Speaker 1: and and and the rooms I've been able and been

699
00:41:03,080 --> 00:41:06,719
Speaker 1: blessed to be in, I can't. I can't. I can't

700
00:41:06,719 --> 00:41:09,960
Speaker 1: bullsho with that, right, I can't. I can't hold that

701
00:41:10,040 --> 00:41:13,520
Speaker 1: in right, I can't lock that up in the safe.

702
00:41:14,040 --> 00:41:17,640
Speaker 1: And I also can't take it for granted, right because

703
00:41:17,680 --> 00:41:20,879
Speaker 1: I know, the kids where I come from, they can't

704
00:41:20,920 --> 00:41:26,720
Speaker 1: see that far. So do you think that the success

705
00:41:26,760 --> 00:41:28,680
Speaker 1: kind of makes it even more you steering in that

706
00:41:28,719 --> 00:41:31,480
Speaker 1: way of understanding that I got to help the next

707
00:41:31,520 --> 00:41:34,440
Speaker 1: generation of it spends back that way. The most success

708
00:41:34,440 --> 00:41:36,440
Speaker 1: you get, the more you look as that's what it's about.

709
00:41:36,719 --> 00:41:39,799
Speaker 1: Clutch is a community company. It's community, it's a it's

710
00:41:40,080 --> 00:41:43,040
Speaker 1: a it's a brand of the community. You know, people

711
00:41:43,080 --> 00:41:46,680
Speaker 1: feel like young people and you know, like what the

712
00:41:46,719 --> 00:41:48,640
Speaker 1: young gentlemen said the earlier said, I want to hear it.

713
00:41:49,360 --> 00:41:52,799
Speaker 1: People feel like they're they're part of our success, and

714
00:41:52,840 --> 00:41:55,799
Speaker 1: they are. They are in the most active way they've

715
00:41:55,800 --> 00:41:58,520
Speaker 1: ever been, in the most authentic way. You know, I

716
00:41:58,560 --> 00:42:02,600
Speaker 1: walked down the street and anywhere I go across the country,

717
00:42:03,400 --> 00:42:05,520
Speaker 1: across the world. I mean I've been on you know,

718
00:42:05,560 --> 00:42:09,359
Speaker 1: across the pond, and people recognize you, and I talked

719
00:42:09,400 --> 00:42:14,239
Speaker 1: to people and and they're rooting for They're rooting for

720
00:42:14,360 --> 00:42:18,399
Speaker 1: because just like anything, they feel like they're growing with you.

721
00:42:19,200 --> 00:42:24,120
Speaker 1: Um and so I'm extremely apprecative of that. And you

722
00:42:24,200 --> 00:42:27,000
Speaker 1: understand it, like you know, people's like, you know, you

723
00:42:27,040 --> 00:42:29,279
Speaker 1: did the shoe, and you know, they always I walked

724
00:42:29,280 --> 00:42:30,840
Speaker 1: down the street and say, man, when your next shoe

725
00:42:30,840 --> 00:42:32,920
Speaker 1: coming out? I didn't get to get the first one,

726
00:42:33,000 --> 00:42:39,240
Speaker 1: you know, and one of them, but but it's coming.

727
00:42:39,320 --> 00:42:42,440
Speaker 1: But but you know, it's just like so many things.

728
00:42:42,680 --> 00:42:45,200
Speaker 1: And when I think back on it, it is for

729
00:42:45,360 --> 00:42:49,000
Speaker 1: the youth, right, because we're losing our youth. Man, We

730
00:42:49,120 --> 00:42:53,440
Speaker 1: losing them at twelve eleven years of age. And I

731
00:42:53,480 --> 00:42:57,440
Speaker 1: have a fourteen year old son, right, And it's one

732
00:42:57,480 --> 00:43:00,360
Speaker 1: of those things where I didn't come this far to

733
00:43:00,480 --> 00:43:05,399
Speaker 1: come this far, you know, I really didn't. And that's

734
00:43:05,400 --> 00:43:08,440
Speaker 1: why I try to focus on where I'm positioning and

735
00:43:08,480 --> 00:43:11,879
Speaker 1: how to make things better going forward. So I'm not

736
00:43:12,239 --> 00:43:15,359
Speaker 1: taking again these opportunities for grant. I'm not taking my

737
00:43:15,400 --> 00:43:19,520
Speaker 1: positioning for granted. And I'm holding myself and others accountable,

738
00:43:19,880 --> 00:43:22,520
Speaker 1: and I'm holding the industry accountable. Whether they lack it

739
00:43:22,600 --> 00:43:26,000
Speaker 1: or not don't matter to me. But again, if you're

740
00:43:26,000 --> 00:43:28,719
Speaker 1: gonna do it, do it right. Because I can't represent

741
00:43:28,880 --> 00:43:33,520
Speaker 1: every player, that's impossible, right, But what I can represent

742
00:43:34,400 --> 00:43:38,440
Speaker 1: is us, And what I can represent is integrity and

743
00:43:38,520 --> 00:43:46,080
Speaker 1: morality and and accountability and and you know, just being authentic.

744
00:43:46,080 --> 00:43:49,000
Speaker 1: I don't we got enough fake stuff around us. You know,

745
00:43:49,640 --> 00:43:51,759
Speaker 1: that's the last thing we need. We need more of

746
00:43:51,880 --> 00:43:54,000
Speaker 1: you getting representing a lot by these rappers too. Man,

747
00:43:54,040 --> 00:43:57,680
Speaker 1: you getting shout it out onto several records. J Cole,

748
00:43:57,920 --> 00:44:03,279
Speaker 1: will Sticks Pauls Agency, you know, Baby J Cole, you know,

749
00:44:03,520 --> 00:44:07,840
Speaker 1: Brent and a baby King they you know, um a

750
00:44:08,000 --> 00:44:10,600
Speaker 1: lost souls. A little baby said, oh yeah, Brent said,

751
00:44:10,840 --> 00:44:14,439
Speaker 1: oh my niggas balling like Rich Paul. A little baby said,

752
00:44:14,440 --> 00:44:16,400
Speaker 1: I think I need agents the way I played a

753
00:44:16,440 --> 00:44:19,400
Speaker 1: call up Rich, you know. And again it's got a

754
00:44:19,440 --> 00:44:21,319
Speaker 1: best a huge hip, a fan that has to be

755
00:44:21,520 --> 00:44:25,040
Speaker 1: super ampthis. I'm always about that. You know. It's like

756
00:44:25,440 --> 00:44:28,719
Speaker 1: because it's one of those things where I used to hear,

757
00:44:29,480 --> 00:44:33,120
Speaker 1: you know, rappers talk about Mike or talk about Lebron

758
00:44:33,360 --> 00:44:37,520
Speaker 1: talking about and so to hear that or to talk about,

759
00:44:38,400 --> 00:44:40,839
Speaker 1: you know, guys that was in the streets that they

760
00:44:40,880 --> 00:44:44,440
Speaker 1: talked about those guys, and so in my neighborhood, you

761
00:44:44,520 --> 00:44:49,719
Speaker 1: always that was part of your and so to hear that, um,

762
00:44:49,760 --> 00:44:53,600
Speaker 1: and those guys are doing it genuinely, you know, and

763
00:44:53,640 --> 00:44:57,760
Speaker 1: those guys. I just talked to Brent the other day. Again,

764
00:44:57,840 --> 00:45:00,560
Speaker 1: I talked to I probably talked to Baby maybe, and

765
00:45:00,560 --> 00:45:04,799
Speaker 1: I talked a lot. Yeah, Roddy and I talked album.

766
00:45:06,320 --> 00:45:08,319
Speaker 1: I gotta get you all get fist this album. You

767
00:45:08,320 --> 00:45:10,560
Speaker 1: know what I told baby, don't put the album out

768
00:45:10,640 --> 00:45:12,520
Speaker 1: until I hear it. So he's actually waiting on me

769
00:45:12,600 --> 00:45:20,239
Speaker 1: to call, you know, and Cold, you know, I feel

770
00:45:20,239 --> 00:45:24,640
Speaker 1: like Cold. We grew together. What dreams? Man? He just

771
00:45:24,680 --> 00:45:27,359
Speaker 1: loves it, right, he loves it. But he can play,

772
00:45:27,560 --> 00:45:29,799
Speaker 1: you know, by the way, soking dirt. It's a lot

773
00:45:29,880 --> 00:45:33,160
Speaker 1: of twisted that's a great question. A lot of guys

774
00:45:33,239 --> 00:45:36,959
Speaker 1: that can hoop that are rappers. Okay, what's your top five?

775
00:45:37,200 --> 00:45:40,959
Speaker 1: Is five sign sign? Because I've seen Gilly out there

776
00:45:41,280 --> 00:45:48,480
Speaker 1: and you know we're around the same mage. So that well,

777
00:45:48,480 --> 00:45:50,480
Speaker 1: he's not gonna play too many games, you know once,

778
00:45:52,600 --> 00:45:55,120
Speaker 1: but he can fall. You know. It's it's people forget

779
00:45:55,760 --> 00:46:00,520
Speaker 1: I take it by the cities, right, Guys from Philly,

780
00:46:00,880 --> 00:46:04,400
Speaker 1: from Chicago can hoop. L A guys can whop like

781
00:46:04,680 --> 00:46:08,760
Speaker 1: it's not like a thing. They're real. You know, Detroit

782
00:46:08,800 --> 00:46:14,719
Speaker 1: got growing up. These all these places brought hoopers. And

783
00:46:14,760 --> 00:46:17,319
Speaker 1: you better hope no rapper come from Seattle because they

784
00:46:17,400 --> 00:46:20,040
Speaker 1: definitely gonna be able to to hoop, you know. So,

785
00:46:20,880 --> 00:46:24,239
Speaker 1: but no I appreciate those guys. And again I like

786
00:46:24,320 --> 00:46:27,480
Speaker 1: to listen to I listened to everything pretty much. Um,

787
00:46:27,800 --> 00:46:29,560
Speaker 1: and you tell people what to put out. Man, you

788
00:46:29,600 --> 00:46:31,360
Speaker 1: know you got big credit on this podcast and we

789
00:46:31,400 --> 00:46:33,759
Speaker 1: had Drake on and Drake said, you was the one

790
00:46:33,760 --> 00:46:35,399
Speaker 1: who really told them a matter that so far gone

791
00:46:35,440 --> 00:46:38,239
Speaker 1: mixtape that best I ever had. That's where you need

792
00:46:38,280 --> 00:46:40,640
Speaker 1: to put your focus on. So funny because Drake and

793
00:46:40,680 --> 00:46:43,640
Speaker 1: I again, you know me and Drake, we got a

794
00:46:43,640 --> 00:46:48,480
Speaker 1: long history relationship that was authentic, just happened to be.

795
00:46:48,960 --> 00:46:54,200
Speaker 1: I met Drake. I met Drake at a dinner Jay.

796
00:46:54,280 --> 00:46:58,680
Speaker 1: I was leaving Polo the Don in the studio in

797
00:46:58,719 --> 00:47:01,680
Speaker 1: Santa Monica. Jay called me, Yo, where are you at?

798
00:47:02,239 --> 00:47:05,920
Speaker 1: Meet me at cut So I'm running late because I'm

799
00:47:06,000 --> 00:47:07,879
Speaker 1: leaving and I'm not living in the l A at

800
00:47:07,920 --> 00:47:12,160
Speaker 1: that time. I don't know, you know, it's Beverly Hills.

801
00:47:12,640 --> 00:47:17,759
Speaker 1: So I pull up at the Beverly Wilshire and I'm

802
00:47:17,800 --> 00:47:22,080
Speaker 1: there and I'm sitting down and M. G Robertson like, Yo,

803
00:47:22,280 --> 00:47:26,280
Speaker 1: rich this family this you know it's drizzy. And I'm like, oh,

804
00:47:26,320 --> 00:47:30,000
Speaker 1: so naturally you're sitting across from start talking or whatever.

805
00:47:30,560 --> 00:47:34,759
Speaker 1: And long story short, we were going to Toronto a

806
00:47:34,800 --> 00:47:38,360
Speaker 1: couple of weeks later, and he and I just was

807
00:47:38,400 --> 00:47:41,160
Speaker 1: talking and I was like, Yo, we're coming. I'm gonna

808
00:47:41,160 --> 00:47:43,759
Speaker 1: do something with LJ. Put you on it. You know,

809
00:47:43,800 --> 00:47:47,919
Speaker 1: it's your home whatever, family whatever. That night we went out,

810
00:47:48,160 --> 00:47:49,640
Speaker 1: you know, it was grand I think the Grammy. It

811
00:47:49,680 --> 00:47:51,960
Speaker 1: was around the Granmy time. Yeah, we went out to

812
00:47:51,960 --> 00:47:54,440
Speaker 1: the Hollywood Athletic Club and we was we was all

813
00:47:54,520 --> 00:47:57,600
Speaker 1: just hanging and so I end up he put me

814
00:47:57,640 --> 00:48:00,880
Speaker 1: with a guy named t Rex. So t Rex was

815
00:48:00,960 --> 00:48:04,279
Speaker 1: his guy, and uh, we put these events together and

816
00:48:04,320 --> 00:48:07,040
Speaker 1: the team was standing over. So the first night we

817
00:48:07,080 --> 00:48:09,879
Speaker 1: did an event, it was at a club called six

818
00:48:09,920 --> 00:48:13,040
Speaker 1: Degrees and it was we did it private. That end

819
00:48:13,160 --> 00:48:17,200
Speaker 1: up being pretty much just so far gone album released party.

820
00:48:18,320 --> 00:48:20,279
Speaker 1: But I want to say, and again I could be

821
00:48:20,360 --> 00:48:23,239
Speaker 1: off a little bit, but I think so. But nevertheless,

822
00:48:23,400 --> 00:48:25,440
Speaker 1: how Drake and I came up with that conversation. He

823
00:48:25,520 --> 00:48:26,960
Speaker 1: used to pick me up when I when I layed

824
00:48:26,960 --> 00:48:29,440
Speaker 1: in Toronto and get to my hotel, Drake would actually

825
00:48:29,520 --> 00:48:31,400
Speaker 1: come to my pick me up. You know, he had

826
00:48:31,800 --> 00:48:36,320
Speaker 1: t He's actually picked me up and we're listening to

827
00:48:36,400 --> 00:48:40,440
Speaker 1: the project. And he liked Uptown with with Wayne and

828
00:48:40,480 --> 00:48:44,320
Speaker 1: obviously it's Wayne, right, Wayne a goat like, of course

829
00:48:44,360 --> 00:48:51,360
Speaker 1: you wanted there, but so far gone. I had DJ.

830
00:48:51,560 --> 00:48:57,480
Speaker 1: The DJ at the time was our DJ, Steph Loss. Yeah, yeah,

831
00:48:57,560 --> 00:49:01,760
Speaker 1: And so I said, Steph, play this record and play

832
00:49:01,840 --> 00:49:04,359
Speaker 1: this record and play And I said to Drake in

833
00:49:04,360 --> 00:49:07,480
Speaker 1: this spot, I was like, do you see this reaction? Man?

834
00:49:07,560 --> 00:49:11,680
Speaker 1: Like this thing, you know? And it was just undeniable, baby,

835
00:49:11,880 --> 00:49:17,840
Speaker 1: my thing. You just couldn't deny that. And Drake being Drake.

836
00:49:18,040 --> 00:49:21,080
Speaker 1: You know one thing about Drake he will listen. You know,

837
00:49:21,800 --> 00:49:24,319
Speaker 1: he takes and he's obviously he's one of the best

838
00:49:24,400 --> 00:49:27,680
Speaker 1: ever do it. But he listened and I didn't even

839
00:49:28,000 --> 00:49:30,680
Speaker 1: I wasn't looking for credit. I was just being honest

840
00:49:31,200 --> 00:49:36,560
Speaker 1: because career and and and the thing about it is

841
00:49:36,680 --> 00:49:41,080
Speaker 1: we became really close and I never forget. Brandon Wains

842
00:49:41,160 --> 00:49:44,719
Speaker 1: was at the University of Kentucky and he called me

843
00:49:44,719 --> 00:49:47,560
Speaker 1: and was like, man, we need somebody from from March Madness.

844
00:49:48,200 --> 00:49:49,960
Speaker 1: And I was like, you should get Drake and he

845
00:49:50,040 --> 00:49:52,360
Speaker 1: was like it was like yeah. So I put it

846
00:49:52,400 --> 00:49:57,640
Speaker 1: in with g Robertson and remember Kanye Kanye directed the

847
00:49:57,719 --> 00:50:03,160
Speaker 1: video and so Drake ended up doing the uh the

848
00:50:03,680 --> 00:50:08,200
Speaker 1: Midnight Madness for Kentucky. That started that relationship with Kentucky

849
00:50:08,200 --> 00:50:10,800
Speaker 1: and then and then we was we started going to

850
00:50:11,040 --> 00:50:15,319
Speaker 1: Toronto and then it brought you know, Drake and at

851
00:50:15,360 --> 00:50:20,800
Speaker 1: that time it was just Nico Future, Drake t Rex

852
00:50:21,920 --> 00:50:24,880
Speaker 1: and maybe a few other guys, but that's who that

853
00:50:25,120 --> 00:50:29,160
Speaker 1: That's who I knew. And Um in the camp Oliver,

854
00:50:29,239 --> 00:50:32,920
Speaker 1: I think obviously forty Um and I met Boy Wonder

855
00:50:33,480 --> 00:50:37,040
Speaker 1: at at this place called the Remix Project, and I

856
00:50:37,080 --> 00:50:41,239
Speaker 1: never forget. We were doing a a commercial for for

857
00:50:41,360 --> 00:50:44,800
Speaker 1: Lebron and I was like, Yo, give me some beats

858
00:50:44,840 --> 00:50:47,680
Speaker 1: because you know, we're trying to figure this commercial out.

859
00:50:48,400 --> 00:50:51,400
Speaker 1: And uh he did that. And you know, it's just

860
00:50:51,640 --> 00:50:54,120
Speaker 1: when we talk about all these things, just putting together

861
00:50:54,560 --> 00:50:57,920
Speaker 1: these different dynamics, it's just funny that I'm starting to

862
00:50:57,920 --> 00:51:00,000
Speaker 1: think about things. Or we did. We did to Walk

863
00:51:00,000 --> 00:51:03,799
Speaker 1: in My Shoes commercial with Lebron and Nike had wanted

864
00:51:03,800 --> 00:51:07,600
Speaker 1: to use somebody and I end up calling Mike Will

865
00:51:07,920 --> 00:51:09,720
Speaker 1: and I was like, no, we should use Mike Will.

866
00:51:10,200 --> 00:51:14,480
Speaker 1: It was like this, They're like, who the hell is

867
00:51:14,520 --> 00:51:19,359
Speaker 1: Mike Will? And it's like and and my man Chubby

868
00:51:19,719 --> 00:51:22,640
Speaker 1: uh down Atlanta had him called me put me on

869
00:51:22,640 --> 00:51:24,080
Speaker 1: the phone with Mike will and I was like, yeah,

870
00:51:24,120 --> 00:51:26,640
Speaker 1: we would I want to use you for this commercial

871
00:51:26,680 --> 00:51:29,799
Speaker 1: for lebron and um. He had ended up doing this

872
00:51:30,040 --> 00:51:35,160
Speaker 1: beat and got Sam Hook to write the hook on it,

873
00:51:36,040 --> 00:51:37,600
Speaker 1: and he was like, man, who should I get to

874
00:51:37,640 --> 00:51:40,640
Speaker 1: put on this hook? And I was like, you know

875
00:51:41,239 --> 00:51:45,000
Speaker 1: John Legends from Ohio. You know makes sense. So he

876
00:51:45,000 --> 00:51:46,440
Speaker 1: went and got John. I don't know if you've ever

877
00:51:46,440 --> 00:51:49,239
Speaker 1: seen this commercial. It's called walking My Shoes, but the

878
00:51:49,400 --> 00:51:54,040
Speaker 1: music behind it it's produced by Mike will and and

879
00:51:54,160 --> 00:51:57,040
Speaker 1: John Legends on it. So those you know from the

880
00:51:57,120 --> 00:51:59,239
Speaker 1: Drakes to that type of stuff, and you know, you

881
00:51:59,360 --> 00:52:02,920
Speaker 1: just always I just it's just it's surround you, right,

882
00:52:02,960 --> 00:52:09,240
Speaker 1: And it's a production credit to right on Fat Joe's album.

883
00:52:09,600 --> 00:52:15,400
Speaker 1: I didn't know that well. I am a producer at heart.

884
00:52:15,560 --> 00:52:19,480
Speaker 1: I think I'm a producing but no, it was just

885
00:52:19,520 --> 00:52:21,919
Speaker 1: one of those things where I talked to these guys.

886
00:52:21,960 --> 00:52:25,040
Speaker 1: I talked with me Boy Wondering, Vinyls was in the studio,

887
00:52:25,200 --> 00:52:31,000
Speaker 1: and my man Simon managers Boy Wonder and would give

888
00:52:31,040 --> 00:52:33,239
Speaker 1: beyond all those guys. Now he's doing unbelieva with job.

889
00:52:33,320 --> 00:52:36,040
Speaker 1: But but back then I had just said to him.

890
00:52:36,160 --> 00:52:38,239
Speaker 1: I was saying, you should flip this. You got me

891
00:52:38,360 --> 00:52:42,920
Speaker 1: look out that l L and he was like, sounds

892
00:52:43,080 --> 00:52:44,880
Speaker 1: kind of crazy. He actually, I think he might have

893
00:52:44,920 --> 00:52:47,640
Speaker 1: made it for He might have made it for Drake.

894
00:52:48,120 --> 00:52:51,439
Speaker 1: Drake didn't take it. And then I think that Joe

895
00:52:51,480 --> 00:52:54,919
Speaker 1: heard it and was like, I want that, so boy,

896
00:52:54,960 --> 00:52:59,600
Speaker 1: wonder you know, gave me, gave me credit represent rapids

897
00:52:59,800 --> 00:53:04,919
Speaker 1: and musicians. You know what, clutch sports and entertainment don't

898
00:53:04,960 --> 00:53:08,759
Speaker 1: sound bad. You know it don't sound bad. You know,

899
00:53:08,880 --> 00:53:12,120
Speaker 1: it's always true. I think those two things intersect for sure,

900
00:53:12,719 --> 00:53:16,160
Speaker 1: the right ones. I mean, I'm open minded to it.

901
00:53:16,920 --> 00:53:20,359
Speaker 1: I just think that that's a different business, you know,

902
00:53:20,719 --> 00:53:24,400
Speaker 1: and it's a lucrative business if you do it right. Uh.

903
00:53:25,400 --> 00:53:28,520
Speaker 1: But again with all this stuff right now, I talked

904
00:53:28,560 --> 00:53:31,279
Speaker 1: to everybody we talked about today. I've talked to all

905
00:53:31,320 --> 00:53:33,880
Speaker 1: of them, whether they were my clients or my friends

906
00:53:33,880 --> 00:53:36,440
Speaker 1: that happened to be in the music business. We have

907
00:53:36,600 --> 00:53:42,920
Speaker 1: these high level conversations. It all circles back to professionalism,

908
00:53:43,440 --> 00:53:46,480
Speaker 1: and we come from a place. Whether you came from

909
00:53:46,480 --> 00:53:49,360
Speaker 1: the streets or whether you're an athlete, you don't you

910
00:53:49,400 --> 00:53:52,439
Speaker 1: don't have to move unless you really want to move right,

911
00:53:52,760 --> 00:53:57,560
Speaker 1: And so how you start your day matters regardless of

912
00:53:57,600 --> 00:54:01,319
Speaker 1: what you're doing. And if you're creative that wants to

913
00:54:01,360 --> 00:54:04,879
Speaker 1: be a business guy, you can't pick and choose when

914
00:54:04,920 --> 00:54:07,520
Speaker 1: you want to be a business guy. You have to

915
00:54:07,520 --> 00:54:12,239
Speaker 1: start your day doing business right and you create when

916
00:54:12,280 --> 00:54:15,799
Speaker 1: you create, you start your day uh doing business. And

917
00:54:15,880 --> 00:54:19,799
Speaker 1: so yeah, I think we will eventually go down that

918
00:54:19,920 --> 00:54:23,520
Speaker 1: path at some point. Maybe maybe not. You know, it's

919
00:54:23,920 --> 00:54:26,040
Speaker 1: like I said, I'm open minded. That's a that's a

920
00:54:26,080 --> 00:54:29,960
Speaker 1: conversation you have as a group, as a team, um,

921
00:54:30,000 --> 00:54:32,120
Speaker 1: because you want to keep the main thing the main thing,

922
00:54:32,560 --> 00:54:37,440
Speaker 1: but ultimately Clutches it's a real brand, um, and you've

923
00:54:37,440 --> 00:54:40,520
Speaker 1: got Clutch Sports Group and you know, but there's a

924
00:54:40,520 --> 00:54:45,040
Speaker 1: whole other ecosystem that's there and and and there's another

925
00:54:45,080 --> 00:54:48,799
Speaker 1: opportunity that's there, and you tend to go that direction

926
00:54:49,120 --> 00:54:52,440
Speaker 1: when you're organically pushed in that direction. I will, I

927
00:54:52,520 --> 00:54:55,000
Speaker 1: won't force to shoot on I won't do that. Well,

928
00:54:55,000 --> 00:54:59,000
Speaker 1: whenever you start a podcast division, we got a past

929
00:54:59,719 --> 00:55:03,640
Speaker 1: you that Royal mall you know, good friends of yours

930
00:55:03,760 --> 00:55:09,239
Speaker 1: mall Yeah, yeah for sure, yeah, yeah, I know mall

931
00:55:09,560 --> 00:55:12,200
Speaker 1: for for for a long time. So when he called me,

932
00:55:12,680 --> 00:55:15,040
Speaker 1: he called me Biggs called me like it was that's

933
00:55:15,040 --> 00:55:18,480
Speaker 1: what I do, mo. Yeah, I just I think helping

934
00:55:18,560 --> 00:55:22,160
Speaker 1: people matters, right, And so when you look back at

935
00:55:22,160 --> 00:55:24,200
Speaker 1: what's been like to sends out to you like that,

936
00:55:24,200 --> 00:55:25,640
Speaker 1: that was when you look back, like, yo, that was

937
00:55:25,640 --> 00:55:28,000
Speaker 1: a tough negotiation. Like, I mean, I got what I wanted,

938
00:55:28,040 --> 00:55:30,760
Speaker 1: but like then this wise like that was really challenging

939
00:55:30,800 --> 00:55:32,560
Speaker 1: for me. And I'm pretty good at this, but this

940
00:55:32,640 --> 00:55:35,520
Speaker 1: still was very challenging. You know, man, They're all challenging,

941
00:55:36,360 --> 00:55:39,680
Speaker 1: you know, because there's a ton of friendly fire in

942
00:55:39,719 --> 00:55:45,680
Speaker 1: negotiations as well. And negotiations in our business doesn't start

943
00:55:45,760 --> 00:55:49,520
Speaker 1: July first, like most people think those free agencies, So

944
00:55:50,160 --> 00:55:54,040
Speaker 1: negotiations that started and it ends in five days. No,

945
00:55:55,600 --> 00:55:58,480
Speaker 1: you're always in the negotiation and it ends when your

946
00:55:58,480 --> 00:56:03,000
Speaker 1: contract is done, right, We're not. I don't do this

947
00:56:03,080 --> 00:56:07,719
Speaker 1: for ESPN or Fox or hoops Hype. You know, those

948
00:56:07,719 --> 00:56:10,680
Speaker 1: are all great platforms. But I try to tell my

949
00:56:10,800 --> 00:56:13,879
Speaker 1: guys don't get caught up in that, and don't get

950
00:56:13,920 --> 00:56:16,799
Speaker 1: caught up into what someone else is doing. That's the

951
00:56:16,960 --> 00:56:19,960
Speaker 1: that's the worst thing you can do is have the

952
00:56:20,000 --> 00:56:23,280
Speaker 1: mindset of, oh, they got the deal done. Mine should

953
00:56:23,280 --> 00:56:26,640
Speaker 1: be done, Mine should be more this or that. Everything

954
00:56:26,760 --> 00:56:33,480
Speaker 1: is situational. He hasn't answered yet, you know, because it's

955
00:56:33,520 --> 00:56:36,239
Speaker 1: like you asking McDonald's for the sauce of the Big Mac,

956
00:56:37,360 --> 00:56:39,400
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna give it to you, especially not on

957
00:56:39,440 --> 00:56:42,839
Speaker 1: the platform like this. I think I think every every

958
00:56:42,880 --> 00:56:46,320
Speaker 1: negotiation is tough. What's differently that? Do you think it?

959
00:56:46,520 --> 00:56:49,040
Speaker 1: Is it? What's it like when people start throwing out numbers, right,

960
00:56:49,080 --> 00:56:51,040
Speaker 1: like people that don't know, like, what does it come

961
00:56:51,040 --> 00:56:52,960
Speaker 1: down to? Is it? Is it more of a numbers game?

962
00:56:53,040 --> 00:56:55,880
Speaker 1: Is it down the value? It really comes down the

963
00:56:55,960 --> 00:57:00,600
Speaker 1: value and situations, you know, like prime exam of them.

964
00:57:00,640 --> 00:57:05,920
Speaker 1: I'll give you this little you know, Colin Sexton was

965
00:57:05,960 --> 00:57:10,080
Speaker 1: on the Cavaliers this year. He missed seventy one games, right,

966
00:57:10,760 --> 00:57:14,120
Speaker 1: and so we get to market and of course the

967
00:57:14,280 --> 00:57:18,960
Speaker 1: Calves value Colin Sexton, but they only valued him to

968
00:57:19,640 --> 00:57:25,160
Speaker 1: a specific number. And that's what it was pretty much

969
00:57:25,720 --> 00:57:28,280
Speaker 1: the year before now, the year before I wasn't representing

970
00:57:28,320 --> 00:57:30,400
Speaker 1: him when he wouldn't to his what they called an

971
00:57:30,400 --> 00:57:33,560
Speaker 1: extension negotiation, which you can extend after your third year.

972
00:57:34,560 --> 00:57:36,800
Speaker 1: I was not representing them. I recruited him out of

973
00:57:36,800 --> 00:57:39,520
Speaker 1: college didn't get them, which is fine. I don't take

974
00:57:39,520 --> 00:57:43,200
Speaker 1: it personal business. And when they decided they wanted to

975
00:57:43,200 --> 00:57:46,320
Speaker 1: make a change, they came back to me and and

976
00:57:46,360 --> 00:57:50,280
Speaker 1: of course, you know, great family, great kid, can play,

977
00:57:50,480 --> 00:57:54,000
Speaker 1: you know, really focused on the game of basketball. And

978
00:57:54,440 --> 00:57:58,920
Speaker 1: he was again someone who was restricted. They called it

979
00:57:58,960 --> 00:58:02,680
Speaker 1: being restricted, meaning that this team owns your rights and

980
00:58:02,960 --> 00:58:07,160
Speaker 1: the next team can They can offer you, but this

981
00:58:07,200 --> 00:58:10,680
Speaker 1: team has the right to match, and so that hurts

982
00:58:11,160 --> 00:58:15,040
Speaker 1: your little market as well. Now at the same time,

983
00:58:15,080 --> 00:58:20,040
Speaker 1: I also represent Darius Garland. They're on the same team,

984
00:58:20,080 --> 00:58:25,080
Speaker 1: and so July one, Darius Garland was long star team calls.

985
00:58:25,360 --> 00:58:29,600
Speaker 1: By July three, I'm able to negotiate, you know, two

986
00:58:30,240 --> 00:58:34,200
Speaker 1: two million out of contract for Darius Garland. But I

987
00:58:34,240 --> 00:58:37,720
Speaker 1: can't forget about my job being done, right, I still

988
00:58:37,760 --> 00:58:41,160
Speaker 1: got COLMN set in there. And one thing about it,

989
00:58:41,240 --> 00:58:43,720
Speaker 1: you can spend it any which way you want, and

990
00:58:43,840 --> 00:58:47,160
Speaker 1: sometimes just can backfire on you, because when you care

991
00:58:47,200 --> 00:58:49,200
Speaker 1: as much as I do, you're willing to go to

992
00:58:49,280 --> 00:58:54,320
Speaker 1: the to the bitter end, right, And we were more

993
00:58:54,320 --> 00:58:57,160
Speaker 1: than willing to just play on a one year deal,

994
00:58:57,600 --> 00:59:00,360
Speaker 1: which is called your qualifying offer, and come back year

995
00:59:00,800 --> 00:59:03,720
Speaker 1: in a different market and he would be totally free

996
00:59:03,760 --> 00:59:05,960
Speaker 1: to sign with whoever he wanted to, with no restrictions.

997
00:59:06,760 --> 00:59:09,080
Speaker 1: But again, I got a young man coming off an injury,

998
00:59:09,840 --> 00:59:13,760
Speaker 1: missed seventy one games. As you know, his family, his

999
00:59:13,800 --> 00:59:17,160
Speaker 1: mom and dad did an unbelievable job. We stayed in communication,

1000
00:59:17,320 --> 00:59:21,200
Speaker 1: he and and I just was very honest with them

1001
00:59:21,440 --> 00:59:24,280
Speaker 1: and very matter of fact with them, and they appreciated it.

1002
00:59:24,680 --> 00:59:29,919
Speaker 1: And we set out there for three months, right and

1003
00:59:30,400 --> 00:59:35,920
Speaker 1: going behold, here comes Utah. They want to trade Donovan Mitchell. Well,

1004
00:59:36,360 --> 00:59:39,840
Speaker 1: now in the Calves, you gotta give to get, you know,

1005
00:59:40,080 --> 00:59:43,640
Speaker 1: And so here's Colin Sexton sitting there. His value to

1006
00:59:43,760 --> 00:59:47,480
Speaker 1: Calves was ex but his value to Utah was why

1007
00:59:47,600 --> 00:59:49,840
Speaker 1: he was able to secure a four year, you know,

1008
00:59:49,920 --> 00:59:53,960
Speaker 1: seventy three million dollar, fully guaranteed contract for him after

1009
00:59:54,000 --> 00:59:57,760
Speaker 1: missing seventy one game. You know, there's two games in

1010
00:59:57,800 --> 01:00:01,040
Speaker 1: the season for people that don't know. But but imagine

1011
01:00:01,760 --> 01:00:06,720
Speaker 1: that I made it about anything but him, right, which

1012
01:00:06,760 --> 01:00:08,800
Speaker 1: is part of the reason why I haven't. This year

1013
01:00:08,880 --> 01:00:12,439
Speaker 1: was my first time taking a vacation in a long time,

1014
01:00:12,480 --> 01:00:15,080
Speaker 1: and I promised be that I would go on vacation.

1015
01:00:16,200 --> 01:00:17,800
Speaker 1: You know, I was there in the Hamptons one day

1016
01:00:17,840 --> 01:00:19,960
Speaker 1: and she was like, Rich, you need to go on vacation.

1017
01:00:20,000 --> 01:00:22,440
Speaker 1: And I promise. And I also promised Draymond that I

1018
01:00:22,440 --> 01:00:26,080
Speaker 1: would go on vacation. And I needed it, you know,

1019
01:00:26,160 --> 01:00:29,840
Speaker 1: and I and down she did too because I took

1020
01:00:29,840 --> 01:00:33,160
Speaker 1: my kids and I felt like that was great. We

1021
01:00:33,160 --> 01:00:35,360
Speaker 1: we went on a family vacation and then obviously I

1022
01:00:35,520 --> 01:00:38,200
Speaker 1: took my brother and and some other friends. We were

1023
01:00:38,200 --> 01:00:40,160
Speaker 1: on a vacation and it was great. I needed it,

1024
01:00:40,200 --> 01:00:44,320
Speaker 1: but it was a I don't vacate really because the

1025
01:00:44,400 --> 01:00:49,800
Speaker 1: work isn't done right. And so but many people, not

1026
01:00:49,960 --> 01:00:52,640
Speaker 1: just those two, many parents and you know, colleagues and

1027
01:00:52,680 --> 01:00:55,520
Speaker 1: stuff tell you, but you gotta take care of yourself.

1028
01:00:55,840 --> 01:00:58,040
Speaker 1: And so this year I decided to do that. But

1029
01:00:58,160 --> 01:01:01,320
Speaker 1: even on vacation, I'm calling checking in on Colin just

1030
01:01:01,360 --> 01:01:04,000
Speaker 1: to make sure. And you know, look, there's a lot

1031
01:01:04,000 --> 01:01:07,280
Speaker 1: of different situations that come about. And like I said

1032
01:01:07,320 --> 01:01:10,760
Speaker 1: in the beginning of our conversation, I don't feel right

1033
01:01:10,880 --> 01:01:15,240
Speaker 1: sitting in the limelight with the client and not sitting

1034
01:01:15,240 --> 01:01:17,280
Speaker 1: in the fire. And went to, you know, I've been

1035
01:01:17,320 --> 01:01:21,439
Speaker 1: through it, whether it was in then situation, you really

1036
01:01:21,440 --> 01:01:23,160
Speaker 1: got put in the fire with that one yeah, and

1037
01:01:23,160 --> 01:01:26,080
Speaker 1: you know these people, you know, they try to use

1038
01:01:26,160 --> 01:01:29,400
Speaker 1: it against you, and they try to blame you forward,

1039
01:01:29,720 --> 01:01:33,160
Speaker 1: you know, in that case, and it's fine, you're sitting

1040
01:01:33,200 --> 01:01:35,960
Speaker 1: that seat, it's fine. But what I'm saying is the

1041
01:01:36,000 --> 01:01:39,360
Speaker 1: competition that they lead with that to parents. You know,

1042
01:01:39,480 --> 01:01:42,440
Speaker 1: this is the stuff that weird. Those stuff, But this

1043
01:01:42,480 --> 01:01:45,080
Speaker 1: is the stuff that I'm just not like like that.

1044
01:01:45,320 --> 01:01:48,840
Speaker 1: But this is some of the stuff that that that happens. Right,

1045
01:01:49,200 --> 01:01:51,800
Speaker 1: It's just a lot. But but but nevertheless, I'm but

1046
01:01:51,880 --> 01:01:54,920
Speaker 1: I'm fine with that because again, I was all I

1047
01:01:55,040 --> 01:01:57,560
Speaker 1: was when he went number one. I was in that

1048
01:01:57,640 --> 01:02:02,960
Speaker 1: green room, right and I had so that comes with it.

1049
01:02:03,280 --> 01:02:06,280
Speaker 1: You don't get to pick and choose, and so you're

1050
01:02:06,280 --> 01:02:08,720
Speaker 1: staying in the fight with John wall as well. Yeah,

1051
01:02:08,800 --> 01:02:11,440
Speaker 1: the same thing in that case I had. I had

1052
01:02:11,480 --> 01:02:13,800
Speaker 1: one team that didn't want a guy to play, that

1053
01:02:13,880 --> 01:02:15,760
Speaker 1: had another team that wanted a guy played that. You know,

1054
01:02:15,800 --> 01:02:20,000
Speaker 1: it's but again, those are all circumstances. And one thing

1055
01:02:20,040 --> 01:02:22,880
Speaker 1: you have to realize is you're dealing with people. These

1056
01:02:22,880 --> 01:02:26,240
Speaker 1: are individuals. You're dealing with these these you know, it's

1057
01:02:26,280 --> 01:02:30,000
Speaker 1: a lot that they have to endure, and it's easy

1058
01:02:30,080 --> 01:02:35,680
Speaker 1: for me to deflect the responsibility or the accountability or whatever.

1059
01:02:36,280 --> 01:02:38,360
Speaker 1: And when you're in the foxhole, you're in the foxhole.

1060
01:02:38,960 --> 01:02:42,440
Speaker 1: And you know, look at these guys now jobs in

1061
01:02:42,440 --> 01:02:46,120
Speaker 1: the different situation, ends in a different situation. But all

1062
01:02:46,120 --> 01:02:49,600
Speaker 1: those articles and all those anonymous naysayers or whatever the

1063
01:02:49,640 --> 01:02:52,680
Speaker 1: case may be, they're not coming out apologizing. You know,

1064
01:02:53,000 --> 01:02:56,040
Speaker 1: when I get sued for nothing, and you know they

1065
01:02:56,120 --> 01:03:00,000
Speaker 1: dropped the case in one aspect, you didn't see nobody

1066
01:03:00,280 --> 01:03:02,720
Speaker 1: right about that. They're not they're not passing that around

1067
01:03:02,760 --> 01:03:06,360
Speaker 1: to parents, but they passed around when the young man

1068
01:03:06,440 --> 01:03:09,160
Speaker 1: decided to sue me for whatever reason. Not to go

1069
01:03:09,200 --> 01:03:11,400
Speaker 1: too much into it, because we still it, but when

1070
01:03:11,400 --> 01:03:18,000
Speaker 1: they decided that that was passed around. I was talking

1071
01:03:18,000 --> 01:03:22,360
Speaker 1: to Zach Levine and he came on last summer and

1072
01:03:22,760 --> 01:03:25,439
Speaker 1: him and I we just we just had a conversation

1073
01:03:26,200 --> 01:03:29,120
Speaker 1: and it was a great conversation. And at the end

1074
01:03:29,160 --> 01:03:32,160
Speaker 1: of that conversation he said to me, he said, man,

1075
01:03:32,200 --> 01:03:35,280
Speaker 1: you know, I learned more in thirty minutes and I

1076
01:03:35,360 --> 01:03:41,720
Speaker 1: learned in seven years. And that resonated, you know, with me.

1077
01:03:42,160 --> 01:03:45,720
Speaker 1: From a place of just being authentic. It wasn't a

1078
01:03:45,960 --> 01:03:50,640
Speaker 1: picture or no sale, and honestly, just keeping it all

1079
01:03:50,640 --> 01:03:53,600
Speaker 1: the way a buck. I don't push guys too to

1080
01:03:53,800 --> 01:03:57,840
Speaker 1: fire anybody. I would tell like, that's not my m O.

1081
01:03:58,400 --> 01:04:01,120
Speaker 1: I don't need that, right. And so I'm playing a

1082
01:04:01,160 --> 01:04:04,080
Speaker 1: different game. You know, we're playing a different game as

1083
01:04:04,120 --> 01:04:06,760
Speaker 1: a company. I'm playing a different game as the CEO

1084
01:04:06,800 --> 01:04:09,640
Speaker 1: of the company and as someone who for part of

1085
01:04:09,680 --> 01:04:14,400
Speaker 1: my day I play the agent role. UM and my

1086
01:04:14,480 --> 01:04:16,880
Speaker 1: clients they know that, they know that you came up

1087
01:04:16,920 --> 01:04:19,360
Speaker 1: under C double A and but I read you felt

1088
01:04:19,360 --> 01:04:23,840
Speaker 1: like you learned nothing there. I don't even mention the

1089
01:04:23,880 --> 01:04:31,280
Speaker 1: company now you know jobs. You know, it's just like again,

1090
01:04:32,200 --> 01:04:35,080
Speaker 1: it's not a competitive thing because that's a big company.

1091
01:04:35,120 --> 01:04:38,240
Speaker 1: It's not just sports. And so at the level I'm

1092
01:04:38,240 --> 01:04:43,800
Speaker 1: at now, you're doing business across all platforms. But what

1093
01:04:43,840 --> 01:04:46,000
Speaker 1: I would what I meant by that was there was

1094
01:04:46,040 --> 01:04:48,720
Speaker 1: no real plan for me in the sport. I'm talking

1095
01:04:48,760 --> 01:04:52,120
Speaker 1: about strictly sports, because you know, there's people that you

1096
01:04:52,200 --> 01:04:55,479
Speaker 1: work with or see out and you know, despite where

1097
01:04:55,480 --> 01:04:58,240
Speaker 1: you work, I'm not in the streets anymore, right, So

1098
01:04:58,320 --> 01:05:01,080
Speaker 1: I don't have this animosity because you're from somewhere and

1099
01:05:01,120 --> 01:05:04,960
Speaker 1: I'm from somewhere else. I'm off that, Um, but what

1100
01:05:05,000 --> 01:05:09,880
Speaker 1: I'm on is the facts, and the facts is no. Yeah,

1101
01:05:10,120 --> 01:05:11,920
Speaker 1: I learned more of what not to do than what

1102
01:05:12,000 --> 01:05:14,840
Speaker 1: to do. And what I did learn is people try

1103
01:05:14,880 --> 01:05:20,080
Speaker 1: to suppress and discourage. And in one aspect, yeah, we're

1104
01:05:20,080 --> 01:05:23,320
Speaker 1: giving you an opportunity, but this opportunity comes with a

1105
01:05:23,320 --> 01:05:26,840
Speaker 1: seat belt. We're giving an opportunity, but this opportunity comes

1106
01:05:26,840 --> 01:05:30,840
Speaker 1: with a seat belt, And this opportunity doesn't come with

1107
01:05:30,880 --> 01:05:36,160
Speaker 1: a driver's seat. This opportunity, this car don't even have

1108
01:05:36,200 --> 01:05:40,000
Speaker 1: a driver's seat. And so that's that thing of of

1109
01:05:40,280 --> 01:05:42,840
Speaker 1: when I talk about no plan. It's easy to hire.

1110
01:05:42,920 --> 01:05:45,280
Speaker 1: I know why you hired me. You hired me because

1111
01:05:46,040 --> 01:05:49,280
Speaker 1: on one instance, there could be some things going on

1112
01:05:49,400 --> 01:05:52,080
Speaker 1: or whatnot, and that you find opportunity, you know what,

1113
01:05:52,160 --> 01:05:55,000
Speaker 1: But we can help him. Part of it is okay,

1114
01:05:55,200 --> 01:05:58,360
Speaker 1: we can help him. But then it became yeah, but

1115
01:05:58,360 --> 01:06:01,720
Speaker 1: but he's moving too fast. You know, now we got

1116
01:06:01,720 --> 01:06:05,800
Speaker 1: to slow him down, right, And it's like mm hmm,

1117
01:06:06,520 --> 01:06:09,600
Speaker 1: that's not really for me, right, And and and it

1118
01:06:09,920 --> 01:06:13,280
Speaker 1: was no plan. It wasn't like it was just we

1119
01:06:13,320 --> 01:06:14,600
Speaker 1: sat in the room and was like, oh, I'm a

1120
01:06:14,680 --> 01:06:17,640
Speaker 1: plan and do this. No, it wasn't no plan. I

1121
01:06:17,680 --> 01:06:21,040
Speaker 1: got upset about something that I decided to leave, and

1122
01:06:21,640 --> 01:06:25,600
Speaker 1: the thought was, oh, he's leaving and he'll never make it.

1123
01:06:26,880 --> 01:06:30,040
Speaker 1: That was the thought because it wasn't the uproar until

1124
01:06:30,120 --> 01:06:34,120
Speaker 1: Lebron left. Until But it's just so crazy just how

1125
01:06:34,160 --> 01:06:38,680
Speaker 1: people think I left. Eric Bledso left, Tristan Thompson left,

1126
01:06:39,040 --> 01:06:45,520
Speaker 1: Corey Joseph left right. Yeah, that's fine before Lebron left,

1127
01:06:46,840 --> 01:06:50,840
Speaker 1: until Lebron left. So I'm mad if anybody leaves, because

1128
01:06:51,240 --> 01:06:54,280
Speaker 1: when I say I'm mad, I'm I'm I'm more so

1129
01:06:54,360 --> 01:06:56,760
Speaker 1: thinking about, Okay, what could I have done better? I'm

1130
01:06:56,800 --> 01:07:00,240
Speaker 1: not like mad at world, I'm mad at what looking

1131
01:07:00,240 --> 01:07:03,320
Speaker 1: at Yeah, but then I understand, Okay, it's business, and

1132
01:07:03,440 --> 01:07:05,680
Speaker 1: people decide what they want to decide, so you move on.

1133
01:07:06,360 --> 01:07:09,800
Speaker 1: But I just found that very interesting, And when I

1134
01:07:09,840 --> 01:07:13,640
Speaker 1: look back on it, the thought process was they can't

1135
01:07:13,720 --> 01:07:20,680
Speaker 1: hurt our business. This guy came, right, Yeah, And also

1136
01:07:21,200 --> 01:07:25,960
Speaker 1: the reason why these other people came was because of that.

1137
01:07:26,680 --> 01:07:30,400
Speaker 1: Wasn't only because of that, but there's no basketball business

1138
01:07:30,480 --> 01:07:35,760
Speaker 1: without him that he started the basketball because before that

1139
01:07:36,040 --> 01:07:39,640
Speaker 1: it was a different thing. And so it was fine.

1140
01:07:40,320 --> 01:07:42,600
Speaker 1: And there was guys that called me and was like, yo,

1141
01:07:42,960 --> 01:07:46,160
Speaker 1: i'm coming to I'm coming, you know, and I can't.

1142
01:07:46,280 --> 01:07:51,760
Speaker 1: I can't give y'all everything. Yeah, there were some guys like, yo,

1143
01:07:51,800 --> 01:07:56,200
Speaker 1: I'm coming, and then they never came. And they never

1144
01:07:56,280 --> 01:08:00,280
Speaker 1: came because whatever excuse was, I know what it us.

1145
01:08:00,560 --> 01:08:05,560
Speaker 1: It was a discouragement. Right. Athletes don't like confrontation. I

1146
01:08:05,560 --> 01:08:07,720
Speaker 1: don't know if you guys know that, they're not like

1147
01:08:08,640 --> 01:08:13,360
Speaker 1: and so they'll rather just be like, man, I'm good,

1148
01:08:14,240 --> 01:08:17,640
Speaker 1: then really yeah, then really take that step and so

1149
01:08:18,640 --> 01:08:21,000
Speaker 1: yeah and so um. But it was okay. I didn't

1150
01:08:21,040 --> 01:08:22,720
Speaker 1: like I said, I didn't. I didn't. I knew what

1151
01:08:22,800 --> 01:08:25,520
Speaker 1: I set out to do and I had full confidence

1152
01:08:25,720 --> 01:08:30,960
Speaker 1: and I started the business not even expecting Lebron. See,

1153
01:08:31,040 --> 01:08:33,599
Speaker 1: many people think like and by the way they try

1154
01:08:33,680 --> 01:08:36,960
Speaker 1: to push this narrative within internally or everybody, they can

1155
01:08:36,960 --> 01:08:40,400
Speaker 1: tell that was the whole plan from the beginning, and

1156
01:08:40,439 --> 01:08:43,479
Speaker 1: we wanted tom that's bullshit, like, that's a lot, that's

1157
01:08:43,479 --> 01:08:46,479
Speaker 1: just a that's just a blatant lie, right, and so

1158
01:08:46,720 --> 01:08:50,479
Speaker 1: you gotta watch people like that. But nevertheless, I knew

1159
01:08:50,479 --> 01:08:53,400
Speaker 1: that that what I wanted to do and how, and

1160
01:08:53,439 --> 01:08:55,280
Speaker 1: I had the vision how I wanted to build it,

1161
01:08:55,320 --> 01:08:58,880
Speaker 1: and I was willing to take as long as it took,

1162
01:08:59,360 --> 01:09:03,559
Speaker 1: and I had I runs dry runs. Guys not getting

1163
01:09:03,560 --> 01:09:06,759
Speaker 1: you know, I took. I took every lump and bump

1164
01:09:07,000 --> 01:09:09,759
Speaker 1: there used to take, not to mention to push back.

1165
01:09:10,240 --> 01:09:12,559
Speaker 1: They're still pushed back. Do you know there's companies that

1166
01:09:12,600 --> 01:09:15,479
Speaker 1: go to families and say that I'm not I don't

1167
01:09:15,520 --> 01:09:17,760
Speaker 1: like to use the word, but just like you know

1168
01:09:17,840 --> 01:09:21,960
Speaker 1: that guy is not that smart. It's like, well what

1169
01:09:22,560 --> 01:09:25,160
Speaker 1: But I just laugh at things like that because I'm like, well,

1170
01:09:25,160 --> 01:09:28,080
Speaker 1: wait a minute, you know, it takes some type of

1171
01:09:32,360 --> 01:09:36,920
Speaker 1: that seems a little strong. But you know, one last

1172
01:09:37,000 --> 01:09:38,920
Speaker 1: lebron thing I wanted to ask because like a lot

1173
01:09:39,000 --> 01:09:41,400
Speaker 1: so much is said about in earlier days of decision, Right,

1174
01:09:41,479 --> 01:09:44,559
Speaker 1: he goes to Miami's controversial you as far as I know,

1175
01:09:44,640 --> 01:09:47,480
Speaker 1: at the forefront of the move back to Cleveland. Absolutely,

1176
01:09:47,520 --> 01:09:49,519
Speaker 1: and how that happens right like, and you know, you

1177
01:09:49,560 --> 01:09:51,519
Speaker 1: look at like it's crazy, right that the owners says

1178
01:09:51,520 --> 01:09:54,479
Speaker 1: crazy things. People are burning jerseys, Like how does it

1179
01:09:54,520 --> 01:09:57,200
Speaker 1: get back to taking him back to Miami back to Cleveland?

1180
01:09:57,400 --> 01:10:01,720
Speaker 1: Business man? It's business, you know. And my conversation with him,

1181
01:10:01,760 --> 01:10:04,479
Speaker 1: just like I have conversations with with with all the clients.

1182
01:10:04,680 --> 01:10:07,160
Speaker 1: It's the right way to do things, it's the wrong

1183
01:10:07,160 --> 01:10:10,519
Speaker 1: way to do things. And there's things that you want

1184
01:10:10,520 --> 01:10:13,599
Speaker 1: to do, and there's things that you should do. And

1185
01:10:13,640 --> 01:10:16,439
Speaker 1: in this case, him going back to Cleveland was about legacy.

1186
01:10:16,800 --> 01:10:19,519
Speaker 1: It had nothing to do I don't care about the letter,

1187
01:10:19,680 --> 01:10:22,759
Speaker 1: this or that I'm talking about. How does this affect

1188
01:10:22,800 --> 01:10:28,760
Speaker 1: your legacy? Right? You win one in Cleveland? Right? And

1189
01:10:28,840 --> 01:10:31,360
Speaker 1: so it's funny what I said to him, because you know,

1190
01:10:31,760 --> 01:10:33,360
Speaker 1: I had to speak to everybody. I had to speak

1191
01:10:33,400 --> 01:10:35,680
Speaker 1: to on Glow. I had to speak to Savannah, and

1192
01:10:35,760 --> 01:10:37,360
Speaker 1: I had to speak to Marr, had to speak to Randy,

1193
01:10:37,600 --> 01:10:40,600
Speaker 1: and they had these conversations. Um, but this is the

1194
01:10:40,640 --> 01:10:44,679
Speaker 1: hat I'm wearing. And I said to him, I said,

1195
01:10:44,680 --> 01:10:46,640
Speaker 1: you know, we can sit here and talk about the

1196
01:10:46,680 --> 01:10:50,600
Speaker 1: grudge and whatever whoever, but the reality of it is this.

1197
01:10:51,760 --> 01:10:54,840
Speaker 1: You and I both know we've come from places where

1198
01:10:54,840 --> 01:10:59,240
Speaker 1: we've seen two siblings basically try to kill each other

1199
01:11:00,280 --> 01:11:03,320
Speaker 1: and pretty much sleep in the same house that night.

1200
01:11:03,920 --> 01:11:06,400
Speaker 1: Let her this is that we this is about legas,

1201
01:11:06,439 --> 01:11:09,439
Speaker 1: this is much just nothing bigger than this. By the way,

1202
01:11:09,560 --> 01:11:13,160
Speaker 1: you're going back home and winning. It's nothing bigger than this.

1203
01:11:13,960 --> 01:11:17,400
Speaker 1: And there used to be a general manager on the

1204
01:11:17,479 --> 01:11:22,840
Speaker 1: Cald's name was Chris Grant. Chris Grant was always believing

1205
01:11:23,080 --> 01:11:28,960
Speaker 1: that there was there was a chance. He believed. Unfortunately

1206
01:11:29,000 --> 01:11:31,360
Speaker 1: he was relieved from his job prior to what happened,

1207
01:11:31,400 --> 01:11:37,600
Speaker 1: but he definitely always believed and soship maintain that relationship.

1208
01:11:37,640 --> 01:11:40,400
Speaker 1: I maintained that relationship with Dan, and I maintained laship

1209
01:11:40,479 --> 01:11:43,160
Speaker 1: with Nate Forbes at the time, and the year that

1210
01:11:43,320 --> 01:11:47,680
Speaker 1: Lebron left Cleveland it was a lockout to following they

1211
01:11:47,680 --> 01:11:51,000
Speaker 1: had a terrible year. But then that next draft year

1212
01:11:51,600 --> 01:11:54,960
Speaker 1: they took Tristan Thompson four, who was my client, And

1213
01:11:55,000 --> 01:11:57,680
Speaker 1: everybody was like, you know, because people want to make

1214
01:11:57,720 --> 01:12:00,680
Speaker 1: it out to be what it's right, it's business. At

1215
01:12:00,680 --> 01:12:03,320
Speaker 1: the end of the day, it's business. And so for me,

1216
01:12:03,800 --> 01:12:05,880
Speaker 1: it wasn't that hard for me to have that that

1217
01:12:05,920 --> 01:12:09,640
Speaker 1: conversation at that time, just like it's not hard for

1218
01:12:09,680 --> 01:12:13,040
Speaker 1: me to you know, again, using Zach for an example

1219
01:12:13,160 --> 01:12:16,720
Speaker 1: this year when he was in his free agency, just

1220
01:12:16,800 --> 01:12:19,000
Speaker 1: having a very matter of fact conversation, you know, when

1221
01:12:19,040 --> 01:12:22,559
Speaker 1: the John Ta was traded from the Spurs to the Hawks.

1222
01:12:23,200 --> 01:12:25,479
Speaker 1: You know, I have a great relationship on both sides

1223
01:12:26,360 --> 01:12:28,720
Speaker 1: with the Hawks and the Spurs. And so you know,

1224
01:12:28,760 --> 01:12:31,720
Speaker 1: again the naysayers they try to paint a picture of

1225
01:12:32,160 --> 01:12:35,519
Speaker 1: that's totally false in terms of in our environmental league.

1226
01:12:36,120 --> 01:12:39,559
Speaker 1: But the relationships that I have at the highest levels,

1227
01:12:40,400 --> 01:12:42,439
Speaker 1: they know, talk to any owner in the league, they're

1228
01:12:42,439 --> 01:12:44,679
Speaker 1: gonna say, yeah, when we speak to Rich, he's very

1229
01:12:44,680 --> 01:12:47,840
Speaker 1: mad of fact. He says whatever he does, whatever he says.

1230
01:12:48,760 --> 01:12:52,400
Speaker 1: And you may not like it, how it's done or whatnot.

1231
01:12:52,439 --> 01:12:54,599
Speaker 1: But I don't like a lot of things, you know

1232
01:12:54,720 --> 01:12:57,040
Speaker 1: that that has to be done. I don't like I

1233
01:12:57,120 --> 01:13:00,160
Speaker 1: drink of green juice every Moore. I don't really like it.

1234
01:13:00,200 --> 01:13:02,720
Speaker 1: But I have to do it, you know. And so

1235
01:13:03,200 --> 01:13:06,360
Speaker 1: I just think that for me, it's just always been

1236
01:13:06,400 --> 01:13:10,080
Speaker 1: about the approach, the approach. How did a personal when

1237
01:13:10,120 --> 01:13:11,400
Speaker 1: he was able to do what he didn't win the

1238
01:13:11,479 --> 01:13:13,880
Speaker 1: chip he did bring the cleland and think about what happened,

1239
01:13:13,920 --> 01:13:16,280
Speaker 1: you know, being down for not only did he win

1240
01:13:16,560 --> 01:13:20,400
Speaker 1: the I couldn't you couldn't write a better you couldn't

1241
01:13:20,400 --> 01:13:22,840
Speaker 1: write a better way. And so the way I look

1242
01:13:22,880 --> 01:13:25,720
Speaker 1: at this thing, you have an opportunity to work with

1243
01:13:25,800 --> 01:13:27,560
Speaker 1: young men and women now because we have the w

1244
01:13:27,680 --> 01:13:30,679
Speaker 1: n B a UM, you have an opportunity to work

1245
01:13:30,720 --> 01:13:35,880
Speaker 1: with people, and it's your responsibility while they because the

1246
01:13:35,880 --> 01:13:38,200
Speaker 1: most important thing someone can give you is your time.

1247
01:13:39,240 --> 01:13:42,200
Speaker 1: And so giving me their time and allowing me to

1248
01:13:42,360 --> 01:13:45,720
Speaker 1: be a part of their advisory group. UM and in

1249
01:13:45,760 --> 01:13:50,559
Speaker 1: most cases on the basketball front, lead that that from

1250
01:13:50,560 --> 01:13:55,040
Speaker 1: an advisory perspective, that's not a play thing for me, right,

1251
01:13:55,320 --> 01:13:59,720
Speaker 1: And I'm not advising them to make decisions that's for me.

1252
01:14:00,160 --> 01:14:03,040
Speaker 1: I'm advising to make decision that best suits them and

1253
01:14:03,080 --> 01:14:06,760
Speaker 1: their family. This thing flies by, man, it really does.

1254
01:14:07,920 --> 01:14:11,479
Speaker 1: It flies by their careers fly by, and I try

1255
01:14:11,520 --> 01:14:13,920
Speaker 1: to talk to you know, we talked about that word

1256
01:14:13,920 --> 01:14:18,880
Speaker 1: professionalism and just being on time. You know, people talk

1257
01:14:18,920 --> 01:14:20,960
Speaker 1: about you know a lot of times you get this

1258
01:14:21,040 --> 01:14:24,080
Speaker 1: whole marketing thing. Now it's been like that, but now

1259
01:14:24,120 --> 01:14:28,200
Speaker 1: everyone wants marketing, marketing, marketing, and a lot of these companies,

1260
01:14:28,240 --> 01:14:30,120
Speaker 1: just a lot of these kids and these families. I

1261
01:14:30,160 --> 01:14:32,760
Speaker 1: don't see it. We're not gonna see it. Right, you're

1262
01:14:32,800 --> 01:14:36,200
Speaker 1: competing with You're not just competing with your peers. Today,

1263
01:14:36,320 --> 01:14:40,200
Speaker 1: I just saw commercial with the Housewives are on a

1264
01:14:40,320 --> 01:14:44,880
Speaker 1: direct TV commercial. Right, think about what brands are doing.

1265
01:14:44,960 --> 01:14:47,760
Speaker 1: It's a different dynamic and that's good for them. But

1266
01:14:48,240 --> 01:14:51,080
Speaker 1: this whole notion of just because I play a sport

1267
01:14:51,120 --> 01:14:54,519
Speaker 1: and I should have all these marketing opportunities, it's just

1268
01:14:54,760 --> 01:15:00,400
Speaker 1: blatant lie. And our kids have to digestie as business people, right,

1269
01:15:00,479 --> 01:15:03,599
Speaker 1: And then they don't want to address it when they

1270
01:15:03,600 --> 01:15:05,920
Speaker 1: don't see it happening because by that time the money

1271
01:15:05,920 --> 01:15:08,920
Speaker 1: has came in. So it's a game that they're playing.

1272
01:15:08,920 --> 01:15:12,360
Speaker 1: But I even say that, I say that to say, Okay,

1273
01:15:12,400 --> 01:15:14,719
Speaker 1: even if you want all that, talk to me about

1274
01:15:14,760 --> 01:15:18,160
Speaker 1: how you plan to be a great partner, right, because

1275
01:15:18,160 --> 01:15:22,320
Speaker 1: there's plenty of people that have partnerships and have had

1276
01:15:22,360 --> 01:15:24,840
Speaker 1: them for multiple years. But they've had them because they're

1277
01:15:24,880 --> 01:15:28,760
Speaker 1: great partners. They're on time, you know, when they when

1278
01:15:28,800 --> 01:15:30,479
Speaker 1: you when they call, they pick up the phone when

1279
01:15:30,479 --> 01:15:35,000
Speaker 1: you call, you know, vice versa. They're responsive about a

1280
01:15:35,120 --> 01:15:38,400
Speaker 1: number of things, um, and they're just being true pros.

1281
01:15:38,600 --> 01:15:40,760
Speaker 1: And so I try to tell my like, before we

1282
01:15:40,800 --> 01:15:45,920
Speaker 1: even have that conversation, let's get right first and don't

1283
01:15:45,960 --> 01:15:49,200
Speaker 1: just feel like again, because I'm the athlete, I can

1284
01:15:49,280 --> 01:15:52,160
Speaker 1: keep somebody waiting for three hours. I don't have to

1285
01:15:52,200 --> 01:15:54,439
Speaker 1: call you back now. You do have to call back now,

1286
01:15:54,560 --> 01:15:56,320
Speaker 1: you have to call back. You have to call back

1287
01:15:56,560 --> 01:15:59,640
Speaker 1: in a timely fashion. You should want that, right. You

1288
01:15:59,640 --> 01:16:03,360
Speaker 1: should want to pay people that are doing a job

1289
01:16:03,800 --> 01:16:07,720
Speaker 1: for you. The best business people in the world, their

1290
01:16:07,840 --> 01:16:14,160
Speaker 1: payroll is substantial. Why because they want infrastructure. They want

1291
01:16:14,360 --> 01:16:17,599
Speaker 1: what they've been able to build to be protected. That's

1292
01:16:17,600 --> 01:16:21,000
Speaker 1: the whole purpose of it and continue to grow. And

1293
01:16:21,080 --> 01:16:25,040
Speaker 1: so I think that again, I tell these guys, you

1294
01:16:25,080 --> 01:16:28,519
Speaker 1: can't just be want to be a party announcement. You

1295
01:16:28,640 --> 01:16:31,719
Speaker 1: got to be a party investment too, right, because everyone

1296
01:16:31,880 --> 01:16:36,920
Speaker 1: wants a production company, everyone wants to be everyone wants

1297
01:16:36,920 --> 01:16:42,479
Speaker 1: a big sneaker, sneaker deal, a sneaker deal. I'm just saying,

1298
01:16:42,479 --> 01:16:47,479
Speaker 1: but where is the signature shoe business at how? You

1299
01:16:47,520 --> 01:16:50,920
Speaker 1: know it's not it's not realistic. I get it, But

1300
01:16:51,840 --> 01:16:54,840
Speaker 1: let's be realistic now. Can you be the guys that

1301
01:16:54,920 --> 01:16:58,679
Speaker 1: have been able to build a business. Great, But they'll

1302
01:16:58,720 --> 01:17:01,280
Speaker 1: even tell you we don't walk the round down on

1303
01:17:01,400 --> 01:17:06,439
Speaker 1: sunset and see people wearing certain signature shoes anymore like

1304
01:17:06,520 --> 01:17:09,439
Speaker 1: we did back in the day where you saw the

1305
01:17:09,520 --> 01:17:12,760
Speaker 1: Petty to Griffy to Jordan or whatever you've seen that

1306
01:17:12,920 --> 01:17:15,559
Speaker 1: you don't see that today. It took a long time

1307
01:17:15,600 --> 01:17:17,559
Speaker 1: for us to do this. Thank you man, We appreciate you.

1308
01:17:18,120 --> 01:17:21,160
Speaker 1: Thank you guys. This is great. Yeah, it takes success

1309
01:17:21,200 --> 01:17:25,720
Speaker 1: to you and sports and you guys that make sure

1310
01:17:25,760 --> 01:17:33,720
Speaker 1: you get your Lobos. Lobos is right thing. Thing. We're

1311
01:17:33,720 --> 01:17:38,599
Speaker 1: gonna be here, yes, sir, rap right off podcasts out

1312
01:17:41,439 --> 01:17:45,839
Speaker 1: the moment, Right rap rador Is. The Interval presents original

1313
01:17:45,880 --> 01:17:49,160
Speaker 1: production from hyper House, produced by Laura Wasser, Hosts and

1314
01:17:49,200 --> 01:17:52,439
Speaker 1: producers Elliott Wilson and Brian b. Doc Miller. From Interval

1315
01:17:52,479 --> 01:17:57,599
Speaker 1: presents executive producers Alan Coy and Jake Kleinberg, Executive producer

1316
01:17:57,880 --> 01:18:02,719
Speaker 1: Paul Rosenberg, recording engineer Brian Curley, Editing and sound design

1317
01:18:02,920 --> 01:18:06,960
Speaker 1: by Mike Dorsey. Operations Lead Sarah You, Business Development Lead

1318
01:18:07,200 --> 01:18:10,840
Speaker 1: Chef e Ellen Swgg, and Marketing Lead Samara Still. Listen

1319
01:18:10,880 --> 01:18:13,200
Speaker 1: on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts