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Speaker 1: next guest, and he's on the phone. Is the executive
Speaker 1: director of the Wade Smith Foundation. The foundation supports community
Speaker 1: youth programs and the greater Houston and Dallas Fort Worth
Speaker 1: metroplex areas and focuses on literacy and education. He is
Speaker 1: the author of two children's book, Smitty Hits the Playbook
Speaker 1: and Smitty Tackles Budley Smitty Tackles Budleying. He is also
Speaker 1: an ambassador for the Houston, Texas I'm sure he wasn't
Speaker 1: happy yesterday in Houston. He is in the nighttime sports
Speaker 1: talk radio host which I do listen to this show
Speaker 1: when I come back to Houston on a regular basis
Speaker 1: on Sports Radio six ten, The Smitty and Trap Show,
Speaker 1: as well as a public speaker. He's on the show
Speaker 1: today to talk about this foundation. Is two children's books,
Speaker 1: Smitty Hits the Playbook and Smitty Tackles Bully Bullying. Please
Speaker 1: welcome to Money Making Conversations. Wade Smith. How are y'all
Speaker 1: doing to day? Pretty good man, A good way you
Speaker 1: know you're in Houston right now. Now, you're an ambassador
Speaker 1: to the Houston Texas Note in a row, nine in
Speaker 1: a row. Now, come on, Oh, that's what That's what
Speaker 1: we're gonna say. That's what we're gonna say. H that's
Speaker 1: what the Atlanta Facon said to the New England Patris. Huh,
Speaker 1: you can't win them all. You can't win them all. Definitely,
Speaker 1: the one I'm disappointed one good, Well, I'm not. I
Speaker 1: want to I want to slow you down with sports
Speaker 1: man because, uh, you know you get that enough you do,
Speaker 1: that's what you do. You've done for a living in
Speaker 1: the NFL. All up, you've you have a wonderful show.
Speaker 1: I was home in Houston. Do listen to your show
Speaker 1: and have a home in Atlanta, So when I go
Speaker 1: back to Houston, I always listen to your show because yeah,
Speaker 1: but you know, sometimes you listen to guys they don't
Speaker 1: have the right insight. You have the right insight. And then, uh,
Speaker 1: and I think the accountability outside of your sports world
Speaker 1: that that allows you to deliver you next a very
Speaker 1: unique message. So so when you when you when you
Speaker 1: start talking about your brand, what is the way Smith brand?
Speaker 1: The Way Smith brand? Well, I would just say this, UM.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of outside forces that people UM use
Speaker 1: for branding things that nature, But I just I approached
Speaker 1: things from the standpoint that I really want to help
Speaker 1: children become better readers. I want them to understand how
Speaker 1: important literacy and education is and understand that UM, whatever
Speaker 1: socioeconomic situation that they may be in, UM, their education
Speaker 1: can can lift them out of that situation and get
Speaker 1: them to where she takes some people with anybody around
Speaker 1: the world. And so people understand that I genuinely I'm
Speaker 1: hands on with all the things that I'm involved in,
Speaker 1: all the programs that I'm a part of, and so
Speaker 1: I see people see that genuine nature in me that
Speaker 1: I really do care myself and I'm you know, there's
Speaker 1: some people that are parts of charities and foundations and philanthropy,
Speaker 1: some topic as X and it's more of a name thing,
Speaker 1: like I put my name on things, and or maybe
Speaker 1: it's a money thing, And all of those things have
Speaker 1: a place because the name can bring attention to a
Speaker 1: very worthy cause, and money can can help can definitely
Speaker 1: help UM fund many worthy causes. But I think my
Speaker 1: thing is that I generally want to be hands on
Speaker 1: and on the front lines with with making things happen
Speaker 1: and to understand having children to understand that they can
Speaker 1: be successes in life. And so I would consider that,
Speaker 1: you know, a brand in itself. So what age group
Speaker 1: are you talking? Um, it's it's it's moly, we'll see.
Speaker 1: I have two different programs. One of the programs I'm
Speaker 1: reading with the protests elementary age reading. It's reading at
Speaker 1: grade level bias third grades. And Smitty tackles bullying as fun.
Speaker 1: Am I right? Yeah, both of the children's books are
Speaker 1: are specifically for that age group u UM basically from
Speaker 1: kindergartens the fifth grade all elementary school students. And then
Speaker 1: also have a scholarship program UM that's for outgoing seniors
Speaker 1: here in Houston and Dallas, and so it hits you know,
Speaker 1: the foundation and then also it helps kids get over
Speaker 1: the hump to to not allow like I said, their
Speaker 1: social economic situation to preclude them from going to college
Speaker 1: and getting a secondary education. And so UM, that's really
Speaker 1: where we are with it. So with that being said,
Speaker 1: you know, uh, a lot of people when they start foundations,
Speaker 1: they you know, they either get its relative or best friend.
Speaker 1: How did you set up your foundation? Because a lot
Speaker 1: of people require about the show, whether the rules of
Speaker 1: setting up a foundation, who should be involved in helping
Speaker 1: set up the foundation? What? What? What? You know, you're
Speaker 1: an athlete. A lot of people I'm sure approach you.
Speaker 1: Your agent may have recommended, how did you set up
Speaker 1: your foundation? Well, I would say this my foundation. I
Speaker 1: learned a lot through trial and error. UM. I did
Speaker 1: start off my foundation when there was one specific person
Speaker 1: that they approached me about wanting to help me start
Speaker 1: my foundation, and and she did a really good job
Speaker 1: of helping set up UM, you know, setting up beating
Speaker 1: the five and one C three and setting up a
Speaker 1: website and UM start my initial fundraiser. UM. But through
Speaker 1: trialing area, through time, you know, I gradually UM set
Speaker 1: up my board of directors and grew that number. Started
Speaker 1: off with just three and then it went to five
Speaker 1: and now it's seven board members. And we've had board
Speaker 1: members go in and out over the years, but for
Speaker 1: the most part, we've had a solid set of five
Speaker 1: board members that have been there since the beginning. And
Speaker 1: it's it's one of those things as you go you
Speaker 1: learned that you want to have your board b is
Speaker 1: UM diverse as possible. You want them to be able
Speaker 1: to hit varying aspects in um, the professional realm, just
Speaker 1: in all different aspects of when you need people that, like,
Speaker 1: you know, I have a lawyer, or to have two
Speaker 1: lawyers on my board, and so they help you with
Speaker 1: a lot of the legal aspects trademarking, copyright, all of
Speaker 1: those type of things. UM, But you want to have
Speaker 1: a diverse board when it comes to their profession as
Speaker 1: well as what their background is as well. UM. You
Speaker 1: want to have a board that is not just an
Speaker 1: agreeable board. You want them to understand your vision, but
Speaker 1: at the same time, you want them to be able
Speaker 1: to challenge you, um with some of the decisions that
Speaker 1: you're making, so that you're making sure that you don't
Speaker 1: have a bunch of yes people are Absolutely because it's
Speaker 1: important to you. That's why I wanted to bring that
Speaker 1: up way because you know, I have another break. I
Speaker 1: want to really break down and talk about the books,
Speaker 1: but I want to just talk about your journey a
Speaker 1: little bit. And when you start talking about the foundation,
Speaker 1: people just pop them into a foundation. You have to
Speaker 1: record keeping. And also when you talk talking about your board,
Speaker 1: every board member has to bring something to the table.
Speaker 1: You know, if you're a very low level, they should
Speaker 1: be a graphic designer, if they should be a salesman,
Speaker 1: they should be able to get you, get you relationships.
Speaker 1: It should be a relationship person and all everybody on
Speaker 1: that board shouldn't just be I just like you, I'm here.
Speaker 1: They have to bring something substantial to the organization. Are
Speaker 1: the are the calls that you're trying to grow and
Speaker 1: to bring your bring our financial recognition to as assistance
Speaker 1: to and also brand recognition. And that's really the key,
Speaker 1: and that's what use referencing that these board members have
Speaker 1: to bring something to the table other than I like
Speaker 1: you as an athlete or I like you as a person,
Speaker 1: no question. And you know a lot of people the
Speaker 1: thing you run into is when you have UM athletes
Speaker 1: or people that are trying to start a foundation, a
Speaker 1: lot of times the people that they want to do
Speaker 1: the foundations with them are people that they trust. And
Speaker 1: so that's why a lot of times you'll see UM
Speaker 1: family members that are part of the boards are part
Speaker 1: of you know, starting the organization. But there's I don't
Speaker 1: think there's anything wrong with that as long as, like
Speaker 1: you mentioned, they bring something to the table, like my
Speaker 1: my mom, uh is the treasurer and secretary for the board. Well,
Speaker 1: she's been in banking. I'm thirty seven years old. She's
Speaker 1: been in banking in my kind of life, whether it's
Speaker 1: being started off as a bank teller too. Now she's
Speaker 1: an auditor of you know, multimillion dollar company. So when
Speaker 1: you have you have family, remember somebody that the combination,
Speaker 1: somebody that you can trust, that can tell you about
Speaker 1: yourself and also that is uh, it is confident in
Speaker 1: what they're doing. That's kind of the right formula to
Speaker 1: be a success. I think. Yep. I'm on the phone
Speaker 1: with with the Ray Smith. He's u NFL vetteran. He
Speaker 1: has the Way Smith Foundation that it really focuses on
Speaker 1: in the Dallas area Dallas fork Worth Metroplecator, which I'm
Speaker 1: very familiar with, and as well as the Houston text area,
Speaker 1: which I was born and raised in. And when you
Speaker 1: come back, we're gonna talk about two of the books,
Speaker 1: Smitty Hits the Playbooks and Smitty Tackles Bullying. His The
Speaker 1: Tackles Bullying I find very relatable and I'm gonna share
Speaker 1: my story to let you know how a simple, a
Speaker 1: simple statement can change the where your whole life thinks.
Speaker 1: And this tackle's bullying is about public reading a renout loud,
Speaker 1: and this young man in this story was affected by
Speaker 1: it as I was affected by it in middle school,
Speaker 1: and they changed the way I approached my life. And
Speaker 1: that's why I wanted wait on the show to say, hey, man,
Speaker 1: keep doing what you're doing. All right, welcome back to
Speaker 1: money making conversation on the phone. Is um the executive
Speaker 1: director of his own foundation, Wade Smith Foundation. Uh the Way.
Speaker 1: Smith Foundation provides community support for youth programs in the
Speaker 1: areas of education, literacy, health, fitness and nutrition, summer summer
Speaker 1: healthy mail programs, Richards and Independent School District that's up
Speaker 1: in Dallas, mentorship program and annual scholarship programs. Tell us
Speaker 1: about these two books and why did you write them?
Speaker 1: Mr Smith is, well, I've always wanted to write my
Speaker 1: own books and so ever since I was a little kid,
Speaker 1: and since my reading. With the proch program, We're going
Speaker 1: we go into elementary schools all over Houston Dallas, like
Speaker 1: you mentioned, and talk to the kids about the importance
Speaker 1: of reading and how cool it is. I thought, what, uh,
Speaker 1: the next step to that would be too, is to
Speaker 1: actually tell the kids like and show the kids that
Speaker 1: reading is extremely important, but also taking the next step
Speaker 1: to writing is even a bigger deal, and and and
Speaker 1: something that you can definitely um something you can participate in.
Speaker 1: And I think the best way of UM getting at
Speaker 1: across is not by just telling kids them, but actually
Speaker 1: showing them and being able to discuss the ways that
Speaker 1: you know you go about doing that. And so I
Speaker 1: think that both of the books have a really good message.
Speaker 1: I think so many hits to play books is is
Speaker 1: a story that talks about a little kid that his
Speaker 1: mom would let him play sports at all, would't let
Speaker 1: him play football, and she thought he would get hurt,
Speaker 1: and he begged and pleaded for her to give him
Speaker 1: a chance to play, and once she did, she finally relented.
Speaker 1: He got the bright idea that he was going to
Speaker 1: stop doing his homework and paying attention in class because
Speaker 1: he was going to be a big time football player.
Speaker 1: So who needs Yeah, who needs sports? Who need who
Speaker 1: needs school? For that? You know? Who needs to particie
Speaker 1: in classes? He learned very quickly that um, that's not
Speaker 1: the right. You have to prioritize your education before for anything.
Speaker 1: If you want to have some of those, Um, those
Speaker 1: goals that you wanta to achieve and if you want
Speaker 1: to live out your dream, your education as a foundation
Speaker 1: that's gonna get you there. And so um, it just
Speaker 1: talks about how Smidy dealt with that, that that adversity
Speaker 1: that hit and how he's able to overcome that. And
Speaker 1: then the Smity tackles bullying book. Um, he talks about it.
Speaker 1: It's still the same Smitty character, but it talks about
Speaker 1: his friend that um is struggling with read. He's trying
Speaker 1: to get out of reading. Any chance that comes up
Speaker 1: for him to read, he tries to get out of it.
Speaker 1: And Smithy doesn't know why. It's come to find out that,
Speaker 1: you know, his his his friend was getting made fun
Speaker 1: of while reading because he struggles reading. And so it
Speaker 1: talks about how Smidy was able to help his friend
Speaker 1: overcome that as well. And and it's it's a story
Speaker 1: that I wrote because when I was a kid, I
Speaker 1: was that kid in class that loved to read. Every
Speaker 1: chance I got to read in class, I raised my hand.
Speaker 1: I wanted to read. But I had a certain group
Speaker 1: of friends, you know, a handful of guys that when
Speaker 1: it came time to read, they always would do something
Speaker 1: to get in trouble. They would act up in class,
Speaker 1: they make jokes and something and get sent to the
Speaker 1: principal's office. And back then, as a kid, I'm just thinking,
Speaker 1: you know, hey, you know, my my friends are really funny, um.
Speaker 1: But come to find out that they all struggled reading.
Speaker 1: You know, handful of that they struggled reading, and they
Speaker 1: were embarrassed and they didn't want to read in class
Speaker 1: and they want to be made fun of, and so
Speaker 1: they did things to avoid it. And I've since seen
Speaker 1: now where you know, some of ended up. Some of
Speaker 1: them are no longer with us, some of them are
Speaker 1: in in jail, some of them are kind of dead
Speaker 1: in situations. And I wanted to kind of write this
Speaker 1: story to let kids now understand and know that if
Speaker 1: you're struggling with reading, if it's hard for you, if
Speaker 1: it's difficult, it's okay to be that way, but it's
Speaker 1: not okay to stay that way, UM, ask for help,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, and whether it's your mom, dad, teacher, brother,
Speaker 1: a friend. And also but also puts across the aspect
Speaker 1: that if you are somebody that really enjoys reading yourself,
Speaker 1: and you're good at yourself and you maybe noticed a
Speaker 1: friend of yours is somebody that's struggling with it or
Speaker 1: doesn't like it as much, to reach out and help
Speaker 1: them as well. Because I wish, you know, if I
Speaker 1: knew now, Um, if I knew then what I knew now,
Speaker 1: I would have said something to my buddies, canna put
Speaker 1: him to the side and try to help him, because
Speaker 1: I I just know that without that foundation, is very
Speaker 1: difficult to achieve and become what you want to be.
Speaker 1: In like, if you don't have that foundation to read,
Speaker 1: it's really amazing. I I'm older than you, and uh
Speaker 1: in middle school, I was a very talented reader, and
Speaker 1: my teacher used to always call on me. See bullying
Speaker 1: is It's really interesting how people don't understand that and
Speaker 1: people talk like like bullying just started. You know what
Speaker 1: Bullying has been around the beginning of time. Anytime somebody
Speaker 1: cri size you publicly, have pushed you or physically dominated you,
Speaker 1: made you anything, made you do anything you didn't want
Speaker 1: to do, it made you feel constantly uncomfortable. That is uh,
Speaker 1: both mentally and physically, that's bullying. And I remember in
Speaker 1: my middle school, my teachers always call on me to
Speaker 1: read Roshan, could you read out aloud? I will hop
Speaker 1: up and I read. And then finally one days, a
Speaker 1: little girl go, I'm tired of him reading. I go
Speaker 1: was my little class we said, and and I'm tired.
Speaker 1: And then a couple of most students, we're tired of
Speaker 1: him reading too, go and and it and it bothered
Speaker 1: me so bad and that I intentionally started changing the
Speaker 1: way I talked. You know, I started using broken language.
Speaker 1: I started because I was I was typing. I was
Speaker 1: really athletic, and so when I would play basketball in
Speaker 1: the court, I wouldn't use file language, and I would say,
Speaker 1: if you filed me, I would say something like, uh,
Speaker 1: is it necessary to use that type of force. That's
Speaker 1: how we talk on the basketball course, and so and
Speaker 1: so and so and so when when when she when
Speaker 1: they attacked me, they attacked me, and my mind, my
Speaker 1: mind just flipped. I went h and my mind forced
Speaker 1: me to like dumb down everything so I wanted to
Speaker 1: fit in. And so at that moment, that attack calls
Speaker 1: me many years to not recover from that because of
Speaker 1: the fact that when I when I when I dumped
Speaker 1: it down, it seemed more people like me and that's
Speaker 1: not fair. You should be like based on who you
Speaker 1: are and what you're accomplishing in life. You should not
Speaker 1: be liked because you're you're fitting in or you you're
Speaker 1: fitting in because you want people to like you because
Speaker 1: of the fact that you're different than walking a certain
Speaker 1: certain role in life. And that's what your book is about.
Speaker 1: Your Your book is about articulating yourself and your strength.
Speaker 1: Both books I was following relatable. I remember when I
Speaker 1: was in the sixth grade. Uh, I jammed my neck
Speaker 1: playing football and my mom was, so, you can't play
Speaker 1: football ever again? Ever again. Mo'm gonna play football. Nope,
Speaker 1: you would never play football again, never play football. So
Speaker 1: so injuries and and and and and and then when
Speaker 1: I look at social media now with I found that
Speaker 1: relatable in playbook because the fact that that's the next
Speaker 1: book you getta right, you gotta write that social media book.
Speaker 1: And how has effects uh these kids nowadays? And how
Speaker 1: how that that cyber bully? And so I just felt
Speaker 1: when I read both of your books, I felt, Okay,
Speaker 1: this guy, go write more books, because you're tapping into
Speaker 1: two lanes right now that I personally experienced many many
Speaker 1: years ago that are even more are relevant today because
Speaker 1: of the fact that you have social media, you have
Speaker 1: such a digital footprint out there that allows individuals to
Speaker 1: to cause a greater degree or wider degree of harm. Correct. Yeah, So,
Speaker 1: like my third book is actually in the works right now.
Speaker 1: I'm in the process of right now. And what we're
Speaker 1: doing is we're seeing Smithy kind of come avad that character,
Speaker 1: Smithy come avat and so as he gets older, they'll
Speaker 1: he'll be running up against various different adverse situations and
Speaker 1: different um topics that are are relevant to two kids
Speaker 1: today and messages that um they can kind of draw
Speaker 1: from and understand because of the way it's it's I
Speaker 1: try to make it as relatable as possible. But in
Speaker 1: the first two books, Smitty is like in the third
Speaker 1: fourth grade. So maybe when when Smitty gets to about
Speaker 1: six or seventh grade, that that social media aspect and
Speaker 1: come in, because hopefully he didn't he didn't have an
Speaker 1: Instagram or Twitter, Karry yet at this semi you know,
Speaker 1: I know way you know, you know, you're you're you're
Speaker 1: an entrepreneur, You're a creative content producing guy. You know,
Speaker 1: this is just the early stages. I'm a writer, and
Speaker 1: writing is neaty two and sitcom and writing films. So
Speaker 1: I know about content producing, I know about talented people,
Speaker 1: and I know that your force. You know, the artwork
Speaker 1: is really good, the storytelling was really good. I felt
Speaker 1: it very relatable. I'll just let you know that what
Speaker 1: you're talking about just moving up, just moving you moving
Speaker 1: that right up to high school, because that's right, that's
Speaker 1: right there. Think that you really think you will get
Speaker 1: a big head, get a big hit in high school
Speaker 1: and think that I think that you can just stop
Speaker 1: studying and you're gonna go to college, and then you
Speaker 1: and then you go to college and you just flunk
Speaker 1: out and so because you don't know the basic technique.
Speaker 1: So I just felt that the book that you wrote
Speaker 1: at that age group was very transferable to the middle school,
Speaker 1: was very transferable to high school and not you know, hey,
Speaker 1: you you've been successful without me. I'm just telling you
Speaker 1: from a brand guy, from a guy who does mark up.
Speaker 1: I like to call myself a marketing expert because just
Speaker 1: look at my resume. You got it going on, my friend,
Speaker 1: and just know that, just make them older because it's relatable.
Speaker 1: And when you make it relatable, then more people will
Speaker 1: be engaged because your brand. Know this, those kids, they're
Speaker 1: growing older and you gotta you gotta go with them.
Speaker 1: Two ways. You gotta go with him. You can't. You
Speaker 1: just can't have an element. You got to go find
Speaker 1: them again in middle school because they gonna they whatever.
Speaker 1: Got some of them good, those good lessons you taught them,
Speaker 1: and you gotta go find them again in high school. Okay,
Speaker 1: another question about another question. I will be doing so
Speaker 1: and I and I really want to appreciate you know
Speaker 1: you're coming on my show because of the fact that
Speaker 1: how can we if we want to make a donation
Speaker 1: or do you have any galos coming up anything on
Speaker 1: the calendar that I can support you in. Well, first
Speaker 1: of all, you can always go to uh wat Smith
Speaker 1: Foundation dot org some if you want to pit on there.
Speaker 1: Um there's the tab on there that you can just
Speaker 1: do a donation of general donation. We also have our
Speaker 1: Both of the books are available for sale at Wastemith
Speaker 1: Foundation dot org. But books also available at Amazon and
Speaker 1: different outlets like that. But all of the money from
Speaker 1: the sales of the book go to the foundation, and
Speaker 1: so when we sell them directly from our foundation website,
Speaker 1: we get a much larger percentage of the funds, and
Speaker 1: you know that your funds are directly going to helping
Speaker 1: kids read at grade level here in the Houston area
Speaker 1: as well as UM Dallas. And then we also do
Speaker 1: our reading with the pros event all over the country
Speaker 1: when we go to very super Bowls. You know, we
Speaker 1: went to San Francisco, we went to Arizona, all the
Speaker 1: intoler in Atlanta, no question. Alright, you need to check
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