Speaker 1: This is cut to it with Steve Smith Senior at
Speaker 1: production of The Black Effect and I heart Radio. I'm
Speaker 1: Steve Smith Senior and and this is cut to it.
Speaker 1: Good do good do what they're getting down to? Do it?
Speaker 1: Good do it. We asked the questions you always want
Speaker 1: to know, but no one ever asked, let's cut to it.
Speaker 1: You ain't heard him about it? Then we're about to
Speaker 1: let you know it's all that's great idea. So we
Speaker 1: got Jonathan Stewart and in the Stewie what's up studio?
Speaker 1: I don't want to say in the building because hey,
Speaker 1: side side no a d D side note. I was
Speaker 1: in Atlanta and there's this dude who is who is uh?
Speaker 1: Just Carmel brother with uh. He was ballheaded and he
Speaker 1: was like he had he had a Michael Jersey. You
Speaker 1: call another brother Corble. When I tell you who it was,
Speaker 1: you see why I'm I'm I'm building up so right,
Speaker 1: so I'm looking. I'm like, he's like, what up, smitty bro?
Speaker 1: It was big Tigo. You could have just told us
Speaker 1: it was a big you just didn't say the Caramel.
Speaker 1: I was on the field doing our thing and he
Speaker 1: was like, yo, Smithy, you know what I want someone
Speaker 1: look at me and be like, oh the butter Scott
Speaker 1: to dude over there. It was the point of right,
Speaker 1: did you ask him what was his favorite freestyle from
Speaker 1: the basement? You did not take advantage of opportunity. I
Speaker 1: took advantage of the opportunity in which this podcast will
Speaker 1: benefit from later. All right. We text there and I
Speaker 1: was like, well, I ask when he base Smith? Right, yo, Yo,
Speaker 1: it was just awesome. So I haven't come on the
Speaker 1: show absolutely in Atlanta, like he was like, it was
Speaker 1: so awesome. I don't know why I went there, but
Speaker 1: it just made it triggered it. Yeah, but then we've
Speaker 1: got something. You've got some special. We got something special.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, because in the building blah blah, and just
Speaker 1: talking about you've been retiring now how long three years
Speaker 1: you play? You had a great professional career. You're also
Speaker 1: now in business. You've realized and you've seen some businesses
Speaker 1: they're still gentlemen worked in corporate America on their own
Speaker 1: businesses as well. What do you think about corporate America?
Speaker 1: I mean, that's such a broad question, and I love
Speaker 1: asking a broad question because how you answer tells me
Speaker 1: to taste that corporate America, Paul's has left in your mouth, right,
Speaker 1: and and and some of it is good worked with you,
Speaker 1: so I know, really good. Some of it you'd be like, straight, yeah, good.
Speaker 1: I mean I've I've been. And again it's it's such
Speaker 1: a multifaceted question because I've been, to your point, I've
Speaker 1: worked in corporate America. I've worked for Fortune five companies.
Speaker 1: I worked for Lows, I work for Dick sport and
Speaker 1: Goods and marketing. I worked in pro sports, so I
Speaker 1: worked for the Hornets, worked in nonprofit you know, rand
Speaker 1: your foundation, and and and now I'm mental entrepreneurship. And
Speaker 1: so I've been able to look at in a broad
Speaker 1: stroke business in a very wide lens. But then when
Speaker 1: you say specifically corporate America, corporate America just makes me
Speaker 1: go to the to the retail stuff that I did,
Speaker 1: And it is that's your perspective. So that's what I love. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it is because everything everything isn't corporate America. Right. Pro
Speaker 1: sports isn't necessarily corporate America. Their corporate America influences when
Speaker 1: you talk about sponsorships and all of that. But specifically
Speaker 1: when you think about corporate America, there's a lot of good, right,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of being able to climb that corporate
Speaker 1: ladder and deal with the office politics and be able
Speaker 1: to have the nice come to bull four oh one
Speaker 1: K plan and the pension plan and the benefits and
Speaker 1: which which you absolutely need. Um. And but then there's
Speaker 1: the the rat race, so to speak, to get there
Speaker 1: and um. For me, one of the things that always
Speaker 1: struggled with in in corporate America was seeing a path
Speaker 1: to navigate in which to aspire to attain and and
Speaker 1: even if I really want to do that, do I
Speaker 1: want to be a CEO, A c CEO, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: whatever the title you put on that is that what
Speaker 1: I want to do. And so that's always been one
Speaker 1: of those things for me. So, I mean there's so
Speaker 1: many different ways that I can do it. In a
Speaker 1: broad perspective, Um, you know, you learn a lot, you
Speaker 1: get a ton of experience. But then there are also
Speaker 1: the struggles in in in which being um, you know,
Speaker 1: being being a black man working in corporate America has
Speaker 1: his own struggles. Um, being just you know, having so
Speaker 1: many different h like I said before, like different avenues
Speaker 1: in which I've worked. So it's there's a lot. So
Speaker 1: for if you just asked me. On a broad spectrum,
Speaker 1: um very much a learning opportunity that I think for anyone,
Speaker 1: but also think it comes with its fair share of
Speaker 1: of challenges that I can see a lot of people
Speaker 1: as you transition into whatever it is that you deem
Speaker 1: your career that you gotta go through. You took a
Speaker 1: long route. I'm gonna take this, I'm gonna hit this
Speaker 1: Cadillac term corporate America is sometimes a mirage. And I
Speaker 1: think also corporate America does they define corporate America your
Speaker 1: what's your perspective of corporate America. I mean, I'm I've
Speaker 1: never been in corporate America, so what do you But
Speaker 1: what do you know that I've never been in corporate America.
Speaker 1: But when I say mirage, I mean in this regard
Speaker 1: of when I look at what I've experienced in sports
Speaker 1: and when I look at you know, now, business wise,
Speaker 1: I see how they are, they're not even close to
Speaker 1: being the same. Because here's why, and then that's where
Speaker 1: we can take a hunter ago a hundred miles an hour.
Speaker 1: Here's why. In football you have halftime, you have time outs.
Speaker 1: In basketball, you have a full time out, a you know,
Speaker 1: twenty second time out. Now you got halftime. What I'm
Speaker 1: saying is why I say corporate America, why I struggle
Speaker 1: with it is sometimes corporate America lacks accountability. Sometimes corporate America.
Speaker 1: When you make adjustments in sports and football over a
Speaker 1: time period, not as long as corporate America, but almost
Speaker 1: unrealistic life. In sports, you you take a time out,
Speaker 1: you make adjustment. Your supervisor. So if offensive alignment is
Speaker 1: the district manager, the regional manager is the is the
Speaker 1: players right and you're going there and they tell you, hey,
Speaker 1: they're blitzing, So this is how we're gonna block it. Hey,
Speaker 1: you're you're losing because you keep taking your right foot
Speaker 1: over here. We're gonna make adjustment with our with with
Speaker 1: our information. We're gonna do it. And at some point,
Speaker 1: either throughout that game, throughout that quarter, throughout that practice,
Speaker 1: or throughout that seventeen week season, you know immediately is
Speaker 1: the game plan we have prepared for good enough? And
Speaker 1: if it's not, let's make some adjustments. But you know
Speaker 1: that you have an answer. You have immediate answer. It
Speaker 1: may not be the answer that you like. It may say, yes,
Speaker 1: good job on this, but improve this, this, this, don't
Speaker 1: change that or hell, no, none of that works. Let's
Speaker 1: do him else and either through, especially in the game,
Speaker 1: you'll figure it out, and then if you keep it
Speaker 1: up in the next game, you'll figure out, well, the
Speaker 1: last two games, we've done this and that doesn't work.
Speaker 1: Un less change it up, and then you're getting this
Speaker 1: forking road near the end of the season. You go,
Speaker 1: it just isn't working. Our general manager, our CFO, our CEO,
Speaker 1: our district manager, our regional manager. Somewhere there's a miss now.
Speaker 1: In business or corporate America, you sometimes make these adjustments
Speaker 1: and you see no benefit, You see no answer, good
Speaker 1: or bad, for sometimes three months or three years. First
Speaker 1: you're gonna have a meeting about what you're gonna do,
Speaker 1: and then you're gonna have a meeting about that meeting
Speaker 1: about the meeting. You just have none of those meet
Speaker 1: Those meetings are gonna follow through, But at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, everybody's gonna go on about their own
Speaker 1: business anyway. UM. Corporate or mayor America is a monster
Speaker 1: ship to turn. It takes a long time because of
Speaker 1: from HR to all the different levels of management to
Speaker 1: senior leadership. Everything has to flow to the same tune
Speaker 1: and at the end of the day, Corporate America, like
Speaker 1: it or not, really cares about one thing, and one
Speaker 1: thing only what those shareholders get at the end of
Speaker 1: the year and what their stock looks like. There's no
Speaker 1: minor wins, there's no it's how much money did you
Speaker 1: make me? And where is our company going from here? Um.
Speaker 1: I worked in corporate Anca for a long time. My
Speaker 1: personal experience with it is they took care of my
Speaker 1: family for many, many years. Um. You know, I was
Speaker 1: set up nicely, and they've taught me the things that
Speaker 1: I've taken into my own personal business. But I'll even
Speaker 1: back up a step before that. Um. We always say
Speaker 1: on this podcast, I can meet an individual man or
Speaker 1: woman and know if they played sports. I can know
Speaker 1: within five minutes how you act adversity, UM, how you
Speaker 1: work under pressure, how you work with others and being
Speaker 1: results driven. Um. So corporate America, someone is always gonna
Speaker 1: wear the issue. It's there. You know, it trickles down.
Speaker 1: It gets to a level where we get to these
Speaker 1: linemen or you get to the supervisor and you say, oh, hey,
Speaker 1: Zoe and so has gotta wear this. You get let
Speaker 1: go and then they move another person in. I think
Speaker 1: that's a little bit in a correlation to sports, because
Speaker 1: you are a number. In sports, there's a number on
Speaker 1: your back and there's a team on your front. In
Speaker 1: corporate America, it's so security number, right that that's really
Speaker 1: what you are to them. You're not really Gerard or
Speaker 1: Jonathan or Steve or Joe. You're a number, um. And
Speaker 1: I've been the luxury of being in those meetings and
Speaker 1: seeing those charts and analytics and sports. Well, in corporate America,
Speaker 1: you have these boxes, and every individual in a company
Speaker 1: has to fit in a box. And that box correlates
Speaker 1: to Jonathan is gonna be in this position for ten years.
Speaker 1: He's not gonna go any higher, and they want to
Speaker 1: get rid of them, and they put you in that box.
Speaker 1: And so I'm glad you said that no matter how
Speaker 1: well Jonathan performs, he will never get out of that box.
Speaker 1: If if the people that make the decisions in corporate
Speaker 1: America believe Jonathan is that he will never get out
Speaker 1: of that box, right or wrong, he will never get
Speaker 1: out of that box. And that's why sports is such
Speaker 1: a different animal compared to corporate America business. A lot
Speaker 1: of people in business say, it's not what you know
Speaker 1: is who you know. I think it's what you know,
Speaker 1: who you know, what people know you as, and what
Speaker 1: people know you to be. It's all of those and
Speaker 1: and it reinforces what Joe says to where if at
Speaker 1: the C suite, you know, the corporated, the senior level,
Speaker 1: if they determine that you are that, then you'll never
Speaker 1: make it up. It's almost like they it's what they
Speaker 1: believe you to be, though not necessarily what they know,
Speaker 1: because don't matter if and it doesn't matter how much
Speaker 1: work you put in, no matter how many numbers you tossing,
Speaker 1: no matter how much how many successful reviews you've had,
Speaker 1: right and and but that's what bugs me about corporate
Speaker 1: America because we limit people. We limit people and justify
Speaker 1: it by saying, well, I I know how that person,
Speaker 1: I know their capability, and they can never change and
Speaker 1: I'm not going to give them an opportunity to And
Speaker 1: then even when they do, they look for the next
Speaker 1: opportunity for you, not to you to perform average, to
Speaker 1: go see That's what I'm talking about. So what I struggle,
Speaker 1: what what I really struggle with, is there is no
Speaker 1: accountability in business like it is in sports. Is it
Speaker 1: fair to say to some degree earlier in your career,
Speaker 1: no matter how smart you are, no matter how well
Speaker 1: dress you are, no matter how well you did your job,
Speaker 1: even when you outperformed it, they didn't undermine you, but
Speaker 1: they didn't treat you and congratulate you the way you
Speaker 1: would if you scored a touchdown against press coverage and
Speaker 1: you weren't supposed to in your underside. Yeah, yeah, that's
Speaker 1: a that's a that's a great that's a great analogy.
Speaker 1: Oftentimes you'll see some people get promoted because sometimes the
Speaker 1: accountability out here exactly what you're saying, But sometimes that
Speaker 1: accountability is arbitrary. Sometimes it is dependent on That's why
Speaker 1: I go back to who you know, because oftentimes, yeah,
Speaker 1: I can outperform someone to the to the cowstom home,
Speaker 1: but am I going to be up for that promotion
Speaker 1: as opposed to person X over here? And it's not
Speaker 1: always the same thing. Because if it was up to
Speaker 1: XS and oh it's just like it was on the
Speaker 1: box score, then by absolutely then not then I should
Speaker 1: get a promotion. But some times that it doesn't happen
Speaker 1: because of well, maybe this person over here has a
Speaker 1: relationship with the hiring manager. And so that takes into
Speaker 1: play or or or the head hunter, you know, grab
Speaker 1: that person from another company, and they're being that person
Speaker 1: to be successful. Even though you should have got I'm
Speaker 1: just using you and you should have got they should
Speaker 1: have hired you and put you in that position because
Speaker 1: you were underlink for the person that they've replaced. So
Speaker 1: that's why I want, I say as arbitruary and two
Speaker 1: I would say if I had to give like a
Speaker 1: couple of points. This ain't a sermon, stee, but if
Speaker 1: I had to give a point, one of the points
Speaker 1: would be, like I think, one of the most important
Speaker 1: things you can do as you've entered into business, corporate America,
Speaker 1: entrepreneurship is find a mentor health find a few mentors,
Speaker 1: because that mentor can one sit you down and give
Speaker 1: you constructive criticism where you want to hear it or not.
Speaker 1: Um Two they can give you the ins and outs
Speaker 1: and kind of the particulars about whatever um land you
Speaker 1: want to get in or where you want to go.
Speaker 1: And then three they can advocate for you. And that's
Speaker 1: one of the biggest things you need to in whatever
Speaker 1: whether you were in whether you're working at a at
Speaker 1: a at a beverage company, whether you're working in a
Speaker 1: in a retail component, like having that mentor or that
Speaker 1: advocate or that someone who can go when you're not
Speaker 1: in that room, like Joe was talking about, that can
Speaker 1: advocate on your behalf. The separation of In sports, if
Speaker 1: you make a mistake, it's you, right, you you fumble
Speaker 1: a ball and it gets recovered, is you? You know
Speaker 1: you miss a blot? Is you? In the corporate world,
Speaker 1: just because of the sheer masses and the amount of people,
Speaker 1: you can hide things that you may not be mask
Speaker 1: mask Right, if you out there on the corner, you're
Speaker 1: supposed to block that dude, you didn't. It's guess what
Speaker 1: and guess when there's no game, film and corporate America, Right,
Speaker 1: we're not zero when you and we gotta tell ustrator.
Speaker 1: Unless you really messed up on an email. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: different if you hang yourself with that email. Right, there
Speaker 1: are similarities in sports. In corporate you will get a
Speaker 1: play by baiting play from the HR. Right, it's called
Speaker 1: the I T department. Even when you go to Gerard
Speaker 1: said the term C suite, that's the corporate level, right,
Speaker 1: So when you get up to certain levels inside organizations.
Speaker 1: There's a few outliers about what I'm about to say.
Speaker 1: I ventured the guests plus percent of senior leaders and
Speaker 1: organizations that we would dub successful are all finance people.
Speaker 1: And here's why shareholders believe if you're a good steward
Speaker 1: of money, that means they equate that to being smart.
Speaker 1: They equate that to me you making me money on
Speaker 1: my dividends. Check. Now, there's a whole lot of folks
Speaker 1: that may but went to a smaller level school or
Speaker 1: been a fifth or sixth round draft pick and was successful.
Speaker 1: In corporate America, there's very few people that make it
Speaker 1: to the top without coming from what we'll call one
Speaker 1: of those top names schools, or or having a finance
Speaker 1: degree or having somebody so. So what you're telling me
Speaker 1: is in corporate America to some degree, there is no
Speaker 1: rookie free agents here. Here's the only rookie free agent
Speaker 1: there is entry level employee. If if if the CEO's cousins, brothers, nephews,
Speaker 1: best friend needs a job, he's probably gonna get a
Speaker 1: job just because he's there. Johnath could be the best
Speaker 1: guy in the world, but guess what, just because he's
Speaker 1: a friend with coach X. They ain't putting him on
Speaker 1: the field. They're just not. You might get a try out,
Speaker 1: but then when you go out and get rolled up
Speaker 1: in a trial like, yo, this dude is really gonna
Speaker 1: ain't put him on. No, you're not, You're not doing
Speaker 1: But you might be in the warehouse, right, you might
Speaker 1: you you Now, there's some outliers. We all know are
Speaker 1: the people that started the ground level, but that those
Speaker 1: are the special folks. Those are the people who have
Speaker 1: when they get to the top, most of the time
Speaker 1: they try to change that narrative, but they're less between
Speaker 1: and all those things have converged in order for that person.
Speaker 1: There's always outliers. What do you what do you You've
Speaker 1: been retired, you're doing real estate, You're working, you know,
Speaker 1: working with the Panthers in corporate in their corporate office,
Speaker 1: sponsors and all that stuff. What are you learning? And
Speaker 1: how is football helped you and how has it hurt you?
Speaker 1: For me, at times, I've learned even with g through
Speaker 1: through the stuff we've done that he's told me, bro
Speaker 1: it takes time. I was just about to say that's
Speaker 1: the first thing where especially now in today's society, everything
Speaker 1: is oh I want we need dippers tomorrow Boom, Amazon
Speaker 1: day now, instant day, and you got that prime. I
Speaker 1: ain't got pride, get the same day. I don't. I
Speaker 1: don't have pride, but I know it's pride, but it's
Speaker 1: it's it's instant gratification. Right playing sports, playing professionally, it's
Speaker 1: either what it's what have you done for me lately? Literally,
Speaker 1: like Sunday was the game Monday? What did you do yesterday?
Speaker 1: Let's let's cut on the film. Let's see, Oh, dropped
Speaker 1: the ball, you missed the block. Oh, you should have
Speaker 1: cut back three strikes already. Better tighten up. I'm typing up.
Speaker 1: And so the difference for me right now with working
Speaker 1: with the Panthers is how slow? What are you doing
Speaker 1: with the Panthers? And so I am working in development,
Speaker 1: So I'm essentially under Mark Hart and he's mentoring me
Speaker 1: um in the development process as far as what the
Speaker 1: Panthers are doing with rock Hill and quarters. Um. So
Speaker 1: the commercial development of real estate is really my passion. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, through my later years of playing, uh you know,
Speaker 1: started investing in real estate and started to really understand
Speaker 1: and grasp you know what that meant. You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, like you're talking to a guy that played
Speaker 1: monopoly when he wasn't you know, a little jit going
Speaker 1: through high school, through him going through college and get
Speaker 1: married to his wife, and his wife explains monopoly is
Speaker 1: real estate. Oh my god, I've never really put two
Speaker 1: and two together, you know what I'm saying, But like
Speaker 1: it would have. But but that's the that's how I
Speaker 1: was raised, you know what I'm saying, with no one
Speaker 1: with no one there just saying, hey, that's legit. Boardwalk
Speaker 1: is a real place. Like you can own a boardwalk.
Speaker 1: You can don't like it, but there's a way to
Speaker 1: get there, you know what I'm saying. So in pass
Speaker 1: and gold collect two is not efficient enough. Man, I'm
Speaker 1: just saying, but like you spending two hundred dollars and
Speaker 1: then all of a sudden you got eight hundred dollar bill.
Speaker 1: You don't land on somebody with a house or two
Speaker 1: on their property. But like the the time that it
Speaker 1: takes to get things done, in the time that people
Speaker 1: get to screw up is what I put it in
Speaker 1: football terms. Football. You know, in football, I'm realizing as
Speaker 1: we do we do the these interviews more and more
Speaker 1: playing football is like being a dog. It's like it's
Speaker 1: like twelve years in the league is like a fifty
Speaker 1: six year old in terms of agents. In terms of
Speaker 1: agent it's ridiculous. So you have someone that screws up
Speaker 1: and you give them they've been screwing up something for
Speaker 1: three months. In football, that's equivalent of like what a game, bro,
Speaker 1: but like for real though, like depending on the like
Speaker 1: what that screw up? What coach kip you? So always
Speaker 1: say a minor air but a major funk up. Okay,
Speaker 1: if you take off on that plane and you forget
Speaker 1: to feel the plane, that's a minor air. Well you
Speaker 1: that's believed that plane, if it takes off, it's the
Speaker 1: only one way it's going down. Okay. And I don't
Speaker 1: care what you did. You know you're a brain surgery.
Speaker 1: You had three thousand successful brain surgeries. You got all
Speaker 1: the accolades in the world. I don't care what you
Speaker 1: did with them other surgeries. The most important surgery is
Speaker 1: that next one. And if you if I die, that
Speaker 1: is a major funk up. All that to say, the
Speaker 1: timing of things are slower um and I feel like
Speaker 1: the enforcing of things happening. I find myself trying to
Speaker 1: figure out the problem immediately and then having to deal
Speaker 1: with the time that passes while I feel like I
Speaker 1: might have the answer, but waiting for people to just
Speaker 1: kind of figure it out on their own too, right,
Speaker 1: because I just I have I'm I'm I'm a newcomer,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. Fresh. Everybody isn't responsible for
Speaker 1: every certain thing. So that person probably has x amount
Speaker 1: of control. That person has x amountic You have to
Speaker 1: talk to someone. So we're songing soup. Well, so and
Speaker 1: SO is down here. Okay, how did I get on
Speaker 1: song and so schedule? Well, you gotta go talk to something.
Speaker 1: So what does the song so look like? And also
Speaker 1: just kind of managing your own expectations because you've had
Speaker 1: an expectation just that that it happens. So I'm gonna
Speaker 1: say this and you'll be okay, I'll tell this story.
Speaker 1: I remember telling Smithy one time. I was like, bro,
Speaker 1: sometimes you will plant a tomato seat in the morning
Speaker 1: and expect to eat a bot that afternoon. It don't
Speaker 1: work like that. It don't work like that. And he
Speaker 1: and he finally got it when I gave him that analogy, like,
Speaker 1: it doesn't work like that. Like in the business work
Speaker 1: and yeah, and in the business world don't work like that.
Speaker 1: I love cut to It and I love it even
Speaker 1: more when you download us and subscribe, and you can
Speaker 1: follow us on social media too, Smithie, where where at?
Speaker 1: That's at? Cut to It on Instagram? What about Twitter? At?
Speaker 1: Cut to It Facebook? Cut to It featuring Steve Smith singr?
Speaker 1: What about online? And you can follow us at cut
Speaker 1: to It podcast dot com where you can buy merch
Speaker 1: and you can subscribe to this wherever you listen to podcasts.
Speaker 1: I got all my answers questions, Um, yeah, I got
Speaker 1: all my questions answered. That's what I'm here for, a brother,
Speaker 1: cut to a podcast dot Com. When you look at athletes,
Speaker 1: doesn't matter really what sport. A lot of them, male
Speaker 1: and female, tend to go into entrepreneurship or smaller businesses
Speaker 1: and they fail. Would would you say you guys and
Speaker 1: girls steer away from corporate America just because of the
Speaker 1: frustration level that you see. What would you say is
Speaker 1: good for athletes? You've worked with one for one that
Speaker 1: sometimes it is good for athletes are steer away from
Speaker 1: I think anybody, and I'm not trying to steer away
Speaker 1: from of question. I think anyone has to challenge, anyone
Speaker 1: has to enter into something to do because they're passionate
Speaker 1: about it. So I wouldn't. I wouldn't. I wouldn't make
Speaker 1: a process. The process can can because for some people
Speaker 1: can debunk your passion too. Though some athletes have going
Speaker 1: to corporate American had amazing career, some haven't. Some some
Speaker 1: have gone. So it really depends on the individual, it
Speaker 1: really does. I'm not yea, but here's what I'm not saying. No,
Speaker 1: I'm just saying as far as the athletes assessment of results,
Speaker 1: like I do think the results the lack of results
Speaker 1: in business sometimes because you can have blame sharing or
Speaker 1: blame shifting or sometimes lack of you know. So I'm
Speaker 1: interested too. I mean, even even if I'm watching a
Speaker 1: twenty four hours so if I'm watching NFL network, I'm
Speaker 1: watching ESPN, they lay around content all day of let's
Speaker 1: just use you know, let's use whatever organization go bears right.
Speaker 1: Who is it? Is it? Matt Naggi is it? The
Speaker 1: GM is it? Is it? The assistant coaches it, the
Speaker 1: offensive coordinator? So there's still that finger pointing sometimes of
Speaker 1: whose fault was it? You're trying to go through it.
Speaker 1: It wasn't the quarterback, was it offensive line? So even
Speaker 1: some of those still things, those those things are still
Speaker 1: permanating through an organization. So it's like you're not you
Speaker 1: can lift that into football or NBA or what take
Speaker 1: take your pick of whatever organ of sport. And the
Speaker 1: I see a lot of similarities too, because I mean,
Speaker 1: you're still covering like, all right, who's who's who's responsible?
Speaker 1: Who's responsible for this team going on? But I think, well,
Speaker 1: I think ownership says the responsibilities on them. That's why
Speaker 1: they're going to replace someone with someone else, right, or
Speaker 1: attempt to replace on with someone else, right. But I
Speaker 1: do think and see in business that sometimes people can
Speaker 1: hide behind the process. And I think the process of
Speaker 1: business compared in sports with with athletes. I think when
Speaker 1: you have enough athletes around you in the business aspect,
Speaker 1: a lot more gets done because there is accountability that
Speaker 1: athletes have where corporate America go, you know what that
Speaker 1: well you're gonna have You're gonna go talk to Jim.
Speaker 1: Why don't you go talk to him? You're talking about
Speaker 1: this that we've been waiting on a car for three weeks.
Speaker 1: We've been waiting for this answer. For three weeks three
Speaker 1: weeks and going by you say time is money, but
Speaker 1: it ain't that. I'm just saying, I just see like
Speaker 1: that's from my personal experience of seeing both sides. I
Speaker 1: can see now business wise, like when I first started
Speaker 1: why it was frustrating. Now I expect it now. I'm
Speaker 1: kind of like, I think your expectations, yes, yes, expectations, absolutely,
Speaker 1: you gotta. But I think you in because I play
Speaker 1: sports where you can have high expectations and everybody around you. Okay.
Speaker 1: I think sometimes in business having high expectations that puts
Speaker 1: the onus on people. They're like, man, I don't want
Speaker 1: to do that. You ain't gonna blame me if it
Speaker 1: goes wrong because we're coming here on Saturday. Because they
Speaker 1: they didn't develop the business plan, the senior level folks did,
Speaker 1: so if it fails, right, almost like a game plan
Speaker 1: in sports, like O c DC develops a game plan.
Speaker 1: But again, you can see flaws and you cannot mask
Speaker 1: things on a sporting field like you can in an office.
Speaker 1: So that corner get burnt. Well, I'll share this quick story.
Speaker 1: You said it like somebody told you not that didn't happened.
Speaker 1: Like I'm just saying like I'm just I'm reinforcing this
Speaker 1: point of Unfortunately, when you all have a deficiency, it's
Speaker 1: seen you don't tell vision, and people want to hold
Speaker 1: you accountable for that, whether or not it was your fault,
Speaker 1: whether or not or whether it was right that's a
Speaker 1: contribute or just jumped right right, or whether or whether
Speaker 1: you got put in an uncompromised situation because of an
Speaker 1: offensive coordinate. There's always so many different factors. So I'm
Speaker 1: just only reiterating their point because you can you can
Speaker 1: see when there's a deficiency in corporate America. Now, the
Speaker 1: same thing happens alluded to this before a shareholder at
Speaker 1: some point in time. We're just talking about publicly traded companies.
Speaker 1: A shareholder, it's gonna hold that CEO responsible, gonna say
Speaker 1: you got burned, though I know I know what's in
Speaker 1: but in corporate America, man, you got burned. Like every
Speaker 1: you got burned five times, and it wasn't five times
Speaker 1: a game. And it may not necessarily have been his
Speaker 1: it may not have been his fault, but it was
Speaker 1: on your watch. You talk, you're talking about high behind folks.
Speaker 1: I know this is a non indictment podcast, but I'm
Speaker 1: a self. I'm a self indict myself. I worked for
Speaker 1: a pretty major company in the United States, and I
Speaker 1: knew I was walking away to go do my own thing,
Speaker 1: and that I myself and go out there and be
Speaker 1: an entrepreneur. And I'd made a bet with some folks
Speaker 1: that I worked with that my final two weeks of work,
Speaker 1: the only thing I was gonna do. I was walking
Speaker 1: around my office, to walk around the office office building,
Speaker 1: and I would wait for people to gather in offices.
Speaker 1: I'd walk in and go, I took care of that
Speaker 1: thing for you, Jonathan, and I'd walk away. I hadn't.
Speaker 1: I wasn't doing anything, and so folks in this room
Speaker 1: would be like, yo, Joe's on top of things, like
Speaker 1: he's taking care of it, and the dude you said
Speaker 1: it to we wasn't gonna ask. So I did this
Speaker 1: for weeks. Hold on, hold on. That's another thing about
Speaker 1: corporate weeks. Bro Right, Look he just he knocked in there,
Speaker 1: said Jonathan. I took care of that and trying to
Speaker 1: go appreciate it. But in this my are they going
Speaker 1: talking about look bad? So I mean I did this
Speaker 1: for weeks, like I go to break rooms. Hey, man,
Speaker 1: that thing the other day I got it. I'd walk
Speaker 1: off like people come in my office. I would furrow
Speaker 1: my brow and like god, man, I was doing nothing
Speaker 1: like Amazon shopping, and folks thought I was getting after it.
Speaker 1: For two straight weeks, I was able to hide. Now
Speaker 1: take that to a football field, and for two straight games,
Speaker 1: you ain't doing nothing. How Hey, coach defense corner, Hey
Speaker 1: I got I got like, No, you didn't did, But
Speaker 1: no one would say that a year you've been on
Speaker 1: our staff. But then it's still to pay where you
Speaker 1: are still because because best Tom Brady can make a
Speaker 1: mistake for two games in a row, but the player
Speaker 1: over here may not have that same marginal error well
Speaker 1: one because his file cabinet is long of problem. So,
Speaker 1: my boy, it ain't just because Tom Brady is what
Speaker 1: he's got building up to be Tom Brady. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: think one of the frustrating things that sounds like it
Speaker 1: is the accountability piece for corporate amount corporate America. Right.
Speaker 1: Maybe maybe I'm using the wrong word because they're still
Speaker 1: accountabilit Here's what I'm saying. There is in corporate America.
Speaker 1: I think there is a there is an asterisk or
Speaker 1: a I believe a little bit of rose colored glasses
Speaker 1: of what is considered completed. You know you've won, You
Speaker 1: know you've accomplished something on the on the sports field,
Speaker 1: you'll know about by the by halftime. At some point
Speaker 1: in the game, you you will look up and go,
Speaker 1: I was either good enough I wasn't. Today in corporate America,
Speaker 1: sometimes like you, you were successful and for the last
Speaker 1: two weeks you kept up the mirage of you were
Speaker 1: still doing the same thing or what got you there
Speaker 1: to be able to quit and be able to move on.
Speaker 1: But you were able to I wouldn't say cheat the system,
Speaker 1: but you were able to manipulate the system. By the
Speaker 1: time they called on it was too late. So does
Speaker 1: that beg the like? Was I not a major player?
Speaker 1: If I was able to do nothing and the business
Speaker 1: still thrive? Well, you you had to be successful to
Speaker 1: get to the left? Was that number one? And absolute?
Speaker 1: And then two? You had a role in which you
Speaker 1: achieved whatever whatever success within your role based on your
Speaker 1: job description. Right, so you're working in that company, you
Speaker 1: had X amount of things you had to do, but
Speaker 1: also those X amount of things you had to do,
Speaker 1: I didn't have anything to do with and I'm just
Speaker 1: making something up accounting or I T because that's not
Speaker 1: where you worked, right. So it also depends on I
Speaker 1: think your role, you know, as Steve or Jonathan. You
Speaker 1: know you have success Steve as a wide receiver because
Speaker 1: you know I'm supposed to do these are things. Something
Speaker 1: knows he has success as a running back because he's
Speaker 1: supposed to do x amount of things. But just like
Speaker 1: you said before, like if a corner messes up, is
Speaker 1: that on you? No? But here's what I say, is
Speaker 1: it varies offensive lignement must block. Well, the problem our
Speaker 1: process that we have in sports and the processing business
Speaker 1: is different because you actually get the call out those
Speaker 1: people because if you don't, those people don't continue to
Speaker 1: do it. Like if the someone doesn't hook up the
Speaker 1: head said, right, and I keep calling it to play,
Speaker 1: but the quarterbacks not getting it. There's a problem. I
Speaker 1: keep calling it out. Man, John on the sideline with me.
Speaker 1: Don't you hear me? Yeah? Don't you hear me? Of course? Well,
Speaker 1: if I'm in court, Maria, I said, Man, I sent
Speaker 1: that email to Jonathan. Didn't you get it? No? Well,
Speaker 1: I'm not sure why you didn't get it, but here,
Speaker 1: look I sent it, right, there's really no you know
Speaker 1: that there's no there is a measuring stick, but I'm
Speaker 1: just saying that there's a lot of room. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of room for clunkiness or I don't know what happened,
Speaker 1: So you got almost like started investigation to know when
Speaker 1: the mistake happened. And sports you don't start no investigation
Speaker 1: unless But I also think that's how like you were
Speaker 1: a season vet right, and the only reason why you
Speaker 1: were able to sit at your office desk and do
Speaker 1: nothing towards the end of your career, it was because
Speaker 1: you were seasoned and you did things to get yourself
Speaker 1: to that position, and you were telling people as you
Speaker 1: were on your way out that yes, I did this,
Speaker 1: I did that, mean did nothing right. That's the mentality
Speaker 1: that carries to your experience as someone that's trying to
Speaker 1: make it. You have a guy sitting in that desk
Speaker 1: that's portraying like he's doing something when he's not. When
Speaker 1: you are totally capable and hungry and willing to be
Speaker 1: in that chair, but he's sitting there wasting the seat, right,
Speaker 1: not saying that you're a wasting a seat because your
Speaker 1: intentions were I'm about to get up out of here
Speaker 1: because I'm tired of this. There's guys that have that that,
Speaker 1: you know, recognition or that I guess, uh, what do
Speaker 1: you want to call it? They built up the credibility
Speaker 1: to be able to do or not do the things
Speaker 1: they do, but they're not being honest about their situation
Speaker 1: of saying, I should probably step away and allow for
Speaker 1: this young man an do that. Nobody. Christian mc affric
Speaker 1: gets to the Carolina Panthers Jonathan Stewart Christian McCaffrey. Okay, Jonathan,
Speaker 1: you are moving a lot slower than Christian, so we're
Speaker 1: gonna let you go, sir. All right, I get it,
Speaker 1: I'm out, but you don't give up a spot. I'm
Speaker 1: not giving it up, but I get it that I
Speaker 1: am not capable of performing at a high level anymore.
Speaker 1: And there is a system in place for a guy
Speaker 1: to come into grips with that, which is called you
Speaker 1: gotta go. You ain't done nothing for it's late. There's
Speaker 1: no protocol for not being able to perform your duties.
Speaker 1: But you kind of have a little bit more life
Speaker 1: in corporate matter. And the other thing it's funny, is
Speaker 1: y'all going down that path. The thing in corporate America
Speaker 1: is it's so hr driven and making sure you treat
Speaker 1: everybody eat Willie. Not saying that's always a bad thing,
Speaker 1: but for an example, every everybody and everybody don't get
Speaker 1: treated gull to Jonathan's point, like he's a damn good
Speaker 1: running back, but he's not as good as this guy.
Speaker 1: So if they choose to, they can cut ties with you.
Speaker 1: Doesn't matter contract, no contract in corporate America. If Gerard
Speaker 1: takes a snack cake out of the break room, if
Speaker 1: we wanted a fire Gerard for taking that snack cake,
Speaker 1: what we would have to do is go back and
Speaker 1: look in history and see if anybody has ever stolen
Speaker 1: a snack cake. Because whatever that person did, that's what
Speaker 1: you have to do to him. So if someone else
Speaker 1: stole a snack cake and they got suspended for one day,
Speaker 1: you got to suspend him from one day because if
Speaker 1: you fire him, now he's got a lawsuit because he
Speaker 1: was treated unfairly as this other person. That's the thing
Speaker 1: in corporate America. Everybody, everybody, I gotta be the brothers
Speaker 1: w brother what I mean, like a honey bun or
Speaker 1: like yeah twigs, I mean, you go anything, Rice crispy like. Look,
Speaker 1: if I'm getting fined, they gotta be something delicious, famous
Speaker 1: Amos cookies. I keep going. But but that's the whole
Speaker 1: point is not everybody is equal on a sports field
Speaker 1: or in a job period period. But if I'm really
Speaker 1: bad at my job today times out of ninety nine,
Speaker 1: they're not gonna walk up and say, yo, you need
Speaker 1: you can't go supervise unless you give them. You gotta
Speaker 1: give them a documented history of it, and and and
Speaker 1: bring your key fop, yeah, and even but even to
Speaker 1: your point, even to your point before Stewey though, like
Speaker 1: when you do start looking at some of the season,
Speaker 1: you start looking at people who have been there years
Speaker 1: and years and years and years and years, and then
Speaker 1: you do see the people who were maybe on the
Speaker 1: front line, whereas there are a lot more disposable than
Speaker 1: the ones up top. Good do good do it. Let's
Speaker 1: getting down to do it. Hey, Gerard, why did you
Speaker 1: get that T shirt? Oh? Yes, I got it from
Speaker 1: cut to a podcast dot com where we have exclusive merchandise.
Speaker 1: Shout out to our guys at seven or four shot.
Speaker 1: But yeah, you can go on, buy you a T shirt,
Speaker 1: subscribe to us wherever you listen to podcasts. I struggled
Speaker 1: with where do I see myself in this process? It's
Speaker 1: very tough when you don't see someone And I don't
Speaker 1: hate to make it about race, but let's just let's
Speaker 1: just be honest. When you see what there's uh Fortune companies,
Speaker 1: there's five black CEOs um. When you look at the numbers,
Speaker 1: I think less than five percent of black people are
Speaker 1: in manager or above positions of any company. Right, so
Speaker 1: it's really hard to say, like, all right, how am
Speaker 1: I gonna make it here? When when we go back
Speaker 1: and we talk about the c suite level and you
Speaker 1: don't see people who are in that position and you
Speaker 1: don't know how to get there. So that's why I
Speaker 1: brought up even before, like you have to have some
Speaker 1: sort of a mentor or someone who will guide you
Speaker 1: and help open up those doors. Because I can. It
Speaker 1: goes back to everything we're saying. I can perform all day,
Speaker 1: but if someone's in that chair that either has the network,
Speaker 1: that has the cloud, that has then it's really going
Speaker 1: to be hard for me to get in that seat
Speaker 1: until you can do and there's nothing I can do
Speaker 1: to get in to get fired, but not get hired.
Speaker 1: I will be fired in a minute. Like, there are
Speaker 1: certain things that I know that I can't say, right,
Speaker 1: there are certain things you just can't And that's just
Speaker 1: that's that's the truth of the matter. Like, because you
Speaker 1: don't want to fall into different stereotypes. You don't want
Speaker 1: to fall into the stereo type of being the angry
Speaker 1: black man, so you can't. There as certain things you
Speaker 1: don't want to say it this way. But then you
Speaker 1: also don't want to be a pushover. So sometimes you're like,
Speaker 1: all right, well then what do I really need to do?
Speaker 1: A right? So to your point, sometimes it's like, all right,
Speaker 1: well where am I going to? What seat am I
Speaker 1: going to get? And how do and how do I
Speaker 1: navigate or try to path to get? So how do you,
Speaker 1: as it, educated strong black man who knows how to
Speaker 1: navigate through, how do you when you're working there not
Speaker 1: feel like you didn't have a chance. Oh that's tough.
Speaker 1: I mean, if I'm being real, then that's something that's
Speaker 1: something you you you wrestle with every single day, right, Like,
Speaker 1: because you guys work your tails off to get where
Speaker 1: you were and and to establish that and then you
Speaker 1: start getting to where where do I choose for me,
Speaker 1: it is like, it's my livelihood, right, so I've got
Speaker 1: I gotta work right, Like I'm I'm not a professional athlete.
Speaker 1: I didn't go to I didn't go to college to
Speaker 1: play ball. I didn't. I didn't clearly I did not
Speaker 1: play ball in professional So all right, after college, it is, well,
Speaker 1: what you're gonna do with your life? Right, So you
Speaker 1: gotta figure that stuff out at you know one, right,
Speaker 1: what am I going to do with the rest of
Speaker 1: my life? So the decisions the job I choose to
Speaker 1: take or the business that I choose to start, this
Speaker 1: that in the third that is depending on And still
Speaker 1: we alluded to when we were doing our regular podcasts,
Speaker 1: like when you start off, the expectation maybe a little
Speaker 1: bit different because all right, it's just me, like, all right,
Speaker 1: I can I can afford to take a risk, you know,
Speaker 1: pack up myself and go to Oklahoma City and work
Speaker 1: for the thunder Um. So you can. You can take
Speaker 1: those kind of risks. But then when you get married,
Speaker 1: then you have kids, like it's no longer about you,
Speaker 1: it's about and it impacts them. And so everything that
Speaker 1: I do has a direct or indirect impact on them.
Speaker 1: So there's always like like I said, I have to
Speaker 1: weigh in the risk reward of what am I gonna say,
Speaker 1: what am I gonna do, How am I gonna approach
Speaker 1: the situation? Who am I going to talk with? Um? So?
Speaker 1: And for me, it's it is you have to build
Speaker 1: those allies. You know. I've been sitting on this story
Speaker 1: for a little while, but I'll tell a great conversation.
Speaker 1: I was talking to Joe. This was a couple of
Speaker 1: years ago, and I said, Joe, man like I don't
Speaker 1: understand the stock market. I want to invest, I want
Speaker 1: to get better into all that, and so hey, so
Speaker 1: this dude dropped everything and came over to the office
Speaker 1: and we sat down for what I want to have
Speaker 1: two hours and he walked me through everything. Joe didn't
Speaker 1: have to do that by any means. But it's also
Speaker 1: someone saying like, hey, I don't understand this, help me
Speaker 1: navigate through this. And you and I have had plenty
Speaker 1: conversations about real estate and all these different things investing,
Speaker 1: just like I know you have with Stewart. But I
Speaker 1: would say, like with anyone, you you've got to surround
Speaker 1: yourself with like minded people or people who have information
Speaker 1: that is that that is hard any other way for
Speaker 1: you to to obtain that information. Right, So, like I said,
Speaker 1: Joe sat down with me for two hours just so
Speaker 1: I could understanding, Like, oh, now now I get it.
Speaker 1: Now I can go onto my when I ain't gonna
Speaker 1: name my app, but now I can go into my
Speaker 1: investment app and I can go in and I say,
Speaker 1: all right, now I know what that basis point is.
Speaker 1: Now I know, all right, well I want to invest
Speaker 1: in this, I want to take or I can have
Speaker 1: a fractional share of this, and I'm going So it's
Speaker 1: it's different, right, Like, so you really really do have
Speaker 1: to I hate to sound like a broken record, but
Speaker 1: I think that's one of the most important things. And
Speaker 1: I would even offer to y'all is as you're going
Speaker 1: through those respective paths, and I would never think it's
Speaker 1: too late either to find those real voices that say, hey,
Speaker 1: here's how I would navigate through this, here's maybe what
Speaker 1: I would do in this situation, and then they can
Speaker 1: open up those doors for you, you know, to to
Speaker 1: whatever path you decide you want the car about. And
Speaker 1: for any of our listeners who's going through the same thing.
Speaker 1: The results in the sports business is such has it's tangible,
Speaker 1: has results that you can not also see, but you
Speaker 1: actually feel in business sometimes just like you don't know
Speaker 1: there's a there's a there's like this. That's why I
Speaker 1: said it's like a mirage. You don't really did it
Speaker 1: ever make you feel disposable? I mean you always know
Speaker 1: you're disposable, right for me? You know that you so
Speaker 1: you do you have that mindset going in or that
Speaker 1: something I knew I was disposal because you you here's
Speaker 1: how you learn. Think about it. When you play college,
Speaker 1: when you play high school ball? What number corner were
Speaker 1: you on the depth chart too? Who was behind you?
Speaker 1: I can't remember who's in front of here? Jemmy Brown. Okay,
Speaker 1: there's someone that you either gonna take his spot. You're
Speaker 1: gonna wait, or somebody's gonna they somebody's knocking on the door.
Speaker 1: And there's always gonna be a number twenty one unless
Speaker 1: right right, But there's a next year. There's a depth chart,
Speaker 1: there is there's there's a depth chart, but that depth
Speaker 1: chart really doesn't mean anything. In corporate America. You can't
Speaker 1: get leap frog, like you can't see it. You can,
Speaker 1: you could get leap frog, but it's in business you can.
Speaker 1: I mean, you gotta be naive to not see it coming,
Speaker 1: but you can see it coming because the person to
Speaker 1: some degree they're there. In the NFL, you can literally
Speaker 1: have okay game, wake up the next day and realize
Speaker 1: you just got replaced like that, You got replaced overnight
Speaker 1: from a dude they don't even know if he can
Speaker 1: actually play. And so I guess that's why I say
Speaker 1: it depends on your experience because I know for sure
Speaker 1: I've never had the luxury of I can just I
Speaker 1: can just go true this day over Like I'm just
Speaker 1: saying that over Here's what I'm saying. I don't walk
Speaker 1: into the building my key file going. Man if they
Speaker 1: cut me, if they fired me today, I don't know
Speaker 1: what I'm gonna do. I'm over here, like, man, we fired.
Speaker 1: But for some people, some people, for some people in there,
Speaker 1: that is a thing like if they get fired, like,
Speaker 1: how am I gonna feed my family? How am I
Speaker 1: gonna pay this mortgage? How am I gonna like? But
Speaker 1: when I'm sayings gonna come, well, what I'm saying is
Speaker 1: difference in sports is you have to literally lee. You
Speaker 1: can't in corporate America, you white knuckle in sports, you're
Speaker 1: you actually chopped wood and there is you can see.
Speaker 1: They can say, man, you know you didn't chop that
Speaker 1: good enough. You can say, I probably didn't chop as
Speaker 1: much as you want it, but I chopped in corporate
Speaker 1: MAGA like that wasn't enough, and I don't see nothing there.
Speaker 1: And then all of a sudden, you leave, come out
Speaker 1: and it's gone, like the security took the wood, took
Speaker 1: the and they say, no, you didn't try to beat
Speaker 1: like bro I did, because there's no replay of it,
Speaker 1: Like there's no way to replay in the accountability of
Speaker 1: saying now I was there. I think there's a lot
Speaker 1: of a lot of value, um, you know, taking an
Speaker 1: athlete and putting him in corporate America. Though because he's
Speaker 1: a he' he would do it. He understands the task,
Speaker 1: he understands the end goal, he understands the team oriented
Speaker 1: side to everything, because to get things done, you need
Speaker 1: everyone to be working on the same page. And to
Speaker 1: be working on the same page, you kind of have
Speaker 1: to understand what the receiver's route is. You have to
Speaker 1: understand what the offensive line protection is, you have to
Speaker 1: understand you know where you're what your fullbacks looking for.
Speaker 1: So you understand other people's task and you are not
Speaker 1: overly concerned about their about their task. And yet you
Speaker 1: know what's the word, um, micromanaging or whatever, but you
Speaker 1: are holding a piece of accountability of letting that person
Speaker 1: know that, Hey, last week you said you were gonna
Speaker 1: check on so and so or this right, where's that at?
Speaker 1: And so? From the athletes mind is we need you
Speaker 1: to do your job so that way we don't fall behind,
Speaker 1: So that way I don't get hit in the mouth,
Speaker 1: so that way we are not missing the boat, you know.
Speaker 1: And I think that's one of the things that an
Speaker 1: act as an athlete. You take them into anything, and
Speaker 1: he's going to be successful if he believes in the
Speaker 1: task at hand. Would you say most football players have
Speaker 1: an inkling or understanding if they're about to get cut
Speaker 1: or they're about to get released, so they can smell it. Yeah.
Speaker 1: What about those nine folks at that company who was
Speaker 1: on a zoom call and lost their job. I think
Speaker 1: they saw it coming, right, they just jumped on. Here's
Speaker 1: what I would think. I would think. I personally think
Speaker 1: you got nine people. A few people knew it was coming,
Speaker 1: But I would I would agree with that just but
Speaker 1: like you said, like you just getting beat in practice
Speaker 1: and you're getting killed in the game, like you know
Speaker 1: every time, like the coach goes, hey Smith, are You're like, damn,
Speaker 1: I want to win there today, right. I mean, so
Speaker 1: you think about they jumped on and that's that's the difference.
Speaker 1: But you can't look at it. But I think you yourself,
Speaker 1: what company we also can't reduce We also just can't
Speaker 1: reduce it in those scenarios to where it's just performance space.
Speaker 1: They might be they may be numbers that balance. That's
Speaker 1: what I was That's what I was about to say.
Speaker 1: Here's the thing, no matter if they knew it or not.
Speaker 1: In corporate America, you you know, I know he's getting
Speaker 1: there getting backlash, Internet wash, Corporate America. You can do that, right,
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't approve of it. I think it's cowardly. Man.
Speaker 1: Try to put a zoom call on about ten or
Speaker 1: fifteen dudes in a football team, and that's how you're
Speaker 1: gonna cut him before you hang up that zoe, And
Speaker 1: it goes back to your accountability. Yes, there's gonna be
Speaker 1: ramifications to me cutting fifteen of y'all off the team
Speaker 1: and but and talking about business, there'd be ramifications. But
Speaker 1: your PNL can't be a justification either, like that how
Speaker 1: he did that, and that hen't how I did it.
Speaker 1: That In sports, that's cowardly, unexcept aftable that that that's
Speaker 1: like in baseball. That's in baseball, man, that's an unridden rule. Right, Golf,
Speaker 1: that's a gentleman's sport. Mean for long, Yes, for the community.
Speaker 1: And the fact that he set the email to try
Speaker 1: to like justify it. Yeah, alright, let me tell you
Speaker 1: why I cut all these people. Yeah, in sports, you
Speaker 1: can't hide it as much because of the rawness of
Speaker 1: how you interact with a with a with sports guys
Speaker 1: like you and to you down to you see a
Speaker 1: man cry when you get injured, and see you a man,
Speaker 1: and you see y'all literally or button net to go
Speaker 1: shower or your semi neeket to get treatment or you
Speaker 1: know some of that, or you're in all of that.
Speaker 1: Or you see a guy that's in his in his
Speaker 1: swimming trunks after tearings, after tearing a muscle or is,
Speaker 1: and he's in a swim and wait list and you
Speaker 1: see that man grind and you see him to his
Speaker 1: bear bare body you see you're vulnerable man, Corporate America.
Speaker 1: You don't want to see that. So you can't really
Speaker 1: get a sense and a judgment of out of six
Speaker 1: hundreds like who are those people who made that company?
Speaker 1: Who who they are? You know? But see that's that's
Speaker 1: the mistake, and that's problem, and that's the mistake, and
Speaker 1: that's the reason why sometimes those companies can never get
Speaker 1: out of it. Because you talk about the Colts Lucas
Speaker 1: Old Stadium, who built that house Peyton. But when Peyton
Speaker 1: gets going to Hall of Fame retirement, look at all
Speaker 1: the people that come now was a part of that
Speaker 1: who he acknowledges. And so even though it's Peyton's house,
Speaker 1: all the people who have helped build Peyton and build
Speaker 1: Peyton's house reap the benefit of the reward. That's unshakable.
Speaker 1: Where people are like, we want to be the next
Speaker 1: group of people that built the next whether it's Carson
Speaker 1: Wentz's house or whoever is house it is in business, like,
Speaker 1: you don't want to build Johnny or Jonathan Stewart's house
Speaker 1: because you don't believe that when it's done and finished,
Speaker 1: that you'll still be part of it. On the long
Speaker 1: way he'll cut you. Let's say, let's let's get rid
Speaker 1: of him. Because I think what we can all take
Speaker 1: from this. I think everybody says one or two things,
Speaker 1: right because they all have, um, they all have played
Speaker 1: sports at different levels, right, And if they can grab,
Speaker 1: if you can grab something from the level of athleticism
Speaker 1: that you've achieved, then subconsciously you're you're applying that to
Speaker 1: your business, right, Um, whether it's you know, you know,
Speaker 1: rise and grind right or or or you know. Um.
Speaker 1: For me, that I've always done is I've been okay
Speaker 1: with being uncomfortable. I will allow a situation to make
Speaker 1: me uncomfortable. Now I will try to process through that
Speaker 1: situation instead of when I was a player. Is bulldoze
Speaker 1: and bullet be a bull in the China closet? Because
Speaker 1: that that that arena allowed it, right, you know that
Speaker 1: arena allowed to me for me to only have a
Speaker 1: hammer in my toolbox, now I have to have a screwdriver, hammer,
Speaker 1: duct tape. And then also sometimes just having a belt
Speaker 1: on with nothing in it just to say, hey, I
Speaker 1: come to work, I have no tools, but I'm at work,
Speaker 1: And just that mindset of switching from work mode to
Speaker 1: non work mode. I would say, Mom, would be here
Speaker 1: what people say and watch what they do, because a
Speaker 1: lot of companies say they're gonna do something, but I'm
Speaker 1: paying attention to what my supervisor says, what's coming top down,
Speaker 1: from the senior, from the senior level, what's coming from HR.
Speaker 1: So I I would say, Mom, was that I would
Speaker 1: carry around both is here what people say, but watch
Speaker 1: what they do. Person shows them who you are who
Speaker 1: they are the first time. Believable, you know, Like that's
Speaker 1: one of the things that I actually heard Oprah I say.
Speaker 1: I was like, okay, I'll take that and that. But
Speaker 1: that's true to what we were talking about as far
Speaker 1: as how hard how difficult it is to have authenticity
Speaker 1: in the workplace, right. Um. One of the other things
Speaker 1: I would say is, you know, one of the things
Speaker 1: I picked up in life is a thing called TC
Speaker 1: two choices. Do it now or you do it later.
Speaker 1: Either way, it's got to get done. And so part
Speaker 1: two of that is, Um, discipline hurts less than regret.
Speaker 1: So there's two choices. You just gotta do it right now.
Speaker 1: It's might as well if you gotta fold the close
Speaker 1: folding out, so we gotta do them later. Because you're
Speaker 1: gonna have to do it and you're gonna wish you
Speaker 1: would have just did it when you got in the house.
Speaker 1: It's that way. It's nine o'clock. You can just sit down.
Speaker 1: Mine is just mine's dealing with adversity. Just you know,
Speaker 1: whether you're in the sporting field, arena park, whatever you're at,
Speaker 1: there's always gonna be adversity, whether that guy is better
Speaker 1: than you, um, whether you can't get this play done,
Speaker 1: whatever it is. Um, just going through business because thinking
Speaker 1: on the fly, being able to overcome and every business
Speaker 1: deal that comes your way is not always gonna be
Speaker 1: handed to you on a on a silver platter. So
Speaker 1: trying to navigate through that space and using determination and
Speaker 1: using you know, everything that I've learned through my sporting
Speaker 1: life to be able to get through the hard times. Um,
Speaker 1: if you can get those hard times or whatever you do, UM,
Speaker 1: hopefully they're less and less and they become all easy times.
Speaker 1: But you just gotta be able to get through it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I said, probably I got one more. Uh. I heard
Speaker 1: someone say this long time ago, but bloom where your planet?
Speaker 1: So wherever you're at, you make the most of it.
Speaker 1: You know, you do your best and you literally just
Speaker 1: do that. You bloom, why you planet? Yeah, that's pretty good.
Speaker 1: This was fun. Yeah, we gotta cut to this a
Speaker 1: lot more of it was just good. We talked about
Speaker 1: a lot of stuff. Yeah, I like that. Yeah we
Speaker 1: should we should do a podcast. So jump into the
Speaker 1: theme music. Yeah we should have Johnathan Right, you are
Speaker 1: a unique person. You are well worth it, you are competent,
Speaker 1: and most of all, your lovable. I'm Steve Smith Senior,
Speaker 1: I'm Gerard Little John and this is cut to It.
Speaker 1: Cut to It was Steve Smith Senior. That is Me
Speaker 1: is a production of Cut to It LLC, Balto Creative Media,
Speaker 1: The Black Effect and I Heart Radio. For more podcast
Speaker 1: from I Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app,
Speaker 1: Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows
Speaker 1: from Cut to It. Executive producer Steve Smith, singer co
Speaker 1: host Gerard Little John, talent and booking manager Joe Fusci,
Speaker 1: Social media team Wesley Robinson and John Show from Balto
Speaker 1: Creative Media. Cut to It is produced by Brian Baltaschevitch
Speaker 1: and Meredith Carter, with production assistance by Alex Lebrek, Production
Speaker 1: coordinator Taylor Robinson. Theme music by Alex Johnson. Lyrics and
Speaker 1: vocals by Anthony Hamilton. You ain't heard about it, then
Speaker 1: we're about to let you know. It's all