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 I'm John and this is cut
Speaker 1: to It. Good do It, Good do It. They's getting
Speaker 1: down to do it. Good do it. We asked the
Speaker 1: questions you always want to know, but no one ever asked,
Speaker 1: let's cut to it. You ain't heard am about it,
Speaker 1: then we're about to let you know it's all man.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Cut to It Podcast. Ronnie Brown, former
Speaker 1: NFL running back and also one of the Auburns Great
Speaker 1: Duo's un running back history. Ronnie Brown, Welcome to the
Speaker 1: Cut to A podcast. Man, I appreciate it from b
Speaker 1: I appreciate this. I'm Steve. You know our co star,
Speaker 1: our co host, Gerard Little John A K G. And
Speaker 1: then you know backstage Joe he's doing he does all
Speaker 1: the backstage stuff in booking. Man, we got the three amigoes. Man,
Speaker 1: we do a really I got a really good team.
Speaker 1: And then Brian bought two Chevis and Taylor up on
Speaker 1: the up on the dial and uh man got a
Speaker 1: great team. And then Meredith Carter our producers. Well, man,
Speaker 1: we got I got a lot of got a lot
Speaker 1: of great people. Let me let me rephrase it. I
Speaker 1: got smarter people behind me. We got we brought the
Speaker 1: goones with us today. We got goons. We brought We're
Speaker 1: the goons. I'm y'all, good y'all, good y'all, some good folks.
Speaker 1: But goon is not the category album. I'm I'm gonna
Speaker 1: get my assworth if y'all my goons. I'm done in
Speaker 1: the podcast world. Yea, in the podcast world. I'm straight
Speaker 1: in the streets. Molly Wapping is coming. So let's get
Speaker 1: into it, man, so we can get down to your
Speaker 1: to the nuts and bolts of what you're doing right now,
Speaker 1: because I'm super excited about this because we have a
Speaker 1: lot of conversation here on the podcast on business and
Speaker 1: Corporate America versus the transition, the corporate America version and
Speaker 1: how they see things, and then obviously us being athletes
Speaker 1: and how making adjustment. So we'll we'll get into that,
Speaker 1: but you know, let's let's do a little some little
Speaker 1: ice breakers. Um. So, one thing from your childhood that
Speaker 1: you have carried into your adulthood is what man, It's
Speaker 1: I come from a small community, so it's probably just
Speaker 1: that lack of trust. Um, like you said that, you know,
Speaker 1: not really trusting a lot of people. I think that,
Speaker 1: you know, I think just looking at people for who
Speaker 1: they are. What's one of the worst jobs you've ever had? Man,
Speaker 1: I did construction right before I went off to school.
Speaker 1: They hand me on the roof retar and roofs Ye,
Speaker 1: that's that's that's manual labor right there, that's the dark
Speaker 1: skating work right there. We're gonna lead the brown back tests.
Speaker 1: And I get Here's the thing, though, man, construction work,
Speaker 1: I don't care what you are, who you think you are.
Speaker 1: It will let you know what you ain't for sure. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and let me know I ain't cut out for that.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you that I worked construction. You want a
Speaker 1: lot of truth on how long I worked. Whoever signed
Speaker 1: up for a man a lot of me. So the
Speaker 1: lie is, man I worked the whole summer. The truth
Speaker 1: is I worked two days and I was done. They
Speaker 1: had me in Utah working construction, and they had us
Speaker 1: doing a drill like chiseling down dirt. Well, my first
Speaker 1: day chiseling, I chisel for about two and a half
Speaker 1: three hours. I tell you, I was still shaking at
Speaker 1: lunch like I was holding it, holding the chiller. I
Speaker 1: was shaking. I said, man, I am not working. This
Speaker 1: is not me. I went to school not to do this,
Speaker 1: and this show me. No, sir, I am not built
Speaker 1: for manual labor. I'll make I'll make food, I'll cook,
Speaker 1: I'll sweet this right here, this here, this construction. It
Speaker 1: ain't for me. I had to shake the rest of
Speaker 1: the day like I was holding the chiseler walking around,
Speaker 1: I was drying. I was like this. I was like, man,
Speaker 1: this is m all right. Last one. One thing we
Speaker 1: don't know about you that you like to share. I
Speaker 1: actually wanted to be a professional baseball player. Baseball was
Speaker 1: my first love. Okay, what possession? Center field? Oh yeah, Well,
Speaker 1: let me tell you something. I'm thinking that little mustache
Speaker 1: you got under your lip, you need to shave it.
Speaker 1: I don't want to ask you for years anyway, like
Speaker 1: why you wear your hat like that? Why you want
Speaker 1: to be in the build up? What's up with that? Well,
Speaker 1: since we're gonna talk about questions today, Well, honestly, so,
Speaker 1: I used to wear them like you know how you
Speaker 1: used to wear the hats and you go down like
Speaker 1: baseball player. Yeah, like baseball player. Well, hell, you can't
Speaker 1: see like you know how you turn left or turn right.
Speaker 1: And the truth is, one time I went forward and
Speaker 1: I hit my head's like the I was like, man,
Speaker 1: this ship is getting in the way. And I've been
Speaker 1: wearing hats since I was like ten years old, so
Speaker 1: I just but the point of the bat. It's my
Speaker 1: damn head. It ain't It's just like your nasty lips.
Speaker 1: It's my head. I people was asking many les, ain't
Speaker 1: got no problem with my hat collection, because they I
Speaker 1: stayed getting a new fitted all the time. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I just like thething like that. I don't know. I
Speaker 1: mean the other didn't see. I don't know if it
Speaker 1: was a reason behind it. Yeah, because that's how I
Speaker 1: wanted it. Is it okay? Like does it bother you
Speaker 1: a little bit? Hey? Man, you liked it? I love it.
Speaker 1: That means yes, running funny already you know it's funny,
Speaker 1: And we probably would agree this conversation and banter normally
Speaker 1: does not happen on the football field, especially with us
Speaker 1: being older and then a new generation they're cool like this.
Speaker 1: But the old generator, boy, we did not banter. We
Speaker 1: did not talk. It was professional dislike, is that is
Speaker 1: that accurate? Yeah, we ain't got nothing to talk about.
Speaker 1: We got to talk about doing the game. This it's different,
Speaker 1: like these cats different, like they to the McDonald's Alive.
Speaker 1: I went to the McDonald's All American Game a few
Speaker 1: years ago, and usually growing up how I grew up.
Speaker 1: If you and I didn't play basketball. But if you're
Speaker 1: a guy on this side of town, you hear the
Speaker 1: guy on the other side of town supposed to be
Speaker 1: the best when you're playing. Definitely like now, like they're cool,
Speaker 1: they'd be dapping up doing they helped each other. I'm like, bro,
Speaker 1: this game doesn't change. It's just different. A lot of friendships.
Speaker 1: Are you friends with the with the cat who's on
Speaker 1: the rival team of the school that's down the street.
Speaker 1: Now we're not. We're not friends like we might. We
Speaker 1: might play a you together, we made cross shoulders, but
Speaker 1: like you still ain't like cool cool like that, Like no,
Speaker 1: we wanted to be Brandon sets Pete. You ain't trying
Speaker 1: to be like them. You ain't. We ain't kicking it.
Speaker 1: It's a little different. It is different. Yeah, it's a
Speaker 1: lot different. I remember having cousins on the other team,
Speaker 1: like our rival team. They were gonna get it, just
Speaker 1: like they were gonna get it first. They were gonna
Speaker 1: get it first, like hey, you you relative, so you
Speaker 1: know how it's gonna gets Look already know I know
Speaker 1: cousin Ronnie, So let me get him out the way now. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so that's why I just I've been wearing my hats
Speaker 1: ever since. I like it this way. And I don't
Speaker 1: know as one as one social media person said, um,
Speaker 1: I was reading comment. He said, Man, a hat company.
Speaker 1: See Steve Smith coming and they get upset. You know,
Speaker 1: you grew up in the country. You kind of rough. Oh,
Speaker 1: I tell you I did. I didn't go to the dentist.
Speaker 1: I was in the league thirteen cavities later. I'm good.
Speaker 1: I noticed that too, Bro, I love you, but I
Speaker 1: noticed we really didn't got out of the first second. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he got the most jokes ever. Watching these two dudes play,
Speaker 1: it was pretty hold on one thing. I do have
Speaker 1: a bone the pit Cadillaci, damn ro Ronnie Brown. They're
Speaker 1: doing that. Damn what was that? What was that office?
Speaker 1: Y'allway was running wildcat the wildcat man. We tried to
Speaker 1: do that. Do that here, Carolina when I was, I
Speaker 1: was at my prime. You better get that out of
Speaker 1: here with a real receiver out there. Y'all had no receiver.
Speaker 1: I know you have to be frustrated. Frustrated I had.
Speaker 1: Our offense coordinator was Dan Henney. Yeah, bro, listen, that
Speaker 1: was a default offense for us. You gotta understand. I
Speaker 1: played in Miami for six years and I think I
Speaker 1: had ten eleven different quarterbacks. That strategy it was. They
Speaker 1: still ain't they still ain't recover. They're still looking for
Speaker 1: a quarterback. But they still living. They still living in
Speaker 1: Marino days. Marino ain't coming back, all right. So you know,
Speaker 1: tell us where are you from? In a place you
Speaker 1: call your hometown. So I grew up in a little
Speaker 1: tack called Cartersdal like north of Atlanta, about forty five minutes,
Speaker 1: but I had to live in like Atlanta now down
Speaker 1: south Georgia. Boy, So yeah, authentically the word, but like
Speaker 1: that's that's my word. Yeah, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: Where you're from? The whole nine? Yeah, I read you
Speaker 1: said you didn't have a lot. Explain to us growing
Speaker 1: up without a lot, Because there's some folks without a lot.
Speaker 1: It varies and it looks differently. Yeah, for me, I
Speaker 1: mean it was, I mean it was I grew up
Speaker 1: in a like I said, small town, but both of
Speaker 1: my parents, you know, had drug issues. Who you know,
Speaker 1: I'm fortunately have passed over the last year, my mom
Speaker 1: COVID and my dad from cancer. But just you know,
Speaker 1: in a situation like that, I mean, it was small town,
Speaker 1: you know, and you hear the they're saying it takes
Speaker 1: a village. Well, you know, I had cousin. I grew
Speaker 1: up in the trailer. You know, we had the carosene
Speaker 1: heater where you had to go out and pump the
Speaker 1: little carrosene in it. And so growing up, you know,
Speaker 1: in an environment like that. Our road that I lived
Speaker 1: on was called Brown Road. So most of the people
Speaker 1: on my on my road, you know, at that time,
Speaker 1: were relatives. Yeah, that's the story. People don't don't hear,
Speaker 1: right because they look at you and they see what
Speaker 1: you've done, who you are, and they automatically assume no,
Speaker 1: he you know what's the word that you know, he's
Speaker 1: he's entitled. He he doesn't know what hard work looks like.
Speaker 1: But there's people that, like you're saying, you kerosene heater
Speaker 1: and the trailer and there's some folks I was poor man.
Speaker 1: I ain't had no jars. And you remember that, and
Speaker 1: you remember that and you take it with you. You
Speaker 1: never you never, you never leave that behind. No, they don't.
Speaker 1: You grew up playing baseball, like you said, But what
Speaker 1: other sports did you love as a kid. I mean
Speaker 1: it was baseball and football. For me. I had an
Speaker 1: older brother who you know, he wrestled, um, he did baseball,
Speaker 1: he did football. But you know, for me, it was
Speaker 1: I was the youngest in the family too, and so
Speaker 1: I had older cousins and so the big thing was,
Speaker 1: you know, they were gonna, you know, they beat up
Speaker 1: on me. You know, my brother he's seven years older,
Speaker 1: and so just that whole situation and it made me tough,
Speaker 1: but it made me want to be like them, and
Speaker 1: so and it was just I stuck to them too,
Speaker 1: and that was, you know, really my escape. You know,
Speaker 1: a lot of us say, you know, I think just
Speaker 1: realistically speaking for a lot of you know, athletes, for
Speaker 1: the majority of us, you know, we're from environments where
Speaker 1: it's not a lot there's not a lot of resources,
Speaker 1: and so you know, I like those type of guys
Speaker 1: because they have an edge to them, but more importantly,
Speaker 1: like it's just you know, I didn't I didn't think
Speaker 1: about going to college until my sophomore year when I
Speaker 1: started to get letter letters and I'm like, oh, this
Speaker 1: might be real because neither one of my parents went
Speaker 1: to school. And so for me, my motivation, I wasn't
Speaker 1: running to the NFL. I was running from my current environment,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. Like growing up, you know,
Speaker 1: both of my parents, you know, they get in the
Speaker 1: fist fights, like you know, my dad unfortunately, you know,
Speaker 1: it was a big drinker. My mom as well, you know,
Speaker 1: the drugs and all of that stuff. So I'm like,
Speaker 1: the only way out is through this round, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. And so you know, when you look
Speaker 1: at that, my whole motivation was I when I went
Speaker 1: to go to school, I don't want to come back
Speaker 1: to this environment. Let's it's a choice that I made
Speaker 1: that once I go to school, I gotta go back.
Speaker 1: And so just kind of keeping that as motivation, that
Speaker 1: was something that you know, I always stuck to the
Speaker 1: back of my head because I mean the other part
Speaker 1: of people got to realize too. I was never a
Speaker 1: start running back like at all the university, my rookie
Speaker 1: year we had Rudy Johnson, he went to the league,
Speaker 1: and then the next year Cadillac comes in. He's the starter.
Speaker 1: So I'm a backup. And then to get drafted where
Speaker 1: I did, that was a bonus. And then getting in Miami.
Speaker 1: You know, I spent my whole career splitting time with Ricky,
Speaker 1: So it was just a lot different for me. And
Speaker 1: so it had to be that grind mentality. What what
Speaker 1: what double back to? You know, you having all these
Speaker 1: stences as a running back, But who was Ronnie Brown
Speaker 1: as a kid. You've you've referenced your parents, You've referenced
Speaker 1: Brown Road. Who was Ronnie himself as a kid? I
Speaker 1: mean for me, I mean, I'm just a humble guy,
Speaker 1: small town guy, um, you know, with aspirations of being more,
Speaker 1: you know, even to this day, like after you know,
Speaker 1: going to the NFL. I didn't look at that as
Speaker 1: a career. I just looked at it as an opportunity. Um.
Speaker 1: One the motivation was to put my parents in the
Speaker 1: better situation, but also just paying it forward like with
Speaker 1: my kids and my kids kids, just changing the trajectory
Speaker 1: of that family structure. Um, you know, whereas I didn't
Speaker 1: have the aspirations like of knowing you know what it's
Speaker 1: like to expect to go to a college or university.
Speaker 1: But now my kids, you know, my wife and I
Speaker 1: both graduated from Harvard. So for my kids, we go
Speaker 1: to gymnastics, needs, we go to basketball games, football game.
Speaker 1: The expectation for my kids when I get to college.
Speaker 1: And so you know, my son's eight, my daughter six,
Speaker 1: and so for them to even say that, that's a
Speaker 1: win for me, you know what I mean? Man, talking
Speaker 1: about college, I didn't realize you had committed to the
Speaker 1: University of Tennessee as a linebacker. Yeah, why, How like
Speaker 1: you play running back, right, but you committed to being
Speaker 1: a linebacker. Why? Yeah? So in in high school when
Speaker 1: you're on you know you're from a small town, you know,
Speaker 1: I mean, I wasn't from a small town. I played
Speaker 1: It's a lot of dudes that played dump, you know,
Speaker 1: both sides. Yeah yeah, So I played both ways, and
Speaker 1: so I played strong safety, and I played some lineback,
Speaker 1: and I played running back. And so you know, my
Speaker 1: first probably couple off of with the exception of you know,
Speaker 1: Georgia Tech. Most of those guys Clemson, um, you know Tennessee,
Speaker 1: they wanted me to play linebacker, and so you know,
Speaker 1: I just wanted to rock. You know, the guys that
Speaker 1: carried the mere get to score the touchdowns, and so
Speaker 1: you know, that was what my passion was at. So
Speaker 1: when I committed to Tennessee, you know, they had Jamal
Speaker 1: Lewis and uh um, what's Travis's last? Travis Travis, And
Speaker 1: so I'm like, man, I like the way these guys
Speaker 1: running the football, and so I'm like, man, I want
Speaker 1: to go here. And you know, they stilled they downhill
Speaker 1: approach and then when they started then coaches started talking
Speaker 1: about possible moving the linebacker and all of this stuff.
Speaker 1: I'm like, man, wait a minute, let me let me
Speaker 1: see what else out there. So I took one official
Speaker 1: visit and went to Auburn. And how I got committed
Speaker 1: the album was when I first got there, I was
Speaker 1: recruited to play baseball there as well, and so the
Speaker 1: first style was the baseball facility and then ended up
Speaker 1: locking it. It was like a small town, ain't nothing
Speaker 1: in the aver but Alver and so I was like, man,
Speaker 1: this feels like home. And so I end up committing
Speaker 1: to Tennessee. I meant to albur or de commend from
Speaker 1: Tennessee going to Auburn like a week or so before
Speaker 1: signing day, And so, were you gonna play baseball as well?
Speaker 1: Are you just you were just set on playing football? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I thought about it. You know, in that recruiting you
Speaker 1: know how a lot of them conversations go, you hear
Speaker 1: a lot of stuff. Yeah, a lot of stuff that
Speaker 1: might not necessarily be true when you get there. And so,
Speaker 1: you know, when I got there, it was like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: you can't play baseball. But since you have a football scholarship,
Speaker 1: all the obligations for football come first. So you come
Speaker 1: to win the workouts, you come to all of this stuff.
Speaker 1: Then you go to baseball practice and I'm like, man,
Speaker 1: the first year after seeing it, you know, I end
Speaker 1: up red shirting, trying to do that wasn't playing and
Speaker 1: trying to do school. I'm like, yeah, I'm gonna be
Speaker 1: one of them tests to be back at the career
Speaker 1: real fast. So I ain't even I ain't never give
Speaker 1: it a shot. That's one of my biggest regrets though,
Speaker 1: that I didn't give it a shot. This is a
Speaker 1: non football question, but how much did college prepare you
Speaker 1: for life? Not much at all? You know, I think
Speaker 1: the big part about it, the biggest thing that came
Speaker 1: from sports to me was, you know, I met a
Speaker 1: lot of people that I wouldn't have other otherwise met,
Speaker 1: you know, like being on this podcast, like a crossing
Speaker 1: paths with someone of you know, your statue, Meeting guys
Speaker 1: like you guys. You know, I think that was the
Speaker 1: biggest thing that football deal for me. But outside of that,
Speaker 1: in terms of you know, me coming and going in
Speaker 1: corporate America, I had zero preparations, especially like even getting drafted.
Speaker 1: You know, I wasn't financially ready. I didn't understand that,
Speaker 1: and so, you know, whow draft day was probably one
Speaker 1: of the most exciting days. It was also one of
Speaker 1: the scariest coming from where I come from. I didn't
Speaker 1: know what to do with it. And then you gotta
Speaker 1: think somebody to give me money and take me and
Speaker 1: put me in a city like Miami. Um, you know
Speaker 1: that was kind of how do I navigate this? And
Speaker 1: in the back of my mind and I'm thinking, I
Speaker 1: just don't want to be one of them guys that
Speaker 1: go broke and not really know what the situation or
Speaker 1: mess this situation up. Thanks for listening to my dad.
Speaker 1: And talk a lot. He loves to talk. Just give
Speaker 1: him a minute and he'll be right back. I love
Speaker 1: cut to It, and I love it even more when
Speaker 1: you download us and subscribe, and you can follow us
Speaker 1: on social media too, Smithie, Where where at? That's at?
Speaker 1: Cut to It on Instagram? What about Twitter? At? Cut
Speaker 1: 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 us 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. You're a financial advisor
Speaker 1: now and you get to look back at Ronnie when
Speaker 1: he got drafted. You know your story, right, and this
Speaker 1: isn't a time for us to dredge up and then
Speaker 1: try to poke hose through your story. But just to
Speaker 1: hear you're going backwards into saying like were you really
Speaker 1: set up for success? And if you were not, why
Speaker 1: is that? Because before you answer, there are a ton
Speaker 1: of people right just you know, we can all drive
Speaker 1: past the situation and assume why that individual is there
Speaker 1: for instance, mental health, right some people mental health or
Speaker 1: even if you take an aspirin, you're take an aspirin
Speaker 1: for the symptoms. But sometimes we don't go to the
Speaker 1: root cause. And you being a financial advisor now and
Speaker 1: also being the kid with the headache when you're in
Speaker 1: the league, you would take and asper. But now you're
Speaker 1: a financial planning you get to go to the root cause.
Speaker 1: What do you believe some of your root causes were
Speaker 1: for you in some of the financial prosperity and mistakes
Speaker 1: that you made as a young man, you know, the environment,
Speaker 1: not even knowing what wealth accumulation was. You know, I
Speaker 1: think the majority of US athletes, our exposure to to
Speaker 1: wealth is usually tied to debt initially um and so
Speaker 1: growing up, why do you think it's tied to debt?
Speaker 1: Let's just say for me, like, let's just say one year,
Speaker 1: like for Christmas, we couldn't afford you know, Christmas presents,
Speaker 1: and so you know, luckily I have a set of
Speaker 1: god parents, you know, white family that came in and
Speaker 1: I met my god brother at six years old. Plan
Speaker 1: you know, a recreation football. But one year my mom
Speaker 1: took you know my name, and you know, I'm junior.
Speaker 1: We applied for a credit card. That was how we
Speaker 1: got Christmas presents for that year. And so not until
Speaker 1: after I graduated and I got drafted, I paid that off.
Speaker 1: And so my initial experience with having money was dead
Speaker 1: because I didn't know how to have money because I
Speaker 1: come from an environment where, you know, I was taught
Speaker 1: to survive. I never understood the benefits of thriving. I
Speaker 1: never heard of, you know, five to nine accounts. I
Speaker 1: never heard of some of these things to set you up,
Speaker 1: you know, even life insurance. So there were certain things
Speaker 1: that I didn't even know about that I had to
Speaker 1: educate my cell phone. And so when you come from
Speaker 1: that type of environment, you don't know and you don't
Speaker 1: know what you don't know. And so you know, when
Speaker 1: you asked me about how to school prepare you for that,
Speaker 1: it doesn't because realistically speaking, a lot of the coaches
Speaker 1: that are tied to universities, their job is to win.
Speaker 1: They're not tied to you know, you going to class
Speaker 1: or seeing what your major is. They don't ask you that.
Speaker 1: Like the one thing that most coaches and I ain't
Speaker 1: gonna say all is like are you eligible? It ain't
Speaker 1: us your g p A or what are you majoring
Speaker 1: in or what are you planning on doing? It's are
Speaker 1: you eligible? And then I don't even think it's coincidental
Speaker 1: that when you first get to school you bugged out
Speaker 1: with a bunch of elective classes. This has nothing to
Speaker 1: do with you know what you're trying to get into.
Speaker 1: What's happening post college. You do a bunch of electives,
Speaker 1: and I think the initial thought is let's get in,
Speaker 1: help them get transition, to keep them eligible for sports.
Speaker 1: And then the ones that showed that they've got a
Speaker 1: lot of ability, those are the ones that we're gonna
Speaker 1: keep around. But the ones that don't, that's how we
Speaker 1: weed out the process. Um and so it ain't even
Speaker 1: a good process when you start from it. And you know,
Speaker 1: you hear a lot of the arguments, oh yeah, you
Speaker 1: got a free education. Where you got to think about it,
Speaker 1: the majority of these guys didn't even go to college
Speaker 1: to go to school. They're going because of the opportunity
Speaker 1: to use this for a way to get to where
Speaker 1: they're trying to get to. I mean, I think you
Speaker 1: brought up an interesting point. It's on one hand, I
Speaker 1: can look at my college experience and say, I meant
Speaker 1: connections that have put me into the trajectory of my
Speaker 1: career and entrepreneur journey to where you know, they open
Speaker 1: up a spot at the table for me. But other hand,
Speaker 1: I agree with you running into where I wasn't prepared
Speaker 1: for adulthood. Through through college, you don't learn about balancing
Speaker 1: the checkbook, you don't learn about that income ratio, you
Speaker 1: don't necessarily nless. You're like an economics major, but you
Speaker 1: don't necessarily learn all those tangible things. So it's it
Speaker 1: goes both ways. But I think ultimately the root of
Speaker 1: it goes to and I think it even just extends
Speaker 1: outside of athletes. Is just financial literacy. If that, if
Speaker 1: that isn't passed down or if it isn't taught, it
Speaker 1: can evade someone very very quickly. Yeah, and and that's
Speaker 1: most guys story. Think about it, like you come from
Speaker 1: an environment and then you go into this to play sports.
Speaker 1: You know, you don't have a coach or even just
Speaker 1: let me take a step back, growing up, like we
Speaker 1: don't apply educational knowledge. Like my son is eight years old,
Speaker 1: and so when he goes out, everybody, oh, like Reese Brown,
Speaker 1: he's the fastest guy in third grade, like the way
Speaker 1: that they applaud that they don't do the same thing
Speaker 1: for education and information because at the same time, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm looking at him and talk about the importance of
Speaker 1: going to school, and he's like, well, I don't want
Speaker 1: to be labeled as a nerd, and so you know,
Speaker 1: there's a negative connotation with being a smart kid, you know,
Speaker 1: And so I think that was the case even growing up,
Speaker 1: Like you didn't want to be the smart kid. So
Speaker 1: that's why a lot of guys acted out or you know,
Speaker 1: it was kind of like the envy part of because
Speaker 1: I'm not smart, I get a chance to be a
Speaker 1: bully and so make it not cool to be the
Speaker 1: smart guy. And so, you know, I think that's a
Speaker 1: that's you that's another issue in itself, like they don't
Speaker 1: apply education or it's just that people don't like you
Speaker 1: can't pass down something that you don't have. So I
Speaker 1: think that's the other part too, that that that that
Speaker 1: that information isn't obtained, so it can't be passed down.
Speaker 1: The other layer is they're also being a distraction because
Speaker 1: some of the um some of what they're learning or
Speaker 1: being taught, it isn't registering, right, they they're they're not
Speaker 1: grasping because we've taken out home economics. We're taken out that.
Speaker 1: You know. I I remember growing up when we did
Speaker 1: it every year. Man, we used to make this little
Speaker 1: stupid silly teddy beer. Right, used to sow it, cut
Speaker 1: it out, yarn, put the cotton in there, and you know,
Speaker 1: make a phase. I be, well, but we used to. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you used to do that and cook all of that stuff.
Speaker 1: They don't have it anymore. It's you remember drivers in
Speaker 1: used to be offered in school. I remember they took
Speaker 1: drivers at out of my high school like two years
Speaker 1: before I got to high school. Pretty much while I
Speaker 1: didn't get a drivers like I was about twin two,
Speaker 1: because you also, I also didn't have no folks to
Speaker 1: have insurance. You couldn't take the driver's test without insurance
Speaker 1: proof of insurance, so that ain't My family wasn't signed
Speaker 1: enough to get there are get the car taken. So
Speaker 1: it's uh so what what money wise? As an as
Speaker 1: an advisor and going into corporate America, it's been the
Speaker 1: hardest transition for you. Would you say it's hard to
Speaker 1: be in a former athlete to transition to corporate America
Speaker 1: because of how people UH view you a thousand percent,
Speaker 1: you know, and I think there's two hurdles, right, and
Speaker 1: so making that transition. One of the hurdles was because
Speaker 1: you know, I think certain people regarding me as a
Speaker 1: I guess someone who you know had been a professional
Speaker 1: being drafted, you know, second pick, and so wondering why
Speaker 1: like why would you transition into something else following you know,
Speaker 1: a career where you know, people look at it as, oh,
Speaker 1: I know how much money you made, And so in
Speaker 1: our own cults, especially as black people, is oh, you
Speaker 1: must to be broke since you're working. Um. But then
Speaker 1: wait till you downsize what size and your neighbors looking
Speaker 1: at you like, oh, you know, must tricked off his money.
Speaker 1: Not that I'm talking personal, just tell me what they
Speaker 1: say when you're down size, right, And so that part
Speaker 1: of it. But then also on the other end of
Speaker 1: the spectrum, the reason I emphasized education to my kids
Speaker 1: is transitioning into corporate America, I realized people don't respect
Speaker 1: athletes in an intellect you know what I mean, because
Speaker 1: and I've had a bunch of those conversations where, you know,
Speaker 1: when I first got into this and I'm taking the
Speaker 1: licensing exams and all of these things. You know, the
Speaker 1: first question is, uh, you know, did you take the
Speaker 1: series seven? Have you taken the sixty six? And I'm
Speaker 1: like yeah, and then like and you passed? And I'm
Speaker 1: like yeah, Like just you know. And so those comments
Speaker 1: saying what are you saying a whole because that's a
Speaker 1: that's all disrespectful. That's how they look at us. The
Speaker 1: thing that I think about is people respect you for
Speaker 1: what you do, but not for what you think. We
Speaker 1: we love, we love your talent, but we don't love
Speaker 1: your mind. I always talk about is how athletes, how
Speaker 1: we assess, how we must adjust at halftime and in practice?
Speaker 1: Right that how the corporate classroom lacks the adjustment They
Speaker 1: lack the ability to make. Like it takes six or
Speaker 1: seven months or sometimes six or seven years to even
Speaker 1: see the residdual of making one or two decisions, where
Speaker 1: those one and two decisions are the difference between winning
Speaker 1: and losing a game. And you you'll talk about it
Speaker 1: the following Monday after less than twenty four hours of
Speaker 1: of of experience in it. So, how did foot? How
Speaker 1: did how did play? In sports? And corporate America, Like,
Speaker 1: how did they bud heads from you being a high
Speaker 1: obtained performing individual? Yeah? Well, I think one thing is
Speaker 1: as athletes, who especially aspire to do things intellectually, you
Speaker 1: have an advantaged because, like you said, like as athletes,
Speaker 1: you learn how to deal with adversity, you learn how
Speaker 1: to be a team player and how to sacrifice. That
Speaker 1: ain't something necessarily true when you come into corporate America
Speaker 1: because that your existence is based on individual It's like
Speaker 1: you know everything that you learned up through you know,
Speaker 1: I think that point of marriage is what do I
Speaker 1: need to do to be better? Like? How can I
Speaker 1: do this? Like? What do I need to do? How?
Speaker 1: And so it's all pertaining to I. Whereas you learn
Speaker 1: a sense of sacrifice being an athlete, you learned how
Speaker 1: to deal with adversities, You learn how to deal with challenges.
Speaker 1: You know, I wouldn't call it failures, uh, I call
Speaker 1: it learning lessons, teachable moments, and so you learn those things.
Speaker 1: So coming into corporate America, I felt like I had
Speaker 1: an advantage. My biggest hurdle was people not wanting to
Speaker 1: allow me to grow outside of that box that they
Speaker 1: wanted to keep me in. As you know, the second
Speaker 1: overall pick the Miami Dolphin's former running back and wanting
Speaker 1: to keep me in that space. But intellectually, you know,
Speaker 1: I feel like there's you know, certain a lot of
Speaker 1: stuff to learn, but you know what we've done. It's
Speaker 1: not many people that can accomplish that. But being able
Speaker 1: to go and educate yourself, that's the easy part of
Speaker 1: all you have to do is apply yourself. And so,
Speaker 1: you know, I think that's what really helped me, even
Speaker 1: with going through those tests, Like those exams weren't easy,
Speaker 1: Like it's the first time in my life I ever
Speaker 1: took a six hour exam, But to sit there and
Speaker 1: be dedicated, I know what that's like. It took me
Speaker 1: twenty two years to get to the NFL or you know,
Speaker 1: we'd say probably six team because he started at six
Speaker 1: years old when I have started playing. And so to
Speaker 1: have that and understand what it means to be dedicated
Speaker 1: determined to an end goal, not a lot of people
Speaker 1: can say that, you know, And so I feel like
Speaker 1: that was my advantage and understanding that and being willing
Speaker 1: to do you know, because the guys like yourself to
Speaker 1: be like a guy that I you know, is a
Speaker 1: hall of fame wide receiver. There is a will the
Speaker 1: commitment that normal people A lot of people don't understand
Speaker 1: that you have to be willing to do and certain
Speaker 1: sacrifices that you have to make to get to that
Speaker 1: level of success. And so to know that you're able
Speaker 1: to do that when you know most people would have
Speaker 1: quit at certain moments like breaking your form a, certain things.
Speaker 1: Not everybody is willing to do that, and so I'm like, man,
Speaker 1: I'm willing to do something to not I'm willing to
Speaker 1: go you know where you are to get to where
Speaker 1: I'm trying to go. And part of that probably comes from,
Speaker 1: you know, an upbringing, but the other part of it is,
Speaker 1: you know, hey, just as a competitor, that's what I enjoy,
Speaker 1: like it's being better. What are some of the biggest
Speaker 1: misconceptions that you've seen transitioning for football into corporate America
Speaker 1: That people have things you've you have seen with your
Speaker 1: eyes because of being a football player, not allowing we
Speaker 1: call a Jedi mind trick. You know, when you're running back,
Speaker 1: you're sitting in there and the in the and you're
Speaker 1: right next to the quarterbacks. So the quarterback in the
Speaker 1: center has to make adjustments based on the defense, and
Speaker 1: if if the full if the free safety comes down,
Speaker 1: they slide and he comes down, and now he's the
Speaker 1: he's a he's a nickel uh linebacker, you know. And
Speaker 1: so they start to do things and then the quarterback
Speaker 1: says a magical word in that offense that tells all
Speaker 1: the other men we have to make an adjustment. How
Speaker 1: is the adjustment ability in corporate America when you compared
Speaker 1: to football and and and or sports in corporate America, Dude,
Speaker 1: I think we're starting to see the effects of that.
Speaker 1: You know, we talk about, uh, you know, all of
Speaker 1: this mental stuff that's going on. I think a huge
Speaker 1: part of that is due to these adversities and the
Speaker 1: lack of being able to make adjustments, you know. I
Speaker 1: think as an effect of that is a lot of
Speaker 1: the mental challenges we're seeing. Like I think that's you know,
Speaker 1: not what a lot of people used to, especially like
Speaker 1: in certain environments like my kids go to private school, right,
Speaker 1: and so I think one of the challenges in those
Speaker 1: environments is you're in a bubble because everybody around you
Speaker 1: is like you, you know, everybody has some type or
Speaker 1: for the most part, everybody has prominent financial means or
Speaker 1: everyone has shared goals of you know, where they come
Speaker 1: from where whereas you know, when you talk about getting
Speaker 1: outside of that bubble and the reality of life, not
Speaker 1: everyone can deal with that adversity. That's why I think
Speaker 1: there's you know, a huge upside to creating diverse companies
Speaker 1: or being in diverse company Like Steve see if you
Speaker 1: can put on a jacket and go a suit and
Speaker 1: tie and go into a room with a bunch of billionaires,
Speaker 1: or you can go to you know, to the middle
Speaker 1: of the hood in l A and hang out and
Speaker 1: be just as comfortable. Not everybody has that flexibility, and
Speaker 1: so being able to be able to be comfortable in
Speaker 1: those different environments gives you an advantage. And so a
Speaker 1: lot of times in corporate America, people don't have that
Speaker 1: flexibility and don't know how to make those you know,
Speaker 1: own side adjustments or in the moment adjustments when it
Speaker 1: comes to you know, those disappointments or those adversities when
Speaker 1: you first got onto the corporate America, did something with
Speaker 1: your ability to make the adjustments where they counterintuitive for
Speaker 1: your success originally a little bit, because I think that
Speaker 1: the reality of it is, like you lose a little
Speaker 1: bit of yourself, especially for me, Like, you know, I
Speaker 1: think to some degree at forty years old, now I
Speaker 1: don't think that I've always organically been myself. And that's
Speaker 1: sad to say. You know what I'm saying, I feel
Speaker 1: like in certain environments, you know, I in certain environments
Speaker 1: for me to make that transition, I feel like I
Speaker 1: had to assimilate to a certain environment, which made me uncomfortable, like,
Speaker 1: you know, going into it. You know, now I don't
Speaker 1: really wear suits, but when I first got into it,
Speaker 1: you know, I was dressing with slacks and you know,
Speaker 1: I look like a little insurance guy, but I was
Speaker 1: you know, I was trying to make everybody feel comfortable
Speaker 1: with my presence, but I was the most uncomfortable in that.
Speaker 1: So I think it made it hard because working with
Speaker 1: some athletes, they kind of looked at it like, oh,
Speaker 1: you lame now, you know what I'm saying. But then
Speaker 1: on the other end is you know, you're trying to
Speaker 1: fit into an environment, but you you really weren't meant
Speaker 1: to fit in anyway. UMHOA, WHOA, Why weren't you meant
Speaker 1: to fit in? Because you don't need to dress like
Speaker 1: an insurance guy to be in corporate America, like, just
Speaker 1: embrace it. You are who you are, Like, that's just
Speaker 1: not how I normally dress. So the confidence didn't even
Speaker 1: come off as such because I didn't feel comfortable with
Speaker 1: all right, man like instead of wearing you know, these
Speaker 1: these dress shoes, you know, I'm gonna come in there,
Speaker 1: I got you know, maybe some jeans and Stan Smith's
Speaker 1: and you know, maybe a button up or something, but
Speaker 1: not trying to look like everybody else when you know
Speaker 1: you're not like it, I'm not like everybody else, like,
Speaker 1: and so just getting to a point of comfortable to
Speaker 1: say that, like, man, listen, like, I'm not like you.
Speaker 1: My journey wasn't like yours, and so what I bring
Speaker 1: to the table is something totally different. And I just
Speaker 1: finally start I'm just finally starting to get to a
Speaker 1: point where I've accepted who I am to be able
Speaker 1: to go out and have those conversations as a representative
Speaker 1: of self and not trying to be something I'm not.
Speaker 1: How many years have you been yourself now, it's probably
Speaker 1: the first year where I'm just getting comfortable with you know,
Speaker 1: and I know where people what the saying means, like
Speaker 1: elevation requires separation, Like it's just some people that just
Speaker 1: got to get left, or some people are just not
Speaker 1: gonna accept you for who you are. But until you
Speaker 1: true to yourself, it's not really gonna matter anyway. And
Speaker 1: you so you're really not successful, even though you may
Speaker 1: reach some level of success. But if you're not yourself,
Speaker 1: then you're not really successful. And so you know, in
Speaker 1: going out of having these conversations, I'm just getting to
Speaker 1: a point to where I'm comfortable with acknowledging that and
Speaker 1: just saying, all right, man, if you don't mess with me,
Speaker 1: you just don't mess with me. Going along. But what's
Speaker 1: video said about misconceptions? Though? What's the biggest mixed conception
Speaker 1: that people have about money? From your perspective as financial aboster,
Speaker 1: The the more money you have, the more intelligent you are.
Speaker 1: It's a lot of dumb billionaires out there, ain't it.
Speaker 1: And and that's the exact thing that you know, and
Speaker 1: I see it all the time, especially when you talk about,
Speaker 1: you know, people with money. And then that goes back
Speaker 1: to the athletes. A lot of times for athletes, you
Speaker 1: get drafted, you get these big signing bonuses. People expect
Speaker 1: you to be responsible. I'm like, wait a minute, like
Speaker 1: these you twenty two years old, Like if I gave
Speaker 1: you anybody at two, you know, multiple million, you're gonna
Speaker 1: mess it up, especially when you have no idea what
Speaker 1: it looks like to have it, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: And so you know, we want to associate intelligence with
Speaker 1: well and there's a lot of dumbies out here. They
Speaker 1: can get the lottery, they got a lot of money,
Speaker 1: they don't know what to do with it. There's two
Speaker 1: things that I associate money is. A great example is one,
Speaker 1: I say, making an nfl IS because I've had people say,
Speaker 1: you know, how could you how could you trick off?
Speaker 1: How could you mess up the lot was a great
Speaker 1: example of people messing up money. And then also too
Speaker 1: being in the nfl IS. It is equivalent to getting
Speaker 1: your tax return. How many times just for me and
Speaker 1: my family, Well we got that tax return. That thing
Speaker 1: was spent before we got it. And then other thing.
Speaker 1: As a little kid, you want to know how a
Speaker 1: kid is gonna treat something. Give somebody, give a kid. Well,
Speaker 1: back in the day before it became electronic, and you know,
Speaker 1: like David Buster's with the car card, give a kid
Speaker 1: five or ten bucks and take them to the to
Speaker 1: the arcade. Man, I just remember getting that five dollars,
Speaker 1: a couple of dollars when it used to be a quarter. Man,
Speaker 1: Give me a dollar and go play Miss pac Man. Right,
Speaker 1: you got those four quarters and it cost you know,
Speaker 1: three quarters to play. You don't even know. You can
Speaker 1: see a kid how they are, and you can see
Speaker 1: adult how they are is how they play video game
Speaker 1: is in a in rk with their kids. When you
Speaker 1: get those points, you get that charge card when you
Speaker 1: don't have to pay attention to it. You can you
Speaker 1: can get a charge card to David Busters for you know,
Speaker 1: five thousand points for forty bucks, and in twenty in
Speaker 1: less than ten minutes, that card is down to zero
Speaker 1: that quick because you don't have to think about it.
Speaker 1: You just get the swite or you know covid, you
Speaker 1: know tag it or you know wanded over and all
Speaker 1: of a sudden you're done good, do good? Do it?
Speaker 1: Get 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. Hey, we'll
Speaker 1: be remissed or running if we didn't. You know, at
Speaker 1: least talk about your football career. And you mentioned Auburn
Speaker 1: just a little bit, but everyone of course remembers that
Speaker 1: duou and cadlight william is one of the best running
Speaker 1: back duos in history. SEC y'all had that undefeated season
Speaker 1: and oh four, just what are some of your fondest
Speaker 1: memories of of playing at Auburn. You know, for me,
Speaker 1: it was just, uh, that relationship. You know, the guys
Speaker 1: that I came in with, you know in thousand the
Speaker 1: guys I got recruited with, you know, my roommate with
Speaker 1: Jason campbell Um, you know, Cadillan and Carlos Rogers came
Speaker 1: in the following year, and so just rowing with that
Speaker 1: group of guys and establishing those buns. I think that's
Speaker 1: what's different than being in the NFL locker room. It's
Speaker 1: because you know, you're adults. You know, everybody got responsibility,
Speaker 1: some guys got families, and so you're not really creating
Speaker 1: that camaraderie like in two thousand four. You know, over
Speaker 1: those few years, we did everything together. We went out,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. We went to the bars,
Speaker 1: we hung out, we did everything, and we created, you know,
Speaker 1: an environments where we believe in each other. And then
Speaker 1: even before they is we got to know each other,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Like I know where you
Speaker 1: know Steve is from. Like I got to know about
Speaker 1: his family, like what motivated him. And so when I
Speaker 1: line up beside the guy, we go through the offseason
Speaker 1: worked out, I know exactly what I'm gonna get, so
Speaker 1: when we get on the field, it's easy to trust him.
Speaker 1: Like especially for the guy that you know that you
Speaker 1: you know just you tie it with, you know, I
Speaker 1: know exactly what I'm about to get out of them,
Speaker 1: and so creating those bonds, like that's the best part
Speaker 1: about sport for me is I'm addicted to being a competitor,
Speaker 1: Like I compete in everything. I hate to lose more
Speaker 1: than I like to win. And so being in that environment,
Speaker 1: getting to know guys, you know, that was that was
Speaker 1: the cool part. Then Jason, you you started to mention
Speaker 1: on names, Carlos Rogers, hell of a dB right that
Speaker 1: was stacked. But Jason, Jason Campbell I think of Jason Campbell.
Speaker 1: He was a guy that didn't get a fair opportunity
Speaker 1: when you look at when you look at his college career,
Speaker 1: and then you look at his football career. Every year
Speaker 1: he had a new coordinator. He never got to a
Speaker 1: just and get comfortable and and and that's the same
Speaker 1: thing in financial world. How can you how can you
Speaker 1: really gain any traction, have any kind of residual passive
Speaker 1: income mailbox money if you're constantly transactionally changing philosophies, you
Speaker 1: know to where it just doesn't help you. And Jason
Speaker 1: Campbell is one of those guys. When I go back
Speaker 1: and as an analyst, I go back and go, man,
Speaker 1: this dude with the forty and honors, with the with
Speaker 1: the Washington UH Washington Commanders, Washington football team. He never
Speaker 1: had consistency. It was always he was always moving. It
Speaker 1: was always a moving target. The gold post always moved
Speaker 1: for him. Now that you are a financial planner, and
Speaker 1: now you've been on in football, mh going backwards of
Speaker 1: what you knew being a Miami Dolphin, being an Auburn Tiger,
Speaker 1: what what would you change or alter for yourself or
Speaker 1: other men or women coming out of college that can
Speaker 1: help help you stay on the right path. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think bro, the real, the honest part of that is
Speaker 1: understanding the power of education. You know, and I think
Speaker 1: we all hear it. Knowledge is power, but to really
Speaker 1: understand it at this space, especially as athletes, because you know,
Speaker 1: I go into these different environments and a lot of
Speaker 1: these guys look at athletes just like pray because you're
Speaker 1: gonna get a lot of money, but you don't have
Speaker 1: a lot of understanding and knowledge. So that creates opportunity
Speaker 1: to take advantage of guys. And so there's a lot
Speaker 1: of that that happens. But just in general and life,
Speaker 1: the more knowledgeable you are, you can limit a lot
Speaker 1: of the b s, a lot of the I think
Speaker 1: bad decisions and make more educated decisions. And so you know,
Speaker 1: as individuals, we gotta be willing to educate ourselves involved
Speaker 1: and engage ourselves in the process. You know, too many times,
Speaker 1: you know, even myself. That's part of the reason I
Speaker 1: transition is there was too many times I gave people
Speaker 1: power and rain over my financial situation, you know, without
Speaker 1: getting an understanding of it. You see guys all the time,
Speaker 1: like you're in the locker room, you ask a guy.
Speaker 1: You know, whether you don't have a lot of financial conversations,
Speaker 1: but when you do, it's like, hey, how much you
Speaker 1: pay your guy? And it's like, oh, I pay one percent.
Speaker 1: Most guys don't even know one percent of wood or
Speaker 1: how that's made up, or what the constructor how that's constructed,
Speaker 1: or you know, and getting involved in it, you hold
Speaker 1: your agent more accountable than you do your financial vious.
Speaker 1: It's like, what's up with this deal? What's up with it?
Speaker 1: And we don't have those comments. And so we have
Speaker 1: to make it normal to educate ourselves about the stuff
Speaker 1: that we're involved in, whether it's businesses, investments, you know,
Speaker 1: life people that were involving and allowing to be a
Speaker 1: part of our circles. It's just the education that has
Speaker 1: to be there. Both both of y'all lightly touched on
Speaker 1: mental health. But Ronnie, what do you do in terms
Speaker 1: of taking care of your mental you You've mentioned both
Speaker 1: of your parents recently passed away. I can relate to that.
Speaker 1: I just had a parent that that I lost in
Speaker 1: the past years. So what do you do to take
Speaker 1: care of yourself mentally? You know, I'm working on that,
Speaker 1: you know, and I'm acknowledging that, you know, because I
Speaker 1: appreciate that. I appreciate that. I wish because we all
Speaker 1: have trauma from growing up, you know, certain environments, certain
Speaker 1: things that we dealt with, and that shapes us the
Speaker 1: older we get, whether it's the parenting style or different
Speaker 1: things that how we respond to certain you know, situations.
Speaker 1: And so I actually just had a conversation with my
Speaker 1: wife the last few months about I mean, I think
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go start seeing like a therapist or something
Speaker 1: just to kind get someone get some of those things
Speaker 1: out that I know it down there before. You know,
Speaker 1: at some point if they you know, as I get
Speaker 1: older and certain things that I experienced that they started
Speaker 1: to kind of come back and and show their face.
Speaker 1: And so, you know, that's something that I want to
Speaker 1: get get more involved with. It's easy to bear it,
Speaker 1: and it's easy to pretend like it's not there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you know, I think jay Z his whole you know,
Speaker 1: I think his quote was, you know, you can't heal
Speaker 1: something that you're not willing to reveal. And so I
Speaker 1: know it's some stuff down there that I just need
Speaker 1: to get out and have a conversation about. What's some
Speaker 1: of the disadvantages you have now is have ever a
Speaker 1: advisor walking into some of these meetings with sooner be
Speaker 1: athletes or sooner get drafted, or do you stay away
Speaker 1: from athletes? You know, yeah, yeah no, And working with that.
Speaker 1: The biggest part of that is thro the hurdle of
Speaker 1: I'm not entertaining the boy ship. I'm not telling the
Speaker 1: guy man, listen, I'm gonna help you finance this car.
Speaker 1: Are like, bro, you don't need none of that stuff.
Speaker 1: And it's not shiny. It's not attractive to a lot
Speaker 1: of these young guys, especially being in those situations, because
Speaker 1: I know how that ends up for a lot of guys.
Speaker 1: I've seen it, and so and just knowing that a
Speaker 1: lot of these guys aren't for you. You know, it's
Speaker 1: a transactional relationship, you know, and we all know how
Speaker 1: some of those relationships start. But at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, as a business guy, logically speaking, there's nothing
Speaker 1: free in life. And so if you wanted them guys,
Speaker 1: has somebody been giving you money to sign with them,
Speaker 1: you gotta understand just in the nature of business, they're
Speaker 1: gonna recoup their money first before anything happens. And so,
Speaker 1: you know, just not being willing to even have those
Speaker 1: conversations with guys. It probably cuts off a lot of
Speaker 1: access to a lot of people. Um. But then also
Speaker 1: on the other side of it, it's being a threat
Speaker 1: to a lot of the guys that are already in
Speaker 1: it because I'm not willing to tell a guy a lie,
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna keep it, you know, a buck with
Speaker 1: them and tell them the truth about how this works
Speaker 1: because I'm not interested. I don't I don't want to
Speaker 1: share in your fame and order. I don't care about
Speaker 1: going to professional games and being on the sideline of
Speaker 1: being on your Instagram. I got my own family, And
Speaker 1: so at the end of the day, I'm here to
Speaker 1: hopefully for you to assist you in life after this over,
Speaker 1: because it don't make no sense if you go through
Speaker 1: all of this and you finished and you ain't got
Speaker 1: nothing to show for it, like that's a sense of failure.
Speaker 1: And so you know, my whole goal is for you
Speaker 1: when you when you finish this is to kind of
Speaker 1: create a lifestyle is sustainable and not being interested in
Speaker 1: what everybody else doing. And so you know, it limits
Speaker 1: the access um. It makes the entry point a lot
Speaker 1: harder because there's not a lot of relationships that are
Speaker 1: being created because it's not a lot of what we
Speaker 1: said earlier, authentic relationship. Has it been tough? Has it
Speaker 1: been tough for your relieving to to walk into walking too?
Speaker 1: This mean? Because I know, let's be honest, I know
Speaker 1: you didn't chat. I got my I got my combined
Speaker 1: book last last week. And in the combine book, um,
Speaker 1: they have things that you can fill out and it
Speaker 1: has miscellaneous information. And some of the miscellaneous information is
Speaker 1: information at these young men have divulged on their own.
Speaker 1: Mm hmmm, it is some there's some well of a
Speaker 1: tails in that thing. There's some well of a tails. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Now it's been tough, you know what I mean because
Speaker 1: making the transition one a lot of us. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm in a locker room with you. Then I transitioned
Speaker 1: in a few years later, you see me as a
Speaker 1: financial visor one you already don't trust that that process.
Speaker 1: And so strategically speaking, that's why I kind of went
Speaker 1: with a bigger firm and had to get in the
Speaker 1: credentials and all of that stuff. And then I compare
Speaker 1: that with the the real life experience of going through it.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm like, it ain't too many guys that
Speaker 1: can say they went and got drafted where I did,
Speaker 1: went through those experiences, but now on the other side
Speaker 1: of the table to assist you through that. And so
Speaker 1: you know, now I'm somewhat of a threat to a
Speaker 1: lot of guys, not right, So I'm affecting that chain
Speaker 1: of command because it's like, wait a minute, we allow
Speaker 1: running to get in one. He can speak the language
Speaker 1: of a lot of the athletes and he understands it.
Speaker 1: But then too, he has the ability to to give
Speaker 1: them the good advice about stuff that they're gonna experience
Speaker 1: and to keep it real life experiences and not try
Speaker 1: to hide in them. Because at the other end of that,
Speaker 1: I'm like, man, I don't even I don't need your money,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Like, I just it's it's
Speaker 1: exciting for me to be able to give you the
Speaker 1: game that I wish I had to know, you know.
Speaker 1: And a lot of times, Steve, you know, like because
Speaker 1: of that pride, we don't even keep it a hundred
Speaker 1: when our advisors, our people have taken advantage of us,
Speaker 1: or we get in situations like we don't share them
Speaker 1: stories with the young guys, you know what I mean
Speaker 1: about people that are you know, wronged us or whatever?
Speaker 1: Because that pride, we don't want to let nobody know
Speaker 1: that we were ball in this situation, so we don't
Speaker 1: even speak on it. And unfortunately the next guy gets
Speaker 1: taken advantage of. I used to my financial guy. I
Speaker 1: used to go from practice. I would go and watch
Speaker 1: him input the stocking, like just to make sure he
Speaker 1: did it right, and also that I can learn. So
Speaker 1: my financial guy, I have a good relationship where he
Speaker 1: was willing to teach me. So I actually interned. I interned.
Speaker 1: He was with U B s Ubs and then Morgan Stanley.
Speaker 1: I interned with him for two years and learned, and
Speaker 1: I was I was kind of on my route to
Speaker 1: take my serious seven and then my wife said, no, you, you,
Speaker 1: you and these numbers y'all need to give it a rest,
Speaker 1: right And and I'm a numbers guy already. You're talking
Speaker 1: about man, I can. I can sit with a note
Speaker 1: pad and inkpay, I can get after it. And so
Speaker 1: what what has been the most rewarding aspect of the
Speaker 1: of your of your new venture and job and and
Speaker 1: and to some degree you know, I'm not stepping on
Speaker 1: a limb here and saying it, but you do believe
Speaker 1: you're calling and what you feel like God has put
Speaker 1: you here not just to serve your family, not just
Speaker 1: be a great husband, to bring to be a great
Speaker 1: son and and and father, but just you know, also
Speaker 1: paying it forward. Yeah, and that's that's it, man. Like
Speaker 1: I believe in servant leadership, UM, and I feel like
Speaker 1: I was called to go through that whole experience of
Speaker 1: growing up how I did, going through all and going
Speaker 1: through the NFL, just to be in this situation to
Speaker 1: you know, assist people. You know, unfortunately people whold money
Speaker 1: in such a high regard, so to see them get
Speaker 1: that that financial freedom or to at least have a
Speaker 1: strategy of plan in place to where it creates some
Speaker 1: comfort and not you know, the pressures. You know, it's
Speaker 1: that's rewarding. And you know, I think knowledge and information
Speaker 1: only as good as your willingness to share that. And
Speaker 1: so it wouldn't do me any good to learn all
Speaker 1: this stuff if I'm not willing to share it with
Speaker 1: you know, a lot of the younger guys. You know,
Speaker 1: I work with a lot of none athletes as well,
Speaker 1: and so you know, that's that's the beauty in it, um,
Speaker 1: is being able to share that and see somebody feel
Speaker 1: comfortable with that, that whole process. So for people who
Speaker 1: may not know, what is servant leadership and how does
Speaker 1: that differ from other types of leadership for me, because
Speaker 1: I would never tell somebody to do something that I'm
Speaker 1: not willing to do myself, you know, just the same
Speaker 1: way that you know I'm telling you know, people to
Speaker 1: do stuff. That's what I'm doing myself. You know what
Speaker 1: I mean. And so you know, in this position, a
Speaker 1: lot of times we get it wrong. Is because as
Speaker 1: a leader, we feel like we stand in front of
Speaker 1: a group, we tell them what to do, and nobody's
Speaker 1: holding us accountable. But I'm like, man, listen, I'm in
Speaker 1: the bunker with you. You know what I mean, and
Speaker 1: so understanding, Like listen, when we when I say do this,
Speaker 1: it's from experience or it's from something that I'm doing myself. Now,
Speaker 1: will I always be right? Absolutely not. You can't always.
Speaker 1: You can't always predict an unpredictable, especially with money, um
Speaker 1: and human error, human feelings in the business ventures or
Speaker 1: or also the economy right right, And so I'm like,
Speaker 1: you know, I never era and you I mean if
Speaker 1: you hold me account I mean, if you you know,
Speaker 1: fire me from being honest with you. You know, then
Speaker 1: I'm fine with that. But you ain't gotta worry about
Speaker 1: me ever lying to you. You know, are trying to
Speaker 1: get over And so you know, I think when I
Speaker 1: think of servant leadership is you know, doing what I'm
Speaker 1: telling you to do myself, and you hold me just
Speaker 1: as accountable, you know, as because there's it's accountability thing.
Speaker 1: Who's the most difficult client It's the athletes because we
Speaker 1: don't know. And so there's an educational hurdle that you know,
Speaker 1: because I tell you should never invest in anything that
Speaker 1: you don't understand. And so if I try to make
Speaker 1: it too difficult understanding, you probably should be worried about
Speaker 1: what's happening. Um and so you know, this thing should
Speaker 1: be simple. And so there's not a lot of people
Speaker 1: willing to invest the time into the education process to
Speaker 1: make sure the athletes are comfortable or to know exactly
Speaker 1: what's going on because unsfortunately in certain situations, people are
Speaker 1: trying to hide something or there's just transparency. And so
Speaker 1: to be willing to make that commitment to educate these
Speaker 1: these young men, you know, it's a big key. And
Speaker 1: then you know, it's a time commitment and to know that,
Speaker 1: you know, my investment is seeing how well they do
Speaker 1: after this is all said and does. And so in
Speaker 1: dealing with that client Tere group, it's a lot it's
Speaker 1: a bit of a challenge because you know, there's a
Speaker 1: trust barrier that has to be there because you know,
Speaker 1: a lot of us don't even trust this process anyway
Speaker 1: because it's so new, like we didn't know and you
Speaker 1: you should grow up. You shouldn't trust a new process, right,
Speaker 1: especially with assets that you know you hopefully, hopefully you
Speaker 1: are going to be able to rely on for the
Speaker 1: rest of your life. And if you're doing it well
Speaker 1: enough and your advisor has the right perspective, it's generational changing,
Speaker 1: it's generational wealth. It should be uh actually, and this
Speaker 1: is my philosophy. You should you should have your money
Speaker 1: working for you to where you comfortably can take a
Speaker 1: portion out instead of aside for the next generation. So
Speaker 1: your grand your grand kids should be getting a portion
Speaker 1: of your assets just off rip. Because for me, when
Speaker 1: I look at wealth and other cultures, that's how it is.
Speaker 1: It's generational, Like you know, I say it for me.
Speaker 1: For black folks, sometimes we get jealous at inheritance. Right,
Speaker 1: we get jealous. Uh, she didn't even earn her money. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're right, because her her family decide it. We're going
Speaker 1: to invest in this. So Trey, right, Steven the third,
Speaker 1: like the third, you know it's Steven Steve Smith Senior,
Speaker 1: Steve Smith Jr. And then it's Tray Steve Smith the
Speaker 1: third or the you know, the third should be reaking
Speaker 1: the benefit of me breaking my arm. Uh in New York.
Speaker 1: I just you can't trick it off in Vegas all
Speaker 1: the time. You gotta you gotta have something to show
Speaker 1: for what it just wasn't in theherage to pass along anyway. Right.
Speaker 1: So that's that's that's the other part of the whole conversation.
Speaker 1: So um, running you you mentioned your forty where you're
Speaker 1: gonna be in the next ten years, that mean you'd
Speaker 1: be fifty and I'll be man, I think, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: for me, it's one my kids, my son you know,
Speaker 1: off the college, my daughter doing well in high school.
Speaker 1: For me personally, I don't have an end zone with
Speaker 1: this one, Like I don't have a goal line. Like
Speaker 1: I'm trying to see how many guys I can help,
Speaker 1: how many people I can help how many families I
Speaker 1: can affect um with doing this mission and so you
Speaker 1: know who knows like, I'm gonna do it to the
Speaker 1: best of my ability and see where it takes me.
Speaker 1: But I honestly can say I don't have an end zone.
Speaker 1: I don't you know. I ain't trying to cross the
Speaker 1: goal line with this one because there is no number
Speaker 1: for it. Well appreciate you, bro, I know you. I
Speaker 1: know you got some you got some financial careers to save. Man,
Speaker 1: and then keep doing your thing and we'll hit you.
Speaker 1: We'll link up. Man. Since you right there in Atlanta, Man,
Speaker 1: we can give your excuse to come up to Charlotte. Hey, man,
Speaker 1: I do it. You are a unique person. You are
Speaker 1: well worth it, you are competent and most of all,
Speaker 1: your lovable. I'm Steve Smith Singer, I'm Gerald Little John
Speaker 1: and this is cut to It. Cut to It with
Speaker 1: Steve Smith, Senior. That Is Me is a production of
Speaker 1: Cut to It LLC, Balto Creative Media, The Black Effect,
Speaker 1: and I Heart Radio. For more podcast from I Heart Radio,
Speaker 1: visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows from Cut to It.
Speaker 1: Executive producer Steve Smith, SINGR co host Gerard Little John,
Speaker 1: talent and booking manager Joe Fusci. Social media team Wesley
Speaker 1: Robinson and John Show from Balto Creative Media. Cut To
Speaker 1: It is produced by Brian Baltaschevitch and Meredith Carter, with
Speaker 1: production assistance by Alex Lebrek, Production Coordinator Taylor Robinson. Theme
Speaker 1: music by Alex Johnson, lyrics and vocals by Anthony Hamilton.
Speaker 1: You ain't heard about it, then we're about to let
Speaker 1: you know. It's all