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Speaker 1: and Bobby Bones on Audible. Start listening now with a

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Speaker 1: heart or text I Heeart to five hundred five hundred.

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Speaker 1: But next guest is truly successful. Let me give you

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Speaker 1: some quotes some some recent um newspaper and magazines in

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Speaker 1: USA Today dated January. He was called the most powerful

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Speaker 1: talent in the sports business just a year ago, and

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Speaker 1: he followed it up with his best years of professional

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Speaker 1: First Take had his highest rated ever ratings ever since.

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Speaker 1: It's this is large nearly a decade ago after making

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Speaker 1: the move to ESPN, combining his quest to annihilate the

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Speaker 1: competition along with management showing more belief in him than

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Speaker 1: ever before, There's no reason to believe the face of

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Speaker 1: ESPN will not ain't soon. Here's another quote from The

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Speaker 1: New Yorker magazine Dy did June how the star first

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Speaker 1: take became ESPN's most recognizable face. Here's another quote from

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Speaker 1: another article recently in USA Today dated September September. He

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Speaker 1: would do anything for ESPN, but his ambitions don't stop there.

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Speaker 1: I love it, please working the money, making conversations, sports

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Speaker 1: and General hospital soap opera star stephen A. Smith. What's

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Speaker 1: going on, man? How are you doing? I'm doing fantastic, Steven.

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Speaker 1: I wish, I wish I was a star in General Hospital.

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Speaker 1: I gotta work on my active shot. What's going on?

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Speaker 1: I'm going good man? Uh? First of all, um, just

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Speaker 1: just how did that start? I wouldn't just get that

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Speaker 1: out real quick because a lot of people know about it.

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Speaker 1: A lot of people don't know about it. But you

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Speaker 1: really enjoy appearing on General Hospital as the character Brick.

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Speaker 1: I love it, Um. You know, it's a lot of

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Speaker 1: fun because I grew up watching The Soul coming to

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Speaker 1: home from school. We had a couple of TVs in

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Speaker 1: my house and I had four older sisters and they

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Speaker 1: were all watching General Hospital. You know, we were an

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Speaker 1: ABC family. That's why I so ironic that I'm with

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Speaker 1: ESPN and the part of the Walt did me an

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Speaker 1: ABC Family because that's the main channel we grew up watching.

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Speaker 1: And um, if you wanted to watch TV after you

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Speaker 1: came home from school, you had to watch in the

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Speaker 1: hospital because the two TVs we had in my house,

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Speaker 1: that's what the TV was on. And if you didn't

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Speaker 1: want to do that, then you're gonna have to go

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Speaker 1: and do your homework. So, you know, usually usually we

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Speaker 1: ended up watching General Hospital. And I've been watching General

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Speaker 1: Hospital since I was about seven years old and I've

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Speaker 1: never stopped ever since I'm fifty, It's been about forty

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Speaker 1: years and I have been watching General Hospital. And I

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Speaker 1: remember one time I showed up at General Hospital and

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Speaker 1: the cast there, uh, you know, trying to test me.

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Speaker 1: They're like, we here that you're this guy that's watched

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Speaker 1: this and they would ask me about a see and

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Speaker 1: I said, actually, note that wasn't deceived. This was and

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Speaker 1: it was before they had even appeared on the show,

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Speaker 1: and they were there for like twenty years, so it

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Speaker 1: was I knew more about it than some of them did.

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Speaker 1: That's awesome, hey, Steven, and I outlined some quotes from

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Speaker 1: recent magazines and interviews. That was the featured you one

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Speaker 1: of the quotes from that you say today article were

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Speaker 1: actually the headlines they just September sevent it said you

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Speaker 1: would do anything for it but for ESPN, but your

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Speaker 1: ambitions don't stop there. Explain that quote the headlines? But

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Speaker 1: what what? What? What I mean? I you know, they

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Speaker 1: put that headline in there, but it's not entirely inaccurate.

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Speaker 1: I believe that any employer UH that shows the faith

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Speaker 1: and the confidence in me UH to to hire me,

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Speaker 1: I have an inherent obligation to give them my very best,

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Speaker 1: and not just in terms of performance, but in terms

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Speaker 1: of effort. I'm the kind of person that I think

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Speaker 1: it's incredibly important that an employer looks at me and

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Speaker 1: knows that, you know, if this man ever came to

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Speaker 1: us and said something can't be done, it's because it

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Speaker 1: can't be done, because this man has exhausted every option

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Speaker 1: and every angle imaginable to be successful. If he can

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Speaker 1: possibly be on behalf of our company and of himself.

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Speaker 1: And I don't get lost in the chef. I mean,

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Speaker 1: obviously I have an entrepreneurial spirit to some degree. There's

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Speaker 1: a lot of things that I want to do, and

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Speaker 1: there's a lot of things that I have done on

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Speaker 1: my own. But at the end of the day, even

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Speaker 1: if you're an entrepreneur and and you're a business owner,

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Speaker 1: you're gonna answer to somebody, even if his uncle saying,

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Speaker 1: You're gonna answer the so my so, my mentality has

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Speaker 1: always been make sure that the people who show faith

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Speaker 1: in you, you honor the faith that they've showed in

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Speaker 1: you by giving max effort and doing everything that you

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Speaker 1: can uh to produce max performance. And that's really what

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Speaker 1: I'm about. And that's where that quote, that quote eminates.

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Speaker 1: I always want UM, whether it's ESPN or you know,

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Speaker 1: I used to work for Fox before, I used to

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Speaker 1: work for CNN before. I was the Philadelphia Inquiry before

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Speaker 1: works for the New York The News before UM. And

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Speaker 1: the one thing that they have in common, and you know,

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Speaker 1: even for my days as an internal with the Winston

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Speaker 1: Sale of Journal when I was in college, the one

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Speaker 1: thing that everybody has in common when it comes to

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Speaker 1: me is they say the same thing. The man doesn't

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Speaker 1: get out work, he will do whatever it takes uh

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Speaker 1: in striving to succeed. And that's my mentality. I had

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Speaker 1: a good fortune of watching you do a speaking engagement

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Speaker 1: in front of college students, and I was it was

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Speaker 1: like a rock star. It was like it was like

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Speaker 1: watching Aids, you know. Um, it was so into your brand.

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Speaker 1: How do you you say you're fifty. How does your

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Speaker 1: brand resonate so well with that millennial group, of that

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Speaker 1: college group. Why do you feel that such an amazing

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Speaker 1: high level appeal for you. I don't care whether you're

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Speaker 1: two years old, you're twelve years old, you're twenty two year,

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Speaker 1: thirty two year, forty two year, fifty two or sixty

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Speaker 1: two years old. UM, I've never met anyone that gets

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Speaker 1: tired of hearing truth. And that's what it really comes

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Speaker 1: down to. When you look at when you look at me,

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Speaker 1: you know that I mean what I say, and I

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Speaker 1: say what I mean. I'm not playing and you know

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Speaker 1: if I'm gonna put if I'm gonna put myself in

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Speaker 1: a line of fire, so be it. Um, It's about

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Speaker 1: delivering the goods that it pertains to. Uh, someone looking

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Speaker 1: at me and knowing that I'm real and I'm authentic

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Speaker 1: in that regard, and I'm not gonna I'm not gonna

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Speaker 1: go out of my way to sugarcoat things. I'm not

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Speaker 1: trying to be disrespectful. I'm not trying to hurt anybody.

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Speaker 1: I'm not trying to do anything. But you know, when

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Speaker 1: I was a kid, I grew up idolizing one of

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Speaker 1: the people I grew up idolizing anyway, with Howard Coastell.

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Speaker 1: Howard Coas tells a former of a sports broadcaster, uh

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Speaker 1: ain't famous for Wide World of Sports and Monday Night

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Speaker 1: Football and various other things. I remember, I remember, that's right.

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Speaker 1: I remember looking at him, but also looking at various

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Speaker 1: other folks on television, and I remember the authenticity of

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Speaker 1: his words. You just never got the impression that he

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Speaker 1: didn't mean what he said. Put On so many other occasions,

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Speaker 1: watching so many people, so many other people, you could

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Speaker 1: see people making a conservatives not strenuous effort uh to

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Speaker 1: sugarcoat things, to come across as a big soft pedal

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Speaker 1: into for lack of a better word or phrase, And

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Speaker 1: I always felt like those people are holding back, they're

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Speaker 1: cheating me, because they're not. I just want to know

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Speaker 1: the truth. And so as a result of that, I

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Speaker 1: had always promised myself if I were ever in that position,

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Speaker 1: people would know I meant what the hell I said,

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Speaker 1: and I and I say what I mean, UM and

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Speaker 1: I think that that level of realness. Uh, it breathed

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Speaker 1: a level of authentic city that not only an audience trust,

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Speaker 1: but it truly appreciates because it knows it's not getting

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Speaker 1: from everybody. And as a result, they can rely on

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Speaker 1: you at least touching a certain perspective that they may

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Speaker 1: have in tinckling and tinkling their thoughts just a little

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Speaker 1: bit and giving them food for thoughts. And that's what

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Speaker 1: I strived to do every day. Now with that being said,

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Speaker 1: and we know that your popularity in many platforms is

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Speaker 1: pretty strong, especially social media, but you're also commented on

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Speaker 1: a group of athletes that are very sensitive and thin skin.

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Speaker 1: How does that affect Does that affect you? Does that

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Speaker 1: matter to you? Do you want to have that relationship?

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Speaker 1: How does that? How does that balance happen there? Steven Ame?

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Speaker 1: What one? It affects you to some degree because obviously

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Speaker 1: you know they're not they're not prone, you know, key

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Speaker 1: to sit down with you're doing interview sometimes or whatever

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Speaker 1: the case may be. Um, you know where it affects

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Speaker 1: me personally is if they feel that I was on

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Speaker 1: fair or wrong. Those are the ways that it affects me.

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Speaker 1: If they feel if they feel that I was unfair

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Speaker 1: or I was wrong, because I always want to be

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Speaker 1: fair and I always want to be as right as

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Speaker 1: I possibly can be. Outside of that, we don't have

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Speaker 1: thanks Giving dinner together, were exchangeing Christmas gifts. They don't

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Speaker 1: pay my bills, um, and I'm gonna do my job.

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Speaker 1: My obligation is to my audience, my viewers, my listeners,

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Speaker 1: my readers, uh and the folks that that that follow

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Speaker 1: me on social media to a degree as well. My

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Speaker 1: my obligation is to them. It is not to the athletes.

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Speaker 1: My only obligation to the athletes is to be as

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Speaker 1: fair and the strivers to be as accurate as I

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Speaker 1: possibly can be. And a lot of times even when

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Speaker 1: they you know, sometimes when they say that that I'm wrong,

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Speaker 1: I actually laugh at them. And the reason why I

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Speaker 1: laugh at them is that, Okay, Well, then why didn't

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Speaker 1: you return my call? Why didn't you return my text message?

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Speaker 1: You can see that I made a concerted effort to

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Speaker 1: try to speak to you, to get to the truth

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Speaker 1: before I said anything. So you avoiding me and being

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Speaker 1: inaccessible doesn't insulate you from me. That's not gonna work.

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Speaker 1: The athletes, the athletes that I have dealt with, and

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Speaker 1: I've dealt with many, as you well know. The athletes

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Speaker 1: that I've dealt with throughout my career, the one who

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Speaker 1: really is ever had any issue with me are the

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Speaker 1: ones who who remain in contact and are accessible. You

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Speaker 1: don't owe that to me, But you have to understand

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Speaker 1: doing my job, I don't owe you what you think

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Speaker 1: I owe you. I think we both have a job

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Speaker 1: to do. And if I'm in pursuit of the truth

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Speaker 1: and I call you and I text you, why confront you.

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Speaker 1: I reach out to you, and I see you face

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Speaker 1: to face, and you have an opportunity to give me

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Speaker 1: the truth, and you pass. Don't want and moan about

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Speaker 1: what my perspective is when you see me on national

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Speaker 1: television speaking the millions upon millions of people because you

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Speaker 1: had an opportunity to address that and you refused. That

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Speaker 1: is your prerogative. And a lot of occasions, by the way,

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Speaker 1: a lot of the times I've been accused of not

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Speaker 1: telling the truth, they've been patently false. But you will

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Speaker 1: see it on the thirties and thirty documentary or feature

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Speaker 1: or something along those lines, with the exact thing that

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Speaker 1: I said is exactly what they admitted to they just

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Speaker 1: didn't want it out publicly. Well, guess what, you might

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Speaker 1: have had a better chance of that happening had you

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Speaker 1: communicated with me when I reached out to you. And

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Speaker 1: that's important that you know. When I do the show,

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Speaker 1: money making conversation of it, it's just it's lawyers, stephen A.

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Speaker 1: It's about layers from a business perspective, from a brand perspective,

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Speaker 1: and also give your message out there. What who is

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Speaker 1: Stephen A Sman? In the in the quick nutshell? Who

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Speaker 1: is Stephen asmaan Um? I'm a god faring man who

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Speaker 1: loved my mother daily with all my heart before she

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Speaker 1: passed away. She's the greatest woman I've ever known, who

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Speaker 1: lives every day trying to work hard to be the

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Speaker 1: very very best that I can be and to do

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Speaker 1: the kind of things that would make her proud. That's

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Speaker 1: basically me. Everything else falls in line with that kind

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Speaker 1: of thinking. I'm not perfect. I make mistakes, Um. I've

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Speaker 1: done things over the years that may have upset or

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Speaker 1: disappointed her, but it's human far between because I've lived

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Speaker 1: in my life under those principles pretty much all of

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Speaker 1: my life. Because there's nobody that I loved more and

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Speaker 1: so you know, for me, I try to be somebody

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Speaker 1: that's not a phony, that tries to be as real

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Speaker 1: and other and as authentic as I possibly cut Uh,

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Speaker 1: that recognizes the obligation that I have, not just to myself,

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Speaker 1: but to others who placed their trust and their faith

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Speaker 1: in me. Whether it be my employer, whether it be

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Speaker 1: the public, whether it be my family and my loved

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Speaker 1: ones matter. I try to live up to their expectations

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Speaker 1: are of me, because their expectations breathe from what I

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Speaker 1: purported myself to be. I want to hold you for

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Speaker 1: five more minutes. Can give me five more minutes of

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Speaker 1: your time. We'll be back with more. Stephen A Smith,

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Speaker 1: and don't go nowhere. Stephen A Smith is the main Hi,

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Speaker 1: just Rashan McDonald, I am here money making conversations on

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Speaker 1: the phoneus the one and only stephen A Smith. I

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Speaker 1: can see them. My friend. He calls me a big brother.

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Speaker 1: I love it when he does that because I like

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Speaker 1: him being my younger brother. Um, stephen A doing the

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Speaker 1: NBA playoffs. Um. Social media was crazy for you in

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Speaker 1: a good way. Explained how why you resonate so powerful

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Speaker 1: and so well, especially your Instagram account has been off

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Speaker 1: the chain. Explain to us about the importance of social

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Speaker 1: media to your brand. Well, social media is the new age.

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Speaker 1: I mean you have uh, you know as much as

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Speaker 1: we some of us may not like it or what

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Speaker 1: have you. The reality is is that people, uh, we

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Speaker 1: live in an age with smartphones and other things, and

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Speaker 1: technology is clearly advanced, and the advent of social media

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Speaker 1: is huge because it's it's given a folks a voice,

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Speaker 1: which is something our society has been addicted to for

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Speaker 1: quite some time. We've always clamored for and had an

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Speaker 1: insatiable appetite to have a voice. It's just that the

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Speaker 1: mechanisms who are an out there for that to transpire,

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Speaker 1: and obviously social media has changed that. But I would

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Speaker 1: give most credit um as it pertains directly to your question.

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Speaker 1: To my journalistic background. People don't realize it's not just

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Speaker 1: about writing, and it's not just about reporting. It's about

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Speaker 1: having the pulse of what people want to hear about

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Speaker 1: and read about, and talk about and see on television.

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Speaker 1: You have to know this As a journalist. I would

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Speaker 1: wake up every single day I had to write a column,

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Speaker 1: sometimes three, four or five times a week. And so

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Speaker 1: you're waking up thinking, Okay, what's on the public's mind,

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Speaker 1: what would be the most interesting and compelling topic to

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Speaker 1: broach to touch on on this particular day. Those are

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Speaker 1: the common things that when you wake up thinking about that,

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Speaker 1: you have an idea of the post of the people,

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Speaker 1: and when that transpires, it positions you to be even

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Speaker 1: better at what you do. And so when I look

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Speaker 1: at social media, I'm also looking at the news wise,

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Speaker 1: I'm looking at the kind of things that are percolating.

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Speaker 1: The things that are trending are the things that are

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Speaker 1: taking place in the minds eye of the folks, and

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Speaker 1: that's what I talk about. I don't talk about what

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Speaker 1: I want to talk about. I talk about what they

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Speaker 1: want to talk about. You're doing your show money making

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Speaker 1: conversations and the people that you're interviewing. Who are the

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Speaker 1: people that you're interviewing. You're interviewing the kind of people

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Speaker 1: that you believe in your research has showing you folks

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Speaker 1: are interested in knowing about. You didn't wake up instead

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Speaker 1: of being say well, I'm gonna talk about what Richad

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Speaker 1: wants to talk about, you said, I'm going to talk

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Speaker 1: about what the people want to talk about. And that's

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Speaker 1: my approach to every thing, whether I'm doing television, radio,

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Speaker 1: or anything else. I don't get into what I want

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Speaker 1: to talk about. I don't get into what I want

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Speaker 1: to do. I get into delivering what I believe people

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Speaker 1: want to talk about, want to know about, want to

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Speaker 1: get engaging dialogue about. Those are the common things that

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Speaker 1: I talked to, that I talked about, and those are

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Speaker 1: the kind of things that I do because I'm nothing

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Speaker 1: without the people supporting me in terms of what I

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Speaker 1: do for a living. Which slides over to radio. And

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Speaker 1: you know, I'm a big fan of yours and radio.

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Speaker 1: And if we get we can get personal about that

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Speaker 1: because of the fact that you are not should I

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Speaker 1: say it was not didn't see the value of the

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Speaker 1: radio initially, but you do see it now. Explain the

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Speaker 1: importance of radio in your brain. I don't want to

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Speaker 1: do television without radio. I don't want to do radio

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Speaker 1: about television. I like the combination of both being seen

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Speaker 1: and heard. But radio is incredibly powerful because it gives

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Speaker 1: you the license aid to speak. Except din't you gonna

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Speaker 1: give me credit? Oh? You know you d excuse me.

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Speaker 1: Aren't you gonna give me credit for a point? You

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Speaker 1: in that direction? Of radio. I don't recall being finished

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Speaker 1: with my answer. I recall it. I thought I was talking.

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Speaker 1: I was in the middle of a conversation. You know

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Speaker 1: what I'm saying. I was gonna get to all of that, um,

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Speaker 1: you know, I was going to talk about how you

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Speaker 1: know radio is Radio is incredibly important because it gives

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Speaker 1: you an opportunity not only to speak except radeously, but

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Speaker 1: to elaborate extensively on the point you might make everywhere

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Speaker 1: else you're writing a newspaper article of eight undrewords, you're

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Speaker 1: talking on television, but you got a two to three

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Speaker 1: minute window to do that. Talking for radio is yours

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Speaker 1: and Rashawn McDonald played in the pivotal role in getting

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Speaker 1: me to realize and recognize the importance and value in that,

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Speaker 1: because I just didn't feel that way. My attitude is

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Speaker 1: that it was just an extension of what I already do.

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Speaker 1: I'm just regurgitating what I said on television or whatever

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Speaker 1: the case may be. But then when you go back

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Speaker 1: and you listen to yourself in both mediums, you see

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Speaker 1: the difference. There's more of my personality that comes out

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Speaker 1: in radio. I get an opportunity to elaborate extensively more

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Speaker 1: on radio than I do on television, and it augments

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Speaker 1: my points even more so. And so to me, that

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Speaker 1: elevates the level of power that I am, potency that

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Speaker 1: I may have as it pertains to what I do.

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Speaker 1: And that was the value that I did not appreciate

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Speaker 1: years ago that I learned to appreciate a large part

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Speaker 1: because of you, your success with the Steve Harvey Morning Show,

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Speaker 1: the way that I would see you do things behind

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Speaker 1: the scenes and what have you, and and and the

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Speaker 1: reason why I give you so much credit is because

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Speaker 1: you know I would do radio because I was good

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Speaker 1: at it. I was told do radio eventually, because those

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Speaker 1: things came about in terms of me recognizing its potency.

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Speaker 1: But where you really came in is that you taught

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Speaker 1: me to enjoy it as well. I actually have fun

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Speaker 1: doing radio. Now that wasn't always the case. Who My

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Speaker 1: last question is your book is that you know people?

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Speaker 1: All people I've seen the college students asking I've seen.

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Speaker 1: I mean, I was in the l a with You're

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Speaker 1: walking around people where the book at? When you're gonna

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Speaker 1: put out the book? When is the book go to happen?

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Speaker 1: Stephen A. Smith? And what will the book be about.

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Speaker 1: The book will be written by the end of the year.

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Speaker 1: I've already written a couple of chapters, um, you know,

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Speaker 1: and it's a motivation of book, you know, essentially through

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Speaker 1: the lens of my life, my story and what got

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Speaker 1: me here today. You know, as I said on on

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Speaker 1: First Take one day a couple of years ago, that

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Speaker 1: really resonated virally. Um, I said, you know what, people

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Speaker 1: look at the Kobe Bryant, the Shaquille O'Neil or Jay

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Speaker 1: z and others, and they call them the American dream.

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Speaker 1: And I say, no, I'm the American dream. They're in

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Speaker 1: American They're in American fantasy turned reality. But it's a

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Speaker 1: one and a billion shot that you can be them.

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Speaker 1: But guess what you could be Stephen A. Smith, who

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Speaker 1: all I did was bust my tail, work hard and

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Speaker 1: climb the ladder um and do do nothing but sheer, hard, work, determination, Uh,

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Speaker 1: And I guess some modicum of intelligence or whatever the

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Speaker 1: case may be. The bottom line is that it's not

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Speaker 1: a fantasy to become me. You can do it. A

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Speaker 1: lot of people can do it because I did it

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Speaker 1: the older you know, the old fashioned way. I just

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Speaker 1: worked hard at it. That's not to imply that those

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Speaker 1: guys that I mentioned it and work very hard. I'm

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Speaker 1: simply saying, look at the you know, the the talent

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Speaker 1: that they had, the gifts that they have been blessed with,

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Speaker 1: and ultimately the wealth they were able to accumulate because

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Speaker 1: of it. Am I wealthy? Hell No, I ain't broke, okay,

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Speaker 1: And I came from a historically black institution after getting

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Speaker 1: left back in the fourth grade, and I climbed the

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Speaker 1: charts and through sheer, harder work and determination and ultimately

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Speaker 1: made myself into what I am today. Anybody out there,

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Speaker 1: you got a good possibility to be Stephen A Smith.

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Speaker 1: It's a one and a billion shot you'll ever be

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Speaker 1: a Kobe or j V or anybody else like that.

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Speaker 1: And that's the kind of message that I want to send.

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Speaker 1: And that's what that's the kind of message that my

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Speaker 1: book is going to resonate about, because that's important because

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Speaker 1: I love that you said that, because you know, as

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Speaker 1: they say, if you have the physical talents, that separates you.

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Speaker 1: But you're saying and also you were dyslexic. Correct, that's right,

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Speaker 1: that's correct, and we shouldn't. We shouldn't and that that

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Speaker 1: didn't stop you. That that the level of determination and

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Speaker 1: guide uh that you that you had along the way,

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Speaker 1: in the mentors that you had a long way. I

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Speaker 1: always feel that I'm a I'm a mentor to you

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Speaker 1: because of the fact that, first of all, you're so

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Speaker 1: gifted and and when I first met you. You know,

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Speaker 1: it's really interesting when you meet a talent like Steven

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Speaker 1: as if I'm gonna talk to him in the third

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Speaker 1: party because of the fact that he's a naturally smart

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Speaker 1: guy and he always corrects me. That's our Joe. I

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Speaker 1: run in Joe Rashan, Rashan, you can't say that word

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Speaker 1: like that. Stop that, stop that. Because he's a genius

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Speaker 1: when he comes to words, and uh, the fact that

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Speaker 1: he's going to write a book and allow unintimate book

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Speaker 1: about his growth as a as a human being, his

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