Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: It's a lot of stuff you're going to have to
Speaker 2: go through and do times that you don't feel like
Speaker 2: doing anything, but you're going to have to find the
Speaker 2: strength to do it. And there is no substitute. There
Speaker 2: is no shortcut to success. Hard work is the key
Speaker 2: to success. Relationships are the key to success. Being nice
Speaker 2: to people, like treating people, making people feel valuable.
Speaker 3: All right, So Michael Strahan, when we thought of this show,
Speaker 3: he's like epicenter.
Speaker 1: Who is he to you? I mean, he's a good friend.
Speaker 4: He's someone that I've admired for over two decades and
Speaker 4: sometimes I feel and I've asked him to this is
Speaker 4: there like three or four Michael Strahan's crazy.
Speaker 1: He does so much. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I don't think we should lose sight
Speaker 3: of the fact that you guys have had these parallel lies.
Speaker 1: And the New York of it all.
Speaker 3: You know, you came to it maybe with a little
Speaker 3: bit more eyes wide open. And he talks about that
Speaker 3: this is all he ever knew. He was like, this
Speaker 3: is just what it is to be an athlete. But man,
Speaker 3: did it set him up for the ubiquity that you
Speaker 3: talked about.
Speaker 4: The parallels are kind of strange. I mean, right, we
Speaker 4: were both drafted in ninety three. He won a championship
Speaker 4: with the football team Giants in New York. We want
Speaker 4: to know nine, Yeah, and then he's taking his world
Speaker 4: to the world of media and now business and we
Speaker 4: learned so much that we didn't know in his episode.
Speaker 3: I mean, it really was fun to kind of hear
Speaker 3: him talk about all the stuff, you know, like he
Speaker 3: talks about imposter syndrome. He talks about all these things
Speaker 3: that we all worry about just as like humans, Like
Speaker 3: those are the things that worry him as well.
Speaker 1: I mean, the other interesting thing to.
Speaker 3: Me is you talk a lot about building your team,
Speaker 3: finding the right partners. He's got an amazing partner in
Speaker 3: Constance Schwartz Marini. They created Smack and that has really
Speaker 3: helped shape his business Outlook, they've.
Speaker 4: Done it together and look like me, he comes from
Speaker 4: a world of team and he never used the word
Speaker 4: I it's always weird. And I think that's fascinating. And
Speaker 4: I really think that with all the great things that
Speaker 4: Michael has done, he's in the early innings of what's
Speaker 4: this mega media business license empire.
Speaker 3: On this episode of the Deal. Michael Strahan. All right,
Speaker 3: so as we get started, introduce yourself.
Speaker 1: Michael Strahan. I am.
Speaker 2: I'm an old retired football player fifteen years here in
Speaker 2: New York City. I played for the New York Giants.
Speaker 2: Since retirement, I've gone on to be an entrepreneur, several businesses,
Speaker 2: multiple television shows, and I've had a very lovely, comfortable
Speaker 2: but hard work for life. And I'm a father. My
Speaker 2: best achievement right there. And that's about it.
Speaker 1: World about that.
Speaker 3: So let's start there. Let's start with the world champion
Speaker 3: of it all, but also the New York of it all, because,
Speaker 3: like you know, we're sitting here and I mean, who's
Speaker 3: likeier than me sitting between you two guys. But New
Speaker 3: York is at the core of so much.
Speaker 1: Of it for both of you. What is New York
Speaker 1: meant to you? Everything? Everything?
Speaker 2: I have only known New York. And I was just
Speaker 2: talking about this yesterday with Carmelo Anthony. Someone said to
Speaker 2: him at this dinner we were at that if you
Speaker 2: were in another city playing they would appreciated you a
Speaker 2: lot more for what you brought to the team. And
Speaker 2: he goes, yeah, but it's not New York and New
Speaker 2: York isn't for everyone. Alex defied the odds. What usually
Speaker 2: happens when someone come to New York, no amount how
Speaker 2: great they were somewhere else, the city eat you alive.
Speaker 2: I didn't know any better. I came here from Texas
Speaker 2: Southern University, drafted in nineteen ninety three. I didn't know
Speaker 2: there was another way except for to suck it up
Speaker 2: and make it in the city. But had I had
Speaker 2: my career in another city that didn't have the spotlight
Speaker 2: of New York, I would have been a football player,
Speaker 2: had a great career.
Speaker 1: But I just would have.
Speaker 2: Had it somewhere else, and I don't think people would
Speaker 2: have paid as much attention. But being here in New
Speaker 2: York is meant the world of me because it's opened
Speaker 2: up so many opportunity that's given me a life away
Speaker 2: from the game of football, but the life that you
Speaker 2: have to work for and you have to go out
Speaker 2: and take the same principles you learn in sports. But
Speaker 2: New York is meant the world.
Speaker 1: Michael.
Speaker 4: I'm interested to know because I haven't even thought about
Speaker 4: it myself. Michael Strahan played fifteen years in New York.
Speaker 4: Champion versus not winning that title.
Speaker 1: Is there a difference you think, Hey.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know what, Charles Barkley hit me with this
Speaker 2: the best. I see him at a golf tournament and
Speaker 2: I never met him, and I love Charles.
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh my god, Charles, it's the best.
Speaker 2: And he sees me and I go, hey, Charles, Michael
Speaker 2: straight and he go, hey, man, this is right after
Speaker 2: we won the Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: Good to meet you. You know what.
Speaker 2: You were on my S list, like the curse word
Speaker 2: of S. And I'm like, I'm on the list. I've
Speaker 2: never met you before. He goes, no, no, it was
Speaker 2: a list of guys who had great careers but never won.
Speaker 2: But now you're off my list, he said, I'm even
Speaker 2: on my own list.
Speaker 1: He's number one on that list. Yeah yeah.
Speaker 2: But I tell you what, I kind of resigned myself
Speaker 2: to have being that guy. Had a great career, played well,
Speaker 2: did the best that I could do.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 2: I gave it everything I had because I didn't want
Speaker 2: to leave the game and actually look back and say, oh,
Speaker 2: you know, had I maybe worked a little bit harder, man,
Speaker 2: I really focus a little bit more, and I've done this.
Speaker 2: I had no regrets but to win it in the
Speaker 2: year fifteen completely changed the perception that people have with you.
Speaker 1: The wait, did they look at you? It's almost that
Speaker 1: your career is appreciated a lot more.
Speaker 2: And I didn't realize it until we won, and then
Speaker 2: I said to myself, you idiot, you were gonna be
Speaker 2: happy with just being good without winning it all. It
Speaker 2: really shows what it's all for and what you're really
Speaker 2: playing for, which is that whole team experience of winning.
Speaker 1: Does that resonate with you, oh, without a question.
Speaker 4: But you know, I don't know about Michael, But for me,
Speaker 4: I grew up watching Dan Marina in Miami, and every
Speaker 4: conversation starts and ends with, well, he's not Montana, He's
Speaker 4: the champion. Marino's not.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And after.
Speaker 4: Winning in nine as a New York Yankee in this city,
Speaker 4: everything changed. I mean, to this day, Michael and I
Speaker 4: guarantee happens with Michael. Firefighters, teachers, thank you for the championship, fathers,
Speaker 4: with kids. It's really winning in New York. There's nothing
Speaker 4: like it.
Speaker 1: Isn't that funny?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like thank you And I'm like, no, thank you,
Speaker 2: you have no idea.
Speaker 1: It really worked out well. I am very thankful, as
Speaker 1: you are leave.
Speaker 3: Me, and so what does it do for you as
Speaker 3: a businessman? Like because at that as you said, like
Speaker 3: the timing's kind of perfect.
Speaker 1: I couldn't have been even better.
Speaker 3: In the sense that like it it launches you and
Speaker 3: you're in New York. So championship plus New York. How
Speaker 3: does that inform you as a business person?
Speaker 2: It completely opens doors that you know, some doors obviously
Speaker 2: open because you're an athlete in this city and life
Speaker 2: is about relationship. Business is about relationships. So I had
Speaker 2: a lot of relationships. But it's something different when you
Speaker 2: walk in a room or when you're being introduced and
Speaker 2: it's like super Bowl Champion, World Series champion, as Alex knows,
Speaker 2: it's just it's like somebody walks in a room full
Speaker 2: of great actors and this is an Oscar winner. And
Speaker 2: that's what it's like when you win a super Bowl,
Speaker 2: when you walk into the room and it's like you
Speaker 2: bring back, if they're a Giants fan, an incredible memory
Speaker 2: for them at some point in their life, if they
Speaker 2: watched that game, because that was my opinion, probably the
Speaker 2: best Super Bowl ever played. Undefeated Patriots and Tyree and
Speaker 2: Eli doing the unthinkable to make us help us win
Speaker 2: that game. And I just think that that adding that
Speaker 2: little Super Bowl champion on to the end of your
Speaker 2: name or some title card opened up so many more
Speaker 2: doors and just saying ya, he played for the Giants, right.
Speaker 4: I was so disappointed when he retired because I wanted
Speaker 4: to watch more mikel and I think Michae could have
Speaker 4: played three or four more years, at least everyone thought so.
Speaker 4: And I just thought it was courageous, bold and smart
Speaker 4: to leave a few years early than a few years late.
Speaker 1: You always want people want you to want more.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And the crazy thing is, I've been playing and
Speaker 2: god knows fifteen sixteen seasons, and I'll walk down the street,
Speaker 2: Oh you the Lakers do play, You're gonna come back
Speaker 2: and help us. I don't know if they're joking, but
Speaker 2: they're feeding my ego.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you that.
Speaker 2: And I'm like, no, And I wake up in the morning,
Speaker 2: take one step out of bed and go. I don't
Speaker 2: know if my feet could hold that out to the
Speaker 2: damage out there anymore. But when they do that, though,
Speaker 2: when people come up and say those things, it makes
Speaker 2: me know that I did it the right way.
Speaker 3: And so when you choose that timing is that a
Speaker 3: business decision.
Speaker 2: I think it was just a for me. It was
Speaker 2: a gut heart decision. Had we not won the Super Bowl,
Speaker 2: I probably would have said, Hm, let me see if
Speaker 2: we can get there. We were close. Since when we
Speaker 2: want it? I just I don't know. At one point,
Speaker 2: I just kind of had the epiphany of fifteen years
Speaker 2: playing in this city, putting everything I had into it,
Speaker 2: and it wasn't so much to work.
Speaker 1: I love the work. I haven't taught.
Speaker 2: Myself to love practice, like to put on that equipment
Speaker 2: and go run into another grown man for a few
Speaker 2: hours every day. I taught myself to love it. I
Speaker 2: loved the sprinting and running to be in shape, to
Speaker 2: walking out of that tunnel and eighty thousand people are
Speaker 2: screaming or they're booing for you, against you. I loved
Speaker 2: every bit of that. But after we won, I had
Speaker 2: nothing else to prove to myself at least, and I
Speaker 2: had never really had any major I tore my peck muscle,
Speaker 2: I had my thumb repaired, had a risk scope. Outside
Speaker 2: of that fifteen years, I never blew out my knees
Speaker 2: never nothing, hips are good.
Speaker 1: Everything.
Speaker 2: I banged up everything, but I felt great. I didn't
Speaker 2: want to limp away. I wanted to walk away. And
Speaker 2: what else was there for me to accomplish. I'd done everyone,
Speaker 2: every other award, the individual or team misel. That was it,
Speaker 2: and I realized my heart wasn't in it anymore.
Speaker 4: You had some famous moments in the parade and some
Speaker 4: of the great speeches you had, and all that to
Speaker 4: fire everybody else. Did you already know or when was
Speaker 4: the moment that you knew that you looked in the
Speaker 4: mirror and you said.
Speaker 1: And you really want to know?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: So I never really took vacations or anything. I was
Speaker 2: like locked in for fifteen years. So I go to Greece.
Speaker 2: I'm like, you know, just go to Greece. I'm wanna
Speaker 2: go to Greece. I wanna go Sanerini. I'm gonna meek
Speaker 2: and oaths. I want to have a good time. I
Speaker 2: me in Santorini. I get a call from the Giants
Speaker 2: and they asked me to come back, and I looked
Speaker 2: at it.
Speaker 1: I said, Santorini or New Jersey, and I decided to
Speaker 1: stay right where I was.
Speaker 2: But it wasn't so much the fact that I couldn't play,
Speaker 2: because physically I felt great. I literally realized in my heart,
Speaker 2: I just didn't want to do it anymore.
Speaker 1: I didn't want to do another stomp you out speech.
Speaker 2: She didn't have it in me to try to pump
Speaker 2: up another grown man anymore for that business. And I
Speaker 2: truly said it wouldn't be the game, there wouldn't be anything.
Speaker 2: I really, in my head tried to go through and
Speaker 2: rerun what it would take. Said I don't want to
Speaker 2: do another speech, and it let me know that my
Speaker 2: heart's not into it. And I've never cheated it. I
Speaker 2: just said I'm getting everything I can't into it. I
Speaker 2: don't ever want to look back and regret. And I
Speaker 2: felt had I gone back without my heart being into it,
Speaker 2: I would have been stealing from football, which something I
Speaker 2: never wanted to do.
Speaker 3: And so one of the things happened upon like a
Speaker 3: little anecdote of research that I want to run by you,
Speaker 3: which is sometime in the late aughts, you're on a
Speaker 3: TV show and I think it's a New York based show.
Speaker 3: It's with a I think an anchor named Sarah Gore.
Speaker 3: If I remember, you're sitting there, you're getting interviewed about
Speaker 3: being an NFL player. Okay, and you go to break
Speaker 3: and you look at her and say, I want to
Speaker 3: do what you do? Was that in your mind?
Speaker 1: Then?
Speaker 3: Do you remember that?
Speaker 1: I don't.
Speaker 2: I've said some crazy stuff. No, I've said some crazy stuff,
Speaker 2: but it's all happened.
Speaker 3: Yeah, because that's well before that, well before anything.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 2: I just I think because I grew up in Germany
Speaker 2: and I didn't play football growing up, And my senior
Speaker 2: year of high school, my dad said, do you want
Speaker 2: to play football? Do you send me to Houston to
Speaker 2: living my own go for five months and play football?
Speaker 2: And my dad said, you're going to get a scholarship,
Speaker 2: And he was so matter of fact about it that
Speaker 2: I didn't know that Texas was supposed to be tough
Speaker 2: to get a scholarship because that's where all the great
Speaker 2: football players, a lot of them come from. So I
Speaker 2: just went back kind of Lodi, had no idea how
Speaker 2: to play football. Got one scholarship offer to an HBCU
Speaker 2: Texas Southern, and I went there not knowing anything and
Speaker 2: wanted to quit. But my dad kind of informed me, well,
Speaker 2: if you quit, what are you gonna do? You're not
Speaker 2: coming back here, like you have an opportunity to take
Speaker 2: advantage of it. But he always was a win not
Speaker 2: if type of guy. He never said if to me,
Speaker 2: so I always operate in a mindset of win.
Speaker 1: Something's going to happen. So if I said that to her.
Speaker 2: When I said that to her, in my mind, I'm
Speaker 2: probably going, oh, I could do that. Yeah, I'm not
Speaker 2: to do what you do. This is fun and I
Speaker 2: believe it. I could do it naive. Being naive at
Speaker 2: that moment, it would have been overwhelming for me. But
Speaker 2: I'm pretty sure I believed that I could do it
Speaker 2: right then there. I'd take over right there and do.
Speaker 1: It all right.
Speaker 3: I don't want to get too far away from that
Speaker 3: incredible part of your origins. When you think about like
Speaker 3: deals that you make, some of those are like deals
Speaker 3: with your parents, and some of them are deals that
Speaker 3: they impose upon you, which it sounds like your dad did.
Speaker 3: Why do you think I'm sure you talked to him
Speaker 3: about this. Why did he make that decision or push
Speaker 3: you in that direction for football?
Speaker 2: Because I think my dad when I was thirteen years old,
Speaker 2: I had a nickname Bob, and I'm the youngest of six.
Speaker 2: You know, three older brothers, two the two sisters out
Speaker 2: the oldest and as that's four boys, and my brothers
Speaker 2: and their friends called me Bob, and I'm thinking, oh,
Speaker 2: that's funny, that's cool. I'm cool like I'm young. I
Speaker 2: got a nickname with my brothers and their older brothers
Speaker 2: than their friends. But Bob meant booty on back, big
Speaker 2: old buck, like crush me man. But I was thirteen.
Speaker 2: I've had whole cry and I'm doing all these things.
Speaker 2: But it inspired me because I went out and bought
Speaker 2: to Jane Fond of VHS tapes Come on Deharschel Walker
Speaker 2: Workout Book back in the Yeah, I was big back then,
Speaker 2: and this must have been what eighty five or something
Speaker 2: like that, eighty four. I bought all that stuff and
Speaker 2: I started doing a Jane fond of tapes. I started
Speaker 2: doing the HEARSTL Walker push ups and sit upst I
Speaker 2: read the book and my dad saw me doing this
Speaker 2: for about six seven months and he said, you know what,
Speaker 2: you're willing to work this hard, I'll work with you.
Speaker 2: So every six day of the week from when I was,
Speaker 2: you know, almost thirteen, I was fourteen till I was
Speaker 2: sixteen seventeen, I worked out with my dad and he
Speaker 2: would go buy the muscle and fitness books and he
Speaker 2: would type up a program on a computer because he
Speaker 2: was always having a new computer than everything else. And
Speaker 2: we go to the gym, you mark down your weight,
Speaker 2: your reps, everything for years. And that's why I think
Speaker 2: he saw what I did in the commitment that I had.
Speaker 2: He said, what can I what can I inspire my
Speaker 2: son to do to take advantage of all these things?
Speaker 2: And I remember working out with him on a Saturday
Speaker 2: and I'm just sitting there kind of a kid man.
Speaker 2: He goes, don't worry. Some one day it'll pay off.
Speaker 2: I'm in Germany. Football is not even in a conversation
Speaker 2: at that point. But he had a plan and he
Speaker 2: saw something in the meeting. At the time, I didn't
Speaker 2: say it myself because he was a boxer. He's a boxer,
Speaker 2: yeah all irmy boxer, Yeah, said he fought Ken Norton twice.
Speaker 2: Ken Norton's in a marine, so my dad was in
Speaker 2: the army and according to my dad, he's one and one.
Speaker 2: I don't know you beat the heavyweight champ of the world,
Speaker 2: but he claimed he's won.
Speaker 4: And what when I look at your career, Hall of Fame, career,
Speaker 4: World champion and then talk about a wild pivot. Right,
Speaker 4: My question is, did you ever dream that big? What's
Speaker 4: the easiest, the best part, and what's the toughest part
Speaker 4: of a job like that? Because you're not talking about football,
Speaker 4: you're talking about real life stuff.
Speaker 2: Well, I almost forget I played football unless I go
Speaker 2: to like my man cave and I see things I
Speaker 2: don't think about football, and it's really yeah, yeah, I
Speaker 2: watch it now at Fox and I'm like, I'm looking
Speaker 2: at guys, get hit going. Who's dumb enough to do that?
Speaker 2: Then I realized I was dumb enough to do that
Speaker 2: for a long time. But you're just young and you're
Speaker 2: in the middle of it. It has been such a
Speaker 2: pivot in a sense that you know physically obviously, but
Speaker 2: mentally because I realized a long time ago that being
Speaker 2: a football player or an athlete, you can get into
Speaker 2: a room, but once you get in the room, you
Speaker 2: have to prove that you belong there and that you
Speaker 2: deserve to stay there. You know, people will take a
Speaker 2: meeting with you, everybody wants to take a picture and
Speaker 2: hildre kids they hung out with this athlete. But what
Speaker 2: keeps you in the room, right, It's your talent. It's
Speaker 2: the talent that a lot of people don't see or
Speaker 2: don't think you have because they've only seen you in
Speaker 2: one way. And for me, the biggest pivot was getting
Speaker 2: out of my own way telling myself that I'm more
Speaker 2: than just a football player, because I remember going into
Speaker 2: these meeting thinking, no, I'm just this football player. They're
Speaker 2: just going to see me as this football player. And
Speaker 2: a friend of mine said, well, they're going to see
Speaker 2: you how you see yourself and completely change my mindset.
Speaker 2: And I mean another speaking of speaking something into an existence,
Speaker 2: is I'm a guest.
Speaker 1: That's what we want?
Speaker 2: A super Bowl on Regis and Kelly and at the
Speaker 2: end of the day, maybe Red just said, what are
Speaker 2: you going to do next? So well, I'm on a
Speaker 2: show right now, Kelly and Michael, Michael and Kelly. If
Speaker 2: you decide to retire, like I said this on the
Speaker 2: air on the air, yeah wow. And that's why I
Speaker 2: thought that's where you were going the first time. It
Speaker 2: was something else I said, which is crazy. I try things.
Speaker 2: If it doesn't work, I don't look at it and
Speaker 2: say I completely failed at it. I try it. If
Speaker 2: it doesn't work, I learn from it and I find
Speaker 2: something else. But I think doing GMA now is so
Speaker 2: intimidating because I was coming from sports and now I'm
Speaker 2: coming from entertainment, you know, light fluffy stuff to now
Speaker 2: do talk about real world issues and the news. It's intimidating.
Speaker 2: But just like being an athlete and everything else you
Speaker 2: wanted to do, you learn. And I study Robin or Howie,
Speaker 2: Terry and Jimmy like I'm studying each one of them.
Speaker 2: Studying Terry Bradshaw the way you tell the story, the
Speaker 2: way he talks about stuff that's not even sports related
Speaker 2: but brings it back to football. I'm looking at George
Speaker 2: and tell how he very direct and there will be
Speaker 2: a whole script of things that George doesn't waste time
Speaker 2: with a lot of words to get straight to the point.
Speaker 2: And I literally told him the other day, George, I like,
Speaker 2: how you get straight to the point.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 2: I am trying my best to figure out how you
Speaker 2: do that so I can do it myself. But it's
Speaker 2: like those little things that it's just not being there
Speaker 2: and just sent on camp satisfied, but it's being there
Speaker 2: and constantly being a student of what you're doing, and
Speaker 2: that has really helped me in every job that I've done,
Speaker 2: especially helped me at GMA. But I think everything for
Speaker 2: me has happened in the right order, because had I
Speaker 2: not had football and in Fox, I don't think I'm
Speaker 2: able to do live with me and Kelly, which in turn,
Speaker 2: if I don't have that, I don't think I'm ready
Speaker 2: or able to do GMA had been mixed up in
Speaker 2: any other order. So I think the universe just seemed
Speaker 2: to put things in the way they were supposed to.
Speaker 3: Know me when you say study maybe for a viewers,
Speaker 3: how does that look.
Speaker 2: I'm just like everybody else. I'm just curious, I think
Speaker 2: because people think, oh, you played sport. No, I played
Speaker 2: sports because it was later in my life. It just
Speaker 2: happened to be what I was doing. But other than
Speaker 2: who I was, I have a lot of interest. I'm
Speaker 2: interested in the world. I'm interested in everything that goes on.
Speaker 2: So just like the person at home, I continue to
Speaker 2: watch program I read newspapers, I do all those things,
Speaker 2: and then we get a lot of notes, We get
Speaker 2: a lot of emails, a lot of things that you
Speaker 2: just read to keep up with what's going on for
Speaker 2: the day. Get emails telling you what direction the show
Speaker 2: could be going in the next day, what stories recovering?
Speaker 1: Just got to read, just got to read.
Speaker 3: I want to connect a couple of dots that we've
Speaker 3: been sort of moving around, and one is the New
Speaker 3: York of it all, you know, so it's New York
Speaker 3: Championship Hall of Fame the read's moment. Does New York
Speaker 3: give you the confidence.
Speaker 1: Kind of learned to? I don't know how do I
Speaker 1: put it.
Speaker 2: Just do what I do and trust myself and not
Speaker 2: worry about the opinion of others. I think that really
Speaker 2: helped me when it came to like doing things here
Speaker 2: in New York. But that was hard because I was
Speaker 2: shy when I got here. Here you're forced out of
Speaker 2: a shell. But I had to find my rhythm of
Speaker 2: who I was and who I was comfortable in being
Speaker 2: and being in front of the camera.
Speaker 1: Care me.
Speaker 2: I'm more shy away from the camera. Away from the camera,
Speaker 2: I don't know people or whatever I'm going to quiet
Speaker 2: I gun, yeah, sit in the back. I observed. I'm
Speaker 2: cool with that. I don't need to walk in the
Speaker 2: restaurant and everybody know I'm there. You know, I'm very
Speaker 2: comfortable in my own little world of you know, non celebrity.
Speaker 2: More chill seems to be an easier way of life
Speaker 2: that I prefer.
Speaker 3: Was that shocking to you when you got here New York?
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, I remember.
Speaker 1: I'm coming reallytle man, you want to talk illustrated at
Speaker 1: like three years old.
Speaker 4: It's almost like when they say you really don't know.
Speaker 4: You think you're gonna take a punch until Mike Tyson
Speaker 4: hits you and connection. That's New York, especially when things
Speaker 4: are not going well, because the pilot on is pretty
Speaker 4: strong and you just can't run away from it, and
Speaker 4: you just have the Yankees, like the Giants, big big brands,
Speaker 4: enormous fan base with legacy brands, and it comes out
Speaker 4: here pretty good.
Speaker 2: I remember, I remember Alex, and I reached out to
Speaker 2: you about this like one day. Oh my god, Alex
Speaker 2: Rodriguez is the greatest thing the Yankees have ever done,
Speaker 2: knocking home run. Then he has one game that isn't great.
Speaker 2: I know, he's busting his butt. It's the same guy
Speaker 2: he said was great yesterday to the next day, Oh
Speaker 2: why did the Yankees do this? Alec he got it.
Speaker 2: Then the next day he hits the home run. He's
Speaker 2: the greatest, And I remember reaching out and said, you
Speaker 2: know what, just keep doing what you're doing like you
Speaker 2: can't pay attention to that, because the bottom line is
Speaker 2: what really helped me. I stopped letting people criticize me
Speaker 2: who could not do my job? How are you telling
Speaker 2: me how to do my job? And you could never
Speaker 2: do this job. You've never done it. As I told
Speaker 2: one reporter, the last time you put up on a
Speaker 2: uniform is when your mom took you trigger treating. You've
Speaker 2: never done that. So why am I letting you affect
Speaker 2: me in what I do for a living? And that
Speaker 2: really helped me this guy, So now I don't care
Speaker 2: if you can't do what I do? Why am I
Speaker 2: listening to you telling me? Just like asking somebody for
Speaker 2: an answer, and then you got to go ask ten
Speaker 2: other people if I could reach the person who's gonna
Speaker 2: give me the answer while I'm I asking you. I
Speaker 2: just don't subscribe to that anymore. But it takes a
Speaker 2: lot of getting beat up to finally get fed up
Speaker 2: enough to realize that, hey, I'm gonna do what I
Speaker 2: need to do.
Speaker 1: I don't care.
Speaker 3: When we come back, we talk about Michael's transition from
Speaker 3: winning a Super Bowl to life after football. Plus the
Speaker 3: influence of his mentor and business partner, Constance Schwartz Marini,
Speaker 3: and what comes next for their partnership. You mentioned something
Speaker 3: that I think is really important, and Alex alluded to
Speaker 3: it feels like everything you've done in apparel jac Penny
Speaker 3: Men's Warehouse, this is not with you know, apology to
Speaker 3: those high high high end brands or Mes or whoever.
Speaker 3: Like that's a conscious decision. It feels like those partnerships
Speaker 3: tell us.
Speaker 2: More about it because it's me. I think we do.
Speaker 2: Everything I do is authentic, right. I don't do anything
Speaker 2: that does not fit me. I don't wear a suit
Speaker 2: that I don't make. I don't like our fabric. I
Speaker 2: would touch every tie, every shirt that we'd make just
Speaker 2: to make sure was what I would wear. I don't
Speaker 2: want to have a customer come up to me or
Speaker 2: someone and say, well, you know, I bought this and
Speaker 2: it's not what you said it was going to be.
Speaker 2: I'm like, no, I'm wearing the same thing. Hey, yeah,
Speaker 2: check this out and trust me. I have a great
Speaker 2: appreciation for a Mas and all the other sure brands.
Speaker 2: Trust me, I really do. But I just think that
Speaker 2: I know what I'm comfortable with. Yeah, and what I'm
Speaker 2: comfortable with. I feel like, you know, they's a big
Speaker 2: part of America that would be comfortable with that as well.
Speaker 2: But it's also about making sure that people have what
Speaker 2: they want, look a certain way that they want to look,
Speaker 2: feel a certain way that they want to feel. Because
Speaker 2: I'm a big believer that the way you dress, you know,
Speaker 2: to a confidence booster, a builder. It's something that they
Speaker 2: can afford to do, and it's something can afford to
Speaker 2: do for your kids instead of you know, the world's
Speaker 2: expensive enough and I do my best not to add
Speaker 2: to that.
Speaker 1: So how do those deals come about?
Speaker 3: Like what's the origin of, you know, getting into the
Speaker 3: the apparel?
Speaker 2: Their origin was we literally I was wearing suits every day.
Speaker 2: I'm one Live then I was on NFL, so six
Speaker 2: days a week, I am literally in a suit. And
Speaker 2: we went over to Peerless, the suit manufacturing company, and said, hey,
Speaker 2: got this idea, when do you a suit line? When
Speaker 2: do something that's authentic to me? And to be honest
Speaker 2: with you, it didn't have a big budget to do
Speaker 2: it for the show, so why not make our own stuff?
Speaker 2: And Peerless brought in JC Penny and we sat down
Speaker 2: in a meeting and said, hey, this is the idea
Speaker 2: what we have and if we want to partner with
Speaker 2: you guys, if you'll be interested. And one of the
Speaker 2: reasons I think that they jumped on it immediately was one,
Speaker 2: I think the audience that I had built from fo
Speaker 2: ball to live. But two, when we were in that
Speaker 2: pitch and I was in there with my partner, Confidence Worts,
Speaker 2: who I called the boss, but I pitched it.
Speaker 1: I didn't sit.
Speaker 2: There and let her team pitch it, Like I said,
Speaker 2: this is what we have, this is what we're doing,
Speaker 2: these are our thoughts behind it, this is why we
Speaker 2: believe it's gonna work. And when I got done, I said, Confidence,
Speaker 2: you have anything to say. She literally was like she
Speaker 2: was crying. I'm like, I'm in my head, I'm going
Speaker 2: not now, not now.
Speaker 1: She's like the teacher, the pupil, and the teacher. Now
Speaker 1: the pupil, the teacher, Like I pay attention, I know
Speaker 1: what's going on.
Speaker 2: But it was just in a real moment, and they
Speaker 2: said yeah, because they saw the passion I had it
Speaker 2: behind it. I just wasn't gonna say put my name
Speaker 2: on it, put my face on it, anlet it then
Speaker 2: just throw it out there and they say yes in
Speaker 2: the meeting. And we've been a big success at JC
Speaker 2: Penny expanded the men's warehouse and it has been an
Speaker 2: incredible nine years.
Speaker 3: And so what is the process? I mean, you know,
Speaker 3: apparel has been something you invest in. Tell us about skincare, like,
Speaker 3: how do these things bubble up?
Speaker 2: Well, believe it or not. I do wear a little
Speaker 2: makeup on TV. May have a little bit on right now,
Speaker 2: I knows. But with those things like cleaning your skin,
Speaker 2: I think skin is like an outfit. It's about your confidence.
Speaker 2: It's that outward appearance means a lot. But we realize
Speaker 2: that a lot of men don't really do anything else
Speaker 2: tide of taking face soap, letting the water run over
Speaker 2: their face and go okay, I'm good, and not just
Speaker 2: not enough as far as long term skincare. So we
Speaker 2: kind of came up with a very easy system that
Speaker 2: the very easy steps take you long to take.
Speaker 1: You to brush your.
Speaker 2: Teeth and you can take care of your skin. And
Speaker 2: that was important because I need to do that.
Speaker 3: So listening to you talk and you know, I've watched
Speaker 3: this guy now for a few years, do this too?
Speaker 1: Feels like you like the deal?
Speaker 2: Making I do what is it because it's competitive and
Speaker 2: it's kind of I love the teamwork part of it,
Speaker 2: to be honest with you. I love to see other
Speaker 2: people on the team like have something they're passionate about
Speaker 2: and excel at it. I love being a part of
Speaker 2: a team and like bringing people together and watching everything
Speaker 2: grow and watching them grow in the process.
Speaker 4: So so Jason, as we were prepping for Michael and
Speaker 4: Constants on this podcast, everyone asks me, tell me about Michael,
Speaker 4: Tell me about Michael. I said the same thing about
Speaker 4: Michael that I do about Irving Magic Johnson. And what
Speaker 4: I say about Irving is like, he's exactly who he
Speaker 4: is camera on off. You text Michael as busy as
Speaker 4: he is or email him, you're going to get something back,
Speaker 4: usually within an hour or two. Even if he's busy,
Speaker 4: he's like, hey, i'll call you at the end of
Speaker 4: the day. I'm running around. And that's the reason why
Speaker 4: when it comes to reputation and building businesses, he understands
Speaker 4: that part, which I do think some of our colleagues
Speaker 4: forget that a little bit because they haven't practiced that
Speaker 4: type of behavior, so you know.
Speaker 1: But it's a learned behavior.
Speaker 2: I can get to learn and like, for me, I
Speaker 2: just want to be the same. Consistency to me is
Speaker 2: a big thing. Consistency.
Speaker 1: But and Magic's done an incredible job.
Speaker 4: And Magic as our mentor, right, he's the king, right,
Speaker 4: we're following his footstets. But Jason, you appreciate this. When
Speaker 4: I retired in sixteen, one of my first calls when
Speaker 4: I joined Fox was Michael and I said, Michael, I'm
Speaker 4: gonna need your help. I'm going to lean in and
Speaker 4: he gave me just simple but great advice, right, And
Speaker 4: I think he said, Okay, I'm going to help your
Speaker 4: meet it. You got to help me in business? Yeah, exactly,
Speaker 4: And now he doesn't need anybody to help you know what.
Speaker 2: I think this is the interesting thing is speaking of Magic.
Speaker 2: I heard about Magic. I heard this last night as well,
Speaker 2: that when Magic was playing for the Lakers, Jerry Buss
Speaker 2: kind of took him on his wing, obviously, but Magic
Speaker 2: got the telephone number of everybody sat in the front
Speaker 2: row of this arena and personally called each and every
Speaker 2: one of them to ask them, like, what did they
Speaker 2: do so that they can basically get fourth those seats
Speaker 2: at the Lakers and really built relationships and He was
Speaker 2: the first athlete I think who and Jerry Buss was
Speaker 2: one of the owners who I guess was that open
Speaker 2: because I think back in today, I don't think ownership
Speaker 2: with as open as they are now to helping guide
Speaker 2: in business or being in business with guys. But Magic
Speaker 2: was the one who kind of showed that there's more
Speaker 2: than one side to an athlete. That's what we do
Speaker 2: at this moment. I was thirty six when I retired.
Speaker 1: What did I do?
Speaker 2: I could have moved to Florida and played golf all
Speaker 2: day like my buddies and did nothing else. But I
Speaker 2: can't imagine that life like you're too young. You have
Speaker 2: so much more to give, and that sports was just
Speaker 2: one small part of your life.
Speaker 3: And so speaking of Fox, Alex, I mean, I think
Speaker 3: that first of all, it's a commonality as you mentioned,
Speaker 3: the willingness, the ability, and the decision to stay close
Speaker 3: to the game in that way. I know you've done it, Alex.
Speaker 3: Where does that come from?
Speaker 1: For you?
Speaker 2: Football is like one of some of the best memories
Speaker 2: of my life. I mean, and I love to me
Speaker 2: doing the Fox NFL Show and being there with the
Speaker 2: guys on set.
Speaker 1: It's my highlight.
Speaker 2: Of my week and I fly cross country every week
Speaker 2: for it, and everyone goes, are you tired of flying?
Speaker 2: I'm like, no, there's never a Sunday. And I swear
Speaker 2: to you sixteen years there have never been one Sunday
Speaker 2: that I've showed up in that student. We're there at
Speaker 2: five thirty six until usually five pm that I've shot
Speaker 2: got there and I'm like, oh, I get ready to go. Ever,
Speaker 2: it is so much fun. And that's like my locker
Speaker 2: room now, because the biggest thing about sports that you
Speaker 2: miss isn't I mean, obviously you're making a lot of money,
Speaker 2: but I don't miss that because there are other ways
Speaker 2: to make money. I missed the guys, and neither of
Speaker 2: my guys. Now this is my new locker room with
Speaker 2: no egos because we all accomplished everything we wanted a
Speaker 2: game of football.
Speaker 1: Now we're here to have fun. This is gravy.
Speaker 3: How do you get yourself in the mindset to be
Speaker 3: And you alluded to this earlier to be critical but fair,
Speaker 3: to bring insights to you know, people like me who
Speaker 3: never played the game, like, how do you approach that?
Speaker 1: Well?
Speaker 2: I think the business been an analyst is just saying
Speaker 2: what you see and do it in an honest way
Speaker 2: without ill intent and out maliciousness. I don't say, well,
Speaker 2: I can't believe this guy played like this. He's making
Speaker 2: all this money, but does that have to do it
Speaker 2: anything like nothing? Let's talk about his performance, right, and
Speaker 2: let's be honest about his performance in a way in
Speaker 2: which you can that you could tell that I played
Speaker 2: the game. I understand what position he Then what I
Speaker 2: got to portray to the audience the way I felt
Speaker 2: about it is I've been.
Speaker 1: In the locker room.
Speaker 2: I've been up twenty one and lost, I've been down
Speaker 2: twenty one and one, Like, what are the emotions? What
Speaker 2: are the feelings? What's going on with the team on
Speaker 2: the winning side, how's the team on the losing side
Speaker 2: feel when things start to go against them? They just
Speaker 2: can't stop the tide from rolling? Like I need to
Speaker 2: convey that to the audience, the feelings, the things that
Speaker 2: they just can't google on the internet and get a
Speaker 2: feel for or a stat man. Of course, are you
Speaker 2: stats here and there, But for the most part, stats
Speaker 2: mean nothing. It's the game of emotion and that's what
Speaker 2: you want to get to the audience. And that's the
Speaker 2: one thing I had to learn. And my little buddy
Speaker 2: Jay Glazer, of all people, wasn't one who really taught
Speaker 2: me that because I was doing the typical well you know,
Speaker 2: they got to do this, and now he goes Michael people,
Speaker 2: then they can find it anywhere. Tell them what it
Speaker 2: feels like in that locker room. You were in that
Speaker 2: locker room. That's how you set yourself apart.
Speaker 1: How did you know that you had it? What was
Speaker 1: that moment for you? I didn't. I didn't.
Speaker 2: That's the weird thing when people you know, you're just
Speaker 2: so natural, I don't, you know. I just think I
Speaker 2: reached a point where I don't really think about a
Speaker 2: camera being there. I don't think about it does gonna
Speaker 2: affect how I'm gonna be gonna be. I'm gonna be.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna be me. Yeah, And when the camera's not there,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna be the same dude. And if the hardest
Speaker 2: thing for people to beat themselves on television, that's the
Speaker 2: hardest thing I think for people in the camera's on,
Speaker 2: you can you be yourself. It's kind of like somebody
Speaker 2: an actor trying to act as himself. I mean, I
Speaker 2: give you a lot of hats off to you if
Speaker 2: you can act as yourself in front of a camera
Speaker 2: in a movie. But I'm just me. I don't think
Speaker 2: about it. I don't get that serious about it. And
Speaker 2: then there are some times you're on live TV and
Speaker 2: something happened and you're like, Okay, can I say that?
Speaker 1: Man? Get away with that? Maybe not.
Speaker 2: I trust my gut with those type of moments too,
Speaker 2: and I think that that goes a long way to.
Speaker 4: Trust easier to trust your moment when we're talking about football, baseball.
Speaker 4: I'm amazed when I see you talking about like politics,
Speaker 4: election year, hurricanes, earthquakes. Was there a moment early on,
Speaker 4: probably not so much today, in the GMA days that
Speaker 4: you felt a little impostus.
Speaker 2: You have George, who's absolutely man, you kid, I feel
Speaker 2: it sometimes absolutely impostures. Sitting room, well, you know, one
Speaker 2: oh one over here, I'm sitting there. I'm sitting there
Speaker 2: looking at people who I loved and admired like they
Speaker 2: you know, you're the gold standard. And for me the
Speaker 2: first few years sitting there, I literally was in a
Speaker 2: master's class and I would just sit there and watch
Speaker 2: them do their thing with ease and go, man, they're
Speaker 2: so good. I don't know if I'll ever be that comfortable.
Speaker 2: Because I was uncomfortable in front of the camera for News,
Speaker 2: very comfortable for Fox, very comfortable when I was alive.
Speaker 2: GMA made me uncomfortable because it was subject matter that
Speaker 2: I felt, you know, I may know this stuff for
Speaker 2: some of this stuff, some of it.
Speaker 1: I need to I need to get, you know, in
Speaker 1: tune with, but.
Speaker 2: I felt they will already belong here. And I had
Speaker 2: a boss of mine to say, you know what, Michael,
Speaker 2: the world's changed. People want to get their news delivered
Speaker 2: in different ways from different people. It's not the traditionals
Speaker 2: sit there and you know, I'm going to tell you
Speaker 2: what you should think. Yeah, not that anymore. It is
Speaker 2: you know, you fit what people want to hear who
Speaker 2: they want to hear it from, and you just need
Speaker 2: to believe in that and believe in yourself. And yeah, man,
Speaker 2: I just felt like an imposted for a long time.
Speaker 2: But now I feel as comfortable there as I felt
Speaker 2: like any other set.
Speaker 4: One thing you've learned from Robin and one from George,
Speaker 4: because there I'm big fans of both of them.
Speaker 2: The one thing I've learned from Robin that I belonged
Speaker 2: I was on the carpet was I was over here
Speaker 2: for Live getting ready to interview with celebrities who are
Speaker 2: coming soon.
Speaker 1: But she looked at me and she goes, you're nervous. Huh.
Speaker 1: I said, I am.
Speaker 2: Scared that death. She goes, Michael, I came from sports too.
Speaker 2: When she said that, I was like, I forgot, Like
Speaker 2: Robin's has just had so many incredible It's such an
Speaker 2: incredible career and transcended so many things. And that was
Speaker 2: the one thing all gave me the most confidence in
Speaker 2: the world. With that and with George, you know, I've
Speaker 2: learned with George, be consistent. George is George. He's always
Speaker 2: going to be prepared, He's always sharp. He's going to
Speaker 2: challenge people who say things that should be challenged. He's
Speaker 2: not going to run away from a challenge because someone's
Speaker 2: supposed to be his friend or he doesn't want to
Speaker 2: hurt a feeling. George is going to get and after
Speaker 2: a question that should be asked, and he's going to
Speaker 2: do it in a way that I hope to one
Speaker 2: day be able to do, which is just with this
Speaker 2: straightforwardness and its honesty in a level what you've got
Speaker 2: to respect. And I think That's why he gets so
Speaker 2: much respect from everyone, including myself.
Speaker 3: You've talked about identifying things you want to do and
Speaker 3: then they materialize.
Speaker 1: How do you think about the future kind of crazy.
Speaker 2: I do think about a little bit more about the
Speaker 2: future now than I think I probably used to think about.
Speaker 2: I think because my kids are older and you know,
Speaker 2: freshmen in college, and it makes you go, all, right,
Speaker 2: what am I going to do?
Speaker 1: Do I want to work the.
Speaker 2: Rest of my life or do I want to do
Speaker 2: I want to go hang out with my buddy to
Speaker 2: play golf like I seem like they're doing every day.
Speaker 2: And I think they're the fine line between the two
Speaker 2: of them. I don't think I'm able to sit idle
Speaker 2: and do nothing that would drive me mad. But I
Speaker 2: do think that they're the way in which I can
Speaker 2: figure out another avenue or something that I have not
Speaker 2: done yet that I would love to try to figure
Speaker 2: out and conquer a little bit. And I think I'm
Speaker 2: fine in my way and kind of in the vein
Speaker 2: of Alex. You know, the sports fund I'm doing with
Speaker 2: our good friend Mark Lazary, and so I think that's
Speaker 2: something I'm very interested in, very passionate about the business
Speaker 2: side is investing, very passionate about investing.
Speaker 3: Well, let's talk about that, because I do think. I mean,
Speaker 3: obviously the show is called the Deal. What are the
Speaker 3: opportunities to do that for you? Because sports is a
Speaker 3: I dare say, you know, you guys came up literally parallel.
Speaker 3: It is a very different ecosystem than it was, oh
Speaker 3: yeah in the early nineties. How do you view that
Speaker 3: from a deal maker's perspective. A lot of my deals
Speaker 3: they're so far removed from the sports. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 3: this is the fund is sports fund, and we would
Speaker 3: do things around sports, and we have. But I think
Speaker 3: on a personal note far as my investing, it's full gamut.
Speaker 3: I mean, I'm just an open book to solid investment,
Speaker 3: to be honest with you, and I have several investment vehicles.
Speaker 1: I invest through.
Speaker 2: One is a group of eight friends and the other
Speaker 2: one is a group of three friends, and we find deals.
Speaker 2: We get deals come through each of us because we
Speaker 2: all have very different careers, but all of some in tech,
Speaker 2: in finance, myself is sports. But we all get so
Speaker 2: many opportunities that come our way that will vet it
Speaker 2: together and then we decide if you want to investor
Speaker 2: in but we have a fund that we do that with,
Speaker 2: and they have one that's a smaller fund, just three
Speaker 2: of us, and those are probably those are smaller investments
Speaker 2: that probably can't take as much capital as the others.
Speaker 2: So the three of us will do it or divide
Speaker 2: it or figure it out in that way. But the
Speaker 2: gamut of investments, you know, I think we invest over
Speaker 2: thirty companies.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Is there a deal that sticks out in your mind?
Speaker 3: One that either I saw that I knew it was
Speaker 3: going to be amazing, or wow, that turned out in
Speaker 3: a way that I didn't anticipate, you.
Speaker 2: Know, the one deal that I've walked on and I
Speaker 2: think about it every time I play golf at bel
Speaker 2: Air Country Club in LA.
Speaker 1: Because I walked past the guy's house.
Speaker 2: Young guy calls me up and I met him in
Speaker 2: LA and I was living out there, and I want
Speaker 2: to have a meeting with you at the Beverly Hills Hotel.
Speaker 1: Great cool, go over there.
Speaker 2: We haven't lunch, and he's telling me about this business
Speaker 2: that he's working on with a field, his friends. He
Speaker 2: would love for me and invest and everything else that
Speaker 2: I'm looking at him, and I'm oh, man, I mean
Speaker 2: I retired at that point, so I think i'd retired
Speaker 2: at that point, So it gotta be two thousand and
Speaker 2: eight nimes pen something like that, maybe before that. But
Speaker 2: he's telling me about this business and I'm like, oh, yeah, great,
Speaker 2: and in my head I'm going, em, I don't know,
Speaker 2: I'm invested with this kid.
Speaker 1: You know, he's like.
Speaker 2: Too young, so young, and I don't know, I don't know.
Speaker 2: He seemed like a little little crazy tender.
Speaker 4: Oh wow, wow wow, Now how much would you have invested?
Speaker 1: Well, and what do you think it was? I knew
Speaker 1: what was going to be happened to.
Speaker 2: Oh man, I look back now, like what do you
Speaker 2: but you can't one thing. I don't get upset.
Speaker 1: You can't win them all right, and.
Speaker 2: You're gonna lose us. I mean I've lost money in
Speaker 2: some deals. I mean we you know, and but I've
Speaker 2: made a lot of money and other deals. And I
Speaker 2: think that that's kind of like the competition part that
Speaker 2: I like, you really got to do your due diligence.
Speaker 2: You really got to be disciplined about what you're going
Speaker 2: to do. And for me, my association with certain things,
Speaker 2: like there's certain things that I won't do because I
Speaker 2: want to be associated with something like that, even though
Speaker 2: it would be a great business with then there are
Speaker 2: certain things that you know what that's right up my alley,
Speaker 2: or there's certain people I invest in who have a
Speaker 2: product that is great.
Speaker 1: I believe it's great.
Speaker 2: A lot of great things don't work, but I believe
Speaker 2: that that person, as a CEO of somebody who's an entrepreneur,
Speaker 2: is going to really figure out a way to make
Speaker 2: it work.
Speaker 3: So one person who's been critical in all of this.
Speaker 3: You alluded to her a couple of times. It may
Speaker 3: just simply as the boss is Constance Schwartz MARIENI how
Speaker 3: does smack come together?
Speaker 2: What's the origin story there? Well, Constance had started the
Speaker 2: company with another person and if Constantly and I we
Speaker 2: met twenty eight twenty nine years ago. But she worked
Speaker 2: at the NFL and I retired, and would be stayed
Speaker 2: in contact even when she moved to LA because she
Speaker 2: left the NFL, would work for a record label, then
Speaker 2: she worked for a management company, and then she was
Speaker 2: managing Snoop full time for seven years before she decided
Speaker 2: to go out on her own. But we always stayed
Speaker 2: in touch, and then I went out when I retired,
Speaker 2: I moved to LA because I was doing Fox, the
Speaker 2: only thing I was doing at the time, so I
Speaker 2: might as well live close and I would go to
Speaker 2: her office all the time, and I would just sit
Speaker 2: there in meetings and listen and have opinions on things.
Speaker 2: And after a while of doing that, she either she
Speaker 2: was like, Okay, if you're going to show up here
Speaker 2: every day, you're either you gotta come a part of
Speaker 2: the business or you just got to not come back.
Speaker 2: She got sick of me, Like yes, either sick of me,
Speaker 2: or like you're going to be a part of it.
Speaker 1: So I was like, yeah, all right, I'm in.
Speaker 2: So I end up joining the company, and now the
Speaker 2: other partner left, or just her and I we own
Speaker 2: and the whole company. You know, we haven't sold off
Speaker 2: anything of it or taken on any partners, but you know,
Speaker 2: we now at that point where like strategic partners would
Speaker 2: really work for us. It was expanding a lot of
Speaker 2: ways that we want to expand. And yeah, that was
Speaker 2: twelve years ago through twelve thirteen years ago. And we
Speaker 2: get along in a sense that I think we both
Speaker 2: understand each other well. We don't scream and argue with
Speaker 2: each other like we both had the same sensibilities, and
Speaker 2: we have a saying h L YB hustle like you're broke,
Speaker 2: and we both do that. We do not take for
Speaker 2: granted what we have. We work hard now as we've
Speaker 2: ever worked, and I know we both feel a responsibility
Speaker 2: for everyone who works with us. So that's what we started.
Speaker 2: That's how it all got started. And it was not
Speaker 2: much going on back then. Yeah, Yeah, wasn't much going on.
Speaker 2: And then guess from like I guess sheer willed and
Speaker 2: determination and just pushing and pushing and pushing, especially when
Speaker 2: every days you're like, what the heck are we pushing for?
Speaker 1: It?
Speaker 2: Just once one thing happened, that the next thing happened,
Speaker 2: and the next thing happened, And now we've been off
Speaker 2: and running pretty well for a while.
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, I think it's fair to say understanding
Speaker 3: sort of the underpinnings of what you're trying to do.
Speaker 3: I mean, the world sort of came to you in
Speaker 3: a lot of ways, Like the world recognized a lot
Speaker 3: of the things that you guys would recognize, which is
Speaker 3: this intersection. We talk about it. Alex and I talked
Speaker 3: about it constantly business, sports, culture, technology, broader economics, broader ambition.
Speaker 3: Why do you think that happened? I mean, what happened
Speaker 3: in the world to put you at the center of it.
Speaker 2: I wish I knew, I really wish I knew. And
Speaker 2: I name our company Smack Sports, Music and Culture, and
Speaker 2: that's really what we're involved. I mean, we manage wiz
Speaker 2: Khalifa Common and on the sports side, it's myself, it's
Speaker 2: Dion Sanders, Shiloh Sanders, Chador Sanders, Travis Hunter, Kurt Menefee,
Speaker 2: Aaron Andrews, the Garcia Twins, where the Bella Twin wrestlers,
Speaker 2: Tony Gonzalez, just a full gamut of different type of
Speaker 2: people with different types of skill sets, and we're about
Speaker 2: working with people. We want to work with people who
Speaker 2: had the same you know, hustle and drive and ambitions
Speaker 2: that we have because a lot of work manage someone's
Speaker 2: career and try to build a career, like build a
Speaker 2: business off of their career, which is something that we
Speaker 2: take a lot of pride in being able to come
Speaker 2: up with it, where by ea Aaron Andrews line with NFL, NHL,
Speaker 2: NBA and be able to create something from an idea
Speaker 2: and actually make it a business. Not pass it off.
Speaker 2: And we have a small but mighty team. And I
Speaker 2: just think, you know, universe works in mysterious ways. Man,
Speaker 2: I don't get it. I really don't. I remember when
Speaker 2: you talk to Confidence ask her about the call, that
Speaker 2: she would like, Oh, I had this epiphany. I woke
Speaker 2: up in the middle of night and with these epiphanies.
Speaker 2: And I got to say, is as crazy as she
Speaker 2: sounds when she's telling me. She's always right and she
Speaker 2: really is a subvant and it just makes sense to
Speaker 2: her how this business works and how the world works,
Speaker 2: and you know, the long term goals because she doesn't
Speaker 2: look at the immediate. She's always year the head of
Speaker 2: myself and everyone else. When my dad left off, as
Speaker 2: I got growled and moved to New York, my parents
Speaker 2: were in Texas, Confidence has picked up and has given
Speaker 2: me that confidence of like when and what's next and
Speaker 2: believing things are going to happen where my dad left off.
Speaker 4: Look, there's a lot of young people out there that
Speaker 4: want to be the next Michael Strahan, Like knowing what
Speaker 4: you know now, what advice would you give yourself at
Speaker 4: twenty one? And are young viewers that want to be
Speaker 4: like you or something like you, what advice would you
Speaker 4: give them?
Speaker 1: What is a lot of advice.
Speaker 2: I literally woke up this morning and I was like, man,
Speaker 2: it's early. I got a bed a little late last night.
Speaker 2: I started watching one of these series kept me up
Speaker 2: later than my he was a bedtime and I got up.
Speaker 1: And I said, man, I'm tired.
Speaker 2: Then I realized that this is not tired. Tired was
Speaker 2: pulling myself out of a bed at Fairleigh Dickinson here
Speaker 2: in New Jersey, or at University of already in training camp, tired,
Speaker 2: beat up, sore, get put it on shoulder paths that
Speaker 2: are still wet and damp from the sweat from the
Speaker 2: day before. To constance, I am my last question? Could
Speaker 2: I please finish? My last question is that?
Speaker 1: Okay, boss, I'm in here singing your praises.
Speaker 2: By the way, A right, boss cauld, I have one minute.
Speaker 1: You go that way, Yeah, go through there. You can
Speaker 1: have a seat right here in the background.
Speaker 2: But then I realized that, man, I look at now
Speaker 2: when I go, it's a lot of work for anybody
Speaker 2: that's out there who's young. It's a lot of stuff
Speaker 2: you're going to have to go through and do. Times
Speaker 2: that you don't feel like doing anything, but you're going
Speaker 2: to have to find the strength to do it. And
Speaker 2: there is no substitute.
Speaker 1: There is no.
Speaker 2: Shortcut to success if you're not with the hard work
Speaker 2: is the key to success. Relationships are the key to success.
Speaker 2: Being nice to people like treating people, making people feel valuable.
Speaker 2: I don't care what your job is here upset, I
Speaker 2: don't whatever show I do or I don't say people
Speaker 2: work for me and work with me. But I believe
Speaker 2: in making every everyone feel they have the value, no
Speaker 2: matter what their job is. Because if you do that,
Speaker 2: they will do everything they can for you for your
Speaker 2: organization to make it be the best it could be.
Speaker 2: So treat people with respect, treat yourself with respect, work
Speaker 2: your butt.
Speaker 1: Off and be open to say yes, and don't.
Speaker 2: Care if it doesn't work, because you're going to learn
Speaker 2: something that's gonna help you down the road. And that
Speaker 2: has really been my whole life lesson and get yourself
Speaker 2: a great partner like confidant schwartz Marini, who I'm scared
Speaker 2: of because she's behind me, so I gotta say all
Speaker 2: these nice things about the boss. She is so lovely.
Speaker 2: Cannot wait for you to to have a conversation with her.
Speaker 1: Did he do okay?
Speaker 2: I mean he should treat he forgot the part? You
Speaker 2: know what, She's coming in hot.
Speaker 1: We're ready for it. We're ready for it.
Speaker 4: Thank you so much, Thank you so much.
Speaker 1: I love you, Thank you, brother.
Speaker 5: The Deals of production from Bloomberg Podcasts and Bloomberg Originals.
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