Speaker 1: This is cut to it with Steve Smith Senior at
Speaker 1: production of The Black Effect and I Heart Radio. I'm
Speaker 1: Steve Smith Senior and I'm John And this is cut
Speaker 1: to it. Good do it? Good do what they're getting
Speaker 1: down to? Do it? Good do it. We asked the
Speaker 1: questions you always want to know, but no one ever asked,
Speaker 1: let's cut to it. You ain't heard am about it?
Speaker 1: Then we're about to let you know. It's all come
Speaker 1: back to traveling. So when I get to you know,
Speaker 1: it's kind of hard. Uh. I got a whole little
Speaker 1: you know, with the mass mandate all that stuff from
Speaker 1: you know. I got certain masks I can wear when
Speaker 1: I'm traveling, and certain was I can and so I
Speaker 1: have my I couldn't have my glasses on, so I
Speaker 1: had I wear headphones a lot of times when I'm traveling.
Speaker 1: So I check in. I'm like, man, I don't know
Speaker 1: how long the lines are. Man, I'm gonna just go ahead,
Speaker 1: go ahead and hit the head real quick, go to bathroom.
Speaker 1: Meredith is not in her head that he just said
Speaker 1: hit the head, right, So I'm going to go palty
Speaker 1: and gon use the loop. So I go to the bathroom.
Speaker 1: I'm walking to the bathroom. And I got my roller
Speaker 1: back because I do a lot of carry on. I
Speaker 1: got my my, my, my, my bluetooth. And there's a bluetooth.
Speaker 1: Mom like when the old players that got the blue
Speaker 1: that got the bluetooth just said, you know what you say, bluetooth,
Speaker 1: I don't have the head set from the guy and
Speaker 1: uh their head hold on, shout of the spice a
Speaker 1: hold alright, where's where is the not? Chuck? Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: that's how you're walking around there. And I was on
Speaker 1: the phone with you. That's what you did. He say, Hey,
Speaker 1: hold a minute, hold on, hold on, I got out
Speaker 1: the line. Chuck. Yeah, if we get get so soon
Speaker 1: as up going. I got my roller back back. And
Speaker 1: there's a guy who football football analogy scampers to the
Speaker 1: restroom and kind of cuts me off, goes in the bathroom.
Speaker 1: He had to go back. He had the potty dance right,
Speaker 1: he had to sign self aside self with scamper forty
Speaker 1: gets to the bathroom. He uses the bathroom. I'm using
Speaker 1: the bathroom. I turned, I go to wash my hands.
Speaker 1: He proceeds to take several steps to the right, not straight.
Speaker 1: The right is to the door, so so what did
Speaker 1: he not do? You? You was on the phone, I said,
Speaker 1: tell them what I said, Gee, hey this you know what?
Speaker 1: I didn't wash his hands? I said a loud enough
Speaker 1: in here. I said, oh, you wash your hands. I said,
Speaker 1: you ain't gonna wash your hands, so you're gonna damn
Speaker 1: the run me over. I know, dramatic being like little,
Speaker 1: but you ain't gonna wash your hands. Oh you just go,
Speaker 1: I said, Oh, so you're just gonna go go out
Speaker 1: there with them pissie tips. That's disgusting, man, Like, that's
Speaker 1: just that's that's like top top three and it ain't
Speaker 1: two or three most disgusting things you can do. And
Speaker 1: that's before COVID. I don't care like, that's before COVID. Like,
Speaker 1: it's just nasty. How do you use the bathroom and
Speaker 1: not wash your hands? Like you are a disgusting individual
Speaker 1: if you do such things. He rolls his eyes. Oh,
Speaker 1: he responded, yeah, you never told me that. He response.
Speaker 1: He rolled his eyes and said, you roll you eyes.
Speaker 1: You you need to put some soup on your tips.
Speaker 1: That's what you need. So he washed his hands begrudgingly.
Speaker 1: You should never recretingly wash your hands after after your
Speaker 1: native right that that should not be something you begretguingly
Speaker 1: do this. Dude go to here, almost run me over,
Speaker 1: and he ain't gonna wash his hands, Isn't he be
Speaker 1: shamed me yourself? So he washed his hands and when
Speaker 1: we came and he went out, and uh so it
Speaker 1: was just one of those things. Man. That's one of
Speaker 1: the things I dislike, is where beyond the pandemic. I'm
Speaker 1: telling you, it's just one of those things. I'm in
Speaker 1: the airport so much. You see a lot of nasty
Speaker 1: things that people do, and I think it's you know,
Speaker 1: with you ad the pandemic hygiene would you always say Joe,
Speaker 1: Joe says this about hygiene, and I think it's masterful. Well,
Speaker 1: first of all, hygiene's free. That that is masterful, and
Speaker 1: we all know, like you don't need a pandemic or
Speaker 1: something being this basic, just basic, like wash your hands.
Speaker 1: What's better is MoMA didn't teach you this. What's better
Speaker 1: is you know we've been there, like when someone didn't
Speaker 1: and then turned around, realize it's Steve. Don't try to
Speaker 1: tap him up like at the restaurant. I don't care
Speaker 1: who it is that told you no bunch should have
Speaker 1: to tell you have to tell you something is going on,
Speaker 1: and then you're gonna who what else do you do?
Speaker 1: You're gonna touch your face, You're gonna chick someone else's hand.
Speaker 1: Hey man, this cut to It ps A, wash your
Speaker 1: damn hands. That's it. That's all we're asking you to do.
Speaker 1: That's it. Wow. Who we got coming up on the
Speaker 1: Cut to It podcast? We've got Russell Shepherd, a seven
Speaker 1: year NFL veteran for the Eagles, Bucks, Panthers, and Giants,
Speaker 1: and a standout for L s U. Russell is now
Speaker 1: a thriving entrepreneur with one of the fastest growing waste
Speaker 1: management companies in the US, Sheep Boys Waste Management. Russell
Speaker 1: Shepherd on the Cut to A podcast. First segment, it's
Speaker 1: called get Iced Up Their random ice breakers. Smitty select
Speaker 1: him at random? Smitty, why don't you go ahead and
Speaker 1: give him the first one? All right, you're granted already,
Speaker 1: you know you know it's gonna be You got a
Speaker 1: grand all right? If you wouldn't get hurt, would you
Speaker 1: rather skydive? Yeah? Or view sharks from underwater cage? Which
Speaker 1: one would you do if you knew you weren't gonna
Speaker 1: get hurt. I probably gotta see that shark. I gotta
Speaker 1: see that beast. That's a that's a guard creature. You know,
Speaker 1: that's an amazing thing like that much respect for the predator.
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna be I'm gonna be racist. You know
Speaker 1: how to swim? Racist? How that swim? I mean, I
Speaker 1: spent four years in Timple. I look, I jumped in
Speaker 1: the water. I was with Louis Murphy, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. I'm pretty sure you know Louis Murphy this
Speaker 1: and Jackson recipes and they called me and um a
Speaker 1: few other cats. We went on. We went fishing one
Speaker 1: day and boy as we jumped in the water and
Speaker 1: they're like, you know, I got to feel how powerful
Speaker 1: that ocean was, you know what I'm saying. Being in
Speaker 1: that day literally probably not even probably forty five seconds,
Speaker 1: and men that we got out of the water, a
Speaker 1: shark hit the boat like that was that was. I
Speaker 1: never I never get back in the ocean again like that.
Speaker 1: I go to the beach, but not in that water.
Speaker 1: So you so you just played uh better being shark mate.
Speaker 1: You know the way my life is structure right now,
Speaker 1: I don't see no water, you know, but wastewater. That's
Speaker 1: the on the water I'm saying on the day to basis,
Speaker 1: all right, what personality traits would you like to change
Speaker 1: in yourself? You know I tend to be, you know,
Speaker 1: a micro manager. I'm I'm a very hands on individual.
Speaker 1: I believe you know what you ask people to do,
Speaker 1: you need to you know, you know you need to
Speaker 1: show that in your day to day you know how
Speaker 1: you operate. So to me, the trusting you know, you know,
Speaker 1: not micro management. And like I said, I'm learning that,
Speaker 1: especially you know, being a boss, you know, CEO, trust
Speaker 1: people you know to do that job because I can't
Speaker 1: do it all more, especially at the rate that we're born.
Speaker 1: Would you rather be a hobbit or elf? For twenty
Speaker 1: four hours? Elf? What's the different? What's the difference other
Speaker 1: than one worst for us? For god, like a temporary
Speaker 1: job for a few weeks. What's the difference? Man, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna I get to see sound of hobbit. It was
Speaker 1: open in the question too, Like bro, I wanted you
Speaker 1: to Steve, I want you to answer to what's the difference?
Speaker 1: And look, if you keep it, G if I keep
Speaker 1: if I keep it g I was born with a deformed.
Speaker 1: So I have skinny ear at the top of my
Speaker 1: ears skinny. So I was used to get called the
Speaker 1: elf as a kid growing up. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: So this this dude then put his elf identification. Now
Speaker 1: it's like the conduct. Yeah right, I'm not touching that. Um,
Speaker 1: I mean, this is my show show. I don't have
Speaker 1: to be either one. I would just be no. I
Speaker 1: was just ask me what the difference is. I really,
Speaker 1: I really don't know which. I just wrote this. I
Speaker 1: reat question. I'm like, man, I'm good, but I do
Speaker 1: like it. Um all right, man, So I you know,
Speaker 1: let's just kind of jump into it. Where are you
Speaker 1: from in a place you call your hometown. I'm from Houston,
Speaker 1: Texas a k Ahetown, Man. I was going to raise
Speaker 1: lived out over, lived all over the city. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: this is where me and my wife here when I
Speaker 1: was playing. You know, we came home offseason. That's where
Speaker 1: we lived. We bought a house out here about seven
Speaker 1: years ago. So this has been the place I've been
Speaker 1: really outside of my NFL career. In four years, I
Speaker 1: was in college h town. You know who some of
Speaker 1: your favorite Houston artists. Then I love Houston music. Um,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, I'm a big fan of
Speaker 1: the just in general, the you know Bumby, you know
Speaker 1: pm C. You know, you can throw a few other people,
Speaker 1: the young people in here, you know making Scott, you
Speaker 1: know scar Face. It's a even you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: You know he wanted to you know, the good guys
Speaker 1: from the city that puts on the city. So I
Speaker 1: love it. We sleep, we sleep on scar Face. That
Speaker 1: was a class fix to fix classic album. I have
Speaker 1: not slept on scar Face. I roll Scace. If you
Speaker 1: if you're from Houston and you talk about music and
Speaker 1: you don't mention scar Face and Pimpsie, you know, you
Speaker 1: ain't know. You weren't born in the city. You're a
Speaker 1: suburb baby, or you you're just young, you infants because
Speaker 1: the music has changed, like smile scar Face. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: I'm gonna keep it you with your big brother. You know,
Speaker 1: some music probably like where you're from. Some stuff that's timeless.
Speaker 1: Like even the little kids know that out here, they
Speaker 1: gotta know the star Face. They got no PIMC, they
Speaker 1: got no Big Mo, they got no certain things. Because
Speaker 1: it's so it's so embraded in the culture people riding
Speaker 1: around with these swangers and these certain things and these cars,
Speaker 1: and you know where they talk. They get it from
Speaker 1: these these artists. But you know that generation also doesn't
Speaker 1: know the history as well exactly. That's the problem, That's
Speaker 1: what you know. I had to said this way. That's
Speaker 1: wh watch a lot of these boys walking around here
Speaker 1: with their paying sag and so they're looking at their
Speaker 1: draws because they think it's cool, but don't even really
Speaker 1: understand what they really symbolize. Right then, I don't want
Speaker 1: to get into like really acknowledging that, but I think
Speaker 1: understanding your history, right, understanding and why, like you want
Speaker 1: to look cool, but who are you really? Who you
Speaker 1: replicating people that you don't even really understand what you replicate.
Speaker 1: And so I think, you know, just watching the young
Speaker 1: guys like, uh, it was really cool. My seven year
Speaker 1: old right now, all he really he knows it's Baltimore,
Speaker 1: right he was just born where I was playing in Baltimore.
Speaker 1: He literally just said it over the weekend, he said,
Speaker 1: he told my wife, he said, Mommy, I'm pretty lucky.
Speaker 1: Steve Smith is my daddy. He just said someone has
Speaker 1: said something to him and he's just connecting the doctor right,
Speaker 1: and and and so it's even and why is that
Speaker 1: thing is? Sometimes I'll be watching film or like my
Speaker 1: boys just say something, or we'll be watching something. We're
Speaker 1: watching the show, and then I flashed up. He's like, Daddy,
Speaker 1: why are you were in that kind of jersey? And
Speaker 1: and even though it was watching something that had hair,
Speaker 1: he goes that he got hair, right, just kind of
Speaker 1: understanding that, you know, the history. And I think I
Speaker 1: think with technology man our our young folks miss out
Speaker 1: on so much history because it requires us to requires
Speaker 1: them to sit down longer than two minutes and be
Speaker 1: focused on something. And the old stuff you can't you
Speaker 1: can't put it in the uh you know story on
Speaker 1: in TikTok. Like it requires a little bit of attention
Speaker 1: and a little bit more than just some you know,
Speaker 1: some some clips. Yeah, I mean like West, we're saying,
Speaker 1: like you're from Houston. So culture transcends, right, Like even
Speaker 1: I'm from North Carolina. So the culture transcends, but it
Speaker 1: ought to be passed down a lot of people just
Speaker 1: don't even bother to sit down with the O. G
Speaker 1: s and and for lack of better term, the elders
Speaker 1: to even just be able to download that to mention. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: you're right about that. You're right. The ones that do, though,
Speaker 1: they have a little more success. Life tough. So you
Speaker 1: right now, when you don't, when you don't reach back
Speaker 1: and ask people that can do it, you know, you
Speaker 1: kind of you stumble a little more. And us that do.
Speaker 1: You know, they tend to have a little better the
Speaker 1: chance at life. You know, right about that. You gotta
Speaker 1: they got received it. How did your upbringing shape you?
Speaker 1: You know, it was big for me, you know, especially
Speaker 1: once I got to the league, because you know, my
Speaker 1: dad is my dad is he he's from the streets.
Speaker 1: You know, he came from you know, he was he
Speaker 1: was he was in high school, crackhead, and he was
Speaker 1: an inner city kid. And you know, even throughout his adulthood,
Speaker 1: you know, it was he was like, it's affect this community.
Speaker 1: You know, it's turned turned to a nice suburban area
Speaker 1: into a raw, a raw area, you know, just kind
Speaker 1: of change. So my dad, my mom and dad had
Speaker 1: me early. And my mom, you know, she got pregnantly
Speaker 1: you know, when I was chasing you know, high school,
Speaker 1: and my dad was just out of high school and
Speaker 1: he transitioned from the streets. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: As I grew, you know what I'm saying. When I
Speaker 1: became you know, you know, a young kid and got
Speaker 1: into my teenage years. My dad by that time, he
Speaker 1: had more the trades. Um. You know, he used to
Speaker 1: come home with a pocket full of money and um,
Speaker 1: you know, he was dirty though, you know, he was
Speaker 1: like he didn't work. You know how I've seen that,
Speaker 1: Like I didn't see him and nothing nice and flamboyant,
Speaker 1: Like he came home with some money he brought home
Speaker 1: to the families. So, you know, fast forward when I
Speaker 1: got to the league and I and I and I
Speaker 1: got the money like we all do at that time.
Speaker 1: You know, with me, I what I seen was how
Speaker 1: my dad was making money having these trades. He was
Speaker 1: a dumb truck guy. He was an a c man.
Speaker 1: He was what he was doing with his money bringing
Speaker 1: home to the family, investments in real estate. So we
Speaker 1: was in the hood and my dad's had it was
Speaker 1: a house and in the hood, and he was like, man,
Speaker 1: it was behind the hospital. He was like, look, they
Speaker 1: they're gonna there's nothing else around that that house but
Speaker 1: a hospital and McDonald's and buildings. He said, they're gonna
Speaker 1: buy that shipped out one day and uh, fast forward
Speaker 1: seven years later. Man, they bought the house. He bought
Speaker 1: the house for thirty thousand dollars. And um, when we
Speaker 1: got out seven years later, they gave us a hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty thousand dollars to leave the street and they
Speaker 1: turned that house into a parking lot. You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. They bought the whole blockout, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. And we transitioned from the hood to the suburbs,
Speaker 1: and I was able to get in a better schooling system.
Speaker 1: I had a better surrounding environment, so I got the
Speaker 1: witness state growth. And they did it the right way.
Speaker 1: So when I got to leave, you know, I knew
Speaker 1: coming up, how will you introduced a football? You know, Well,
Speaker 1: like I said, we was in a tough neighborhood. You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, So keep us acting my dad,
Speaker 1: but us in sports, you know what I'm saying. I
Speaker 1: had a bunch of cousins, first cousins. My dad had
Speaker 1: a lot of siblings and were all the same age,
Speaker 1: and they just threw us in sports to keep us acting. So, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, I started playing around like seven eight and
Speaker 1: then I just know I got good. I just kept
Speaker 1: getting better and it became an obsession. You know, the
Speaker 1: parents can lead you to the water and the kid,
Speaker 1: but it's up to the child to to take kind
Speaker 1: of adopt that adopt that obsessive trade and go over
Speaker 1: and beyond to get You know that everybody isn't Mike
Speaker 1: Evans length and span and can start playing, you know,
Speaker 1: in the twelfth grade, let get great. So you know,
Speaker 1: I got to see my dad work hard. I got
Speaker 1: into sport early. I took that football and I just
Speaker 1: kind of took off. Now we know you are Swiss
Speaker 1: army knife. When it come to the positions, where'd you
Speaker 1: at least start your positional start? Yeah? So I started
Speaker 1: running back. You know Little League, that's where everybody play.
Speaker 1: Everybody right running back to the running back. You know
Speaker 1: that's the easiest thing. You know that it's early in
Speaker 1: the game. You know when we were playing, it was
Speaker 1: it was very simple. Now there they throwing that thing.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. But you know I've learned
Speaker 1: to you know, going to school like ls you starting
Speaker 1: off a running back. I respect the art of running
Speaker 1: and how the simple seticity that comes with running the boss.
Speaker 1: So you know, I love started off with running back
Speaker 1: and then once I got high school, they threw me
Speaker 1: a quarterback Oregon. It was on Alex Smith. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. So so you start off and running
Speaker 1: back and now you're your quarterback, and you become pretty
Speaker 1: damn good quarterback, right you. You becomes highly recruited and
Speaker 1: you go to l s U. You got under arm
Speaker 1: are all America Number three athletes or ESPN one fifty.
Speaker 1: They switch you to quarterback immediately, Like how did that
Speaker 1: transition go? Like walk us through that process for you
Speaker 1: and take us through everything you were feeling through that transition.
Speaker 1: Like you said, I was a highly recruiter player. You know,
Speaker 1: I went to school. I could have went to the
Speaker 1: school pretty much, and I chose the l s U
Speaker 1: because the possibility to play quarterback. A lot of schools
Speaker 1: were Nick Saban came to me and told me, you
Speaker 1: know he you know, I didn't know Nick Savan like
Speaker 1: that because, like I said, my dad wasn't the ball player.
Speaker 1: So he came and seeing me. Everybody at the school
Speaker 1: is really excited. But you know what I'm saying, you know,
Speaker 1: but I'm like, you know, being a Texas kid, I
Speaker 1: had only my level of of of of football history.
Speaker 1: My dad wasn't telling me about these other great players
Speaker 1: and coaches. So when he came, he's Nick Savan told me,
Speaker 1: hey man, he said, I think you can go here
Speaker 1: and win the highs and here and do that. He said, you,
Speaker 1: I think you can come to Alabama play d D
Speaker 1: for me and be a first round pick. Looked at
Speaker 1: him like he was crazy, Like I'm not. I'm not.
Speaker 1: I'm at this point, I'm the number one player in
Speaker 1: the country. I got games on es esken you know,
Speaker 1: usually high school back when we was comed up high
Speaker 1: school dbs where you to the receivers that couldn't catch.
Speaker 1: They wasn't these ball skilled cats that they got Now
Speaker 1: they're developed, So like to say, I tasked for like
Speaker 1: I said, Nick Saban said all that I was looking crazy,
Speaker 1: which is probably the worst decision of life, not to
Speaker 1: facts my left my ball skills being able to play
Speaker 1: the D beyond him. He wanna be a first round pick,
Speaker 1: second early seer, you know, like, but he seen it
Speaker 1: because like he was the only one mind tried to
Speaker 1: turn me into a dB um. He told me that
Speaker 1: after I got to college. When I met him, Mac
Speaker 1: Brown told me he wanted me to play dB. I
Speaker 1: just didn't see it. I didn't have nobody telling me.
Speaker 1: But when I got the l s you brother, and
Speaker 1: I see how the boys strowing that ball, I was like,
Speaker 1: if I want to play at the next level, and
Speaker 1: if I want to make it, have opportunity to take
Speaker 1: care of my people, you know, and do what I
Speaker 1: need to do. I gotta I gotta make a change.
Speaker 1: So I went to coach Miles, probably towards the end
Speaker 1: of the season. I was like, Coach, I think I
Speaker 1: wanted to do it. And Percy, however, was hot. You know,
Speaker 1: there was already schools are already selling me on that person,
Speaker 1: Harving Roll when I was coming out of high school.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. So you know, I just
Speaker 1: thought it made sense for me to get this twitch
Speaker 1: you get too. I was saying, my guys, get hey.
Speaker 1: You know, it's one thing in high school when you
Speaker 1: start seeing how cats coming back to college and they
Speaker 1: got this and they got that. Oh ship, I need
Speaker 1: to make the best business. I love cut to it,
Speaker 1: and I love it even more when you download us
Speaker 1: and subscribe and you can follow us on social media too, Smithie,
Speaker 1: where where at? That's at? Cut to it on Instagram?
Speaker 1: What about Twitter? At? Cut to it Facebook? Cut to
Speaker 1: it featuring Steve Smith singr. What about online? And you
Speaker 1: can follow us at cut to It podcast dot com
Speaker 1: where you can buy merch and you can subscribe to
Speaker 1: us wherever you listen to podcasts. I got all my
Speaker 1: answers questions. Um, yeah, I got all my questions answered.
Speaker 1: That's what I'm here for. A brother, cut to a
Speaker 1: podcast dot com. When they have that athlete designation some people,
Speaker 1: I think it's recepted either way. So you're saying you
Speaker 1: were open, you were open to whatever. I mean. After
Speaker 1: after he saw after he saw the competition, he had
Speaker 1: to get on campus and realize yeah, um yeah that
Speaker 1: this athleticism. Uh the boy got some arms. Yeah yeah,
Speaker 1: yeah yeah. And I was seeing, like dont Robinson, I've
Speaker 1: seen it like I always take five and looking at
Speaker 1: the big I could have been college fact had broke
Speaker 1: the records, and I was like, if I want to
Speaker 1: have me and Donart Robinson came out of college same
Speaker 1: year you played four years I played I played seven.
Speaker 1: I could have played more if I wanted to, you know,
Speaker 1: I decided to stay. So I feel like I've always
Speaker 1: made business. So it sounds like based off what you
Speaker 1: witness with your dad and his transparency and his his
Speaker 1: great work ethic and your mom and his entrepreneurship and thinking,
Speaker 1: his forward thinking, and also the I think one of
Speaker 1: the things that we get caught up in is we
Speaker 1: call ourselves entrepreneurs because we have ideas, but if we
Speaker 1: don't execute them, then they're just ideas. But your dad
Speaker 1: had an idea, follow through with the idea, and then
Speaker 1: also had a proven successful track record that showed after
Speaker 1: seven years that when he bought this house for thirty dollars,
Speaker 1: he just didn't bump his gums and talk about it.
Speaker 1: It came to fruition with it. What hundred dollar profit?
Speaker 1: They're like, hey, one long term you gotta be patient,
Speaker 1: and two that forward thinking and also execution that you
Speaker 1: were able to see, like, man, Pop knows exactly what
Speaker 1: he's talking about, because you know, back in in at home,
Speaker 1: there's always a lot of guys talking right and say, oh, man,
Speaker 1: do this do that? And then you asked them did
Speaker 1: they do it? And the and the answer is really no,
Speaker 1: they didn't do it, you know, And so seeing that,
Speaker 1: so let me, Actually, you play seven years in the league,
Speaker 1: you always had the thought of making business decisions because
Speaker 1: of the way your pop led his household. How early
Speaker 1: in your career were you already thinking about life out
Speaker 1: after football? Man? As soon as I got to that
Speaker 1: motherfucker excuse my language, you know, alright, So it's like
Speaker 1: I said, my fucking man, like I said I was,
Speaker 1: I was undrafted. Now we talked about how Hollywood cruit
Speaker 1: I was, you know, after college, my college career, from
Speaker 1: the beginning to the end, I played more of my
Speaker 1: first two years than my last. My last two years,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. You know, I went through
Speaker 1: a from a family situation. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: It was just a tough time for himself. My sign
Speaker 1: should I had a seventy five dollars signing bonus at
Speaker 1: the Texas EMMA Focus supports hunted. So I knew if
Speaker 1: if I got if I had an opportunity to make
Speaker 1: the team. If I knew, you know, if if I
Speaker 1: got to the check, I was already thinking what I
Speaker 1: had to do. So you know, my dad, he got
Speaker 1: into the dump truck. My grandfather was in a dump
Speaker 1: truck in thirty years and my dad he played with
Speaker 1: that throughout my childhood, Like sometimes he'll hustle with that
Speaker 1: and that guy spoke, he'd do his other things, but
Speaker 1: you know, the dump truck and thing was probably the
Speaker 1: thing I knew right off the back. I can handle
Speaker 1: if I made twenty thousand and thirty thousand dollars check,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. So you know, when I
Speaker 1: when I made the first year, thank god I made.
Speaker 1: I end up getting cut from Philly at the final cut,
Speaker 1: but I got claimed right before the first game by Temple.
Speaker 1: So you know, I played for the Temple four years
Speaker 1: straight and never got cut. So my first year, after
Speaker 1: I made my check, you know, I was talking to
Speaker 1: my pops, you know, because I was living with him.
Speaker 1: My first two year is an off season that I
Speaker 1: got in in the league. I was like, man, what
Speaker 1: I what I need to do off the riff. He's like,
Speaker 1: let's play with these dumb trucks. So, you know, from
Speaker 1: the first my first year, man I invested. You know,
Speaker 1: I was saving money because I was you know, I
Speaker 1: wanted to marry my beonce at the time, and I
Speaker 1: was just thinking, like, what's the first thing. How I'm
Speaker 1: gonna flip this money? You know, saying how would keep
Speaker 1: keep this, keep this going, make something from this? Because
Speaker 1: I was my first three years, I was a week
Speaker 1: the week. So you're saying, how are you gonna flip
Speaker 1: this money? You know how? You right? Yeah, I do.
Speaker 1: And so you're saying, how you're gonna flip this money?
Speaker 1: Take me through when you are were you raised? How
Speaker 1: did you not make some of the mistakes these young
Speaker 1: boys making where you look at flipping your money and
Speaker 1: making it legal Russia, flipp your money and trying to
Speaker 1: get that fast money and maybe doing some illegal stuff.
Speaker 1: The reason before you answer the reason I'm asking all this,
Speaker 1: and I'll just set the stage. Man, I love you know,
Speaker 1: we got the same financial god d C. And DC
Speaker 1: always kind of tells me about you, and I'm just enamored.
Speaker 1: And it's remarkable, bro, Like how and you're thinking and
Speaker 1: what you're doing and balancing, and then also too the
Speaker 1: humility that you have and you literally willing to get
Speaker 1: to deal with the BS, right you and waste management
Speaker 1: you and liquid waste manager you. You literally excuse my friends,
Speaker 1: you're dealing with ship all the time. Right, You're dealing
Speaker 1: with people's bullshit and then you're dealing with literal you
Speaker 1: different with every aspect of it. Brother, that's such that
Speaker 1: that's that's such. Appreciate that, that is such as the
Speaker 1: dynamic of it. No, the dichotomy of like what you're doing,
Speaker 1: you've been at the in our world right now? You would.
Speaker 1: I would, because they consider if you are, if you
Speaker 1: have that shield next to your resume in any kind
Speaker 1: of way, as an intern in public relationship people are
Speaker 1: people are giving their left left kidney to say, Hey,
Speaker 1: I intern for this team, and hey, I want to
Speaker 1: get it. I have. I have a dude that called
Speaker 1: me yesterday, that text me yesterday and said, man, can
Speaker 1: you write me a letter of recommendation to be a
Speaker 1: wide receivers coach. I'm not gonna say. The person name
Speaker 1: is probably listening, go hear this. I don't know how
Speaker 1: to respond because technically I don't even know if he's
Speaker 1: a good wide receivers coach. I don't even know what.
Speaker 1: I don't see his I look at his file empty.
Speaker 1: I don't know. So I'm asking and I'm really setting
Speaker 1: the stages. You played in the lead seven more years
Speaker 1: than someone else. But yet you're doing something to half
Speaker 1: these people if they got the opportunity, including myself. Now
Speaker 1: I'm good that I prefer a different trade. And you're
Speaker 1: doing that trade with a smile in your face. You're
Speaker 1: doing what excellence. You're employing other people of color, You're
Speaker 1: employing people in general, not just people of color, just
Speaker 1: in general. And it just is so abstracting, Bro, It
Speaker 1: just doesn't make sense. But then knowing you and and
Speaker 1: seeing your film and watching your grind man, you legally
Speaker 1: you always gonna do what's gonna put food on the table,
Speaker 1: and you are never above anything. And so I have
Speaker 1: to set that stage because you should say to say, Bro,
Speaker 1: you do poor the pottoies you do look with wastes,
Speaker 1: Like how did you get into business and be able
Speaker 1: to sit here in front of us and say, I
Speaker 1: Russell Shepherd, And I know I'm good enough and I'm
Speaker 1: okay what I do because of blame blame blame, blame black.
Speaker 1: Like I said, I got the witness and my people
Speaker 1: grow up. My mom she she had me, she was seventeen,
Speaker 1: My dad was twenty. You know, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: So I was very aware and open to the thing,
Speaker 1: and like I said, you, as a parent, you gotta
Speaker 1: be very cautious of of with your day to day
Speaker 1: actions and what your your routine is, because your your
Speaker 1: children will unconsciously take that up on him. So again,
Speaker 1: fast forward, when I watched my dad take care of
Speaker 1: his family, he was dealing with ship that people didn't
Speaker 1: want to deal with. He was, he was in dumb trucks.
Speaker 1: He was, you know what I'm saying, trash so and
Speaker 1: it was great. He was coming home with a pocket
Speaker 1: full of money. And I was as a kid, I
Speaker 1: was like, damn, like, you know, okay, this is how
Speaker 1: my dad. That's how he was taking his family. And
Speaker 1: like I say, so, I was. I was never too big.
Speaker 1: I wasn't thinking about flashy cars. I wasn't thinking about
Speaker 1: you know, the typical kid. When you grow up in
Speaker 1: the household, especially at minority, you're gonna have uh the
Speaker 1: house was going to be more so under two hundred
Speaker 1: thousand dollars, but the car is gonna be closer to
Speaker 1: a hundred thousand dollars. In in the in the real world,
Speaker 1: the financial the right way, it's not supposed to be
Speaker 1: like that. When you're trying to come up and do
Speaker 1: certain things for family. So watching my people in them
Speaker 1: success and again my dad was a good thing. But
Speaker 1: my mom, my mom worked in corporate America for twenty
Speaker 1: plus years. She was in HR. My mom was a
Speaker 1: medical practices, you know, billion dollar corporate companies. So my mom,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, And she didn't go to college.
Speaker 1: She was just very witty, very good with the mouthpiece,
Speaker 1: and she was just very sharp. But she was a
Speaker 1: good sponge and research person. So my dad was putting
Speaker 1: in some sports and ship. But my mom was putting
Speaker 1: me in like um nonprofit um like committees to children
Speaker 1: and in business classes. And she was taking me to
Speaker 1: the nicer parts of Houston and putting the putting me
Speaker 1: in certain things. And she was taking me from the hood.
Speaker 1: And my mom always every morning, I never went to
Speaker 1: school in the hood, Summitty, Never, my mom took up
Speaker 1: wherever we was at. She was gonna wake up. He
Speaker 1: was waking up at four and taking me to the birds.
Speaker 1: And she wasn't taking me to all white schools. She
Speaker 1: was taking me to schools that were very nixed. She
Speaker 1: wanted me to have a real life experience, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. She wanted me to be able to
Speaker 1: communicate with different people. So you know, like I said,
Speaker 1: when I got to college, as you know, when you
Speaker 1: get to college, most of us a shell shop because
Speaker 1: we've never been around these type of people. So you
Speaker 1: so you're not going to maxim You're gonna maximize the
Speaker 1: field aspect, the football aspect of it, because that's who
Speaker 1: you are. But what we like to maximize in college
Speaker 1: is the networking. And that's the biggest that's way bigger
Speaker 1: than the football. And so when I got to college,
Speaker 1: I was talking to everybody. I was talking to the
Speaker 1: white kids, the the athlete, the professors, the business people,
Speaker 1: the people like the alumnis, talking to everybody. So you know,
Speaker 1: like I said, I was already sharper than those things.
Speaker 1: So I just knew I just had to get to
Speaker 1: the money. So you know, like I said, when I
Speaker 1: I when they told me, look, man, you don't have
Speaker 1: that much film. We don't know really what position you
Speaker 1: want to play. You just but you can still make
Speaker 1: a living by going out here and just knocking somebody
Speaker 1: head loose and running special teams. I was like, man, ship,
Speaker 1: this this where my athletic ability, my mindset. You know,
Speaker 1: I was like, I can do this. So I was
Speaker 1: able to build a career off of that man and
Speaker 1: then um from building that crew. Over seven year period, man,
Speaker 1: I started like two, I've started three companies. I've started.
Speaker 1: That's the thing you gotta start. So I started the
Speaker 1: trucking company. I did well with that. I got up
Speaker 1: to my five trucks, you know, But throughout that process,
Speaker 1: I realized this wasn't the way I wanted to provide
Speaker 1: and take care of the family. I knew there was
Speaker 1: better ways. You know it It's a lot of overhead
Speaker 1: with those trucks, and you deal with a lot of
Speaker 1: wear and tear. So you know, once I collected my
Speaker 1: return on my investment, you know, my fourth year I
Speaker 1: gave I had a career year. You know, miss and
Speaker 1: Jackson rescue Peace to the homie. He got hurt and
Speaker 1: I was able to. You know, the thing is with
Speaker 1: special teams, you're gonna make a team, and that I
Speaker 1: just lacked the reps. So throughout my four years I
Speaker 1: was on I was a scout guy. I was Steve Smith.
Speaker 1: I was this person. I was that receiver. So over
Speaker 1: four year year career I developed as a receiving my
Speaker 1: it was catching up to my athletic ability. So when
Speaker 1: this to Jackson Tour, his his a c L his
Speaker 1: last year, nobody it was Mike Evans and nobody else.
Speaker 1: Cecil Shwarts had a career. In the injury Lewis Murphy
Speaker 1: got hurt. I was the next man enough, so I
Speaker 1: played opposite of Mike Evans from week eight to week sixteen.
Speaker 1: I was able to off twenty three catches and um
Speaker 1: three hunting and ten yards. Man. I was able to
Speaker 1: gain a lot of interests from the off season, and
Speaker 1: I knew I was gonna make some type of money
Speaker 1: going into that next year. So I gave the trucking
Speaker 1: company to my mom and dad. That's kind of like
Speaker 1: a gift, man. I was like to thank you out
Speaker 1: for everything, and they just inherited trucking company, and you
Speaker 1: know they That's how they took care of themselves throughout
Speaker 1: my career until they sold the company and became partners
Speaker 1: for me in my last venture, which is the waste
Speaker 1: Manager management company. But like I said, I've done a
Speaker 1: lot of things, Man, I invest you. We have the
Speaker 1: same financial guy, bro. I asked a thousand questions investing
Speaker 1: in things from a it was up there. Hey, hey, hey,
Speaker 1: he said, no, don't don't give out on the secret.
Speaker 1: I like listen, I like I like all the you know,
Speaker 1: these are my guys. But a lot of people think
Speaker 1: I'm dumb and ignorant. Man, I want to keep that personal.
Speaker 1: I like, I like matter of fact, a matter of fact.
Speaker 1: No no, no, no, no no no. Let me say
Speaker 1: it's real quick, because look, I will say I've a
Speaker 1: comfort a lot of my young life, and you know,
Speaker 1: I'm proud of that. I've gone out and I've done
Speaker 1: the research. But when I say Smithy has one of
Speaker 1: the best portfolios that that is out there right now,
Speaker 1: I would I would say so, Actually, I ain't. I
Speaker 1: ain't gonna put too much on it. I ain't gonna
Speaker 1: say it all. But when I will say he has
Speaker 1: one of he has one of the best portfolios I've
Speaker 1: seen um from any NFL professional athlete. Russell, there was
Speaker 1: something you posted on Instagram, your Instagram at Russell Shepherd
Speaker 1: Nineteam a few weeks ago that that I want both
Speaker 1: of you guys to talk about it and kind of
Speaker 1: dismount because everyone has this preconceived notion that when you
Speaker 1: walk into the NFL that you're automatically loaded that everything
Speaker 1: that all your worries are cast aside. So you wrote
Speaker 1: this post and it said rookie's playing on the minimum.
Speaker 1: The minimum salary is six thousand dollars. After that their tax,
Speaker 1: which leaves two hundred forty four thousand dollars. The remaining
Speaker 1: amount is three hundred and sixty six thousand dollars, which
Speaker 1: doesn't include agent fees, union dudes, full one K contributions,
Speaker 1: living expenses, et cetera. And so you wrote on this, Uh,
Speaker 1: you at twenty one would have thought of a million
Speaker 1: dollars lasting you a lifetime, But after spending almost a
Speaker 1: decade in professional sports, I quickly realized if the individual
Speaker 1: lacks proper knowledge and the right resources, that money could
Speaker 1: be gone in months. Take time to educate yourself so
Speaker 1: we can start investing properly and owning ship for the
Speaker 1: two year old. Because you guys have so much of
Speaker 1: this financial prowess. Kind of dismantled because when I read this,
Speaker 1: it brings it to life. But dismantling that notion of
Speaker 1: you made an NFL, you got bookoo money, you've got
Speaker 1: money coming out like dismantled that for our listeners. Well,
Speaker 1: agent fees are three percent full one K. Back when
Speaker 1: I was playing for one K my first year, it
Speaker 1: was only like four or five thou dollars. Now it's
Speaker 1: up to two dollars and it's all still. You can
Speaker 1: elect to take your to to opt in or opt
Speaker 1: out to form one K the union dudes, and around
Speaker 1: ten thousand dollars you have the opportunity to opt in
Speaker 1: or opt out. UM three is your three percent of
Speaker 1: your agent fee. Is the amount that he negotiated. Now
Speaker 1: not what's that gross? Yeah, yeah, before it's before taxes,
Speaker 1: so it's not what you bring. So if you if
Speaker 1: he gives you a million dollars a year, that is
Speaker 1: three percent of a million dollars, which is thirty thousand dollars.
Speaker 1: Not the you know Russell because he lives in in Houston,
Speaker 1: it's forty percent. But for a regular four seven point
Speaker 1: five percent, right, So if you get a million dollars,
Speaker 1: it's ryan. For me, it was about four hundred twenty
Speaker 1: five thousand. You take thirty thousand, so that releaves me
Speaker 1: with about three hundred ninety four thousand dollars. And then
Speaker 1: if I do, then they divided up into they divided
Speaker 1: up into uh seventh, you know, it used to be
Speaker 1: sixteen weeks, now seventeen weeks, so that's equal up to
Speaker 1: about twenty thirty thousand dollars a check. And you only
Speaker 1: get it really for the full seventeen weeks, so you
Speaker 1: have to you have to manage the other So seventeen
Speaker 1: weeks six months, you got to manage the other six
Speaker 1: months of the year. Um. You know, it is one
Speaker 1: of the things that you know because people see us
Speaker 1: as we get paid a king's ransle to play a
Speaker 1: child's game. People don't really want to. People don't care
Speaker 1: and hear your financial issues right once you give that
Speaker 1: check back and blah blah blah. But at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, a football player is no different than
Speaker 1: any other corporation which you have people that blow their
Speaker 1: money and organizations in corporate corporate America every single day
Speaker 1: you've got CEOs who live in paycheck to paycheck, just
Speaker 1: like you have football players living paycheck to paycheck. Right. Um,
Speaker 1: so it is a very much a business in which
Speaker 1: you can enjoy the business. But if you want don't
Speaker 1: have a good understanding of money and also have some
Speaker 1: good people around you, and you also are teachable and
Speaker 1: you desire to you desire to be, desired to learn Russell.
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure, Russell, because we weren't on in you
Speaker 1: weren't in Carolina together. Russell got introduced to d C
Speaker 1: through Stewie Jonathan Stewart, but Stewart was my teammate, and
Speaker 1: I worked on Stewart for about six or seven years
Speaker 1: before I left, right, And you know, and so like
Speaker 1: you're saying, is I've mistakenly and intentionally at times, I
Speaker 1: like the people think that I'm dumb, that I don't
Speaker 1: know exactly what's going on, that I that um don't
Speaker 1: have money, and and even me doing TV, people think, well,
Speaker 1: he must be broke. It's really I'm forty two years old.
Speaker 1: I just don't have anything else to do. I just
Speaker 1: can't sit at home, and you know, sit at home
Speaker 1: to play video games and in order Amazon out the wazoo.
Speaker 1: You know, I gotta do something. And I just like
Speaker 1: talking ball. It gets my will spinning. Key's the hamster going.
Speaker 1: Let's say, you know, And I think Russell, his his
Speaker 1: his post says it all. It's just like I would say.
Speaker 1: The way he explained it, it would be like when
Speaker 1: you order something to fast food when you order, you
Speaker 1: go up to fast food and you say, hey, this
Speaker 1: is what I want. You tell them what you want.
Speaker 1: The only thing they ask is do you want You know,
Speaker 1: if you order a burger, they say do you want pickles? Onions?
Speaker 1: What do you want not want on it? And then
Speaker 1: they say do you want a medium? Large? Small? That's
Speaker 1: it when you drive up to the front. Magically, all
Speaker 1: of that stuff is whipped together and it's there in
Speaker 1: the bag that you pay for it. That is what
Speaker 1: the finished product of football is. However, there's someone that has,
Speaker 1: first of all, to start today, there's someone that's gotten
Speaker 1: the truck and put that order together to drop off
Speaker 1: to that to that franchise. Then there's they have to
Speaker 1: have a license to drive a CDL license to drive that.
Speaker 1: Then they drop it off and somebody puts it into order,
Speaker 1: somebody unloads it, and somebody cooks it, and there's such
Speaker 1: a long process to it. But what you see from
Speaker 1: these players on Sunday, and also what you see from
Speaker 1: these players financially, is there's a lot that goes into it.
Speaker 1: That is, you don't see how the sausage is made
Speaker 1: all the time. You just see the finished problem and
Speaker 1: sometimes the finished product is not even close to really
Speaker 1: presenting how much hard work the journey was, what the
Speaker 1: journey was, and also how many other people have been
Speaker 1: included in getting that process, whether there's coaches, where there's
Speaker 1: good coaches, bad coaches, whatever the case may be. And
Speaker 1: so I just think he summarized it well as a
Speaker 1: million dollars if you gave you know, And that's how
Speaker 1: my financial journey started. They asked me, someone asked me,
Speaker 1: if I gave you a million dollars, because you live
Speaker 1: off of the rest of your life. Man. We did
Speaker 1: a quick summarization, and I realized very quickly, I'm screwed.
Speaker 1: I cannot quickly, you know. He was like, are you
Speaker 1: gonna buy your house? Bang? Man? By time we was
Speaker 1: done after that million dollars, we didn't even do taxes.
Speaker 1: We just did buying a house, buying a car, paying
Speaker 1: for taxes. Bro. After after a year, after buying all
Speaker 1: the stuff I need, I think I had like fifty
Speaker 1: thousand or seventy five thousand dollars left because I bought
Speaker 1: a house about two cars. That's gonna be tough, right,
Speaker 1: And he and then was like, and that just kind
Speaker 1: of showed me man, this mirage of being flashy, right,
Speaker 1: And I say this jokingly. Man, I've been on Nike.
Speaker 1: I've been on the Nike app, you know, since ithing
Speaker 1: no longer. And I actually negotiated my underarmor deal tour.
Speaker 1: I had an under armor like at least what two
Speaker 1: or three years I think it was two years till
Speaker 1: I was done playing. I was still getting Nike stuff, right,
Speaker 1: I had a hundred thousand dollars of expenses that could
Speaker 1: order with Underarmer, I'm sorry, and bro, I used to
Speaker 1: order under Armour like I would order under my all
Speaker 1: my ski stuff. Right now, my attic is under armored.
Speaker 1: That stuff I ordered back when I was with an
Speaker 1: under armour, when I was with the Ravens. Right, it's
Speaker 1: stuffed stealing there with tags, Thank goodness. I ain't got
Speaker 1: that big, right. And so my point is that there's
Speaker 1: so much that goes into it and you just don't
Speaker 1: realize what it is. You don't realize how much it is,
Speaker 1: what it takes. And man, Russell, you're a prime example
Speaker 1: of utilizing the knowledge and the people around you to
Speaker 1: get there. Good good, let's getting down to do good. Hey, Gerard,
Speaker 1: why did you get that T shirt? Oh yes, I
Speaker 1: got it from cut to a podcast dot com where
Speaker 1: we have exclusive merchandise. Shout out to our guys at
Speaker 1: seven or fourth shot. But yeah, you can go on,
Speaker 1: buy you a T shirt, subscribe to us wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to podcasts. How has planned in the NFL and
Speaker 1: playing at the highest level helped you become a good
Speaker 1: business man, but also harmed you to your detriment as
Speaker 1: a businessman because of your ability to think ahead, to see,
Speaker 1: as we say, ball don't lie. You can always see
Speaker 1: honest guy never lies. You can always see that that
Speaker 1: ten thousand foot advantage. How was playing in the NFL
Speaker 1: helped you and hurt you in business, especially when it
Speaker 1: requires making adjustments. You know, your life and in sports
Speaker 1: they very they go hand to hands. So you know,
Speaker 1: being able to play at that high level, you know
Speaker 1: it is you know, I have a motor that most
Speaker 1: people don't have. You know, I'm up every day at
Speaker 1: four o'clock. Today I woke up at three five. Oh
Speaker 1: you beat me. I was up at five, seven and seven.
Speaker 1: That's the exactly exactly, so you're earlier rid. So you know,
Speaker 1: I said, it's helped me because you know, my journey
Speaker 1: has been my kind of my journey in the business
Speaker 1: world because you know, I went from being in five
Speaker 1: star hotels every week, traveling to the best stadiums, having
Speaker 1: on the best gear too. You know, now I'm doing
Speaker 1: I'm in a ship truck. We transport liquid waste. You know,
Speaker 1: we're chef boys waste management and we're transporters and storage
Speaker 1: and storage and collectors of liquid waste of all kinds.
Speaker 1: With there's human waste, it can be grease, it can
Speaker 1: be septic um. You know. We also to a rental
Speaker 1: providers and portable toilets, handwashed stations, holding tanks on water
Speaker 1: tanks we deal with. We have restaroom trailers, the big
Speaker 1: fancy Russian trailer and some of the wheel's up event. So,
Speaker 1: like said, we do a little bit of everything. Man,
Speaker 1: we we were growing. We're the fastest growing waste startup
Speaker 1: in the city of Houston. So I say all that
Speaker 1: to say is that we're growing fast. And in the
Speaker 1: waste industry, you always have to be able to adapt
Speaker 1: because you run into problems, unique problems every day. And
Speaker 1: it's no different if you're in solid waste and you're residents,
Speaker 1: residential trash pick up people homes or you're dealing with
Speaker 1: poor de parties or r V traders like we do. So,
Speaker 1: you know, being able to adapt and being able to
Speaker 1: humble myself to get in these trucks, to get out
Speaker 1: on these any streets, and to do whatever it takes
Speaker 1: to learn the business. Because again I'm not a guy
Speaker 1: who comes from a waste a waste industry or a
Speaker 1: waste family. You know, so me and my family had
Speaker 1: to get in and we had to learn. We had
Speaker 1: to be employee operate as they call owner operators, so
Speaker 1: we can grow and so we can really learn, because
Speaker 1: I won't be able to best leave my my team,
Speaker 1: best lead the people that depend on this if I
Speaker 1: don't even know what the hell I'm talking about. So
Speaker 1: you know, when I you know, when I got to NFL,
Speaker 1: you know, if I was always a leader, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm a leader. That's probably a lot of guys they
Speaker 1: survive off different things in the NFL, you know, you know,
Speaker 1: once you the own the physical aspect, I didn't have
Speaker 1: the measurements, the unique speed, the rare ball skills. So
Speaker 1: my my leadership ability being able to get in the
Speaker 1: locker room that was very important. That hand in hand
Speaker 1: with my physical skill set, so you know, being able
Speaker 1: to humble myself and play special teams. It was no
Speaker 1: different than me being able to get in the quarter
Speaker 1: potty truck and learn how to suck out of RV
Speaker 1: trailer after against splash you know a few times because
Speaker 1: exactly I'm dealing with reports. Now, I'm not dealing with footballs.
Speaker 1: I'm dealing with you know. Do you give you example
Speaker 1: real quick and I'm gonna talk your head off. So
Speaker 1: for example, to answer you the short phrase and answer
Speaker 1: your question, the ice storm hit in Houston. The ice
Speaker 1: storm is unique. We don't get cold weather like that.
Speaker 1: It was seven degrees everywhere in the state of Texas.
Speaker 1: Everybody pipes bursts, so nobody could use the bathroom, nobody
Speaker 1: had any So portable toilest companies became very important, you know,
Speaker 1: portable toilests in general. So you know, if I had
Speaker 1: enough equipment and um just for you know, February, seven
Speaker 1: million dollars in that one day because of the volume
Speaker 1: of calls we got from the pipes that were bursting everything.
Speaker 1: So you know, when I got to the yard and
Speaker 1: we get into the yard to prep the trucks and
Speaker 1: bea was to go out and make these emergency delivers
Speaker 1: and asad deliveries um for whatever, whether it's a handwash station.
Speaker 1: We delivered fifty handwash stations to Corporate h g B
Speaker 1: because they needed handwash stations employers we need. Delivered sixty
Speaker 1: portable toilets to an Exon plant because they needed for
Speaker 1: just one sector of their department. So when I got
Speaker 1: to the yards, so we can make these deliveries, and
Speaker 1: we had numerous others. The truck, the water was frozen
Speaker 1: in the tanks and then the water was frozen underneath
Speaker 1: the ground. So we had to we can't do nothing
Speaker 1: in our innerstry. We don't have water. We transport over
Speaker 1: you know, probably two thousand gallons of water a week,
Speaker 1: you know, saying and that's how important. So when I
Speaker 1: got to the yard, I had to figure out how
Speaker 1: on the funk am I gonna get some water? So
Speaker 1: we can deliver these deliveries. We can make this money
Speaker 1: and we can help the people that watch cars. They
Speaker 1: were people that watch cars. I had just define guys
Speaker 1: in the city that had mobile car washing things, and
Speaker 1: they had their tanks full of water and they and plastic.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying they're in a certain thing
Speaker 1: where they don't freeze, and some people have them indoors.
Speaker 1: So I was able to collect enough water from guys
Speaker 1: to have mobile car washes, and um I was able
Speaker 1: to to put in in the tank when our water
Speaker 1: tanks and get to wherething to go. That's the guy.
Speaker 1: That's one story. And we deal with stuff, you know,
Speaker 1: we have, you know we do in our industry. We
Speaker 1: do well when times are good. We do well when
Speaker 1: times are bad, like when I say bad, when we
Speaker 1: have hurricanes, we have catastrophic things. We have spikes, you know,
Speaker 1: because people need, you know, these things for emergency youth.
Speaker 1: So we always have to be able to adapt and
Speaker 1: waste especially you know, when you're dealing on the horrible
Speaker 1: toilet side. Like Steve said in the League, man, you
Speaker 1: gotta learn how to survive. And I said, everybody has
Speaker 1: unique skill setting and and it's up to you to
Speaker 1: to get the most out of that skill sets. So
Speaker 1: you know, there's no different in business. More of us
Speaker 1: would be great business owners if we were exposed to it,
Speaker 1: but a lot of us aren't exposed to it. And
Speaker 1: um I wasn't in the lock from talking about instagrams.
Speaker 1: So I was talking about investment deals. I was talking
Speaker 1: about ideas. So you know, if we don't get it
Speaker 1: at home with our parents, because a lot of our
Speaker 1: parents worked for people and they don't even know, we
Speaker 1: have to change the narrative in the locker rooms and
Speaker 1: talk about it in the locker rooms. And what we
Speaker 1: can teach each other. We teach each other how to
Speaker 1: play ball and how to do other ship. We can
Speaker 1: teach each other how business. What were something to hiccups
Speaker 1: you encountered in the business world that you were unprepared for.
Speaker 1: When I started my business, I was twenty nine. I
Speaker 1: had no work experience, I had no really no credit,
Speaker 1: no not because I was paying my house off. I
Speaker 1: did the things that you said. I secured my family's
Speaker 1: future from at least so if I come out with
Speaker 1: these crazy ideas like at least our house is paid
Speaker 1: on for, I can go be a janitor to take
Speaker 1: So you know with me is when I went to
Speaker 1: to start this business to give in. The waste industry
Speaker 1: is kind of capital intensive, so nobody would give me
Speaker 1: any lines of credit, any money anything to start the business.
Speaker 1: I had to figure out a creative way and I
Speaker 1: talked to see a few other people, and I had
Speaker 1: to pretty much threatened of Chase that I'm gonna take
Speaker 1: my money and start a business. And and in the
Speaker 1: midst of me doing that, they gave me a line
Speaker 1: of credit to start my business. I'm a reward it
Speaker 1: for you. You had to leverage to strongly suggest you
Speaker 1: had to left. We don't want to say that word.
Speaker 1: We don't want to say that word. We don't want
Speaker 1: to say that word. You had to leverage the current
Speaker 1: capital you already had in the bank and tell them, now,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna take this money out. You see, I'm good
Speaker 1: enough to hold my money in here, but it's not
Speaker 1: good enough to utilize this amount of money to be
Speaker 1: a guaranteur of to give me a line of credit
Speaker 1: to do it. And so you had to leverage going
Speaker 1: to another bank for them to take a shot on you.
Speaker 1: And obviously not talking about four or five d dollars.
Speaker 1: You're not talking about like twenty thousand dollars. You're talking
Speaker 1: about put potentially six six digits a million. So you
Speaker 1: have to negotiate with them and leverage. I would take
Speaker 1: my million dollars out because I want to start a
Speaker 1: company and can you at least get me of my
Speaker 1: million dollars to start a business? And that was that's
Speaker 1: what it took for that to happen. And I'm not
Speaker 1: putting worth your mouth and I don't know the answer,
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna ask, why do you believe you had
Speaker 1: to go to such extreme measures too to get it
Speaker 1: to push them to to to to get them to
Speaker 1: really see that you were serious for them to give
Speaker 1: you a line of credit on a million dollars, because
Speaker 1: I would imagine a million. It wasn't like you were asking,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go buy lottery tickets. You were telling them
Speaker 1: what you want to do, and you had to leverage
Speaker 1: what you currently had in there for them to give
Speaker 1: you that. What do you believe? That was everybody every
Speaker 1: aspect of how everybody provides and lives, and it's it's
Speaker 1: a business. So you know my financial guy that I
Speaker 1: was appointed through Chase um and I never had a
Speaker 1: private financial guy I was. I just Chase gave me
Speaker 1: a financial guy like they give everybody else who has money.
Speaker 1: An investment counts. So the guy who was having my money,
Speaker 1: you know, he obviously didn't want me to take my
Speaker 1: money out because the fees. It messages with his his business,
Speaker 1: so you know he he is his job to do
Speaker 1: whatever it takes to keep as much money in the
Speaker 1: investment counsel. Because that's how these it's part of their business,
Speaker 1: part of their structure, how they win. So, like I said,
Speaker 1: when I was figuring these things out by asking questions
Speaker 1: and talking to people, I was like, well, Ship, you
Speaker 1: know the bank won't give me no money. You know,
Speaker 1: the waste industry is unique, especially for urban black kid
Speaker 1: who's been playing footballers whole life. So nobody really even seen.
Speaker 1: They was like, Okay, well that's too big of a
Speaker 1: risk for us just to give you the money for
Speaker 1: you to do that. You know what I'm saying, You
Speaker 1: want you need to go work for intern. You haven't
Speaker 1: even intern. I didn't have no experience. All I just
Speaker 1: had was my wife worked for a guy and he
Speaker 1: started a business in two thousand and nine when I
Speaker 1: went off to high school, and everybody was coming to
Speaker 1: in high school because they know if I was gonna
Speaker 1: be the next bench young who Percy Harving whatever. And
Speaker 1: I always remember John because John took his four one
Speaker 1: K and John started a waste company and his wife
Speaker 1: and everybody thought he was crazy. At this point. In
Speaker 1: two thousand nine, he was executive at a big trash company.
Speaker 1: He was doing well, and he's seen a way where
Speaker 1: he could start a company. In two thousand and nine,
Speaker 1: you fast forward to two thousand and in twenty he's
Speaker 1: the owns one of the fastest growing companies in the country.
Speaker 1: Um he does about thirty million dollars annual revenue. He
Speaker 1: has over a hundred and fifty employees, and he owns
Speaker 1: a third party waste company. And John does is. John
Speaker 1: calls every portable toilet company, every dumpster company in the
Speaker 1: country and says, hey, let me sell your stuff for you,
Speaker 1: and I'll sell your stuff for your regular price. He
Speaker 1: wasted such a big need people will pay thirty over
Speaker 1: normal pricing to to just get the ship out of
Speaker 1: that way because it's nasty, it's causing causing problems. So
Speaker 1: he started Zeaters and it's a third party waste company
Speaker 1: and he sells people's portable toilets, fencing dumpsters all over
Speaker 1: the country. So when I got burnt out, I was
Speaker 1: getting burnt out towards my second year in Carola and
Speaker 1: the Giants to two thousand and nineteen, I reached out
Speaker 1: to John, said, John, give me some ideas, which I
Speaker 1: know you're doing well in the waste industry. What do
Speaker 1: you think I could do little to nois and with
Speaker 1: just hard work and dedication and being a sponge. He says,
Speaker 1: started with a portable port propty company and that's where
Speaker 1: I got the idea to start the company. What John
Speaker 1: did for me, John says, Okay, I use about forty
Speaker 1: five I use about forty five county. Company is nationwide,
Speaker 1: and I used about six companies in Houston. And he says,
Speaker 1: what I'll do for you is if you go by
Speaker 1: brand new stuff and you hire right and you do right.
Speaker 1: Instead of using all those six companies, I'll use I'll
Speaker 1: push everything through you. And I went and I felt,
Speaker 1: I mean I was. I was going crazy trying to
Speaker 1: figure out where to get this money to ball this.
Speaker 1: I was like, ship, do I spend all my money
Speaker 1: or I know, I don't need you all my money.
Speaker 1: So I was just figuring out asking people, got the money,
Speaker 1: bought the equipment and man the first month, man, it
Speaker 1: was an August. At this point, the Ravens called me.
Speaker 1: The Ravens wanted me to come work out me and
Speaker 1: dance Bryant, you know, come work out. And this is
Speaker 1: the first month we was open. It took me about
Speaker 1: seven months to get it all open and everything and
Speaker 1: permits and all this stuff. And the first month I
Speaker 1: made like set like seven thousand dollars, and I was like,
Speaker 1: I've seen it. My overhead to that point was probably
Speaker 1: like eight thousand dollars, you know what I'm saying to
Speaker 1: run the company. You know, it was really low at
Speaker 1: that point. And I just see I like that, I'm
Speaker 1: dand up covering my overhead in the first month. And
Speaker 1: then John Company he came and see my equipment and
Speaker 1: he started pushing me. The second month, I made fifteen,
Speaker 1: Third month, I made twenty five. Fourth month, I was
Speaker 1: down there in forty m Wow, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: And like it was just growing and like and then
Speaker 1: I started learning how to sell my stuff outside of
Speaker 1: John's third party. I started using my l s U
Speaker 1: connections that shield you talking about. I started going inside
Speaker 1: these big companies and I started and I was driving too,
Speaker 1: and I was learning the industry to talk to lingo
Speaker 1: and then I was just it just organically was coming together.
Speaker 1: And you know, like I said, Man, fast forward. We've
Speaker 1: been open a little bit over the years. You got
Speaker 1: the fast grown. We started up in the state of
Speaker 1: Texas and we're growing good. Man. We gotta staff about
Speaker 1: We have ten people right now and it's good people, man,
Speaker 1: people that need the opportunity they wanted. They can work hard,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna continue to grow. Man, over the next
Speaker 1: four or five years. We should have you know, we
Speaker 1: shouldn't employed close to you know, thirty forty people. You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. We're growing that fast. So you know,
Speaker 1: I'm excited about what we're doing. Man, this this, this
Speaker 1: is really good. Congratulations, Congratulations. Obviously your last year and
Speaker 1: with the Giants, you had Dave Gentleman, so you were
Speaker 1: dealing with bullshit and then I knew that I've been Hey,
Speaker 1: look Dave paying me. So look Dave, David's David is
Speaker 1: at old School Boston candidate, you know. And you know
Speaker 1: I can say this now that I'm I'm tired, and
Speaker 1: I got a lot of respects to that man days
Speaker 1: still talk to this day. Russell, your your husband, your father,
Speaker 1: your NFL alumni, You're an investor, entrepreneur. Which of those
Speaker 1: things did you always know? You would be a good
Speaker 1: father man. I mean my dad before anything, he was
Speaker 1: apoples was said, he was the best man in my way.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. At all my homies, all
Speaker 1: my my my, my cousins. You know, not having the
Speaker 1: father in the life effected a lot of people, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. And not having the mother, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. My mom is my mom is
Speaker 1: my my mom will run my company. You know, she
Speaker 1: is my CFO. She she has you. When you call
Speaker 1: and you want to talk a bit business. You know
Speaker 1: you're talking to her, you ain't talking to me. I
Speaker 1: just make sure the company is going in the right direction.
Speaker 1: And I determined, you know, what goes and what stays.
Speaker 1: But like I said, I got some good people, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. So just being a good parent
Speaker 1: was off the rif I had to do that, and
Speaker 1: I was gonna do it if it takes, you know,
Speaker 1: if I had to go, you know, be a trash man.
Speaker 1: If I had to to to be a coach, and
Speaker 1: I had coaches and teams reaching out to me when
Speaker 1: I was before I was done playing. I hate Come
Speaker 1: be a scout, Come be a coach, you know, what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. So I had a lot of options, and
Speaker 1: I was willing to do whatever so I could buy.
Speaker 1: I think that's a question to him me to be
Speaker 1: the best parent I could possibly appreciate your time, brother man,
Speaker 1: looking forward to appreciate, looking forward to your hearing or
Speaker 1: your story. Brou Yeah, you are a unique person. You
Speaker 1: are well worth it, you are competent and most of all,
Speaker 1: your lovable. I'm Steve Smith Singior, I'm Gerard Little John
Speaker 1: and this is cut to It. Cut to It with
Speaker 1: Steve Smith Senior. That Is Me is a production of
Speaker 1: Cut to It LLC, Balto Creative Media, The Black Effect
Speaker 1: and I Heart Radio. For more podcast from I Heart Radio,
Speaker 1: visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows from Cut to It.
Speaker 1: Executive producer Steve Smith SINGR, co host Gerard Little John,
Speaker 1: talent in booking manager Joe Fusci, Social media team Wesley
Speaker 1: Robinson and John Show from Balto Creative Media. Cut to
Speaker 1: It is produced by Brian Baltaschevitch and Meredith Carter, with
Speaker 1: production assistance by Alex Lebrek, Production coordinator Taylor Robinson. Theme
Speaker 1: music by Alex Johnson, Lyrics and vocals by Anthony Hamilton.
Speaker 1: You ain't heard about it, then we're about to let
Speaker 1: you know. It's all