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 a little John And this
Speaker 1: is cut to it. Good do it? Good do they's
Speaker 1: getting down to do it? Good do it. We asked
Speaker 1: the questions you always want to know, but no one
Speaker 1: ever asked, let's cut to it. You ain't heard them
Speaker 1: about it? Then we're about to let you know it's
Speaker 1: all there's nothing media guys, Yeah, what up? What's going on?
Speaker 1: My man? How you doing? Ugly? I mean drawing you
Speaker 1: wasn't reference any son been somewhere else in one of
Speaker 1: these was definitely not me. We we were really good
Speaker 1: for but you know, as guys were talking about, we
Speaker 1: call each other ugly. So for sure, that's just that's
Speaker 1: our that's our running thing. What's what's been going on? Man?
Speaker 1: Let me tell you what happened when everyone whenever someone
Speaker 1: started story. Man, let me tell you what happened. It's
Speaker 1: gonna be a good one. Oh it's burner right, so
Speaker 1: your bird man. So you know, I'm becoming more and
Speaker 1: more handy as I've gotten older because of my business venture.
Speaker 1: So I you know, I like doing some stuff around
Speaker 1: the house. And so with the winter and fall coming
Speaker 1: or is here, you get a lot of leaves now
Speaker 1: in my gutters and it was raining. So in the
Speaker 1: summer it was raining and so so many leaves blew in.
Speaker 1: So I literally had the rain going over overflowing and
Speaker 1: my gutter going into my screening porch but going into
Speaker 1: where water it was starting, like lot of water was
Speaker 1: accumulation and just no, no, the water was flowing flowing
Speaker 1: into my screening porch to like in there, and then
Speaker 1: it was starting and I'm like, what is all this water?
Speaker 1: So I figured it out. So yes, I got on
Speaker 1: top of the roof and I got the no, I
Speaker 1: got the leaves out. So I'm like, you know what,
Speaker 1: I ain't doing this because it's gonna get dangerous, right
Speaker 1: and it was raining, and um, so I did it,
Speaker 1: and I was like, you know what, I'm gonna get
Speaker 1: some some gotta guards. So I went through and went
Speaker 1: on read some websites and I think I did Angie
Speaker 1: Less or something, and the guy comes to the house.
Speaker 1: So I made the appointment totally space. They forgot about
Speaker 1: the appointment. So I got this, Um, you know, I'm
Speaker 1: hood dude. I grew up in that life. So I
Speaker 1: got this this dude that gets out of a kind
Speaker 1: of like a a Ford impolo or Caprice like. He
Speaker 1: gets out of Yeah, he gets out out of the
Speaker 1: he put up in a box chef he bro. He
Speaker 1: came out. He basically looked like a narc right. He
Speaker 1: came out looking like a police officer. Bro, I'm just
Speaker 1: talking about. Just give me a context. He looked like
Speaker 1: he was he was a police arm like. And so
Speaker 1: the guy's like, hey r. So he comes He's like,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, yeah, I'm here for the you know what,
Speaker 1: for your for your gutters too. I was like, oh yeah, okay.
Speaker 1: So she says, hey, I'm gonna go behind back and
Speaker 1: I got two signs. I got a dog and it
Speaker 1: says beware of dogs on another one. Another one says
Speaker 1: I can get to the fence in two point eight seconds,
Speaker 1: can you? So I got those up, and he's like,
Speaker 1: I see your signs, dogs up, and so put the
Speaker 1: dog up. And so he goes over there and so
Speaker 1: he does his spill, and here's where it goes wrong.
Speaker 1: He says, hey, you only have a few of these.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you what it is. And here's what
Speaker 1: we do, and gives a spill on why this company
Speaker 1: is very good, we have a lifetime blah blah blah,
Speaker 1: all this stuff, and I said all right. So the
Speaker 1: dude says all right. I said, well, all right, cool,
Speaker 1: get to it. Cut to it, cut it right. So
Speaker 1: he gets to it and he says, well, um, do
Speaker 1: you have a budget. And I'm like, nah, I don't
Speaker 1: have a budget because it's just covering the It ain't
Speaker 1: gonna be that much. How much you think my man said, uh,
Speaker 1: should be a simple job with three hundred What kind
Speaker 1: of house you live? Man? Suck? He just removing that.
Speaker 1: I don't know. He puts cards on the gutters, on
Speaker 1: the whole house. Okay, you tell me. So I thought
Speaker 1: it was probably like Huntred this you just get popped
Speaker 1: out of a box shape. He So it didn't seem
Speaker 1: like he's a hot dollar dude, or listen, you could
Speaker 1: be a great salesman, just be bad with your finances, right,
Speaker 1: This dude says sixteen thousand, seven hundred dollars sixteen thousand,
Speaker 1: six sixteen sixteen thousand, seven hundred. I said, He goes, well,
Speaker 1: what did you think it was gonna be? I said,
Speaker 1: not that he says, well, what did you think? He goes,
Speaker 1: why are you looking at me like that? I said, well,
Speaker 1: I'm totally shocked, and then he goes so then he
Speaker 1: tries to play the game, and this is where where
Speaker 1: they ran off the rails. Right. He goes, well, I
Speaker 1: gave you a discount, but that was a discount. He said,
Speaker 1: I gave you a discount and some of this stuff,
Speaker 1: and I was like all right, and then he says, well,
Speaker 1: I got something, and he goes, let me call my boss. Oh,
Speaker 1: so he tries the old car salesman move. Now I'm
Speaker 1: getting pissed and irritated because he I'm sure he shot
Speaker 1: his shot with he shot he shot. Let me tell
Speaker 1: you some he shot at the wrong dude with his shot.
Speaker 1: So he calls his boss and he puts me on speaker. Hey, boss,
Speaker 1: I gotta I got a customer um in this neighborhood.
Speaker 1: And um, you know, he's a little bit taken back
Speaker 1: by the price. And then he goes back and he's
Speaker 1: like well, and his boss goes, well, I mean it
Speaker 1: sounds like you've done all that you can do, and
Speaker 1: what do you what do you think we should do? Yeah,
Speaker 1: and he says what do you think we should do?
Speaker 1: He was like, well, you know, it's just a neighborhood
Speaker 1: that we've been in before. No, well you think we can, um,
Speaker 1: you know, put up some signs. You think we'll get
Speaker 1: some traction if we utilize this. I said, hey, dog,
Speaker 1: I don't know what y'all doing. Cut this ship up, man,
Speaker 1: stop and I feel my blood pressure balling. Oh I'm cooking.
Speaker 1: But then I realized this dude is on my porch.
Speaker 1: The realization started setting in. So for whoop his ass?
Speaker 1: Technically it's all my property. So here is he a trespass? Right?
Speaker 1: And then a white And I said, you know what,
Speaker 1: let me go on the house and go get tigues.
Speaker 1: My my my Belgian malin wild who speaks another language
Speaker 1: to give her commands. Dog speak another language and Asian
Speaker 1: nine got a little, got a little, got a little language.
Speaker 1: Fus right, I mean he's follow and so uh, I
Speaker 1: gotta take the dog out two poop m Do you
Speaker 1: know why? Because they said some ship exactly, So I
Speaker 1: take her go out. He goes well, I said, listen, bro,
Speaker 1: all this stuff that you're doing right now, I said,
Speaker 1: it's uncalled for. I ain't got time for this. I'm
Speaker 1: about to take my dog to use your bathroom, and
Speaker 1: when you finish, put your ship right there. And then
Speaker 1: I got my chip I'm picking up, so gonna take
Speaker 1: yourself on off my porch because um, this ain't gonna work.
Speaker 1: So he leaves and he goes, well, you know, um,
Speaker 1: we were able to work some things out and and
Speaker 1: and I got a lower price. Really, He's like, USA, okay,
Speaker 1: so here's the here's the real price. So then he
Speaker 1: noticed I didn't pick up the folder, so he comes
Speaker 1: back to hand me the folder. So I'm growing a
Speaker 1: little bit, not in height, but just a majority. I
Speaker 1: take the folder and I look at it. How much
Speaker 1: do you think he changed the price? And we're gonna
Speaker 1: bring in our producer, Meredith, Meredith, get on the mic.
Speaker 1: How much do you think that sixteen thous dollar estimate
Speaker 1: is now? After I have taken Tiga to take a poop? Oh,
Speaker 1: you are incorrect? What is your price? Close prices? Right?
Speaker 1: My man dropped it down to six thousand dollars? You
Speaker 1: got robbed? How how bad is that? You go from
Speaker 1: sixteen to six that's that's ten tho dollars now. When
Speaker 1: I looked it up and I put my square footage
Speaker 1: in there. Bro, it's already like did you fear taking
Speaker 1: advantage of? Hell? Yeah, I took it. I felt as happened. Man,
Speaker 1: there's the what do they say, the expensive neighborhood price,
Speaker 1: and then there's the athlete neighborhood, and I'm talking about Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's he was about to get that whoop as price.
Speaker 1: That's what he was about to which is free. That's
Speaker 1: where I'm from. It's like, no, yeah, you can have that.
Speaker 1: Go ahead, Mr Smith, you can have it. That's what
Speaker 1: I thought. Now I'm talking about the alright you and
Speaker 1: this is going to be my price. I've I get
Speaker 1: that all the time to be honest, and people get
Speaker 1: offitted because I say, you know, I usually get three quotes,
Speaker 1: give me the cheapest, give me one nbtwin, and get
Speaker 1: me the best, and nine times out of ten, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna get the middle, right, that's just me negotiations. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but he said, I don't even understand. I was like, man,
Speaker 1: and I went and looked it up and look at
Speaker 1: my square footage, and it just was crazy to me.
Speaker 1: How you can how can you drop a price almost
Speaker 1: ten to eleven thousand dollars? Someone thought they're gonna get
Speaker 1: ten stacks out of you. That's why he was gonna
Speaker 1: get you. Only ten stack he would get. That was
Speaker 1: a lawsuit ten stacks. He ain't getting no ten stacks
Speaker 1: like that. Come on, man, just to cover my guttess?
Speaker 1: Are they gold? I looked man, I was human. I
Speaker 1: bet you were. I was hot. I know you well enough,
Speaker 1: I know you were cooking. So trying to take advantage
Speaker 1: of you and look me at my eyes, that's a
Speaker 1: that's just a low down, dirty shame. Yeah, he might
Speaker 1: be a big old dummy. He went ready for it.
Speaker 1: Ban you didn't prep that one, all right? Who do
Speaker 1: we have next for the podcast? Coming up to the
Speaker 1: Cut to It podcast? Paige Demacos. She's the chief operating
Speaker 1: officer of the Draft Network. She's co host of the
Speaker 1: t d in Fantasy podcast, and she makes a mean
Speaker 1: Greek chicken page. Demarcos gonna cut to a podcast. Thank
Speaker 1: you guys for having me. I'm I'm excited to be here.
Speaker 1: I checked out what you guys got going on, so
Speaker 1: I'm excited to be here. If you're cool with it,
Speaker 1: We're just going to introduce our first segment. It's our
Speaker 1: icebreaker it's called get iced up. There random questions, so
Speaker 1: you don't know what's going on. Hey, I don't even
Speaker 1: know what's going on. Smithy is gonna give you these
Speaker 1: random icebreakers, and let's get to it where it's the
Speaker 1: strangest place you've ever fallen asleep, probably standing up in
Speaker 1: the back of a classroom. I can remember this so
Speaker 1: vividly too. I was so exhausted, almost like one of
Speaker 1: those college forty eight hours no sleep, standing in the
Speaker 1: back of the classroom. I was hosting our election coverage
Speaker 1: and I was standing in the back as a host,
Speaker 1: and I straight up fell asleep. It was not good. Well,
Speaker 1: you were leaning against the wall at least correct, I
Speaker 1: was leaning against the wall. But the reason that I
Speaker 1: woke up is because I almost really hurt myself falling over.
Speaker 1: So that's that's how I woke up. It was not
Speaker 1: my most graceful moment, and I definitely was embarrassed because
Speaker 1: I was hosting the show and definitely should have been
Speaker 1: way more present in that moment. So it was definitely
Speaker 1: not my finest moment. What's something you that always makes
Speaker 1: you laugh? Uh? Does it? Can you be my It's
Speaker 1: got to be a person so it's my brother. Uh.
Speaker 1: If you know anything about my brother, he's legitimately the
Speaker 1: funniest person that I've ever met. Uh. And he's a big,
Speaker 1: goofy basketball player and he used to be he played
Speaker 1: D one basketball, but he was so short and stubby
Speaker 1: his whole life that he got to be the like,
Speaker 1: the funny guy for a long time. And now he's
Speaker 1: six six, so like he he was the short, dorky
Speaker 1: guy for a long time, and then he grew up,
Speaker 1: and he grew up like way late, and like a
Speaker 1: junior in high school, he finally got tall, but he
Speaker 1: was the dorky kind of friend that everybody kind of
Speaker 1: liked because he was shortened and stubby, and and he's
Speaker 1: always been funny because of that. So it's definitely my brother.
Speaker 1: If you are a color, what would you be? And why? Uh?
Speaker 1: Thirillian blue? This is very easy. The reason that I
Speaker 1: said Sirillian blue is because I'm Greek. If he didn't
Speaker 1: couldn't tell. My last name is Demacos. My dad's first
Speaker 1: name is Plato, So I'm Greek. Greek guys like very Greek.
Speaker 1: The top of the domes in Santorini are Siillian blue,
Speaker 1: so if you've ever seen a photo of the beautiful
Speaker 1: churches in Santorini, those churches are a very specific color
Speaker 1: and it is Thrillian blue. So that is the blue
Speaker 1: I'm talking about. All right, So here in the hood,
Speaker 1: I only got about the tin in my box of crayons,
Speaker 1: which right scott blue, royal blue, dark blue. Maybe a
Speaker 1: hundred's there, but they in the box I got for
Speaker 1: some reason. I remember periwinkle is that right at? Boxer
Speaker 1: was in there? Now now mount I'm smooth out of all.
Speaker 1: I got a green, yellow, red blue. I love it.
Speaker 1: My wife is her favorite colors. Deal, Okay, bluish green.
Speaker 1: You guys are having such a such a dude answer.
Speaker 1: It's like it's like a midway point, like kind of
Speaker 1: like a green blue, and you're like, dude, just use
Speaker 1: your eyes like describe some things. It's just a dude answer,
Speaker 1: Like that's that's what you guys are giving me back.
Speaker 1: So you're gonna RaSE me. I'm gonna RaSE you right back.
Speaker 1: That's cool. I'm just I'm just one of our producers
Speaker 1: just held up. This is this is the bluesting Yeah,
Speaker 1: she googled it though, Google you go away for a
Speaker 1: screen blue. All right, here we go, last one. Are
Speaker 1: you ready? I'm ready? All right, what's the hardest class
Speaker 1: you ever took? The hardest class I ever took, It's
Speaker 1: gotta be uh Stats two oh three? In college. It
Speaker 1: was a math class, and since I'm a journalist, I
Speaker 1: wanted to avoid mathematics and science as much as I
Speaker 1: possibly could. And it was a bear is. The professor
Speaker 1: was a lot of words that I'm not going to
Speaker 1: use on the podcast, but yeah, let's go with the
Speaker 1: word unique. Um. He was not a very nice person
Speaker 1: and the class was absolutely horrible. And it's the only
Speaker 1: class I've ever almost failed, so it was not not
Speaker 1: ideal for me. Uh And I hate math. Almost failed
Speaker 1: as in a D because I got a D in statistics.
Speaker 1: I'm up front, I got I gotta C minus and
Speaker 1: that's only because I had to do like all the
Speaker 1: extra credit to get myself to C minus. Like I
Speaker 1: was failing all the tests man like it was. It
Speaker 1: was not good mine with statistics as well. I took
Speaker 1: him my senior year. Thank god, I was invited to
Speaker 1: the Shrine game and I got to drop the class.
Speaker 1: You got out of it? Out of it? I played
Speaker 1: in the shrine and then the hula, and they were
Speaker 1: back to back, So I missed the first two weeks.
Speaker 1: Not that it would have changed anything, but that was
Speaker 1: my static. That's a story that I'm going with too
Speaker 1: calcula see when I got an f in that bad
Speaker 1: I failed, that was fine, tub on it. Where are
Speaker 1: you from in a place you call your hometown? I'm
Speaker 1: from Chicago, Illinois, Guys. I think everyone's aware of of Chicago.
Speaker 1: But if you're aware of if you're a Chicago and
Speaker 1: you're listening to the podcast, you're probably gonna ask where
Speaker 1: in Chicago. So I lived very close to Greek Town,
Speaker 1: which is ironic since uh I'm very Greek, and I
Speaker 1: always joke with my family that we chose that because
Speaker 1: it was near Greektown. But if you've ever been near
Speaker 1: the U C near where the Bulls play used to be,
Speaker 1: uh not a not a great area. It was a
Speaker 1: little bit of a tough neighborhood when I was growing up.
Speaker 1: It's a lot nicer now. But I lived across from
Speaker 1: the street from a warehouse and now they're like beautiful building.
Speaker 1: So that's where I grew up. Grew up in Chicago. Uh,
Speaker 1: greatest city. Love Chicago, our social media manager and my
Speaker 1: son went to the Paul. Yeah, right there, So how
Speaker 1: far is that from DePaul? Right there in the city,
Speaker 1: So De Paul's more north. So De Paul is close
Speaker 1: to where Lincoln Park areas, which is a little bit
Speaker 1: nicer area than than where than where we were, So
Speaker 1: we were kind of like right off. If you know
Speaker 1: where the Kennedy is, the ninety the Highway, you're right there,
Speaker 1: Loop a little bit further south right between basically where
Speaker 1: the Loop and and the United Center is, so the
Speaker 1: dumb and Roe Street. What was your experiences like it
Speaker 1: growing up there? I love growing up in the city.
Speaker 1: I think as a kid, it's really it's really cool
Speaker 1: to be able to be in a city is diverse
Speaker 1: as Chicago, right, so you had every different kind of
Speaker 1: person and food, and I just loved being totally immersed
Speaker 1: in that. My family, as I said, is Greek, so
Speaker 1: uh first generation here, so we spent a lot of
Speaker 1: time uh the Greek church downtown, which was awesome for me.
Speaker 1: Like like being able to grow up there. Chicago's hoops
Speaker 1: Steen is amazing. So being able to be around that
Speaker 1: my whole life was always really cool. Um and just
Speaker 1: being a city kid, right, Like being able to like
Speaker 1: take the train and and go down to the beach
Speaker 1: and do things like we used to. We had see
Speaker 1: the tickets to Soldier Field, so we would walk, you know,
Speaker 1: the very long walk a couple of miles every Sunday
Speaker 1: with my dad, which is good memories. But just growing
Speaker 1: up being able to spend time in the city, I
Speaker 1: guess differentiates you from what I was. The suburb kids
Speaker 1: that we always kind of joke with when they stay
Speaker 1: there from Chicago, but they're actually from like Naperville, which
Speaker 1: is in Chicago. Those are my experiences. I love growing
Speaker 1: up in the city. Um, and I miss I do
Speaker 1: miss Chicago a lot, especially just like the area that
Speaker 1: I grew up in. What were your early experiences around
Speaker 1: sports are? What are some of your earliest and fondest
Speaker 1: memories growing up in Chicago in the nineties of the
Speaker 1: No one better than growing up around Michael Jordan's right,
Speaker 1: So we grew up not too far from his palace,
Speaker 1: got to go watch some of his game as a
Speaker 1: as a really little kid, and uh, just those memories,
Speaker 1: like that's that's what I felt. That's where I fell
Speaker 1: in love with sports, Like I fell in love with
Speaker 1: sports because of Michael Jordan's because I grew up in
Speaker 1: that city and in the nineties, it was all m
Speaker 1: J all the time. That's all you talked about. That's
Speaker 1: all you cared about. Every Christmas card we ever took.
Speaker 1: I have the receipts is us in bold jerseys, like
Speaker 1: from the time I was born until I was fifteen, Like,
Speaker 1: that's what we did as a family. We named our
Speaker 1: dog Paxson after John Paxson, like we're like, I mean,
Speaker 1: like all in on the bulls as a family. So
Speaker 1: we definitely were all wrapped up in that. And that's
Speaker 1: what made me fall in love with sports, watching MJ,
Speaker 1: watching his craft and talking smack learning what that meant. Right.
Speaker 1: I made a sign when I was a kid that
Speaker 1: said the mailman don't deliver on Sunday, So that was
Speaker 1: smack talk all of my first smack talk to Karl Malone,
Speaker 1: did you take that to the game? Were you just like, yeah,
Speaker 1: oh yeah. There is an epic photo of me as
Speaker 1: a kid with the sign, and I'm like seven, right,
Speaker 1: seven or eight, and I have the sign just straight
Speaker 1: up and it says the mail man don't deliver on Sunday,
Speaker 1: and I was like, yeah, I was, I would fit
Speaker 1: talking at that age. Okay, alright, that makes a lot
Speaker 1: of sense. Okay, cool when you saw the Last Dance
Speaker 1: the documentary, what did it? What did it stir up
Speaker 1: in you? From those memories of of growing up and
Speaker 1: then seeing it replay? Oh yeah, so much nostalgia watching
Speaker 1: uh watching that, and also really cool because being able
Speaker 1: to now watch it. You know, I don't I don't
Speaker 1: remember any of the early years because I either wasn't
Speaker 1: alive obviously when he was first drafted, and then I
Speaker 1: was really young. I really only remember, and so I
Speaker 1: remember the you know, the last part of it. So
Speaker 1: the being able to watch it, knowing the lens and
Speaker 1: how important and how cool it was as a kid,
Speaker 1: and then watching it now was so unbelievable. All the
Speaker 1: all the cool gear, all the warm ups everything. I
Speaker 1: was like, I want every bull's warm up, I want
Speaker 1: every bull's had, I want it. Like the whole time,
Speaker 1: I'm like, this is unbelievable. The music, the and then
Speaker 1: thinking about it now as being in sports media and
Speaker 1: thinking about how insane it would be coverage wise, right,
Speaker 1: how much coverage Michael got then, but how much more
Speaker 1: coverage he would get. Now, Yes, it would be insane, right,
Speaker 1: and and that that was cool to think about it
Speaker 1: that way because I think everybody, everybody a little taste
Speaker 1: of it with the Warriors, and everyone's like, how many,
Speaker 1: how many championships they're gonna win? How many? And the
Speaker 1: didn't sniff what the Bulls did, right, and everybody started
Speaker 1: to hate that team. And so I was thinking about
Speaker 1: it was like, man, I would be so obnoxious if
Speaker 1: the Bulls were this team now, like I would be
Speaker 1: I would be so stupid on social media. And it's
Speaker 1: probably a good thing because it would be uh, I'd
Speaker 1: be dunking on people left and right if Michael Jordan
Speaker 1: was playing now with so think about but then think
Speaker 1: about how Polariz would be too. Like you you mentioned
Speaker 1: you didn't necessarily see m in the early years, But
Speaker 1: remember m J didn't always deliver, right, It took a
Speaker 1: while up until the but like eighties, MJ. But I'm
Speaker 1: I'm with you now, you right, But also think about
Speaker 1: how many times he didn't deliver and what we where
Speaker 1: we criticize Lebron right now, what's his what's his record?
Speaker 1: What was MJ's record before he got to those six finals,
Speaker 1: he went undefeated, but there was a long time before
Speaker 1: he got past the pistons to where how how polarizing
Speaker 1: would it be then on social media? To your point?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I mean nuts? Right now, Right, there's no
Speaker 1: the first and foremost, there is absolutely no chance that
Speaker 1: we could pull off that version of the NBA now right,
Speaker 1: no chance. There's just there's no way that the superstars
Speaker 1: with social media could get treated like they did back
Speaker 1: then because of I mean, Michael had a whole defense
Speaker 1: that was set up against him, right, I mean just
Speaker 1: watching those those old, those old highlights, and you're watching
Speaker 1: how the how it was covered and all the foul
Speaker 1: that are non calls. I mean it's like playing pick
Speaker 1: up all in the city in Chicago. You're like, yeah,
Speaker 1: there's no fouls. You're gonna you're gonna break your teeth, you'
Speaker 1: gonna break your nose, but you're not gonna call a foul.
Speaker 1: Like That's just how it was, right, So Detroit and
Speaker 1: Chicago for a long time, that was such a an
Speaker 1: unbelievable back and forth that I didn't I used to.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, I'll watch the tapes with my dad,
Speaker 1: but I didn't. I didn't never watch it obviously live
Speaker 1: and so watching it now was unbelievable to see. But also,
Speaker 1: as you said, like thinking about it going God, this
Speaker 1: would be so obnoxious on social seeing the oh, Michael
Speaker 1: can't do this and Michael can't do that in the
Speaker 1: same way that it's been obnoxious with whether it's Lebron
Speaker 1: or now it's gonna be honest and they're gonna talk
Speaker 1: about what it's gonna take and James Harden and all
Speaker 1: these guys. I mean, the storylines are always borderline obnoxious,
Speaker 1: but uh, it's definitely we It definitely would be really
Speaker 1: different right now if if Michael was playing we have
Speaker 1: to take a break and we got some bails h
Speaker 1: you get checks. I love cut to It, and I
Speaker 1: love it even more when you download us and subscribe,
Speaker 1: 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 sing your what about online? And
Speaker 1: you can follow us at cut to It podcast dot
Speaker 1: com where you can buy merch and you can subscribe
Speaker 1: to us wherever you listen to podcasts. I got all
Speaker 1: my 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. Were there any particular sports that you
Speaker 1: fell in love with and also you know, fell in
Speaker 1: love with that you went out and participated in on
Speaker 1: sports rather than just being a UM observer. Yeah. So
Speaker 1: I played basketball my whole life, and I grew up
Speaker 1: in a neighborhood with all boys, so we had like
Speaker 1: a little courtyard. I had a brother obviously my brotherhood
Speaker 1: mentioned UM, and then I grew up in a neighborhood
Speaker 1: of all boys, so with this courtyard and in the courtyard,
Speaker 1: it was kind of like the area that was Our
Speaker 1: parents were like cool with us going in there because
Speaker 1: it was safe and it was gated off from the
Speaker 1: regular street from one Row Street. So we would go
Speaker 1: there and we played every sport like I was all
Speaker 1: time QB, Like I'm still all time QB with my family.
Speaker 1: Like I I could throw every route like I was
Speaker 1: jokingly over the weekend was like They're like, what's your
Speaker 1: favorite route to throw? And I was like a wheel
Speaker 1: route and they were like, oh, that's awesome and freaking
Speaker 1: out about that on social media but um, I played
Speaker 1: every sport growing up because I wanted to play with
Speaker 1: the boys. Yeah, you could be what would you what
Speaker 1: would you throw to Steve Smith running a wheel route?
Speaker 1: I'm gonna tell you right now. You know why? Why?
Speaker 1: Why are you not running a wheel out? It's such
Speaker 1: a lazy and slappy route. Oh my god, here we go.
Speaker 1: Only if the wide receiver runs it lazy. Come on now, like,
Speaker 1: what's your favorite route to run? Okay, well i'll break
Speaker 1: it down generally why she was done, Yeah, that's pretty
Speaker 1: generally bad running tight ends or yeah, I was gonna
Speaker 1: say slow tight ends. Yeah. See that's why. So I'm
Speaker 1: I'm saying it more in their regards. So if yo
Speaker 1: go to route as a wire was a wheel route, yeah,
Speaker 1: I was like, he didn't mind. I'm throwing the ball
Speaker 1: to a really really slow dad, right, So that's why
Speaker 1: it's fun for me because I'm like, my dad is
Speaker 1: the slow tight end. Like that's the dude that I'm
Speaker 1: throwing the ball too. So exactly right, who's covering slow Dad?
Speaker 1: Slow uncle? Slow Dad's getting slow. I can't cover my
Speaker 1: slow uncle. So that's why this works. Guys like push
Speaker 1: dad into the good night and I can tell how
Speaker 1: she gets excited too, because you sound like you will
Speaker 1: overthrow somebody. But it's not your fault. A quarterback. Oh,
Speaker 1: you better believe. I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm looking. I'm looking.
Speaker 1: I'm Tom Brady. I'm looking at you, and I'm going.
Speaker 1: I've got my hands out. I'm yelling at you. I'm going,
Speaker 1: that was the catchable ball. You just slow, He's definitely, yeah,
Speaker 1: that might be. That might be kind. I don't even
Speaker 1: know if he's hitting that. So it's that's why he
Speaker 1: can run the wheel rod. He's not. I'm not throwing
Speaker 1: him a fade. He's not getting there fast like it's
Speaker 1: he's he's slow. No, Dan is definitely not running a slant.
Speaker 1: There is no chance that's happening. Uh. Yeah, I think
Speaker 1: you're overestimating how athletic my brother. Yes, right, I can.
Speaker 1: That's I get the whole where the whole wheel, every
Speaker 1: route's in the tree for my brother, because he's six
Speaker 1: six and super athletic, But not for not for especially
Speaker 1: not for my uncle. He's short and slow. My dad's
Speaker 1: at least semi tall and not that slow. He's just average, right,
Speaker 1: he's average. You go from Chicago, Nebraska. That had to
Speaker 1: be a culture shock to some degree. Yeah, it was
Speaker 1: a It was a huge culture shock, almost as so
Speaker 1: much of a culture shock that I transferred. So uh.
Speaker 1: When I was a freshman, my first weekend at school,
Speaker 1: I was way overwhelmed. I was like, this is so different.
Speaker 1: Everybody's for the most part now Lincoln and Omaha has
Speaker 1: a lot of this really cool but like a lot
Speaker 1: of people were from small town. That started to freak
Speaker 1: me out a little bit. It was totally different. I
Speaker 1: was like, all right, I'm a city kid. I dressed
Speaker 1: different than everybody here. I'm walking around in Jordan's. These
Speaker 1: girls were making fun of me for wearing Jordan's. I
Speaker 1: was like, this isn't cool. I don't like this, Like
Speaker 1: this is not things might not be my people, but
Speaker 1: I ended up loving it. I had my best friends
Speaker 1: in my whole life. Uh. Then I had an unbelievable
Speaker 1: college experience. But my my first quarter of the year
Speaker 1: of my freshman year almost almost took me out of there.
Speaker 1: But I ended up kind of my My dad was like,
Speaker 1: you gotta stick with it, you gotta schol ship, Like,
Speaker 1: you gotta stay there, do your thing. You'll be fine,
Speaker 1: and he was right, you know, and and change is different.
Speaker 1: And I was away from my family for the first
Speaker 1: time ever, so I got used to it. But uh,
Speaker 1: it was definitely a culture shock. Nebraska is not Chicago.
Speaker 1: So you at the University of Nebraska, You're nineteen years old,
Speaker 1: you start your first company, seeing an opportunity to cover
Speaker 1: sports using Twitter. Why decide to do that at at
Speaker 1: that young age? What what was in you too to
Speaker 1: want to want to build that up? Yeah, it was.
Speaker 1: It was very much. I'm sitting in a you know,
Speaker 1: kind of intro class. It's a journalism one on one
Speaker 1: and I'm sitting in a class and Joe Starrita is
Speaker 1: the one of my favorite professors. He's sitting up at
Speaker 1: the frontal class and he asked the class. He goes,
Speaker 1: who is currently on Twitter? And I raised my hand
Speaker 1: and I'm the only one. You guys are talking. There's
Speaker 1: at least two d kids, probably more in this class.
Speaker 1: Nobody raises their hand. And at the time, I was like,
Speaker 1: I didn't care about Facebook, and that was like, this
Speaker 1: is two thousand nine, Like everybody he was on Facebook.
Speaker 1: It was that was the thing you got you wanted
Speaker 1: to do, and I was like, no, no, no, I'm
Speaker 1: on Twitter and like, I think it's a huge opportunity
Speaker 1: to cover sports. And about half the class kind of
Speaker 1: started laughing at me, and I was like, all right, alright, cool,
Speaker 1: Like I'm I'm that person. I like being the underdog.
Speaker 1: I like being told that I can't do something, So
Speaker 1: that was kind of the first thing. Was like, oh,
Speaker 1: you guys think this is a joke, I'll show you
Speaker 1: right like you'll see. And so I started meeting up
Speaker 1: with UM. I had a sorority sister who her boyfriend
Speaker 1: was a really really good UM was really into web development.
Speaker 1: So we just started meeting and we would have we
Speaker 1: have coffee meetings at this place called the Mill and
Speaker 1: UM that's we just started talking about starting corn Fed Sports.
Speaker 1: And that's why we started it because there wasn't really
Speaker 1: any coverage UM that we liked covering Nebraska sports and
Speaker 1: Nebraska football, so we were like, why don't we just
Speaker 1: start our own thing? And I'm sure this doesn't surprise
Speaker 1: you guys, but like, obviously I wanted to cover football,
Speaker 1: but I also wanted to cover all the other sports,
Speaker 1: like Nebraska has a phenomenal volleyball team, like the nineties.
Speaker 1: Nebraska football is the current Nebraska volleyball team like badass,
Speaker 1: really really good. So I wanted to cover them. I
Speaker 1: wanted to cover our basketball team. I wanted to like
Speaker 1: I wanted to cover every sport, like I literally love
Speaker 1: all sports. Enough people kept telling me that I either
Speaker 1: couldn't do it, or I shouldn't do it, or it
Speaker 1: was stupid. And then as that started to happen, it
Speaker 1: just sparked in me like if this is making people
Speaker 1: feel uncomfortable, especially older people, Like it was mostly older
Speaker 1: professors and older journalists that were like, that's not a
Speaker 1: thing newspapers, like you should go right for the newspaper,
Speaker 1: and I was like, nobody reads the newspaper that's eighteen
Speaker 1: or nineteen years old, Like there's an entire generation that's
Speaker 1: gonna make this obsolete, Like trust me, it's social and
Speaker 1: it just they, you know, I think they were afraid
Speaker 1: of the change, and so I just wanted to kind
Speaker 1: of embrace it and take the risk because I could.
Speaker 1: I was in college and I could take the risk,
Speaker 1: and I did and it and it definitely paid off.
Speaker 1: But it was it was people telling me that it
Speaker 1: wasn't a good idea over and over and over again.
Speaker 1: That inspired me to think, if I'm making people uncomfortable,
Speaker 1: it's probably for a reason, and I should lean into
Speaker 1: this and pay attention to this. And that's that's why
Speaker 1: I did it. It's already hard to break into sports
Speaker 1: in general as general. Then you add on top whether
Speaker 1: you're a minority and whether you're you're a woman. Not
Speaker 1: only are you breaking into sports media, but you're also
Speaker 1: on an entrepreneurial journey. What are what's have been some
Speaker 1: of the challenges you've had to face with with going
Speaker 1: down both of those paths. Yeah, being a woman in
Speaker 1: sports and stuff guys like that, it takes a certain
Speaker 1: level of toughness to just be able to do it
Speaker 1: in general, like constantly. And it took toughness in two
Speaker 1: thousand and two thousand nine of the freshman in college,
Speaker 1: and it takes toughness now is an executive in sports
Speaker 1: media in like it's there's a lot of the same
Speaker 1: bs going on now that there was going on then.
Speaker 1: I'm just in a different position now, and I've worked
Speaker 1: my way into a position where I can call the
Speaker 1: shots as far as who I'm hiring and who I'm
Speaker 1: bringing in and who's a part of the conversations, and
Speaker 1: I think that's that's how it changes, Like, that's how
Speaker 1: it changes, is you get more diversity from minorities and
Speaker 1: from women in jobs where they can hire people and
Speaker 1: they can be focused on that and making sure that
Speaker 1: there are people that are like me that have a
Speaker 1: say in the rooms that matter, because that's what that's
Speaker 1: what sucks then, and it sucks even now, but it's
Speaker 1: it's better now for me because of the because of
Speaker 1: what I've been able to achieve. But you know, having
Speaker 1: people call the shot for you and not believe in
Speaker 1: you and even after you you do. I could have
Speaker 1: one mistake, right, I could make one mistake and it
Speaker 1: was so so like prolific the mistake to them, where
Speaker 1: I could watch my colleague make mistakes and it was like,
Speaker 1: well he played so like it doesn't matter right, Like
Speaker 1: he knows the game like and it's like, no, he
Speaker 1: doesn't like he doesn't study like me, he doesn't talk
Speaker 1: to the coaches like me, he doesn't talk to the
Speaker 1: players like me like I out hustle him NonStop. And
Speaker 1: I can remember that being so frustrating and just almost
Speaker 1: not pursuing sports because of that. But then just deciding.
Speaker 1: One day, I just had this total breakdown and I
Speaker 1: talked to my dad and my dad was like, listen, like,
Speaker 1: you love sports, like this is your passion. You're not
Speaker 1: gonna give up because some jerk calls you sweet cheeks
Speaker 1: in a locker room, Like you're gonna get over it.
Speaker 1: Like you're gonna get over it. You're gonna get tough,
Speaker 1: and you're gonna realize like next time he said something
Speaker 1: like that to you, you better have something to say back.
Speaker 1: And I was like, all right, dad, And that's that's
Speaker 1: pretty much like what I did from then on, Like
Speaker 1: I was like, Okay, dudes are gonna say stuff to me,
Speaker 1: and I'm just gonna say something back. And guess what,
Speaker 1: every time it happens, they're like totally checked themselves. They're
Speaker 1: like whoa, because they're not used to getting it back.
Speaker 1: They're used to just saying it's saying it's saying it,
Speaker 1: and nobody checks them. So when you check them and
Speaker 1: it's like, oh, okay, I want this to you. Pretty
Speaker 1: most part, well, there's a couple, you know, extreme cases,
Speaker 1: but that's that's what it's like to be a woman
Speaker 1: in sports. Like it's and it's like, as I said,
Speaker 1: there's still a lot of challenges now that I face,
Speaker 1: but I'm in a different position, and that's why as
Speaker 1: an executive, I've I've been very conscientious of who I'm hiring,
Speaker 1: who I'm bringing in, what the culture is like within
Speaker 1: the company, to make sure that we have diverse voices
Speaker 1: and that that can change the game if more people
Speaker 1: have that attitude. How do you not fall into the
Speaker 1: narrative of now being in charge of well, I'm only
Speaker 1: going to hire women, or I'm only going to hire
Speaker 1: people who did not play right, where you don't all
Speaker 1: of a sudden spend it so far so far spirits
Speaker 1: are to where now you're instead of part of the solution,
Speaker 1: now you've just created a different narrative that you're part
Speaker 1: of the problem too. Listen, it's a really important question, guys,
Speaker 1: because it's I feel like this is where you can
Speaker 1: start to have that understanding of Okay, this is how
Speaker 1: you how you do things. And I'm not by any
Speaker 1: means the person that's ever not going to make mistakes.
Speaker 1: But what I can say is I'm always gonna hire
Speaker 1: the best person for the job. The difference between what
Speaker 1: your guys are alluding to and I get it all
Speaker 1: the time, like you're gonna look for women, you're gonna
Speaker 1: look for minorities, you're gonna look the I every and
Speaker 1: I mean that in the nicest way I can possibly
Speaker 1: say it. Every Tom Dicken Harry white guy applies for
Speaker 1: a job that they do not deserve, they're not entitled to,
Speaker 1: they don't have the qualifications for. But they show up
Speaker 1: their nineteen years old, they're not in journalism school, and
Speaker 1: they hit me up and they think they deserve a
Speaker 1: full time writing job. Straight up. It happened all the time.
Speaker 1: You know who, I don't hear from women and minorities,
Speaker 1: but neither one. I have had to seek out every
Speaker 1: minority that I have hired, and I've had to seek
Speaker 1: out every female that I have hired. Why do you
Speaker 1: think that? Because I know for me, I'm I'm that's
Speaker 1: exactly right. I'm a black male that worked in sports
Speaker 1: for for quite some time, and from from my own
Speaker 1: personal experience, you have to be not even better than average,
Speaker 1: not even better, way better exceptional, And that's just to
Speaker 1: get a foot in the door. Right. So to your point,
Speaker 1: every time Dack and Harry applies, but it is hard
Speaker 1: to stand out. So do you know why a lot
Speaker 1: of the times and Harry's get the job. That's true,
Speaker 1: But then also how do you how do you make
Speaker 1: the opportunities not even just available, but just highlighted in
Speaker 1: awareness to to other people. You can make the opportunities available,
Speaker 1: you have to be conscientious of making this a part
Speaker 1: of what you're doing as you're hiring it. Because I
Speaker 1: mean this, it's like it is if you sat in
Speaker 1: a room, I would venture to say that the white
Speaker 1: guys in the room are more often than not going
Speaker 1: to think they deserve the opportunity, whereas the girls are
Speaker 1: gonna talk themselves out of it. They're gonna give you
Speaker 1: ten reasons why they don't deserve it. And the black
Speaker 1: guys don't are going to talk themselves out of it
Speaker 1: as well, or they're just not going to speak up
Speaker 1: because it's it's a conditional thing, like we've been conditioned
Speaker 1: to think that we don't deserve these things because we
Speaker 1: haven't seen it. Whereas if you're a white guy in
Speaker 1: this country, you've seen you can think you think you've
Speaker 1: walked it. And that's the that is the time. That
Speaker 1: is you're talking about a lot of learned behavior a
Speaker 1: lot of watching and seeing and and not thinking that
Speaker 1: you deserve it, and that that only changes when people
Speaker 1: that have the ability to hire people are conscientious of
Speaker 1: that and say, okay, if I have a job opening
Speaker 1: right at the end of the day. You guys talked
Speaker 1: about it earlier. Sports is so competitive that if I
Speaker 1: don't have a reference that I know about you, you're
Speaker 1: not going to get the job. Because I know enough
Speaker 1: people in sports that I can call and say, hey,
Speaker 1: tell me about this person. Right. So that's the first part,
Speaker 1: is the networking part and how that plays a part
Speaker 1: in this, and and reaching out to people and saying, hey,
Speaker 1: I want to hire somebody, and I'm looking for you
Speaker 1: know this, these are the qualifications. Do you have anybody
Speaker 1: that you can send my way? Right? Do you know anybody?
Speaker 1: Have you heard from anybody? Because that's what that's what's happening, like,
Speaker 1: that's what you have to do. Because the guys who
Speaker 1: send me their resumes all the time. I mean it,
Speaker 1: If I went through and I probably have four hundred
Speaker 1: resumes saved in my email, I would venture to say three,
Speaker 1: if not all four hundred, or all white guys, and
Speaker 1: and most of them are not qualified, and they all
Speaker 1: ask for jobs and it's because they've been conditioned to
Speaker 1: think that they can have it, and and I don't.
Speaker 1: There's there's only so much one individual can do, right,
Speaker 1: Like what can I do for my company? I can
Speaker 1: make I can make sure that I am present in
Speaker 1: how I am hiring, who I am hiring, and making
Speaker 1: sure I'm doing my due diligence to reach out and
Speaker 1: try and find people, versus just sitting back and saying, well,
Speaker 1: the best people will find me. Um, that's just I
Speaker 1: think my attitude. I can't speak to what anybody else
Speaker 1: is doing, but that's that's how I've approached it. Let's
Speaker 1: talk ball, all right. So you've done you're doing Draft Network,
Speaker 1: You've done fantasy. You do a little bit of fantasy football,
Speaker 1: correct ye As a former athlete, I hate fantasy football,
Speaker 1: fantasy man. I hate fantasy football because fantasy football has
Speaker 1: financially it has been great. But now you for everybody
Speaker 1: involved in fantasy and football, right, fantasy love it, football,
Speaker 1: love it. You can buy a fantasy football and it
Speaker 1: brings in more revenue downs. But now you have the
Speaker 1: fan who may not necessarily watch the games, but now
Speaker 1: they're only watching because fantasy. But sometimes you have people
Speaker 1: they can look at a guy, let's just say hypothetical,
Speaker 1: the guy has ten thousand yards, a billion I'm exagger
Speaker 1: and a billion touchdowns, but if he doesn't perform that
Speaker 1: week on Fantasy, you trash. You trashy. Never I've never
Speaker 1: I have never met a guy who's played in the
Speaker 1: league that like Fantasy football. I don't because I and
Speaker 1: I totally understand why you would feel that way, because
Speaker 1: if I'm Steve or if I'm I've seen it in
Speaker 1: an interview in a post game right where you've got
Speaker 1: Travis Kelsey get interviewed post game and he's he didn't
Speaker 1: have a big game, and somebody's yelling at him from
Speaker 1: the stands like dude, you're trash, You're terrible today. Or
Speaker 1: you're tweeting at somebody and you're telling them that you
Speaker 1: you know, you've lost me my fantasy matchup. Like I
Speaker 1: can imagine that as a competitor, especially if you win
Speaker 1: the foot all game. Like if you go out there
Speaker 1: and you win the game and then people are tweeting
Speaker 1: at you about how you didn't win Fantasy, You've gotta
Speaker 1: be like, who the hell cares? Right, Like I tell
Speaker 1: I tell people at all the time that play fantasy,
Speaker 1: like you have what you want to happen in your head,
Speaker 1: and then here's what reality is. Because the head coach
Speaker 1: doesn't care about giving Clyde Edwards Hilaire that's many touches
Speaker 1: because that's what's good for your fantasy team. Like he's
Speaker 1: gonna do what's best for the matchup to play that
Speaker 1: in the game, and that's what he's gonna do. So
Speaker 1: you might want this to happen, but it ain't gonna
Speaker 1: happen because that's not the game plan. And if you don't,
Speaker 1: that's why that's why I can see why you hate it.
Speaker 1: So I understand why you hate it. It's not like
Speaker 1: I woke up today and said, I'm about fantasy football.
Speaker 1: Gerard Gerard starting me on this fantasy team. I gotta
Speaker 1: show out screw him, Like that's not what you're doing.
Speaker 1: You don't get the call your own play. But yes,
Speaker 1: to the point of where when you hear that, you're like,
Speaker 1: really and then now and then I play fantasy a
Speaker 1: little bit. When I was on you don't know the
Speaker 1: game plan, right, you really don't. You don't understand or
Speaker 1: the matchups' not just like this is terrible, right, So
Speaker 1: I literally hate fancy football. If everybody could just chill
Speaker 1: and be nice, then we'll be fine, right, because then
Speaker 1: you wouldn't have fans screaming at you, were tweeting at you,
Speaker 1: like yo, bro, you suck your garbage because you didn't
Speaker 1: have three catches for him, and you're like, yeah, okay, cool,
Speaker 1: Like if people just didn't. People doing that to athletes
Speaker 1: in general has always made me upset, like whether it's
Speaker 1: fantasy related or it's like you have a bad game
Speaker 1: and the team loses and people feel this sense of
Speaker 1: ownership where they can come over and tell you like
Speaker 1: like you guys are saying like you don't walk up
Speaker 1: to somebody, You don't go outside to the garbage man
Speaker 1: and you yell at the garbage man because there's one
Speaker 1: piece of garbage that fell out, and you're like, you
Speaker 1: stuck at your job, Like nobody does that, like people
Speaker 1: do that in sport. I think it's about that time.
Speaker 1: Just take a little breather. Good good, 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 four shot. But yeah, you can go on,
Speaker 1: buy you a T shirt, subscribe to us wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to podcasts. Alright, Paige, our last segment that we
Speaker 1: have it's called the Deep three, So it's just basically
Speaker 1: our way of taking a deeper dive into the next level.
Speaker 1: Just get to know the guests that we have on.
Speaker 1: So Smithy's got the first question and we're just gonna
Speaker 1: be able to take you on this deep three. How
Speaker 1: do you want to impact the world right now? And
Speaker 1: also in five years? I want to impact the world.
Speaker 1: It talked about it a little earlier, but I want
Speaker 1: to be a leader of a sports media company that
Speaker 1: helps change what what it looks like in sports um
Speaker 1: and that means getting more women and minorities and making
Speaker 1: sure that there are more opportunities at the ground floor
Speaker 1: to make sure that we are allowing those people to
Speaker 1: elevate properly, because unless we change it at the beginning,
Speaker 1: we're gonna have some of the situations like we talked about,
Speaker 1: where you're gonna make a higher just to make a
Speaker 1: higher and they're not going to be qualified. Our responsibility
Speaker 1: is to foster people and have internships and create opportunities
Speaker 1: so we can get more diversity, so that when I
Speaker 1: go to on a trip to the Combine, it's not
Speaker 1: ninety eight percent white guys. It's a more honest reflection
Speaker 1: of what our country looks like. And I think that's
Speaker 1: I know that that's super ambitious, but I'm an ambitious person.
Speaker 1: So that's that's what I want now, and it's what
Speaker 1: I wanted in five years, because I would hope that
Speaker 1: in five years I'm gonna be an even better, more prominent,
Speaker 1: more powerful position to do more of it and quite
Speaker 1: honestly expect more of it from other people that are
Speaker 1: also in my position, and I think that will that
Speaker 1: will be something that will be exceptionally powerful. So then
Speaker 1: what does success me? To you? Success is every single day?
Speaker 1: To me, there is there is something to be said
Speaker 1: about competing with yourself and I have always done this,
Speaker 1: and to me, it's a success every day, a competition
Speaker 1: every day, a challenge every day. Because if you start
Speaker 1: setting benchmarks of this is success for me, then what's
Speaker 1: after that? Right? So to me, it's it's every day
Speaker 1: and there's no there's no endgame here. That's not there's
Speaker 1: no endgame. It's it is constantly getting better at every
Speaker 1: aspect of what I do, whether that's in my work
Speaker 1: life in my personal life. Quite frankly, one of the
Speaker 1: things I love competing and having success in most is
Speaker 1: is as an athlete and and working out every day
Speaker 1: and setting little micro challenges that make me feel successful
Speaker 1: every day. Like that, it's success to me. It's every day.
Speaker 1: It's showing up. It's it's making those competitions that force
Speaker 1: you to always be the right amount of uncomfortable, so
Speaker 1: you're constantly getting better. Page today COVID nineteen is here.
Speaker 1: Everything's going on. You can go backwards and write a
Speaker 1: letter to young Page. What would you tell her to
Speaker 1: be on the lookout for, UH for this year? Specifically,
Speaker 1: I would tell myself eight months ago, I would tell
Speaker 1: myself to relax because it's man, it's it's been a journey,
Speaker 1: UH this this last since I left the Combine, UH,
Speaker 1: life changed a whole lot the second that I got
Speaker 1: back from being in a bubble for ten days in Indianapolis.
Speaker 1: And if I could talk to myself just getting back
Speaker 1: to the Combine, I would tell myself just relax, like
Speaker 1: everything's gonna be okay. Just relax, UM. But if I
Speaker 1: could talk to my younger self, UM, I would definitely
Speaker 1: go back to, you know, a much younger AMBI just
Speaker 1: eighth grader who at that time was like, I want
Speaker 1: to work in sports and was getting bullied by a
Speaker 1: lot of people at school. And would tell that person
Speaker 1: that those people were going to ask you for fantasy
Speaker 1: football advice and tickets and and being and having access
Speaker 1: to your friends who play in the league, and that
Speaker 1: they don't matter. And so I would tell that eighth
Speaker 1: grader to not care about other people so much and
Speaker 1: just know that eventually those people are gonna be asking
Speaker 1: you for stuff and it's never not going to feel good.
Speaker 1: And and that's what I would tell younger Page. Well,
Speaker 1: I appreciate a page. Thank you, Thank you guys. The
Speaker 1: thing I liked about Page was ambition. I was, I was.
Speaker 1: I wrote down greediness. She's gritty. She's gritty, right, So
Speaker 1: I thought that was cool. I I did think some
Speaker 1: of the things that she said, it's from our perspective
Speaker 1: of what she went through, and sometimes people go, I
Speaker 1: don't think that's that's accurate. It is an act. It
Speaker 1: is not accurate from your perspective, but from the individual
Speaker 1: who has experienced it. Think about how much you had
Speaker 1: to scrap, right, Yeah, I mean you're like I, like
Speaker 1: I said during the interview, when you're a woman or
Speaker 1: your minority trying to break into the sports field, this
Speaker 1: this this, this role behind the scenes, it's very tough.
Speaker 1: When you add on, you know, being a woman of money,
Speaker 1: it's it's so much tougher. You you've got to go
Speaker 1: beyond the mile marker and then something. So to your
Speaker 1: point from her perspective and durrance, you talk about minorities
Speaker 1: or or or or women sometimes playing the sport and
Speaker 1: then trying to work in a sport, whether it's be
Speaker 1: a coach. Sometimes people don't want you involved because they
Speaker 1: believe as a player, oh, you weren't this or you
Speaker 1: weren't that. So sometimes playing the sport can be just
Speaker 1: as bad for you. Of sometimes you know, as we said,
Speaker 1: being a new person, right with a new person without
Speaker 1: a history you have a you're more susceptible to at
Speaker 1: least get a try out or get get a shot
Speaker 1: or shoot your shot, versus someone who has been through
Speaker 1: it and who's played. Sometimes like nah, so I I
Speaker 1: call it one of the things I walked away with
Speaker 1: is no was never an acceptable answer to Page. She
Speaker 1: did not accept no. If you told her no, She's
Speaker 1: gonna make a way to prove you wrong. It was
Speaker 1: fist fighting phone booth right, So I really love that.
Speaker 1: So Page, thank you appreciation, you know, thank you for
Speaker 1: listening to another I guess this isn't. We don't have
Speaker 1: two minutes, you know, we got a few, but thanks
Speaker 1: for listening to another episode of cup to It. I'm
Speaker 1: Steve Smith Senior and you are a K A G.
Speaker 1: And we out cut to It with Steve Smith Singer.
Speaker 1: That is Me is a production of Cut to It LLC,
Speaker 1: Baltol Creative Media, The Black Effect and I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: For more podcast from I Heart Radio, visit the I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio Apple Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows from Cut to It. Executive producer Steve Smith, Singer,
Speaker 1: co host Gerard little John, talent in booking manager Joe Fusci,
Speaker 1: social media manager Peyton Smith from Balto Creative Media. Cut
Speaker 1: to It is produced by Brian Baltaschevitch and Meredith Carter,
Speaker 1: with production assistance by Alex Lebrek, Production manager Sarah Pollock.
Speaker 1: Theme 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