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Speaker 1: Sometimes people throw out lucky because it helps them justify

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Speaker 1: why they haven't made the move that you've made. You know,

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Speaker 1: there were certain things like all that time that I

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Speaker 1: was dribbling the ball and going out there and doing

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Speaker 1: all that work, and then that led to the NFL,

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Speaker 1: and those things didn't happen by accident. Luck is like

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Speaker 1: if I turned the corner and found a briefcase of

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Speaker 1: a billion dollars, that's lucky.

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Speaker 2: What if I told you there was more to the

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Speaker 2: story behind game changing events? Get ready for my new podcast,

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Speaker 2: That Moment with Damon John will jump into the personal

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Speaker 2: stories of some of the most influential people on the planet,

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Speaker 2: from business mobiles and celebrities to athletes and artists. Offtball.

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Speaker 2: Welcome man, thank you for thank you so much for

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Speaker 2: taking the time.

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Speaker 1: I'm glad man, I'm glad to be sitting just sitting

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Speaker 1: here chopping it up with you.

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Speaker 2: Man. We gotta have fun listening. I had. I had

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Speaker 2: a great time with you on family feud by the

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Speaker 2: way I want, we want.

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Speaker 1: I guess you go go go ahead and just throw

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Speaker 1: that out there.

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Speaker 2: Huh No, I just gotta I just gotta throw it

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Speaker 2: right out there, and uh and you know, the talk

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Speaker 2: always gives me love. And the last time I was there,

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Speaker 2: we were talking about financial intelligence, children and my book,

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Speaker 2: and you guys have always given me love. So it

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Speaker 2: is it is truly an honor to always see you.

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Speaker 2: I've I've always been a fan of your stuff and

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Speaker 2: and actually I've always been a fan of you publicly

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Speaker 2: in the sense of your ability to pivot and and

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Speaker 2: all those things, because I I'm really not a huge,

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Speaker 2: huge sports fan, so I really didn't know all of

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Speaker 2: you at that time, but but since then I've been

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Speaker 2: a fan. So uh oddly enough. You know, when you

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Speaker 2: are on as a competitor on I want to show Expedition,

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Speaker 2: this is possible? Yeah that that was actually done by Mark.

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Speaker 2: Did you see Mark on that set?

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Speaker 1: I did. I saw Mark the every first day we

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Speaker 1: flew into the Kingdom of Morocco, and it was just

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Speaker 1: kind of like, hmm, what is this going to be?

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Speaker 1: Actually I saw him, well, yeah, I saw him during

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Speaker 1: my little audition, and then I saw him again the

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Speaker 1: very first day and he just kind of laid it

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Speaker 1: out almost like a coach, like this is what you're

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Speaker 1: going up again. You're gonna be in the you know,

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Speaker 1: in the desert and all different types of terrains for

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Speaker 1: five weeks and he's just kind of given this whole

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Speaker 1: thing and if you don't think you can make it,

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Speaker 1: you can. I mean I was like, yo, man, this

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Speaker 1: is it. Kind of felt like I was back in

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Speaker 1: training camp and and that was it. That was the

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Speaker 1: I think that was the last time. I know. Actually

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Speaker 1: I saw him one other time. He flew in a

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Speaker 1: helicopter into remote part of Morocco and then that was

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Speaker 1: the only time I ever saw.

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Speaker 2: Interesting. So Mark and obviously amazing, one of the most

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Speaker 2: well known producers in the world. You know, he's done

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Speaker 2: Apprentice Contender, Survivor, that show, and of course Shark Tank.

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Speaker 2: A lot of people don't know he saw off selling

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Speaker 2: shirts kind of in Venice Beach. Prior to that, he

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Speaker 2: was special he was Special Forces or in in London

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Speaker 2: in Europe, and uh, they say that Survivor's one of

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Speaker 2: the longest running shows. They say that he'll come on

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Speaker 2: set sometimes, and he doesn't come to our set as much.

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Speaker 2: I mean, we're a contained environment, but he'll he'll, he'll, he'll,

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Speaker 2: he'll whatever you call it, jump out of those helicopters

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Speaker 2: on the ropes and slide down. I know, a couple

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Speaker 2: of years ago he was still competing in the Iron Man.

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Speaker 1: Wow. I didn't know that. I had no idea that background,

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Speaker 1: that that kind of gives a little bit of uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, background as to why he came in so hot.

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Speaker 1: And I was like, but it made me respect him

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Speaker 1: more like he wasn't he didn't seem like a TV guy.

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Speaker 1: He said like, Yo, this is for real.

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Speaker 2: This is like straight Bride, straight gangster.

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Speaker 1: Uh.

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Speaker 2: You know, she was one of those Yeah, I'm gonna go,

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Speaker 2: I'm gonna go punk that TV executive and you all

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Speaker 2: all of a sudden find yourself, you know, tapping out

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Speaker 2: saying let me go. You know, so anyway, but but

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Speaker 2: the nicest man, uh, very very a man of faith,

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Speaker 2: one of the most as you know, and you and

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Speaker 2: I've never even talked about this, one of the kindest

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Speaker 2: individuals you'll ever meet on the planet.

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Speaker 1: I've had a chance to you know, talk to him,

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Speaker 1: you know, multiple times afterwards, and you know, you know,

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Speaker 1: you talk about being a man of faith. I didn't

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Speaker 1: know that because you know, there's you know, in Hollywood,

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Speaker 1: there's just a diverse belief and you know, to even

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Speaker 1: say that you're a man of faith. Sometimes can people

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Speaker 1: can look at you in an awkward way, in a

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Speaker 1: weird way, and so so we were able to share that.

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Speaker 1: But I was surprised that he even remembered me because

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Speaker 1: there was a bunch of competitors there. We came in

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Speaker 1: fourth place and we did. You know, I didn't win

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Speaker 1: like I wanted to win, but he was. He gave

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Speaker 1: me so much in just that little bit of time

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Speaker 1: that we had to get in that five weeks time

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Speaker 1: and just being a part of that production, I learned

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Speaker 1: a lot too. I learned a lot about television in

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Speaker 1: that in that regards.

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Speaker 2: I mean, I think that that that stands as we

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Speaker 2: go into this this this this conversation, there's a lot

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Speaker 2: of things to stand out about that. You learned a

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Speaker 2: lot you You obviously are are very competitive. You played

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Speaker 2: at the highest level of competition period, you know, but

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Speaker 2: you were smart enough to ask him those questions. But

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Speaker 2: also you were surprised he remembered you. There's a reason

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Speaker 2: you're here. People remember you. I'm not sure why. You

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Speaker 2: know why. Probably the story goal is that you know,

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Speaker 2: there was this kind of NFL boot camp where you know,

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Speaker 2: a lot of broadcasting camp and a lot of you know,

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Speaker 2: you know, they brought in I think twenty people or

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Speaker 2: something like that, or they applied. You took this opportunity.

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Speaker 2: How many people do you know applied to it? Was

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Speaker 2: there a limit of twenty or was there just only twenty?

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Speaker 1: Internet now there was a limit of twenty, and so

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Speaker 1: you had to make a compelling case. You had to

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Speaker 1: write an essay as to why you wanted to get in,

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Speaker 1: and so I just took that time to write it.

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Speaker 1: I don't know how many guys during their off season

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Speaker 1: wants to write an essay to get into too broadcasting.

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Speaker 1: But you know, the truth is day man, like I

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Speaker 1: kind of saw after my third year, I knew things

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Speaker 1: weren't working out the way I thought. In my mind,

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Speaker 1: I thought that and believed that I was going to

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Speaker 1: play in the NFL for ten years, and you know,

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Speaker 1: I was gonna be all everything and whatever, and especially

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Speaker 1: too because my brother played before me and had a

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Speaker 1: tremendous amount of success, and I just thought I'm next

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Speaker 1: in line. Well it didn't work. It worked that way.

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Speaker 1: We're two different beings to two different types of athletes,

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Speaker 1: and so I started to really then start to think

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Speaker 1: about Okay, I'm gonna keep going as hard as I

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Speaker 1: can because I want to get to that ten years.

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Speaker 1: But I'm also gonna start seeing other opportunities. And when

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Speaker 1: that opportunity came, I made sure, like I think it

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Speaker 1: was due, you know, whatever day it was due, I

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Speaker 1: had my essay in the next day because I want

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Speaker 1: to make sure I got my name to the top

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Speaker 1: of the line, because I knew that there might be

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Speaker 1: big name guys who they would go, oh, of course

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Speaker 1: we were won this big name athlete in our broadcast

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Speaker 1: boot camp. Sure enough, I got the acceptance letter and

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Speaker 1: that was the start of my of my broadcast journey.

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Speaker 2: Well, let's let's talk of that moment when you decide

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Speaker 2: to do that. Because the athletes, many of them that

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Speaker 2: I have spoken to in general, uh, you know, we

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Speaker 2: all we all try to emulate what we see out there.

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Speaker 2: And there's been some really great athletes who have paved

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Speaker 2: the way they get sports and these amazing accomplishments they've had,

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Speaker 2: but they paved their way as being broadcasters or Magic

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Speaker 2: Johnson and doctor J investors and various other things like that.

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Speaker 2: And I thought, from when I speak to athletes, a

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Speaker 2: lot of them are like they that's a natural PROGRESSI yeah,

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Speaker 2: I'm gonna be a I'm gonna be a sportscaster, broadcast.

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Speaker 2: I hear that all the time. And maybe they think

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Speaker 2: it's because of their name, and maybe they think that

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Speaker 2: that's a natural progression. But what I mean, how many,

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Speaker 2: how many? How many athletes? How many? How many players

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Speaker 2: are on one one NFL team.

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Speaker 1: And fifty three fifty three guys on a roster, you know,

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Speaker 1: the NFL roster. You multiply that by thirty two, whatever

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Speaker 1: the math that is. I think they's close to what

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Speaker 1: sixteen hundred guys in the NFL, And every given year

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Speaker 1: there's about three hundred plus athletes that come in through

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Speaker 1: the draft system. So that means for all the young

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Speaker 1: rookies that are coming in, somebody's going out. So you

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Speaker 1: have that kind of that cycle that makes the NFL

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Speaker 1: what the NFL is. It's a young men's game, and

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Speaker 1: so you do know that, you know, very few will

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Speaker 1: get that opportunity to play. The ten years that I

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Speaker 1: was drinking for average careers two and a half years,

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Speaker 1: I'm throwing all that number, those numbers out because you

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Speaker 1: realize it's a flooded market and everybody wants to get

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Speaker 1: in and try to become this broadcaster because it feels

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Speaker 1: like the natural progression. It is because look, you've invested

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Speaker 1: over twenty years of your life in playing a sport

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Speaker 1: that you absolutely love and then to be able to

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Speaker 1: go back out there because you haven't invested much time

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Speaker 1: in doing anything else because this was the dream. And

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Speaker 1: so you say, okay, I've got this equity in knowledge

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Speaker 1: in sports. Let me take that and talk about it.

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Speaker 1: Not everybody can talk about it, not everybody can express themselves.

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Speaker 1: Not everybody's made for television. Right, there's a great combination

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Speaker 1: that you have to have. And you've seen this, you

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Speaker 1: know where guys get kind of trapped like I just

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Speaker 1: got to do this, I gotta do this, and they

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Speaker 1: think about nothing else, so they haven't invested in the

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Speaker 1: work that it takes to actually become a broadcaster. And

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Speaker 1: there's a process. It's not just I'm here, I've arrived,

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Speaker 1: because there are a lot of big name guys who

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Speaker 1: we grew up loving in sports that aren't on television.

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Speaker 1: And that's for a reason, and not because they're bad people,

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Speaker 1: but A it's not for them, or B it's just

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Speaker 1: not a skill set that they that they have.

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Speaker 2: And so accurate about that, because I mean, if you

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Speaker 2: really think about so let's look at the couple of

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Speaker 2: careers that and you can elaborate on this that that

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Speaker 2: athletes and we're not talking about we're talking about purely.

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Speaker 2: Let's just so the NFL. I think there's a couple

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Speaker 2: of different areas right there. I want to either be

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Speaker 2: a coach or office, broadcasts or as thing. But if

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Speaker 2: you broke down the sixteen hundred on average per year,

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Speaker 2: there's athletes we all times ten, that's sixteen thousand people. Now,

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Speaker 2: even if you're a broadcaster, right, it doesn't mean that

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Speaker 2: somebody else from another genre, Stephen A. Smith or somebody

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Speaker 2: else like that, is not gonna still take your show.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's competitive, it's super competitive, and there are only

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Speaker 1: a certain amount of spots that are open. Right. If

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Speaker 1: you look at the landscape of television, you know you've

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Speaker 1: got your major networks and then they've got people already

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Speaker 1: in those seats. So it's not like you know, there's

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Speaker 1: a room for a bunch of people. Every year. There

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Speaker 1: might be one or two opening, and some guys can

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Speaker 1: hold a seat for a very long time, and you're

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Speaker 1: sitting there like, man, that person's got to pretty much

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Speaker 1: die off or retire before I get that opportunity. And

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Speaker 1: by that time you might already be seven eight years

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Speaker 1: out the game, you know, So then why you?

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Speaker 2: That's the question, right because when it, when it happened

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Speaker 2: and they had that opportunity, was it more like I'm

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Speaker 2: really gonna do this, or you know what, let me

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Speaker 2: just throw my hat in the ring. Because this is

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Speaker 2: one of the potential angles or or directions. I'm gonna go,

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Speaker 2: why you? And why did you do it?

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Speaker 1: That's a great, great, great, great question, And I'm going

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Speaker 1: to open up about a lot of the insecurities that

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Speaker 1: I had. So you know, I told you that I

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Speaker 1: wasn't a big name guy. You google me, you look

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Speaker 1: it up. My stats were not impressive. I don't fit

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Speaker 1: the category or that that that model for what a

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Speaker 1: person transitions from from sports into into television because I

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Speaker 1: don't have the accolades that you can constantly refer to.

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Speaker 1: And but in my own mind, you know, everyone, you know,

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Speaker 1: if you're an athlete, you suffer from some level of

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Speaker 1: delusions of grandeur where you think you're bigger than than whatever.

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Speaker 1: And so I did this this program at the Wharton

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Speaker 1: School of Business through the NFL, and it was an

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Speaker 1: executive program business program, and you know, I wanted to

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Speaker 1: explore my option into business as well. You know, growing

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Speaker 1: up in the Nigerian household, my parents, you know, were

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Speaker 1: constantly talking about being both my parents were entrepreneurs, and

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Speaker 1: so I wanted I was interested in that. And so anyways,

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Speaker 1: I applied to to try to get a job an

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Speaker 1: interview at ESPN, and I'll never forget Al Jaffee and

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Speaker 1: Fred Brown they brought me in not because I played

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Speaker 1: in the NFL, but because they saw Wharton Business program

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Speaker 1: on my on my uh my resume, and they thought

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Speaker 1: this is odd. So they brought me in. And I'm

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Speaker 1: sitting here thinking like, you know, I'm about to be

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Speaker 1: on ESPN. You can't tell me nothing. And so I

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Speaker 1: go in and so they said, so we brought you in.

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Speaker 1: We just wanted to meet with you, just kind of

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Speaker 1: saying and say, yeah, I want to be the next

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Speaker 1: Stuart Scott and uh uh Stewart of excuse me. Fred

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Speaker 1: Brown stopped me right there. He goes, son, we already

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Speaker 1: have a Stuart Scott. We don't need another Stuart Scott.

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Speaker 1: He goes, so, what's your plan? Told him, I want

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Speaker 1: to be on ESPN talk about football. He goes, why

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Speaker 1: you Why shouldn't we let you on mare? And he

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Speaker 1: just called me out and I was just like, he goes,

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Speaker 1: what experience do you have? I'm like and I was

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Speaker 1: just stuck. I mean literally I was fried in this interview.

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Speaker 1: I'm like, oh my goodness. And he brought al Jackie in,

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Speaker 1: who's at a big head hot show at ESPN, And

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Speaker 1: they sat me down and just said, look, you need

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Speaker 1: to go out there and get reps. You can't just

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Speaker 1: walk in here thinking because you played in the NFL

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Speaker 1: that somebody's just going to give you an opportunity. We

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Speaker 1: really only brought you in because we saw Wharton and

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Speaker 1: wanted to see what you were about. And they gave

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Speaker 1: me a tour and told me to go, but that

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Speaker 1: in a bad way. It was like, we'll show you around,

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Speaker 1: showed me the satellite, showed me all the different studios,

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Speaker 1: and walked me out. And as soon as I got

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Speaker 1: back on that plane, I devised a plan. I go, Okay,

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Speaker 1: be real with yourself. You didn't have a big name

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Speaker 1: in the league. How can you get in? And so

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Speaker 1: what I did was I went back to my home,

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Speaker 1: my hometown, not my hometown, but the place where I

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Speaker 1: went to schools and Diego. I had a year with

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Speaker 1: the Chargers. I was a standout at San Diego State,

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Speaker 1: and I said, this is where people know me here.

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Speaker 1: Let me take the time to develop locally. I developed

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Speaker 1: locally at the local stations. I did that for free

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Speaker 1: for two years. I knocked on the door at NBC

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Speaker 1: for free, for free, free, I knocked on the door,

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Speaker 1: and I went and talked to the general manager at

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Speaker 1: the local NBC and I said, Hey, can I do

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Speaker 1: the postgame show for the Chargers and the Aztecs and

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Speaker 1: I'll do it for free. Hired me on the spot,

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Speaker 1: on the spot.

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Speaker 2: Well, it wasn't a higher.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, right right, that's true, that's true.

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Speaker 2: I got you all day, I got you all day.

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Speaker 2: You want to hang out with me for free?

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Speaker 1: So I did it. I did that, and I knew

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Speaker 1: that that was the only way that I was going

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Speaker 1: to jump the line to get an opportunity, because I

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Speaker 1: didn't think anyone else would compete with that. And so

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Speaker 1: that's what got me in.

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Speaker 2: So, you know, and that's the whole purpose of that

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Speaker 2: moment right to freeze and not to brush over this

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Speaker 2: extremely extremely powerful things you've said here. And I want

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Speaker 2: to make it very clear because everybody here listening, whoever

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Speaker 2: you are, they want to pivot. I know, actors want

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Speaker 2: to be athletes, Athletes want to be actors, singers want

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Speaker 2: to be dancers, and dancers want to be singing. I mean,

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Speaker 2: this is just it's a natural progression, especially if you

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Speaker 2: are an A type personality. You are always looking for

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Speaker 2: a challenge. However, very important people don't usually do exactly

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Speaker 2: what you do, which is two things. Number one, hack yourself,

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Speaker 2: ask yourself the tough question, why the hell am I

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Speaker 2: gonna be in this room? Because they ask you something

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Speaker 2: we are what do you have for us? We already

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Speaker 2: have a what's senna? And I even noticed that with

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Speaker 2: the president of my company, Ted right. You know, I'll

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Speaker 2: have friends come up and say, hey, man, I got

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Speaker 2: this business idea for Damon, and I'll be like, yo,

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Speaker 2: make sure you're talking about man and whatever the case is,

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Speaker 2: and he'll ask them questions and they get insulted. Yo,

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Speaker 2: come on, Damon's my man. And you know what he says,

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Speaker 2: he goes, you know, Damn's your friend and true, I'm

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Speaker 2: only asking you questions if somebody else is going to

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Speaker 2: ask you, And if they don't ask you, they're already

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Speaker 2: thinking it. Wow, So do you want me to ask

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Speaker 2: you in person or do you want damon and I

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Speaker 2: have this conversation behind your back. Wow, And then they

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Speaker 2: have to sit back and say, damn.

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Speaker 1: You know.

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Speaker 2: We have this thing of when we have to justify ourselves. Yes,

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Speaker 2: I understand that that could be if you have to

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Speaker 2: justify yourself and said for the wrong reasons. Why I'm

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Speaker 2: not talking about that. When you have to justify why

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Speaker 2: you are qualified as a man, whatever the case is, right, man, woman,

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Speaker 2: whatever the case is. But when you have to justify

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Speaker 2: the value that you offer to somebody, those people had

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Speaker 2: a network that they have to be able to be

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Speaker 2: able to consistently put out information. They have very skilled people.

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Speaker 2: There you right now, at the moment nobody knew you.

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Speaker 2: Why is your opinion? Was it whether it's your voice

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Speaker 2: or your unique way of delivering it.

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Speaker 1: Or your homework?

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Speaker 2: Why is their of value? A lot of us don't

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Speaker 2: want to ask the tough question of why me, why this?

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Speaker 2: And why now?

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Speaker 1: Yeah? And the other part time too, is the sacrifice.

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Speaker 1: There's a sacrifice element too, and.

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Speaker 2: Are you ready to rock? And that's the next one,

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Speaker 2: because you know when you decided listen, whether nobody nobody

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Speaker 2: knew you or not, you're still You were still and

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Speaker 2: you are now, but you were still a star. You

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Speaker 2: were still somebody who went from team to team, somebody

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Speaker 2: who played at the highest level and the NFL was

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Speaker 2: behind you. Right. So I know people who think they're

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Speaker 2: just a star in the hood because you know whatever

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Speaker 2: the reason, right, because they used to because they were

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Speaker 2: known as the one who wore the freshest sneakers in

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Speaker 2: high school and they refused to work in a grocery

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Speaker 2: store in bad groceries. Right, What made you decide to say, yo,

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Speaker 2: I do this for free? Because you know, my buddy

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Speaker 2: Jay will say ego means edging God out right, because

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Speaker 2: you don't want to accept certain things, right, and you

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Speaker 2: you know your ego could have been Yo, that's aw ball, man.

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Speaker 1: I heard.

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Speaker 2: Even though nobody knows you're doing the refree, some people's

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Speaker 2: ego is so big that they like, man, I know that.

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Speaker 2: I know the head of that the local TV station

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Speaker 2: privately like this. Everybody, Yeah, you know, awkward missus superstar.

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Speaker 2: He over here working for free. He begged me for

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Speaker 2: a job, and that could have held you back from

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Speaker 2: even this chance. That this chance wasn't a guarantee. It

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Speaker 2: was just a chance, because they could have cut your ass,

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Speaker 2: just like in football the first week. What made you

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Speaker 2: put that ego aside? In the town that you are

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Speaker 2: already known, you were definitely a superstar in the town

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Speaker 2: you went to. What made you put that ego aside?

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Speaker 1: I wanted it badly, honestly, because I like there was something.

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Speaker 1: You know, when you gravitate, you want something like a

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Speaker 1: little kid and candy store. Who wants something so bad? Heck,

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Speaker 1: he's even willing to steal it because he wants it

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Speaker 1: badly and he knows it's wrong. Right, I wanted it badly,

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Speaker 1: and so for me there was no pride really in

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Speaker 1: it or ego in it. It was just I was

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Speaker 1: hyper focused on it. And some people may say, well,

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Speaker 1: you know it's easy because you had money, you could

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Speaker 1: work for free. Well, yes, I did play in the NFL,

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Speaker 1: but I didn't make that kind of money that I

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Speaker 1: could sacrifice not working for two years, right, I mean.

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Speaker 2: Who laughed at you? Who laughed at you the who who?

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Speaker 2: Because you know you being some who you are? Right,

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Speaker 2: it is kind of like, oh ah, you're returning home.

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Speaker 2: Some people could have said that. Some people are gonna said,

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Speaker 2: what the hell are you doing? You were fortunate enough

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Speaker 2: to get where you were. By the way, your brother

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Speaker 2: is much better than you.

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Speaker 1: I got that a lot, so you.

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Speaker 2: Oh, I'm gonna tell you to you right now. I

401
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Speaker 2: don't even know your brother, but I'm gonna tell you suck.

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Speaker 2: Just just a thought it at you?

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Speaker 1: You suck?

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Speaker 2: So what you're doing? Who laughed at you? How many

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Speaker 2: laughed at you? And even if they did, it's fine,

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Speaker 2: right even if it was one? How did you say?

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Speaker 2: I don't care, man, there's a bigger goal right now.

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Speaker 1: You know. I'm sure there were people laughing at me.

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Speaker 1: But to be honest with you, I don't know who

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Speaker 1: laughed because I wasn't paying attention to them. I really

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Speaker 1: didn't pay attention to them because it was just I

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Speaker 1: was being surgical with it. I was just going from

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Speaker 1: one show after the next trying to get better. And

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Speaker 1: it's funny because damon, I would wait literally and sometimes

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Speaker 1: a couple of hours after the show for them to

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Speaker 1: give me my tape, and at the time it was TAKEE,

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Speaker 1: I was like, I need my tape because oh yeah,

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Speaker 1: we'll get it to you. I would sit there and

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Speaker 1: just be messing around, talking to everybody until I got

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Speaker 1: my tape because I knew that's what I needed. I

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Speaker 1: need to be able to compile enough tape and then

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Speaker 1: go back and watch myself. And I saw the progression too,

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Speaker 1: So there was nothing on the peripheral that mattered outside

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Speaker 1: of what I was doing. And I didn't have a

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Speaker 1: lot of distractions. I was a single man. I didn't

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Speaker 1: have anything going on, so I could just focus in

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Speaker 1: on that and develop that. And after two years, you know,

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Speaker 1: I got the next pump. And I remember walking meeting

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Speaker 1: Michael Wilbond, who's on part in the Interruption at ESPN.

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Speaker 1: I met him and his wife at an sb's event

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Speaker 1: and he told me, after I put in my two years,

432
00:21:13,040 --> 00:21:14,320
Speaker 1: and I'm thinking, all right, I put in my two

433
00:21:14,400 --> 00:21:17,479
Speaker 1: years for free, and he says, it will take you

434
00:21:17,560 --> 00:21:21,640
Speaker 1: about five years before you hit your stride in this business?

435
00:21:21,880 --> 00:21:25,119
Speaker 1: Are you willing to wait that long? And his wife

436
00:21:25,119 --> 00:21:27,240
Speaker 1: gave him a slap on and she's like, baby, why

437
00:21:27,240 --> 00:21:29,520
Speaker 1: would you tell him that? Why would you say that

438
00:21:29,560 --> 00:21:32,000
Speaker 1: to him and break that kid's heart like that. I

439
00:21:32,040 --> 00:21:34,040
Speaker 1: still remember we're in the back room and I had

440
00:21:34,080 --> 00:21:36,440
Speaker 1: just met Mike Tyson and my eyes were like wide open,

441
00:21:36,800 --> 00:21:38,560
Speaker 1: and then I saw Michael Wilbon and he told me that.

442
00:21:38,640 --> 00:21:41,040
Speaker 1: I was like, dang, I got three more years to

443
00:21:41,080 --> 00:21:44,240
Speaker 1: go before I hit my shrine. And as God is

444
00:21:44,280 --> 00:21:47,320
Speaker 1: my witness, almost to the mark of five years. Three

445
00:21:47,359 --> 00:21:49,560
Speaker 1: years later, that's when I got Ninjanem where I got

446
00:21:49,600 --> 00:21:51,200
Speaker 1: an interdup, where I got Ninjaview.

447
00:22:09,760 --> 00:22:12,920
Speaker 2: That's when I got Ninja warrior it It and then

448
00:22:12,960 --> 00:22:16,359
Speaker 2: and that's where that's where you start to see and

449
00:22:16,400 --> 00:22:19,240
Speaker 2: that and that's what happens. You sort out the people

450
00:22:19,280 --> 00:22:22,600
Speaker 2: that don't have the endurance and that same business, right,

451
00:22:22,640 --> 00:22:25,320
Speaker 2: I think I think business is about five or six years.

452
00:22:25,480 --> 00:22:27,600
Speaker 2: Used to be eight. But with the advent of all

453
00:22:27,680 --> 00:22:29,800
Speaker 2: the way the things are, yeah, the way that things

454
00:22:29,800 --> 00:22:34,560
Speaker 2: are moving really fast, it takes about five years to

455
00:22:35,560 --> 00:22:38,679
Speaker 2: really about six to hit your stride. You know, you

456
00:22:38,720 --> 00:22:41,800
Speaker 2: know you're starting year one, year two, year three, you

457
00:22:41,880 --> 00:22:43,879
Speaker 2: hope to be in business. Year four you're starting to

458
00:22:43,920 --> 00:22:46,320
Speaker 2: correct the business. And year five and six you're starting

459
00:22:46,320 --> 00:22:48,320
Speaker 2: to grow the business. And then you're starting to say, Okay,

460
00:22:49,840 --> 00:22:53,399
Speaker 2: we got this, you know, and and I think that

461
00:22:53,400 --> 00:22:57,080
Speaker 2: that's critical. And so now Ninja, uh you know, uh

462
00:22:57,200 --> 00:23:01,200
Speaker 2: Ninja Warrior, Now, how did that happened? Was it because

463
00:23:02,600 --> 00:23:05,639
Speaker 2: you were a competitor Broadcat? Was it all combined? Like

464
00:23:05,680 --> 00:23:08,119
Speaker 2: how did you get to that level? And how many

465
00:23:08,280 --> 00:23:10,560
Speaker 2: rejections or how many things did you apply for? It

466
00:23:10,560 --> 00:23:12,879
Speaker 2: didn't have to be a rejection, maybe they had already

467
00:23:13,520 --> 00:23:16,199
Speaker 2: casted somebody. How many things did you apply to getting

468
00:23:16,280 --> 00:23:17,000
Speaker 2: up to that point?

469
00:23:17,440 --> 00:23:19,919
Speaker 1: And tell me a lot that that is exactly what

470
00:23:20,000 --> 00:23:23,399
Speaker 1: I believe helped me get into the front door or

471
00:23:23,440 --> 00:23:25,760
Speaker 1: helped me get that opportunity for Ninja worried, But I

472
00:23:25,800 --> 00:23:28,240
Speaker 1: was doing I was working at the NFL network, and

473
00:23:28,440 --> 00:23:30,199
Speaker 1: at that point I felt like, man, I made it

474
00:23:30,240 --> 00:23:33,760
Speaker 1: to the NFL network, and you know, I'm catching my stride.

475
00:23:33,800 --> 00:23:36,399
Speaker 1: And somebody said, you know, spotted me on the NFL

476
00:23:36,440 --> 00:23:38,400
Speaker 1: network and say, hey, we should get this guy an audition.

477
00:23:39,080 --> 00:23:41,359
Speaker 1: I go in in audition, but you know, being in

478
00:23:41,400 --> 00:23:43,879
Speaker 1: Los Angeles, you going in on a million auditions. I've

479
00:23:43,920 --> 00:23:47,840
Speaker 1: auditioned for everything, right, and I got no a million times.

480
00:23:47,920 --> 00:23:50,520
Speaker 1: Of course, I'm exaggerating a little hyperbolic there, but you

481
00:23:50,560 --> 00:23:54,600
Speaker 1: get the point rejection after rejection. And it's an interesting

482
00:23:54,640 --> 00:23:58,280
Speaker 1: thing about rejection because after a while you can come

483
00:23:59,119 --> 00:24:01,040
Speaker 1: you can be a little bit and you can be

484
00:24:01,080 --> 00:24:03,480
Speaker 1: a little numb to it, right because it's like, oh whatever,

485
00:24:03,480 --> 00:24:07,240
Speaker 1: I gotta say no. So this time when Ninja came around,

486
00:24:07,720 --> 00:24:10,080
Speaker 1: I was just like, all right, I'll go on this audition.

487
00:24:10,600 --> 00:24:13,560
Speaker 1: But I was my mind wasn't like so I wasn't

488
00:24:13,600 --> 00:24:15,320
Speaker 1: so pent up like I gotta get this job, I

489
00:24:15,320 --> 00:24:17,320
Speaker 1: gotta get this job. I just came in there and

490
00:24:17,400 --> 00:24:20,199
Speaker 1: I just literally came as myself, and it was something

491
00:24:20,240 --> 00:24:23,399
Speaker 1: that I learned in that process because I'm a huge

492
00:24:23,440 --> 00:24:27,280
Speaker 1: WWE fan and so the inspiration of how I call

493
00:24:27,400 --> 00:24:30,919
Speaker 1: the Ninja Warrior calls is inspired by my youth of

494
00:24:31,000 --> 00:24:34,040
Speaker 1: watching WWE and listening to the announcers was my favorite

495
00:24:34,080 --> 00:24:37,320
Speaker 1: part of the WWE experience outside of Hawkogen and Macho

496
00:24:37,400 --> 00:24:40,439
Speaker 1: Man and those guys. But I went in there and

497
00:24:40,520 --> 00:24:43,320
Speaker 1: did my version of that, like just the way Awkward

498
00:24:43,359 --> 00:24:46,280
Speaker 1: would and I was just literally just clowning around having fun,

499
00:24:46,359 --> 00:24:48,480
Speaker 1: like oh my goodness, look at that guy. That guy

500
00:24:48,640 --> 00:24:50,840
Speaker 1: just swapped around like a popsy, you know, just just

501
00:24:50,880 --> 00:24:54,200
Speaker 1: going off and going crazy, walked out, think everybody's hands,

502
00:24:54,240 --> 00:24:56,960
Speaker 1: you know, shit, everybody's head cool, Thanks, guys, didn't even

503
00:24:56,960 --> 00:24:58,880
Speaker 1: think twice about it. And I get a phone call

504
00:24:58,920 --> 00:25:00,760
Speaker 1: two weeks later, say, hey, you're going to be the host,

505
00:25:01,760 --> 00:25:05,160
Speaker 1: you know, a host on American Ninja Warrior. And I'm going, wait, what,

506
00:25:06,040 --> 00:25:08,600
Speaker 1: like that's where so I think I came in there,

507
00:25:09,000 --> 00:25:11,399
Speaker 1: not like with my butt all tight and just you know,

508
00:25:11,800 --> 00:25:16,159
Speaker 1: so like focused to where I couldn't beat me, and uh,

509
00:25:16,240 --> 00:25:18,440
Speaker 1: it was the rejection that allowed me just to go

510
00:25:18,920 --> 00:25:22,480
Speaker 1: whatever like and so yeah, so the real meat was

511
00:25:22,480 --> 00:25:23,280
Speaker 1: able to shine through.

512
00:25:24,560 --> 00:25:26,280
Speaker 2: I get that, and I think the people could take

513
00:25:26,320 --> 00:25:28,119
Speaker 2: away from that. Don't ever walk into an interview with

514
00:25:28,160 --> 00:25:30,400
Speaker 2: a tight butt. I think that that's what you're trying

515
00:25:30,440 --> 00:25:32,919
Speaker 2: to say. And but now all of a sudden, you know,

516
00:25:33,480 --> 00:25:35,959
Speaker 2: this thing is going great, and you have the audacity

517
00:25:36,520 --> 00:25:39,520
Speaker 2: to want to go and be, you know, on the

518
00:25:39,560 --> 00:25:44,639
Speaker 2: talk as a host. Now in the woria clearly a

519
00:25:44,680 --> 00:25:46,720
Speaker 2: lot of things that work with you. You know, you

520
00:25:46,800 --> 00:25:50,080
Speaker 2: are definitely a very competitive person, whatever the cases. But

521
00:25:50,160 --> 00:25:51,800
Speaker 2: now all of a sudden you're trying to go onto

522
00:25:52,680 --> 00:25:55,399
Speaker 2: a talk show and there's only a couple of African

523
00:25:55,440 --> 00:25:59,480
Speaker 2: Americans allowed in Hollywood. Uh, and now we're already busy here.

524
00:25:59,520 --> 00:26:02,920
Speaker 2: We got my we have Turry Cruz, we have Nick Cannon,

525
00:26:03,000 --> 00:26:05,280
Speaker 2: Terrence J and Damon John. You're definitely not as cute

526
00:26:05,280 --> 00:26:08,080
Speaker 2: as Damon John or as short as Damon John. Why

527
00:26:08,119 --> 00:26:11,359
Speaker 2: the hell would you want to go? How dare you

528
00:26:11,440 --> 00:26:15,280
Speaker 2: come into our area simultaneously? You should be have you

529
00:26:15,280 --> 00:26:16,000
Speaker 2: with what you got?

530
00:26:16,080 --> 00:26:20,120
Speaker 1: Yeah, I will tell you that's that's actually what kind

531
00:26:20,119 --> 00:26:22,960
Speaker 1: of gets me going. I actually like when people tell

532
00:26:23,000 --> 00:26:25,399
Speaker 1: me you can't do something. And so there are a

533
00:26:25,440 --> 00:26:27,080
Speaker 1: lot of people and any people on my team at

534
00:26:27,080 --> 00:26:30,959
Speaker 1: the time that didn't believe in me doing it. And

535
00:26:31,040 --> 00:26:33,879
Speaker 1: the more you tell me I can't, the more I

536
00:26:34,040 --> 00:26:37,360
Speaker 1: pushed towards. I'll show you. For example, you and I

537
00:26:37,400 --> 00:26:40,159
Speaker 1: met a several years back, and you introduced me to

538
00:26:40,280 --> 00:26:44,760
Speaker 1: your literary agent, which I'm forever grateful. But at the

539
00:26:44,840 --> 00:26:48,320
Speaker 1: time I was with this mega you know, uh agency

540
00:26:49,040 --> 00:26:52,320
Speaker 1: that didn't believe in my book idea. And I went

541
00:26:52,359 --> 00:26:56,440
Speaker 1: and pitched my book to this mega Hollywood agency and

542
00:26:56,840 --> 00:27:00,600
Speaker 1: the agent was about twenty minutes late to the meeting,

543
00:27:01,320 --> 00:27:04,320
Speaker 1: laughed at me, sat back like, ah, yeah, whatever, whatever, okay,

544
00:27:04,800 --> 00:27:08,960
Speaker 1: and so it was your reference, Kirsten who sat with

545
00:27:09,080 --> 00:27:13,080
Speaker 1: me and said, we love this idea, we love it

546
00:27:13,280 --> 00:27:17,400
Speaker 1: and turned around and the book came to life, and

547
00:27:17,600 --> 00:27:19,800
Speaker 1: it was a pretty sweet deal for me. And it

548
00:27:19,840 --> 00:27:23,480
Speaker 1: was like, oh my goodness. Like but it was that like,

549
00:27:23,600 --> 00:27:26,720
Speaker 1: just because one person doesn't believe in you doesn't mean

550
00:27:26,760 --> 00:27:29,080
Speaker 1: that that's it. And no matter how big the name

551
00:27:29,200 --> 00:27:30,840
Speaker 1: or how big the title, and this was a big

552
00:27:30,880 --> 00:27:34,879
Speaker 1: Hollywood agency, I was like, so what. And so I

553
00:27:35,000 --> 00:27:37,160
Speaker 1: pushed through that and so I wanted to be able

554
00:27:37,200 --> 00:27:41,040
Speaker 1: to make that pivot because to me, it was it

555
00:27:41,080 --> 00:27:45,000
Speaker 1: was a I had a story to tell. B you know,

556
00:27:45,040 --> 00:27:46,520
Speaker 1: there was a lot that goes into it was a

557
00:27:46,560 --> 00:27:48,480
Speaker 1: new skill set for me. So just like you know,

558
00:27:48,520 --> 00:27:50,880
Speaker 1: transitioning into the talk, it was a new skill set

559
00:27:51,040 --> 00:27:53,800
Speaker 1: something that I grew up watching, you know, on ABC

560
00:27:54,040 --> 00:27:57,080
Speaker 1: at three pm Oprah Winfrey growing up. You know, I

561
00:27:57,119 --> 00:28:00,199
Speaker 1: was like, I would love to do this, and that

562
00:28:00,240 --> 00:28:03,159
Speaker 1: opportunity came around, I went towards it. When everybody says, no,

563
00:28:03,760 --> 00:28:06,080
Speaker 1: stay in this lane. And so I've had the thought

564
00:28:06,119 --> 00:28:08,679
Speaker 1: and the vision that I didn't want to just be

565
00:28:08,800 --> 00:28:11,880
Speaker 1: the guy who was a former athlete. You me mentioned

566
00:28:12,000 --> 00:28:14,800
Speaker 1: you know, Terry Crews. Terry Crews I think has done

567
00:28:14,800 --> 00:28:18,879
Speaker 1: a phenomenal job. Michael Strahan, who I consider a random

568
00:28:18,960 --> 00:28:23,879
Speaker 1: mentor who like transitioned out of sports and not necessarily

569
00:28:23,960 --> 00:28:27,320
Speaker 1: just being defined as just a one dimensional person. And

570
00:28:27,359 --> 00:28:30,040
Speaker 1: I think that's that's the society we live in, right.

571
00:28:30,160 --> 00:28:32,199
Speaker 1: You do have to be you have to have, you know,

572
00:28:33,240 --> 00:28:37,399
Speaker 1: a multitude things that you're able to do. And so

573
00:28:39,040 --> 00:28:40,720
Speaker 1: that's an area that I felt like I had a

574
00:28:40,720 --> 00:28:42,280
Speaker 1: lot to offer, I have a lot to say. I

575
00:28:42,280 --> 00:28:45,320
Speaker 1: wanted to be able to join the conversation, especially as

576
00:28:45,320 --> 00:28:48,800
Speaker 1: I sat back and watch the conversation become so confrontational

577
00:28:49,160 --> 00:28:51,320
Speaker 1: these days. It's just like you bloods or you crip.

578
00:28:51,520 --> 00:28:53,880
Speaker 1: Like you know, I grew up in a crypt neighborhood

579
00:28:53,880 --> 00:28:55,800
Speaker 1: and it was just like you one or the other.

580
00:28:55,840 --> 00:28:57,840
Speaker 1: What neighborhood do you live in? I'm like, how come

581
00:28:57,880 --> 00:29:00,800
Speaker 1: we just can't have a conversation instead of there's all

582
00:29:00,800 --> 00:29:03,600
Speaker 1: of this confrontation. And so that was my motivation, that

583
00:29:03,680 --> 00:29:05,720
Speaker 1: was the genesis of I want to get into the

584
00:29:05,720 --> 00:29:07,480
Speaker 1: talk show space because I want to be able to

585
00:29:07,480 --> 00:29:11,480
Speaker 1: add a different element to it, which is conversation over confrontation.

586
00:29:13,360 --> 00:29:15,960
Speaker 2: Well, well, let me ask you something about how you

587
00:29:16,000 --> 00:29:18,160
Speaker 2: know I love the fact that and you're just like,

588
00:29:18,160 --> 00:29:19,960
Speaker 2: like I believe you. Just you know, you kiss another

589
00:29:20,000 --> 00:29:23,360
Speaker 2: frog until they find value, until you find the right frog,

590
00:29:23,560 --> 00:29:26,640
Speaker 2: or you go down the line. But the question becomes

591
00:29:26,960 --> 00:29:30,320
Speaker 2: when you get turned down by the big agency or

592
00:29:30,360 --> 00:29:32,520
Speaker 2: not even turned down. They just was like, you're not

593
00:29:33,440 --> 00:29:37,040
Speaker 2: when you go to somebody else, do you go with

594
00:29:37,120 --> 00:29:39,959
Speaker 2: what you currently got turned down with or do you

595
00:29:40,080 --> 00:29:43,320
Speaker 2: go in a room, look at the tape and say,

596
00:29:43,320 --> 00:29:48,400
Speaker 2: how do I reassess this delivery or my value proposition

597
00:29:48,760 --> 00:29:52,440
Speaker 2: for the next frog I'm going to kiss. Because some

598
00:29:52,480 --> 00:29:56,840
Speaker 2: people will say, all right, well I'm just taking this

599
00:29:56,880 --> 00:29:58,360
Speaker 2: over here. I'm just taking this over here. Well I'm

600
00:29:58,400 --> 00:30:00,800
Speaker 2: just taking this over here, and they don't. They're so

601
00:30:01,920 --> 00:30:04,400
Speaker 2: caught up on what they want to accomplish where they're

602
00:30:04,400 --> 00:30:08,080
Speaker 2: not thinking, how am I adjusting this for the next

603
00:30:08,360 --> 00:30:09,680
Speaker 2: person or people.

604
00:30:09,680 --> 00:30:11,520
Speaker 1: I'm gonna tell you, the hardest person to get to

605
00:30:11,520 --> 00:30:14,640
Speaker 1: know is yourself. And that's because God has given us

606
00:30:14,680 --> 00:30:17,360
Speaker 1: all of us denial, and so we can deny the

607
00:30:17,360 --> 00:30:20,640
Speaker 1: things that are painful for us to realize. And I

608
00:30:20,640 --> 00:30:22,960
Speaker 1: think the greatest thing that ever happened to me in

609
00:30:23,000 --> 00:30:26,920
Speaker 1: my life is a having both my parents in the house,

610
00:30:27,560 --> 00:30:29,640
Speaker 1: but having my father as a person who just kind

611
00:30:29,680 --> 00:30:33,160
Speaker 1: of instilled discipline in me, and then making sure we

612
00:30:33,200 --> 00:30:36,600
Speaker 1: played sports. And it was making us play sports so

613
00:30:36,680 --> 00:30:39,600
Speaker 1: we could a keep us out of the streets, but

614
00:30:39,720 --> 00:30:42,480
Speaker 1: the discipline that came behind it. And there's something when

615
00:30:42,480 --> 00:30:47,200
Speaker 1: you play football, there's this word accountability and not only

616
00:30:47,280 --> 00:30:49,080
Speaker 1: just having people keep you accountable, but you have to

617
00:30:49,160 --> 00:30:52,480
Speaker 1: keep yourself accountable as well. And so when this agency

618
00:30:52,600 --> 00:30:55,360
Speaker 1: laughed at me, of course, it made me reassess my

619
00:30:55,480 --> 00:30:57,960
Speaker 1: delivery for the next time I had a story to tell.

620
00:30:58,040 --> 00:30:59,440
Speaker 1: I had to be honest with the story that I

621
00:30:59,480 --> 00:31:02,160
Speaker 1: was getting ready to tell, and it made me reassess

622
00:31:02,680 --> 00:31:04,960
Speaker 1: and redelivered. I didn't shift it a lot, but I

623
00:31:05,000 --> 00:31:08,600
Speaker 1: shifted enough to make it to where, you know, my

624
00:31:08,720 --> 00:31:12,120
Speaker 1: literary agent goes, I love this story. We can do

625
00:31:12,200 --> 00:31:12,880
Speaker 1: something with this.

626
00:31:13,080 --> 00:31:15,960
Speaker 2: In mistakes, right, you know, we know that sixty five

627
00:31:16,000 --> 00:31:19,080
Speaker 2: percent of players are bankrupt after leaving the league. Now

628
00:31:19,080 --> 00:31:21,560
Speaker 2: that could be for various reasons. That could be three

629
00:31:21,640 --> 00:31:23,480
Speaker 2: years after leaving the league. That could be because they

630
00:31:23,480 --> 00:31:26,400
Speaker 2: were not a big player, and you know, they did

631
00:31:26,440 --> 00:31:28,440
Speaker 2: not make a lot of money as people perceived they

632
00:31:28,440 --> 00:31:32,040
Speaker 2: could have been a bench person. Or most likely they

633
00:31:32,040 --> 00:31:36,240
Speaker 2: didn't have financial intelligence because our country doesn't give us

634
00:31:36,360 --> 00:31:39,240
Speaker 2: financial intelligence in the school, And like you said, for

635
00:31:39,320 --> 00:31:43,680
Speaker 2: twenty years you're being taught and or you are being

636
00:31:43,800 --> 00:31:48,480
Speaker 2: the best physical and the mental and competitive specimen you can.

637
00:31:48,560 --> 00:31:52,200
Speaker 2: You can't learn everything at the same time. Or they

638
00:31:52,240 --> 00:31:54,000
Speaker 2: have the wrong people around them, and they think that

639
00:31:54,080 --> 00:31:56,960
Speaker 2: when they get to this level, everybody else is supposed

640
00:31:56,960 --> 00:31:58,960
Speaker 2: to handle it. Or maybe they're not taking advantage of

641
00:31:59,000 --> 00:32:01,760
Speaker 2: the programs at the and or the mentors that are

642
00:32:01,800 --> 00:32:04,479
Speaker 2: in there. Well, you know, what do you think are

643
00:32:04,520 --> 00:32:06,720
Speaker 2: a combination of the things that the young men and

644
00:32:06,760 --> 00:32:11,160
Speaker 2: women in sports don't maybe don't take advantage of them.

645
00:32:11,200 --> 00:32:16,640
Speaker 1: They should. They should consider it's social equity, right, there's

646
00:32:16,680 --> 00:32:20,360
Speaker 1: this social equity that every athlete, no matter how big

647
00:32:21,120 --> 00:32:23,440
Speaker 1: a name you are, right, because that's kind of how

648
00:32:23,480 --> 00:32:26,360
Speaker 1: we are judged. There's this system of you know, you know,

649
00:32:26,600 --> 00:32:29,040
Speaker 1: your bench guy, your main guy, how much you get paid,

650
00:32:29,080 --> 00:32:31,640
Speaker 1: so on, so, but you all have social equity. So

651
00:32:31,680 --> 00:32:34,240
Speaker 1: whenever I talk to young athletes, I tell them I

652
00:32:34,280 --> 00:32:36,880
Speaker 1: don't care if you're the fifty third guy on the

653
00:32:37,000 --> 00:32:40,720
Speaker 1: roster and you're barely making the team. You can call

654
00:32:40,880 --> 00:32:44,040
Speaker 1: any CEO and I bet you you'll get a meeting

655
00:32:44,120 --> 00:32:48,000
Speaker 1: because like such and such player from the Seattle Seahawks

656
00:32:48,040 --> 00:32:50,200
Speaker 1: are from the Las Vegas Raiders want to meet with me.

657
00:32:51,000 --> 00:32:54,400
Speaker 1: This is interesting. I'll take this meeting. You're not just

658
00:32:54,560 --> 00:32:57,440
Speaker 1: going to get like you know, scooted away. They'll take

659
00:32:57,480 --> 00:33:01,280
Speaker 1: the meeting because you have social equity. So I tell guys,

660
00:33:01,440 --> 00:33:03,920
Speaker 1: while you're in the league and you have that platform,

661
00:33:04,480 --> 00:33:07,440
Speaker 1: utilize your social equity. But they don't see the value

662
00:33:07,480 --> 00:33:09,720
Speaker 1: in it because they see, you know, what kind of

663
00:33:09,800 --> 00:33:12,280
Speaker 1: name brand clothes they can wear on their chest, stend

664
00:33:12,400 --> 00:33:14,719
Speaker 1: their shoes, and the bags that they carry on the

665
00:33:14,760 --> 00:33:17,840
Speaker 1: plane and all the other you know, you know, crazy

666
00:33:17,840 --> 00:33:21,120
Speaker 1: stuff that they put value in. But that's the real value.

667
00:33:21,160 --> 00:33:24,720
Speaker 1: Because I'll tell you something, Damn the minute you leave,

668
00:33:24,760 --> 00:33:27,040
Speaker 1: I'm gonna call it two weeks after you're done out

669
00:33:27,040 --> 00:33:28,960
Speaker 1: of the league. Maybe that's too much time, but I'll

670
00:33:28,960 --> 00:33:34,000
Speaker 1: say two weeks. Nobody cares because they're off to sniff

671
00:33:34,440 --> 00:33:37,080
Speaker 1: the next jock. Just being I'm keeping it real. They're

672
00:33:37,080 --> 00:33:40,360
Speaker 1: off to sniff the next jock and they don't care

673
00:33:40,560 --> 00:33:43,720
Speaker 1: about you and you were literally and that's pretty cold

674
00:33:44,880 --> 00:33:47,280
Speaker 1: because it's it's weird because that's how I felt. It

675
00:33:47,320 --> 00:33:50,560
Speaker 1: was just like, whoa Like the same access I had

676
00:33:50,600 --> 00:33:53,560
Speaker 1: when I was playing, I don't have the same access

677
00:33:53,720 --> 00:33:56,240
Speaker 1: when I'm not playing. Wait a second, do you mean

678
00:33:56,280 --> 00:33:58,880
Speaker 1: to tell me I'm not like, you don't really care

679
00:33:58,920 --> 00:34:02,160
Speaker 1: about me. You care about my status, you care about

680
00:34:02,200 --> 00:34:05,480
Speaker 1: my you know, my affiliation. And I was like, and

681
00:34:06,520 --> 00:34:08,960
Speaker 1: so many players go through this depression when they leave

682
00:34:09,000 --> 00:34:10,759
Speaker 1: because they get a root awakening. And I don't care

683
00:34:10,800 --> 00:34:14,000
Speaker 1: how many m's you got behind your bank account, right,

684
00:34:14,000 --> 00:34:16,560
Speaker 1: there's still the person that you have to deal with.

685
00:34:16,760 --> 00:34:19,120
Speaker 1: And when you see people are off to the next

686
00:34:19,160 --> 00:34:21,279
Speaker 1: big thing and the next new star and they're not

687
00:34:21,360 --> 00:34:23,799
Speaker 1: responding to your phone calls the way they did just

688
00:34:23,960 --> 00:34:27,239
Speaker 1: a month ago, You're like, it's it's mind blowing. And

689
00:34:27,280 --> 00:34:30,920
Speaker 1: you start to, you know, try to try to reorganize.

690
00:34:31,239 --> 00:34:36,400
Speaker 1: And so I tell guys, it's underutilized, it's undervalue. Like

691
00:34:36,480 --> 00:34:39,040
Speaker 1: doing the off season, I know that there's so much pressure,

692
00:34:39,120 --> 00:34:40,680
Speaker 1: like you got to get better, you got to get better.

693
00:34:40,960 --> 00:34:42,759
Speaker 1: I mean, you can take two weeks out of the

694
00:34:42,800 --> 00:34:46,880
Speaker 1: off season to create relationships, to plan the vision of

695
00:34:46,960 --> 00:34:49,920
Speaker 1: where you want to be when your career is over

696
00:34:50,239 --> 00:34:52,600
Speaker 1: plant the seed. I'll tell you the story, because Troy

697
00:34:52,600 --> 00:34:56,439
Speaker 1: polam Malo, big time Hall of Famer. He's Troy pola Malo.

698
00:34:57,040 --> 00:35:00,560
Speaker 1: Troy polam Malo I was doing. I had a meeting

699
00:35:00,719 --> 00:35:04,759
Speaker 1: at this big production company and they make movies, all

700
00:35:04,760 --> 00:35:07,759
Speaker 1: the big movies in Hollywood and whatever. And I'm there

701
00:35:07,800 --> 00:35:11,200
Speaker 1: to take a meeting and this guy who runs his place,

702
00:35:11,239 --> 00:35:15,399
Speaker 1: he's an sc alum and so anyways, they said take

703
00:35:15,440 --> 00:35:17,680
Speaker 1: a seat and he'll come, you know, they'll come and

704
00:35:17,719 --> 00:35:21,680
Speaker 1: get you. And as I'm backing up to turn and

705
00:35:21,719 --> 00:35:23,959
Speaker 1: sit down a seat, I turn around and say, oh,

706
00:35:24,120 --> 00:35:26,440
Speaker 1: I said, Troy, what you're doing here? Man? He goes, oh,

707
00:35:26,520 --> 00:35:28,680
Speaker 1: I'm interning here. And this is in the middle of

708
00:35:28,719 --> 00:35:30,640
Speaker 1: his career. Like this is, you know, towards the end

709
00:35:30,680 --> 00:35:32,440
Speaker 1: of his career, but in the middle. I'm like, what

710
00:35:32,520 --> 00:35:35,120
Speaker 1: are you doing here? And you would and he's just

711
00:35:35,160 --> 00:35:37,359
Speaker 1: with a cup of coffees, just strolling through the thing,

712
00:35:37,560 --> 00:35:41,319
Speaker 1: you know, doing his internship there. And I'm like, this

713
00:35:41,360 --> 00:35:43,040
Speaker 1: is I mean, this is a guy who's not hurting

714
00:35:43,080 --> 00:35:45,759
Speaker 1: for cash, who's not hurting for status or anything. But

715
00:35:45,840 --> 00:35:48,040
Speaker 1: he's out there saying and tell I don't know what

716
00:35:48,239 --> 00:35:50,040
Speaker 1: if he was testing it or he was moving in

717
00:35:50,080 --> 00:35:53,239
Speaker 1: that direction. But I thought, this is how it's done,

718
00:35:53,800 --> 00:35:56,040
Speaker 1: This is exactly how sim But some guys just feel

719
00:35:56,080 --> 00:35:58,520
Speaker 1: themselves so much like you know, you get Nike and

720
00:35:58,560 --> 00:36:01,040
Speaker 1: Adidas and under Arment. Everybody just coming at you. We

721
00:36:01,080 --> 00:36:02,480
Speaker 1: want to we want to be attached to you. We

722
00:36:02,520 --> 00:36:04,560
Speaker 1: want to be attached to you. So you think that

723
00:36:04,680 --> 00:36:07,879
Speaker 1: everybody owes you something, that everybody should come to you

724
00:36:08,239 --> 00:36:10,400
Speaker 1: when you have the equity and the power and the

725
00:36:10,440 --> 00:36:13,360
Speaker 1: influence to go and you have the ability to do

726
00:36:13,400 --> 00:36:14,360
Speaker 1: the outreach.

727
00:36:15,480 --> 00:36:18,200
Speaker 2: That is so powerful because of course me not knowing

728
00:36:18,239 --> 00:36:21,799
Speaker 2: the business. I mean, so I've always said something very

729
00:36:21,880 --> 00:36:25,000
Speaker 2: similar to one part of what you're saying, But I mean,

730
00:36:25,040 --> 00:36:29,120
Speaker 2: you just really brought it home. I always said, and

731
00:36:29,160 --> 00:36:30,840
Speaker 2: this may not be the same in football, but I

732
00:36:30,880 --> 00:36:33,360
Speaker 2: always when I talk to basketball players, I always say, guys,

733
00:36:33,360 --> 00:36:36,400
Speaker 2: you know you got you got rows of people front

734
00:36:36,600 --> 00:36:40,760
Speaker 2: the first three rods that are really wealthy. They're very connected.

735
00:36:40,800 --> 00:36:43,520
Speaker 2: They have a lot of access to industries and various things,

736
00:36:43,560 --> 00:36:45,960
Speaker 2: and they know you. They got this season ticket holders.

737
00:36:46,280 --> 00:36:48,319
Speaker 2: And I know that that's different from you guys, because

738
00:36:48,320 --> 00:36:50,719
Speaker 2: you're further away. And I was like, why aren't you

739
00:36:51,000 --> 00:36:54,880
Speaker 2: talking to them saying and even college wus right, Hey

740
00:36:54,960 --> 00:36:57,040
Speaker 2: can you give me advice? Or how can I be

741
00:36:57,120 --> 00:36:59,480
Speaker 2: of service? And whatever the case is, to get to

742
00:36:59,520 --> 00:37:05,359
Speaker 2: know them, because they don't need you, and to get

743
00:37:05,400 --> 00:37:07,080
Speaker 2: to know them. But I think that you said something

744
00:37:07,120 --> 00:37:09,960
Speaker 2: even way more powerful. You don't They don't have to

745
00:37:09,960 --> 00:37:11,719
Speaker 2: be the front line. You don't have to be right there.

746
00:37:11,800 --> 00:37:13,200
Speaker 2: You can call somebody on the other side of the

747
00:37:13,200 --> 00:37:16,840
Speaker 2: country because you have a level of interest in whatever

748
00:37:16,960 --> 00:37:18,400
Speaker 2: their businesses are.

749
00:37:19,960 --> 00:37:23,759
Speaker 1: If the fifty third man on a team, let's just

750
00:37:23,840 --> 00:37:28,480
Speaker 1: say I don't know Cincinnati Bengals and you get a

751
00:37:28,520 --> 00:37:31,040
Speaker 1: call to you know, either to you or your assistant

752
00:37:31,080 --> 00:37:34,520
Speaker 1: and says, hey, such and such from the Cincinnati Bengals

753
00:37:34,880 --> 00:37:38,319
Speaker 1: want to wants to meet with you. How do you

754
00:37:38,360 --> 00:37:40,799
Speaker 1: respond to that? Honestly, like on the spot, how would

755
00:37:40,800 --> 00:37:41,440
Speaker 1: you respond to that?

756
00:37:42,640 --> 00:37:43,680
Speaker 2: I would say, what does you want?

757
00:37:44,360 --> 00:37:45,720
Speaker 1: You want to learn how to start a business?

758
00:37:47,080 --> 00:37:50,239
Speaker 2: I would say, probably send him over to one of

759
00:37:50,280 --> 00:37:56,399
Speaker 2: my guys or let me ask my guys about him.

760
00:37:57,239 --> 00:38:00,799
Speaker 2: But that is way different than somebody who may not

761
00:38:00,880 --> 00:38:03,279
Speaker 2: be because of somebody who was not from the Cincinnati

762
00:38:03,360 --> 00:38:06,680
Speaker 2: Bengals fifty third player. I always say, please go to

763
00:38:06,760 --> 00:38:09,279
Speaker 2: damon and damage on dot com. Please put in there

764
00:38:10,080 --> 00:38:12,600
Speaker 2: what your intent is and if we have a level

765
00:38:12,640 --> 00:38:15,160
Speaker 2: of interest so we feel that we can add support

766
00:38:15,160 --> 00:38:17,560
Speaker 2: a value, give you resources, will send it to you.

767
00:38:18,080 --> 00:38:20,160
Speaker 2: But it definitely wouldn't have been sent into one of

768
00:38:20,200 --> 00:38:23,640
Speaker 2: my guys or girls because I can't do that all day.

769
00:38:24,560 --> 00:38:27,080
Speaker 2: So yeah, they would. They would get to the point

770
00:38:27,120 --> 00:38:30,200
Speaker 2: where and if they do have something of value, you'll

771
00:38:30,239 --> 00:38:33,720
Speaker 2: get right to me immediately. The other people most likely,

772
00:38:33,800 --> 00:38:36,279
Speaker 2: because I get one hundred of those calls of a day,

773
00:38:36,440 --> 00:38:38,760
Speaker 2: I would have to put them into a certain area

774
00:38:38,840 --> 00:38:43,000
Speaker 2: where we can hopefully, you know, extract exactly where we

775
00:38:43,080 --> 00:38:44,600
Speaker 2: can be of service. If not, I'll just be.

776
00:38:44,560 --> 00:38:47,120
Speaker 1: Talking no, no, no, you're right and your time is valuable.

777
00:38:47,160 --> 00:38:49,960
Speaker 1: And you just said something that I forgot to add

778
00:38:49,960 --> 00:38:52,000
Speaker 1: to that, which is I tell people to do the

779
00:38:52,080 --> 00:38:54,279
Speaker 1: homework and figuring out what it is that they want.

780
00:38:54,640 --> 00:38:57,080
Speaker 1: It's like the homie that says, hey, yo, and I

781
00:38:57,080 --> 00:38:59,680
Speaker 1: get this all the time, yoh man, hook me up

782
00:38:59,719 --> 00:39:03,040
Speaker 1: with a job, and I'm going, okay, I know some people,

783
00:39:03,400 --> 00:39:04,920
Speaker 1: Well what is it that you want to do? I

784
00:39:04,960 --> 00:39:07,960
Speaker 1: don't know, I'll do anything. I'm like, well, what's anything?

785
00:39:08,080 --> 00:39:10,040
Speaker 1: You know what I mean? Because you're you're having me

786
00:39:10,200 --> 00:39:12,920
Speaker 1: do your homework, and I say, you haven't given me homework.

787
00:39:12,960 --> 00:39:14,719
Speaker 1: But if you tell me, hey, I want to be

788
00:39:14,760 --> 00:39:17,640
Speaker 1: a producer, I'm really good at producing. I can get

789
00:39:17,680 --> 00:39:19,880
Speaker 1: you right to that person that you need. But if

790
00:39:19,880 --> 00:39:22,600
Speaker 1: you're wanting me to do the homework, so yeah, before

791
00:39:23,200 --> 00:39:25,799
Speaker 1: that person the fifty third man comes to Damon John,

792
00:39:26,160 --> 00:39:28,680
Speaker 1: if he knows exactly what he wants and he's done

793
00:39:28,680 --> 00:39:31,080
Speaker 1: the homework to get himself to the level where he

794
00:39:31,120 --> 00:39:34,520
Speaker 1: can grab your attention, then I think it's their highly

795
00:39:34,640 --> 00:39:37,200
Speaker 1: likelihood that you get the CEO or whoever it is,

796
00:39:37,239 --> 00:39:39,480
Speaker 1: because they go, oh, this isn't just a player who

797
00:39:39,560 --> 00:39:42,279
Speaker 1: wants to take my time. This is a person who

798
00:39:42,360 --> 00:39:44,759
Speaker 1: actually has done the homework to get it to a

799
00:39:44,760 --> 00:39:47,240
Speaker 1: certain level, to get my to get the meeting.

800
00:39:47,920 --> 00:39:49,920
Speaker 2: Man, it is fun on you going back to us saying,

801
00:39:50,120 --> 00:39:52,120
Speaker 2: ask yourself a tough question, what the hell did you

802
00:39:52,120 --> 00:39:54,040
Speaker 2: add value? Because I get that, you know what I mean,

803
00:39:54,360 --> 00:39:55,880
Speaker 2: I get hooked me up at a job. I go, so

804
00:39:55,920 --> 00:39:59,319
Speaker 2: you just think jobs are laying around him, and if

805
00:39:59,320 --> 00:40:03,080
Speaker 2: they were laying around here, they're not filled. It's almost

806
00:40:03,200 --> 00:40:06,160
Speaker 2: like me coming up to you and saying, hey, man,

807
00:40:06,239 --> 00:40:09,719
Speaker 2: sell me something. Well, what do you want? You want

808
00:40:09,760 --> 00:40:12,319
Speaker 2: something to eat, you want a vacation, you want someone

809
00:40:12,320 --> 00:40:13,840
Speaker 2: to want sell me something?

810
00:40:14,239 --> 00:40:16,560
Speaker 1: Wow, what you know?

811
00:40:16,920 --> 00:40:19,080
Speaker 2: And and and and so I think that's a very

812
00:40:19,200 --> 00:40:21,880
Speaker 2: very powerful, powerful point what you're making about that. But

813
00:40:21,920 --> 00:40:24,600
Speaker 2: then I think there's something else that I never realized.

814
00:40:24,960 --> 00:40:28,479
Speaker 2: You're right, why the hell would you call? Unless it

815
00:40:28,560 --> 00:40:32,719
Speaker 2: is a Michael Jordana Mouhaman ALII or anybody like that.

816
00:40:32,800 --> 00:40:37,160
Speaker 2: But once you're right outside the league, why would anybody

817
00:40:37,160 --> 00:40:38,120
Speaker 2: want to pick up your phone?

818
00:40:38,160 --> 00:40:38,399
Speaker 1: Called?

819
00:40:38,400 --> 00:40:42,600
Speaker 2: Two weeks after and and and do people just feel that,

820
00:40:42,840 --> 00:40:45,400
Speaker 2: no matter what, I'm going to be so good that

821
00:40:45,440 --> 00:40:47,520
Speaker 2: everybody's going to pick up my phone forever because they

822
00:40:47,520 --> 00:40:50,680
Speaker 2: get high with the with the calls that are happening today.

823
00:40:50,960 --> 00:40:54,640
Speaker 1: That's it's called intoxicated by their own greatness. A lot

824
00:40:54,719 --> 00:40:58,440
Speaker 1: of athletes are intoxicated by their own greatness. And my

825
00:40:58,600 --> 00:41:01,360
Speaker 1: high school coach put this in my head, and it's stuck.

826
00:41:01,920 --> 00:41:05,000
Speaker 1: He goes, stop reading your ink, don't read your ink.

827
00:41:05,719 --> 00:41:08,239
Speaker 1: He would always say that, and it was like, you're

828
00:41:08,280 --> 00:41:11,800
Speaker 1: drinking the juice, you're drinking the kool aid. And he

829
00:41:11,960 --> 00:41:14,280
Speaker 1: was saying in this comical way that just it's stuck.

830
00:41:14,280 --> 00:41:15,879
Speaker 1: And I was like, because when you drink your own

831
00:41:15,960 --> 00:41:19,719
Speaker 1: kool aid, you can become intoxicated by your own greatness

832
00:41:19,920 --> 00:41:22,520
Speaker 1: and where you think forever people are going to take

833
00:41:22,520 --> 00:41:25,359
Speaker 1: my call, and then you realize no one's responding, and

834
00:41:25,400 --> 00:41:28,920
Speaker 1: so you've literally taken the equity from the social equity

835
00:41:28,920 --> 00:41:31,239
Speaker 1: that you've developed playing in the league, because look, the

836
00:41:31,360 --> 00:41:34,640
Speaker 1: NFL shield is a big shield, and people recognize that shield.

837
00:41:34,800 --> 00:41:37,440
Speaker 1: You say such and such from the NFL. Now, that

838
00:41:37,520 --> 00:41:39,680
Speaker 1: will only get you so far. The rest of it.

839
00:41:39,800 --> 00:41:41,680
Speaker 1: You have to do the internal work to do it

840
00:41:41,719 --> 00:41:43,680
Speaker 1: and have a vision as to where you want to go.

841
00:41:44,080 --> 00:41:46,560
Speaker 1: And I think, you know, for me, it has been

842
00:41:46,640 --> 00:41:50,080
Speaker 1: being hyper focused on the direction that I want to go,

843
00:41:50,160 --> 00:41:53,560
Speaker 1: and I spend a lot more time, you know, for me,

844
00:41:53,880 --> 00:41:57,800
Speaker 1: I go over. I spend the idea before I spend

845
00:41:57,840 --> 00:42:00,520
Speaker 1: the time or money. Right, so I'm always spinning the

846
00:42:00,560 --> 00:42:02,840
Speaker 1: idea and trying to get into a place where I'm going, Okay,

847
00:42:03,040 --> 00:42:05,160
Speaker 1: I'm ready to move. I'm ready now to put this

848
00:42:05,160 --> 00:42:07,840
Speaker 1: thing in action, rather than just trying to do busy

849
00:42:07,920 --> 00:42:11,080
Speaker 1: work and not going yet not going, not going.

850
00:42:10,960 --> 00:42:27,680
Speaker 2: Here, And you know, people think that people think that

851
00:42:27,719 --> 00:42:30,880
Speaker 2: what we're talking about a purely NFL Basi's not because

852
00:42:30,920 --> 00:42:33,919
Speaker 2: it's it's it's you know, two weeks after you leave

853
00:42:33,960 --> 00:42:36,520
Speaker 2: a certain job, you leave a community. But also we're

854
00:42:36,520 --> 00:42:40,200
Speaker 2: not we're past the two weeks before you leave the NFL.

855
00:42:40,239 --> 00:42:42,080
Speaker 2: You know, we're in today. We're in the We're in

856
00:42:42,120 --> 00:42:45,279
Speaker 2: the era today when you're one tweet away from the crackhouse,

857
00:42:45,320 --> 00:42:48,040
Speaker 2: even if you were in still in the NFL, and

858
00:42:48,080 --> 00:42:51,200
Speaker 2: they're gonna stop calling you right because we literally can

859
00:42:51,280 --> 00:42:54,000
Speaker 2: endanger ourselves to the question that I have there is

860
00:42:55,520 --> 00:42:59,440
Speaker 2: how many of the relationships that you had seeded some

861
00:42:59,640 --> 00:43:02,520
Speaker 2: level of interest, whether it's ESPN, whether you're in Ninja

862
00:43:02,560 --> 00:43:04,920
Speaker 2: War and you're talking to other producers, that sooner or

863
00:43:05,000 --> 00:43:08,439
Speaker 2: later would pay off later on, you know, with the talk,

864
00:43:08,600 --> 00:43:12,680
Speaker 2: how many of those relationships did you see that ended

865
00:43:12,760 --> 00:43:16,120
Speaker 2: up paying off in one way or another two, five,

866
00:43:16,360 --> 00:43:19,120
Speaker 2: ten years down the road because you took the time.

867
00:43:19,840 --> 00:43:21,759
Speaker 2: And it could even be a fan that was like, oh,

868
00:43:21,719 --> 00:43:23,480
Speaker 2: I'm just a very fan, and you're like, you know what, hey,

869
00:43:23,520 --> 00:43:25,080
Speaker 2: how can I help you? And then later on you

870
00:43:25,120 --> 00:43:27,040
Speaker 2: find out this is the son or mother or father,

871
00:43:27,200 --> 00:43:29,880
Speaker 2: or a wife or a husband of or that person

872
00:43:29,880 --> 00:43:34,239
Speaker 2: who grew to be great and said, you don't realize

873
00:43:34,320 --> 00:43:37,320
Speaker 2: that when ten years ago you stopped for a second,

874
00:43:37,400 --> 00:43:39,600
Speaker 2: we had a conversation. You didn't know who I was.

875
00:43:39,840 --> 00:43:42,480
Speaker 2: But you know what, today, here's who I am. This

876
00:43:42,560 --> 00:43:45,520
Speaker 2: is why I want to work with you. How many

877
00:43:45,600 --> 00:43:49,000
Speaker 2: of those seeds have you planted that ended up becoming

878
00:43:49,160 --> 00:43:51,680
Speaker 2: really amazing opportunities for a.

879
00:43:51,640 --> 00:43:57,279
Speaker 1: Real big one was one that it was a deal,

880
00:43:57,400 --> 00:44:03,240
Speaker 1: a marketing deal that I got with Toyota. And about

881
00:44:03,480 --> 00:44:07,879
Speaker 1: eight years prior to getting the deal with Toyota, which

882
00:44:07,960 --> 00:44:12,520
Speaker 1: was a sizeable deal, I did a movie a what

883
00:44:12,600 --> 00:44:16,200
Speaker 1: are those small budget film thing? And they asked if

884
00:44:16,200 --> 00:44:18,120
Speaker 1: I were to do it, and they were looking for people.

885
00:44:18,520 --> 00:44:21,760
Speaker 1: Did it for free? I just did it? Just it's great.

886
00:44:21,800 --> 00:44:22,719
Speaker 1: I absolutely know.

887
00:44:22,840 --> 00:44:25,280
Speaker 2: Man, you did a lot of you did a lot.

888
00:44:25,120 --> 00:44:25,959
Speaker 1: Of shit for free.

889
00:44:26,600 --> 00:44:30,600
Speaker 2: I'm Nigerian, but you do you do know this is

890
00:44:30,600 --> 00:44:32,439
Speaker 2: for free too? Just this okay?

891
00:44:32,480 --> 00:44:35,239
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, no, but I'm assuming that next year you're

892
00:44:35,239 --> 00:44:39,680
Speaker 1: gonna you're dropping me one hundred million. That's right, right.

893
00:44:40,600 --> 00:44:42,239
Speaker 1: But that was one of those things that was just

894
00:44:42,360 --> 00:44:45,200
Speaker 1: very I was, I was on time. I treated everybody

895
00:44:45,239 --> 00:44:48,440
Speaker 1: around me, you know, with with love and respect, and

896
00:44:48,480 --> 00:44:50,319
Speaker 1: not that I wanted anything back, because I didn't do

897
00:44:50,360 --> 00:44:52,440
Speaker 1: it for anything back. I was doing because somebody was

898
00:44:52,440 --> 00:44:55,160
Speaker 1: in need, needed to help. And it would turn back

899
00:44:55,200 --> 00:44:57,399
Speaker 1: eight years later that this guy would be out of

900
00:44:57,480 --> 00:45:00,960
Speaker 1: the business of making movies and beca came working for

901
00:45:01,000 --> 00:45:03,680
Speaker 1: an ad agency, and in this ad agency, they had

902
00:45:03,680 --> 00:45:05,799
Speaker 1: a conversation and it was like, hey, we're looking for

903
00:45:05,920 --> 00:45:09,680
Speaker 1: this type of person, and he goes, I know a bird,

904
00:45:09,760 --> 00:45:12,799
Speaker 1: I know a guy and it was me and I'm

905
00:45:12,840 --> 00:45:14,880
Speaker 1: going wow. I was like, is that how it works?

906
00:45:15,400 --> 00:45:17,120
Speaker 1: You know? Like, but that was the first time I

907
00:45:17,120 --> 00:45:19,919
Speaker 1: had ever seen it come full circle. Sometimes you don't

908
00:45:19,960 --> 00:45:22,600
Speaker 1: know that that's happening behind the scenes because of the

909
00:45:22,640 --> 00:45:26,480
Speaker 1: way you treated someone. And yeah, for me, that one

910
00:45:26,560 --> 00:45:29,800
Speaker 1: I just so happened to know because my wife actually

911
00:45:29,840 --> 00:45:33,200
Speaker 1: got a call from his wife and saying, hey, congratulations

912
00:45:33,200 --> 00:45:36,040
Speaker 1: before my team even found out. She's like, congrat Like,

913
00:45:36,080 --> 00:45:38,120
Speaker 1: oh she and my wife broke it to me before

914
00:45:38,560 --> 00:45:40,600
Speaker 1: anybody from my team ever got it to me. And

915
00:45:40,640 --> 00:45:42,560
Speaker 1: I was like what. He's like, yeah, you remember that

916
00:45:42,560 --> 00:45:45,480
Speaker 1: thing you did a long time. I was like, oh wow,

917
00:45:45,560 --> 00:45:46,600
Speaker 1: I was like that's cool.

918
00:45:46,880 --> 00:45:49,440
Speaker 2: So so yeah, lucky and I always say that no

919
00:45:49,520 --> 00:45:53,360
Speaker 2: such thing as luck. There's a you know, preparation, you know,

920
00:45:54,280 --> 00:45:59,320
Speaker 2: hard work, you know, meets an opportunity. Do we create

921
00:45:59,400 --> 00:46:04,080
Speaker 2: those moments in our lives or do those moments come

922
00:46:04,440 --> 00:46:06,239
Speaker 2: and we discover them? Because this is a there's a

923
00:46:06,239 --> 00:46:08,080
Speaker 2: book out right now. When somebody's asked me all the day,

924
00:46:08,080 --> 00:46:09,759
Speaker 2: they were like, hey, how do you feel about all

925
00:46:09,800 --> 00:46:13,240
Speaker 2: the amazing things you've done for hip hop and foobu

926
00:46:13,320 --> 00:46:17,080
Speaker 2: and all that stuff? And I go, I wasn't a

927
00:46:17,080 --> 00:46:19,040
Speaker 2: great designer. Putting a big as O five on a

928
00:46:19,080 --> 00:46:21,160
Speaker 2: shirt was not. You know, it doesn't take a lot

929
00:46:21,160 --> 00:46:24,400
Speaker 2: of skill. Somebody was going to do what I was doing,

930
00:46:25,000 --> 00:46:27,600
Speaker 2: regardless of Karl Kanin and Cruss Colors did it before me.

931
00:46:28,320 --> 00:46:33,400
Speaker 2: I just caught the dream, you know. And whether I

932
00:46:33,440 --> 00:46:37,919
Speaker 2: did it or not, disruption was going to happen. That

933
00:46:38,000 --> 00:46:40,520
Speaker 2: moment is something that I was prepared for when it

934
00:46:40,600 --> 00:46:45,040
Speaker 2: presented itself. But the way that you are really talking

935
00:46:45,120 --> 00:46:48,279
Speaker 2: right now, you're really you're really saying that you have

936
00:46:48,760 --> 00:46:53,759
Speaker 2: you kind of like made those the right moves to

937
00:46:53,840 --> 00:46:55,600
Speaker 2: create that opportunity. Which one is it?

938
00:46:55,960 --> 00:47:01,399
Speaker 1: Because it's a combination, it really is, Because there are

939
00:47:01,440 --> 00:47:06,280
Speaker 1: times where you know, I feel like only two, by

940
00:47:06,360 --> 00:47:08,920
Speaker 1: the grace of God, that I've been in the opportunity

941
00:47:08,920 --> 00:47:11,400
Speaker 1: where I've been able to sit in the passenger seat

942
00:47:11,480 --> 00:47:13,800
Speaker 1: and have a really good driver get me to the destination.

943
00:47:14,360 --> 00:47:16,760
Speaker 1: And then I've been in the driver's seat as well

944
00:47:16,920 --> 00:47:21,360
Speaker 1: and trying to navigate and get to a destination. But

945
00:47:21,600 --> 00:47:23,520
Speaker 1: I think a lot of it has to do with

946
00:47:23,640 --> 00:47:26,959
Speaker 1: the prep work that you're talking about, because people throw

947
00:47:27,040 --> 00:47:31,760
Speaker 1: out lucky sound like I'm rambling, but I'm not. Sometimes

948
00:47:31,760 --> 00:47:36,120
Speaker 1: people throw out the term lucky that helps them justify

949
00:47:36,320 --> 00:47:40,239
Speaker 1: why they haven't made the move that you've made, so

950
00:47:40,400 --> 00:47:42,759
Speaker 1: it makes them feel better about them. So I had

951
00:47:42,760 --> 00:47:45,680
Speaker 1: this conversation with the relative and there was like, well,

952
00:47:45,760 --> 00:47:49,520
Speaker 1: it's just that you're lucky. I'm like, I grew up

953
00:47:49,640 --> 00:47:52,960
Speaker 1: in the same manner that we all grew up. And yes,

954
00:47:53,040 --> 00:47:55,759
Speaker 1: I mean there are certain things like all that time

955
00:47:55,800 --> 00:47:57,759
Speaker 1: that I was dribbling a ball and going out there

956
00:47:57,760 --> 00:47:59,200
Speaker 1: and doing all that work, and then that led to

957
00:47:59,239 --> 00:48:03,919
Speaker 1: the NFL, and those things didn't happen by accident. Luck

958
00:48:04,040 --> 00:48:06,759
Speaker 1: is like if I turned the corner and found a

959
00:48:06,800 --> 00:48:10,120
Speaker 1: briefcase of a billion dollars, that's lucky because I didn't

960
00:48:10,160 --> 00:48:13,040
Speaker 1: know work, I just kind of just fell into it.

961
00:48:13,480 --> 00:48:16,160
Speaker 1: But to be able to have that opportunity and then

962
00:48:16,200 --> 00:48:18,120
Speaker 1: to be able to have it there and to and

963
00:48:18,160 --> 00:48:21,680
Speaker 1: then to grow it or excuse me, to be prepared

964
00:48:21,719 --> 00:48:25,640
Speaker 1: and then to grow that that opportunity, that's that's hard work.

965
00:48:25,640 --> 00:48:30,399
Speaker 1: And so sometimes I think lucky gets it gets misconstrued, right.

966
00:48:31,080 --> 00:48:34,719
Speaker 1: So so it's a hard question to ask because there's

967
00:48:34,760 --> 00:48:37,120
Speaker 1: just so many different I think there's a balance in there.

968
00:48:37,160 --> 00:48:40,560
Speaker 1: There's a time that sometimes you're sitting, you're doing the work,

969
00:48:40,640 --> 00:48:42,920
Speaker 1: and someone's driving you, and that to me, to me,

970
00:48:43,080 --> 00:48:46,040
Speaker 1: that's you know, God always has a hand on everything,

971
00:48:46,560 --> 00:48:48,920
Speaker 1: but you feel the presence of God when you go

972
00:48:49,120 --> 00:48:52,120
Speaker 1: boy like the Ninja. I'll tell you right now, that

973
00:48:52,320 --> 00:48:54,120
Speaker 1: same feeling. If I just went out there and just

974
00:48:54,200 --> 00:48:56,279
Speaker 1: kind of had fun, or I didn't know what I

975
00:48:56,320 --> 00:48:57,919
Speaker 1: was doing. I was just going out there having fun.

976
00:48:58,320 --> 00:49:01,759
Speaker 1: I wasn't in the driver's man. I felt the hand

977
00:49:01,800 --> 00:49:05,479
Speaker 1: of God leading me towards this direction. And even then, damn,

978
00:49:05,600 --> 00:49:08,400
Speaker 1: let me tell you, my first year, I cringe. I

979
00:49:08,520 --> 00:49:12,520
Speaker 1: cringe because I sucked at Ninja. Oh my goodness. And

980
00:49:12,560 --> 00:49:14,120
Speaker 1: then I remember you know and.

981
00:49:14,000 --> 00:49:17,080
Speaker 2: You and you knew it because you're in Hollywood, And honestly,

982
00:49:17,320 --> 00:49:18,520
Speaker 2: every nobody said no.

983
00:49:18,800 --> 00:49:22,840
Speaker 1: They always well, I didn't know it because you know

984
00:49:22,880 --> 00:49:25,120
Speaker 1: in the IFB, you get the if B, the internal

985
00:49:25,120 --> 00:49:27,600
Speaker 1: feedback that's in our ear where you can hear the truck.

986
00:49:28,160 --> 00:49:30,480
Speaker 1: And so my first year is a funny story because

987
00:49:31,120 --> 00:49:34,000
Speaker 1: they hand me the first time doing a major production

988
00:49:34,160 --> 00:49:37,400
Speaker 1: like this, and their war drove in makeup and everybody's

989
00:49:37,440 --> 00:49:39,440
Speaker 1: in your face and here's a script and read I'm like,

990
00:49:39,800 --> 00:49:42,239
Speaker 1: what what what? And I was I was flustered as

991
00:49:42,320 --> 00:49:44,520
Speaker 1: heck right, and then they popped me up on the

992
00:49:44,520 --> 00:49:47,040
Speaker 1: stage and then going all right, you know that script

993
00:49:47,040 --> 00:49:49,080
Speaker 1: that you have to memorize, you got to recite it now,

994
00:49:49,120 --> 00:49:51,399
Speaker 1: And I'm like, oh shit, I never worked on any

995
00:49:51,440 --> 00:49:53,400
Speaker 1: of that stuff. And so they're trying to feed me

996
00:49:53,440 --> 00:49:56,680
Speaker 1: the line in my ear that's that's all jacked up, right,

997
00:49:57,120 --> 00:49:59,440
Speaker 1: And so I just remember somebody left their hands on

998
00:49:59,480 --> 00:50:03,040
Speaker 1: the button and like just get to the run, like

999
00:50:03,680 --> 00:50:06,000
Speaker 1: like oh, and I was like I can't hear it.

1000
00:50:06,040 --> 00:50:08,400
Speaker 1: I'm going, oh, shoot, they hate me, Oh they hate me.

1001
00:50:08,840 --> 00:50:10,839
Speaker 1: And so on the inside, I'm like just going through

1002
00:50:10,840 --> 00:50:13,520
Speaker 1: all these emotions. And I had a little bit of

1003
00:50:13,600 --> 00:50:16,720
Speaker 1: shine enough shine on the runs in calling the actual

1004
00:50:16,760 --> 00:50:19,360
Speaker 1: live call that they felt like they could stick with me.

1005
00:50:19,400 --> 00:50:21,799
Speaker 1: But then I told him, get a teleprompter. I'll do that.

1006
00:50:21,840 --> 00:50:23,560
Speaker 1: I can read from a teleprompter, never read from a

1007
00:50:23,560 --> 00:50:27,080
Speaker 1: teleprompter in my life, and I just, I mean literally

1008
00:50:27,239 --> 00:50:30,319
Speaker 1: just crashed. I felt like a second grade dummy that

1009
00:50:30,400 --> 00:50:32,960
Speaker 1: couldn't read anything. I couldn't read, I couldn't read the

1010
00:50:33,000 --> 00:50:35,560
Speaker 1: word though. I was just stumbling all over the place,

1011
00:50:35,640 --> 00:50:39,400
Speaker 1: right and in that moment, even though I've done so

1012
00:50:39,520 --> 00:50:43,719
Speaker 1: much preparation, there was a lot of other people who

1013
00:50:43,719 --> 00:50:46,759
Speaker 1: were involved in building up and helping me out in

1014
00:50:46,800 --> 00:50:50,520
Speaker 1: that process, and I was in the passenger seat. So

1015
00:50:50,719 --> 00:50:52,680
Speaker 1: I think there's two ways you can't get to it.

1016
00:50:52,840 --> 00:50:55,000
Speaker 1: But you do have to have, if anything, the luck

1017
00:50:55,040 --> 00:50:57,720
Speaker 1: to have good people around you who care enough about

1018
00:50:57,760 --> 00:50:59,799
Speaker 1: you to invest in you as well. Because there were

1019
00:50:59,840 --> 00:51:02,839
Speaker 1: a lot of people who invested in me as well.

1020
00:51:04,840 --> 00:51:07,319
Speaker 2: You know, I think that also what probably happened during

1021
00:51:07,400 --> 00:51:10,640
Speaker 2: then is all those seeds you had sown of being

1022
00:51:11,080 --> 00:51:14,000
Speaker 2: a very genuine person, a person who makes other people

1023
00:51:14,000 --> 00:51:17,319
Speaker 2: feel special. They said, let's give you more of a

1024
00:51:17,360 --> 00:51:20,680
Speaker 2: shot than others, because people don't realize if you piss

1025
00:51:20,680 --> 00:51:22,560
Speaker 2: a lot of those people off. I mean, they have

1026
00:51:22,640 --> 00:51:24,880
Speaker 2: jobs to do at the end of the day, and

1027
00:51:25,040 --> 00:51:27,080
Speaker 2: they don't feel that they can communicate with you, and

1028
00:51:27,120 --> 00:51:30,000
Speaker 2: you don't communicate with them effectively, Well then they're just

1029
00:51:30,000 --> 00:51:33,080
Speaker 2: gonna move on to another target. And I think that

1030
00:51:33,080 --> 00:51:35,400
Speaker 2: that there's so much to learn from this conversation. You know,

1031
00:51:36,120 --> 00:51:38,520
Speaker 2: anybody in any position right now who wants to pivot

1032
00:51:38,880 --> 00:51:41,920
Speaker 2: can take away to start seeding and start working with

1033
00:51:42,000 --> 00:51:44,480
Speaker 2: the people that you can at the moment right to

1034
00:51:44,520 --> 00:51:48,440
Speaker 2: take advantage of those things. Keep hacking yourself by saying

1035
00:51:48,640 --> 00:51:51,359
Speaker 2: where do I add value and be ready to do

1036
00:51:51,400 --> 00:51:54,600
Speaker 2: the job that others won't Because the line of everybody

1037
00:51:54,600 --> 00:51:59,240
Speaker 2: getting paid, you know the rack rate, well that line

1038
00:51:59,360 --> 00:52:01,120
Speaker 2: is tenth out and people are the people who are

1039
00:52:01,120 --> 00:52:04,440
Speaker 2: ready to put in two years for free. Uh, that

1040
00:52:04,480 --> 00:52:07,680
Speaker 2: line has four people on it all right, And I

1041
00:52:07,719 --> 00:52:10,239
Speaker 2: think that that that what you're saying is so so

1042
00:52:10,400 --> 00:52:13,399
Speaker 2: really amazing and for the athletes and whoever it is.

1043
00:52:13,520 --> 00:52:15,480
Speaker 2: You know, remember when the lights go down or one

1044
00:52:15,480 --> 00:52:18,040
Speaker 2: tweet later, nobody's picking up the phone. You got to

1045
00:52:18,080 --> 00:52:20,400
Speaker 2: over deliver when you have that opportunity, and you got

1046
00:52:20,440 --> 00:52:22,960
Speaker 2: to really work it as much as you can so

1047
00:52:22,960 --> 00:52:25,440
Speaker 2: so so many moments, man, so many great moments to

1048
00:52:25,560 --> 00:52:28,200
Speaker 2: understand the mentality. You know. I'm never going to bet

1049
00:52:28,239 --> 00:52:30,920
Speaker 2: against you, obviously, because it looks like you know, you

1050
00:52:30,960 --> 00:52:33,040
Speaker 2: really do the work, You humble yourself, and you make

1051
00:52:33,080 --> 00:52:35,880
Speaker 2: everybody else feel special. Man, So so thank you for

1052
00:52:35,920 --> 00:52:38,920
Speaker 2: sparing this time with us and giving us all this information.

1053
00:52:39,200 --> 00:52:41,080
Speaker 1: And I appreciate for having me. I really appreciate. This

1054
00:52:41,160 --> 00:52:43,279
Speaker 1: is good. It's good to talk. But I do have

1055
00:52:43,320 --> 00:52:45,560
Speaker 1: one question for you. I couldn't get out and that

1056
00:52:45,560 --> 00:52:48,439
Speaker 1: have Yeah, man, sure, and it sounds like a very

1057
00:52:48,440 --> 00:52:53,560
Speaker 1: cliche question, but what has been your ultimate your ultimate

1058
00:52:53,600 --> 00:52:55,720
Speaker 1: secret to success? Because I like to ask the people

1059
00:52:55,760 --> 00:52:58,279
Speaker 1: who I look up to and I see its successful,

1060
00:52:59,480 --> 00:53:02,359
Speaker 1: but not only your key to success. What's your key

1061
00:53:02,400 --> 00:53:05,719
Speaker 1: to being able to pivot? Because you went from businessman

1062
00:53:05,840 --> 00:53:10,320
Speaker 1: to businessman and TV personality which isn't which isn't easy.

1063
00:53:10,360 --> 00:53:11,640
Speaker 1: What's been your key to success?

1064
00:53:13,680 --> 00:53:15,680
Speaker 2: I think it's all the things that you When I

1065
00:53:15,719 --> 00:53:19,000
Speaker 2: cover it, I have a healthy paranoia. I know that

1066
00:53:20,000 --> 00:53:22,120
Speaker 2: I've been very fortunate to be here, and I know

1067
00:53:22,200 --> 00:53:25,719
Speaker 2: that the younger, hungrier version of me is right in

1068
00:53:25,760 --> 00:53:28,480
Speaker 2: the park. I'm not trying to eat my lunch. I

1069
00:53:28,520 --> 00:53:31,719
Speaker 2: know that things are changing dramatically fast, and it's not

1070
00:53:31,920 --> 00:53:35,080
Speaker 2: for other people to do Damon John's job. I have

1071
00:53:35,160 --> 00:53:37,759
Speaker 2: to do as much homework on it as I can

1072
00:53:37,920 --> 00:53:42,000
Speaker 2: to know that I'm being either given the right information

1073
00:53:42,320 --> 00:53:45,400
Speaker 2: or moving in the right direction. And you got to

1074
00:53:45,400 --> 00:53:47,920
Speaker 2: be a little vulnerable. You got to be able to

1075
00:53:47,960 --> 00:53:50,640
Speaker 2: tell people, hey, I don't know that, or I need help,

1076
00:53:50,880 --> 00:53:53,880
Speaker 2: or how can I be of value to you so

1077
00:53:53,960 --> 00:53:56,560
Speaker 2: that you can be of value to me, or you know.

1078
00:53:58,080 --> 00:54:00,160
Speaker 2: And last, but not at least make other people will

1079
00:54:00,200 --> 00:54:03,000
Speaker 2: feel special. They want to. You know, people get intimidated

1080
00:54:03,040 --> 00:54:05,640
Speaker 2: when you have people around them for any reason. Right,

1081
00:54:05,680 --> 00:54:09,680
Speaker 2: I could be intimidated when I do public speaking by

1082
00:54:10,080 --> 00:54:13,560
Speaker 2: the professors. The professors in some of these universes I

1083
00:54:13,600 --> 00:54:16,560
Speaker 2: speak to have helped change the worlds. Right, They They've

1084
00:54:16,600 --> 00:54:19,000
Speaker 2: written thesis and various other things. You know what I

1085
00:54:19,080 --> 00:54:21,760
Speaker 2: do When I walk in there, I know I'm someone

1086
00:54:21,840 --> 00:54:25,759
Speaker 2: intimidating to them, not because I'm so brilliant, because they're

1087
00:54:25,840 --> 00:54:27,920
Speaker 2: kids who are with them for eight months out of

1088
00:54:27,960 --> 00:54:30,799
Speaker 2: the year. Are like, man, Damon John's coming. He's an

1089
00:54:31,040 --> 00:54:34,400
Speaker 2: entrepreneurial whatever whatever what, And these professors are probably like

1090
00:54:34,440 --> 00:54:37,719
Speaker 2: you know what I used to work for. I'm an

1091
00:54:37,760 --> 00:54:42,279
Speaker 2: economics professor who work for the president. These kids, how

1092
00:54:42,560 --> 00:54:45,799
Speaker 2: dare they? I'm going to chop this guy damon up

1093
00:54:45,800 --> 00:54:48,000
Speaker 2: when he comes in here. You know what happened when

1094
00:54:47,960 --> 00:54:49,640
Speaker 2: I walk on that room, on that stage. I go,

1095
00:54:50,560 --> 00:54:52,719
Speaker 2: I'm going to tell you what I know about entrepreneurship,

1096
00:54:52,719 --> 00:54:54,279
Speaker 2: and nobody's going to be able to object. The only

1097
00:54:54,320 --> 00:54:56,080
Speaker 2: reason why they can't object it because I'm only going

1098
00:54:56,120 --> 00:54:58,120
Speaker 2: to tell you my story and what I've learned through

1099
00:54:58,160 --> 00:54:58,760
Speaker 2: my story.

1100
00:54:58,760 --> 00:54:59,000
Speaker 1: That's it.

1101
00:54:59,120 --> 00:55:02,239
Speaker 2: However, I want to shout out the professors here who

1102
00:55:02,280 --> 00:55:05,080
Speaker 2: are able to teach this stuff on whatever kind of level,

1103
00:55:05,239 --> 00:55:08,080
Speaker 2: and these guys and the women and men can can

1104
00:55:08,120 --> 00:55:11,600
Speaker 2: teach it to me. Thank you professors for what you do.

1105
00:55:11,680 --> 00:55:13,480
Speaker 2: All of a sudden, you see those professors, they sit

1106
00:55:13,560 --> 00:55:14,439
Speaker 2: up like this in the chair.

1107
00:55:17,000 --> 00:55:19,480
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, boy.

1108
00:55:20,040 --> 00:55:22,760
Speaker 2: That guy he's fot on about everything he's talking about.

1109
00:55:23,719 --> 00:55:28,200
Speaker 2: Make him feel special, man, make them just feel Everybody

1110
00:55:28,239 --> 00:55:29,840
Speaker 2: wants to feel special. And if you don't even know

1111
00:55:29,880 --> 00:55:31,400
Speaker 2: the person, you know how you make them feel special.

1112
00:55:31,719 --> 00:55:35,480
Speaker 2: No matter what they're wearing. They dressed up that day,

1113
00:55:36,000 --> 00:55:41,040
Speaker 2: hopefully right, beautiful dress. Wow, you look so elegant. Wow,

1114
00:55:41,080 --> 00:55:43,719
Speaker 2: you look so classic. Wow, just make up. It takes

1115
00:55:43,760 --> 00:55:47,120
Speaker 2: a second to make that comment. The first time at

1116
00:55:47,120 --> 00:55:50,640
Speaker 2: President Obama, he wasn't the president of the moment. He

1117
00:55:50,680 --> 00:55:53,000
Speaker 2: wasn't the president yet, right, And he said to me,

1118
00:55:53,360 --> 00:55:56,680
Speaker 2: I tell people all the time, he goes, Damon John,

1119
00:55:56,960 --> 00:56:00,560
Speaker 2: the greatest entrepreneur of our time, and I'm like, I

1120
00:56:01,000 --> 00:56:04,480
Speaker 2: tell you, I'm looking around for Henry Ford. I'm looking

1121
00:56:04,480 --> 00:56:10,200
Speaker 2: around with all these great entrepreneurs, right Carnegie, Right, I said, Wow, man, man,

1122
00:56:10,400 --> 00:56:13,239
Speaker 2: I'm the man. I'm leaving. About two hours later, I

1123
00:56:13,280 --> 00:56:15,400
Speaker 2: hear him in the corner somewhere so and so and

1124
00:56:15,440 --> 00:56:19,080
Speaker 2: so the greatest entrepreneur by the time, Sarren.

1125
00:56:19,400 --> 00:56:26,319
Speaker 1: He lied to me. But you at least you got

1126
00:56:26,360 --> 00:56:29,560
Speaker 1: something from that, though, He's like, I still feel.

1127
00:56:29,360 --> 00:56:32,640
Speaker 2: Especially you still hear me talking about it, don't you.

1128
00:56:32,719 --> 00:56:34,400
Speaker 2: Maybe he just saw somebody that looked like maybe so,

1129
00:56:34,480 --> 00:56:37,880
Speaker 2: maybe he's I don't know, someone who looked just like me.

1130
00:56:38,480 --> 00:56:39,799
Speaker 2: Maybe one of.

1131
00:56:39,800 --> 00:56:41,120
Speaker 1: The I lied to you, See, I like to you,

1132
00:56:41,200 --> 00:56:42,319
Speaker 1: he lied to you, And I'm gonna lie to you

1133
00:56:42,480 --> 00:56:44,920
Speaker 1: one more question. You said, what stuck out to me?

1134
00:56:45,120 --> 00:56:48,680
Speaker 1: There was the healthy paranoia most people and just keeping

1135
00:56:48,680 --> 00:56:50,959
Speaker 1: it a hundred. Most people will look at you and like, man,

1136
00:56:51,400 --> 00:56:54,720
Speaker 1: you got too many ms hundred millie two hundred million,

1137
00:56:54,760 --> 00:56:58,640
Speaker 1: whatever it is a billion dollars behind you. How the

1138
00:56:58,680 --> 00:57:04,200
Speaker 1: heck can you have a healthy dose of paranoia? Right? Like?

1139
00:57:04,600 --> 00:57:08,040
Speaker 1: People think that and think, if you've got money, right,

1140
00:57:08,280 --> 00:57:12,440
Speaker 1: then why should you be paranoid? What's the purpose of

1141
00:57:12,480 --> 00:57:13,360
Speaker 1: having that paranoia?

1142
00:57:15,239 --> 00:57:18,240
Speaker 2: Well, because paranoid doesn't necessarily equate the money. Because the

1143
00:57:18,280 --> 00:57:21,560
Speaker 2: paranoid to me, after facing cancer in twenty seventeen is

1144
00:57:21,680 --> 00:57:23,440
Speaker 2: I may not be here anymore on the planet. The

1145
00:57:23,480 --> 00:57:27,439
Speaker 2: paranoid to me is that with the money and all

1146
00:57:27,480 --> 00:57:29,919
Speaker 2: that access and the resources I have, well, I see

1147
00:57:29,920 --> 00:57:32,840
Speaker 2: my little girl every day and be able to protect

1148
00:57:32,840 --> 00:57:37,400
Speaker 2: her enough and raise her to instill the values of

1149
00:57:38,400 --> 00:57:41,480
Speaker 2: you just said, your dad and your mom, right, Because

1150
00:57:41,600 --> 00:57:46,680
Speaker 2: will will my desire to serve the public or invest

1151
00:57:46,720 --> 00:57:51,600
Speaker 2: in other companies take over the time and the energy

1152
00:57:51,600 --> 00:57:54,080
Speaker 2: when I blink my eye, And this little girl doesn't

1153
00:57:54,160 --> 00:57:59,560
Speaker 2: necessarily understand the value or see a mother and father

1154
00:57:59,640 --> 00:58:01,680
Speaker 2: loving each other in a kind way and know how

1155
00:58:01,680 --> 00:58:06,160
Speaker 2: to grow up and be a productive human being for

1156
00:58:06,240 --> 00:58:12,280
Speaker 2: our society, or you know any other kind of paranoias

1157
00:58:12,320 --> 00:58:15,280
Speaker 2: that could happen when you look and close your eyes

1158
00:58:15,320 --> 00:58:17,160
Speaker 2: and say, who do I want to be in ten, twenty,

1159
00:58:17,200 --> 00:58:19,760
Speaker 2: thirty forty years of how do I want my family

1160
00:58:19,880 --> 00:58:23,840
Speaker 2: or the world to recognize or remember me? As So,

1161
00:58:25,440 --> 00:58:30,480
Speaker 2: money is one hundred percent, you know, a motivator in

1162
00:58:30,640 --> 00:58:34,760
Speaker 2: life in general, because you need it for resources, you

1163
00:58:34,800 --> 00:58:37,440
Speaker 2: need it for various other things. But the healthy paranoia

1164
00:58:37,520 --> 00:58:40,720
Speaker 2: can become you know what what I lost three friends

1165
00:58:40,720 --> 00:58:46,480
Speaker 2: this year to things like cancer. If they had a

1166
00:58:46,480 --> 00:58:49,720
Speaker 2: healthy paranoia, we don't know. But if they were on

1167
00:58:49,800 --> 00:58:51,959
Speaker 2: top of their you know, you're a very healthy person.

1168
00:58:52,000 --> 00:58:54,120
Speaker 2: They were on top of their game earlier on in life,

1169
00:58:54,160 --> 00:58:56,920
Speaker 2: then they probably still be here. But they're not here,

1170
00:58:56,960 --> 00:58:59,160
Speaker 2: and the money they had doesn't mean anything anymore. So,

1171
00:58:59,440 --> 00:59:01,680
Speaker 2: my parent, it could be anything, whether it's your career,

1172
00:59:02,080 --> 00:59:05,040
Speaker 2: whether you living righteously like you believe you should, whether

1173
00:59:05,080 --> 00:59:06,800
Speaker 2: it is your family proud of you, or you an

1174
00:59:06,840 --> 00:59:10,720
Speaker 2: abusive relationship, Are you toxic? Are you? You know, it

1175
00:59:10,760 --> 00:59:13,640
Speaker 2: could be anything, and you have to take inventory. You

1176
00:59:13,640 --> 00:59:17,000
Speaker 2: have to ask your some really tough questions. How am I?

1177
00:59:17,000 --> 00:59:18,880
Speaker 2: If I sat on the edge of my bed today

1178
00:59:18,920 --> 00:59:20,840
Speaker 2: and I had to say to myself, where am I

1179
00:59:20,960 --> 00:59:24,680
Speaker 2: screwing up that I have to improve. I'm going to

1180
00:59:24,760 --> 00:59:26,960
Speaker 2: find a couple of things, because nobody's perfect, and you

1181
00:59:27,000 --> 00:59:30,200
Speaker 2: constantly keep fixing those things. But you got to ask

1182
00:59:30,240 --> 00:59:31,440
Speaker 2: yourself those tough questions.

1183
00:59:31,640 --> 00:59:34,200
Speaker 1: All right, I appreciate it. I appreciate it.

1184
00:59:34,200 --> 00:59:37,000
Speaker 2: Thanks a lot, all right, Man, Well, thank you as always, Man,

1185
00:59:37,040 --> 00:59:39,480
Speaker 2: and I love seeing you on TV. Man, and you

1186
00:59:40,120 --> 00:59:43,080
Speaker 2: really represent so many different aspects of people who can

1187
00:59:43,120 --> 00:59:47,800
Speaker 2: pivot or just raw talent and talent that has worked

1188
00:59:47,800 --> 00:59:52,600
Speaker 2: on and just somebody who is always about communicating really

1189
00:59:52,800 --> 00:59:56,160
Speaker 2: fun and great things and not about conflict, which I want.

1190
00:59:56,280 --> 00:59:58,800
Speaker 1: Thanks, thanks so much much much.

1191
01:00:04,800 --> 01:00:07,560
Speaker 2: That Moment with Damon John is a production of the

1192
01:00:07,600 --> 01:00:11,520
Speaker 2: Black Effect Podcast Network. For more podcasts from the Black

1193
01:00:11,520 --> 01:00:16,600
Speaker 2: Effect Podcast Network, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or

1194
01:00:17,000 --> 01:00:20,400
Speaker 2: wherever you listen to your favorite show and don't forget

1195
01:00:20,400 --> 01:00:24,680
Speaker 2: to subscribe to and rate the show. And of course

1196
01:00:24,680 --> 01:00:26,120
Speaker 2: you can all connect with me on any of my

1197
01:00:26,200 --> 01:00:31,320
Speaker 2: social media platforms At the Shark. Damon spelled like Raymond,

1198
01:00:31,360 --> 01:00:31,880
Speaker 2: but what a d