How Michael Strahan and Constance Schwartz-Morini Built a Sports and Entertainment Empire

25:28But I'm like, yo, what am I doing? Like, really, what am I going to do? It was a unique set of circumstances. So I was managing Snoop Dogg. I turned 40. And I said, I love you, but I need my life back. So I always maintained a great relationship with him and his wife and the kids and the family. But at that point, I was working for somebody else. And they were kind of like, all right, without him, you're not really bringing money in. So you should probably figure out what your next play is. So at this point, I was managing Michael. and I was afraid to go on my own on. So I started the first iteration of this with somebody else because I just was like, okay, I need somebody.

26:07And I think because I started at the NFL at such a young age, I didn't look at any of these guys as the superheroes that they are, but they were peers because they all treated me that way and we just had such a great relationship. Like my first run-in with a player was with Lawrence Taylor and you obviously know who he is. you clearly know who he is but for the fans that don't just google him and i was at a training camp the summer of 1991 we brought sponsors and i was assigned to him and so you know he's getting paid to go have lunch and i think you were fairly dickinson doing yep yeah so you'd go fairly ridiculous as we called it back then but you'd go in the cafeteria and whatever and so i i find him he says all right meet me at my car on the sideline lt didn't walk to the practice field he drove his car so i meet him at his car he's nowhere to be seen i freak out so i start running around trying to find him i finally like 15 minutes later i find him at the cafeteria and he's like where the were you and i'm like where were you and i just got right in his face not realizing it's lawrence town it's just this was my job at the point and i think that's what really set me up for working whether it's Michael or Coach Prime or Snoop even I wasn't a music manager yeah got it you know you can curse on the show oh I can I was trying to be I just want her to know she can curse on this not GMA I can relax now I've been like on my quees and quees but that's why I don't think I panicked when we said partner because we'd already had I don't even know at that point 15 years of a friendship relationship was managing him and then coming off of Snoop's trajectory and crossing him over from the gangster rapper to the global superstar it just was natural and if I ever do stop and think about it I mean I pee in my pants a little bit because you're just like these people are trusting me with their careers and some of what you're talking about so I don't think about it it's always the gut the instinct you know and you just roll with it and I mean we didn't know what this was going to be it started from my kitchen table and then a very dear friend of ours, Jody Gerson, who you know well, gave us office space at Sony ATV.

28:17And we had the NHL as a client. We were helping them with their entertainment. We had Michael and Dion. Yeah. And I think another music act, but that was it, you know, and it just kind of hustle like you're broke. That's our motto. And that's how we still operate it. And now we have, well, I joke about three offices. So we have New York, LA, and then we just opened up a satellite office in Boulder. Oh, wow. Oh, obviously. Yeah. Yeah. So Boulder, obviously, because of Dion. So let's jump all the way to 2023. And you guys have done so much together and the partnership, but the other athletes that you guys represent.

28:52And from the outside looking in, looks like you guys in a lot of ways have built the blueprint for a lot of NFL players, ex-athletes, and really ex-athletes in general to look at what they're going to do in this next stage of their life and have a real like methodical approach to doing it it looks like you're very thoughtful very planned there's multiple levers you can pull and that's what you know again from the outside looking in makes your business unique tell me you know in your words and then chime in here i'm not going to put you any more two minutes it's your show baby um what makes up smack today smack stands for sports media and culture and that's what makes us up and what we've really fought hard is to keep our culture.

29:34It's a very relaxed atmosphere at the office, very team building. If you come in and you've got a cutthroat attitude with each other, we don't want you there. You have to be cutthroat for the negotiations, but not internally. And I think that's where the sports of it all comes from, that he was an athlete. I worked at a sports league. It's all about teamwork for us. And that even goes for our clients, our productions, our brand incubation. Everybody has to have that same DNA or we don't want to be in business with you. We've lost, I mean, we've left a lot of money on the table by not wanting to work with certain people, but you can't put a price tag on your piece.

30:10And also, I mean, I think we mentioned, we got here, Karel Chen, who oversees the Strahan brands and Wear by Aaron Andrews and Snoop Doggy Dog's Pet Line. And is getting married. And is getting married next weekend. Congratulations. But she was an intern. She started with us as a junior in NYU, basically skipped her senior year. And she started out with us working on his Hall of Fame induction, which they had to change the whole Pro Football Hall of Fame after our party and his induction. Yeah, they did. They were the good ones. And then she was working with us on Wiz Khalifa. And then we saw, like, just like we identified talent, like Michael, we identified talent in the company, and we moved her over to working on his clothing line, which in the beginning I know she wasn't thrilled about, but now she's, I mean, just running it.

30:57So that's important. Yeah, and I think that it's about working with the right people. And whenever you are the, I guess you want it for lack of a better word, the head of a company, the culture of the company is going to be what you give it. So if you come in and you mistreat people, if you're ice cold, then that's what your company is going to feel like. That's what your employees, they're going to come to work and they're going to hate coming to work. When I was a rookie with the Giants, I hated going in because being a rookie was not nice back in 93. and that's one thing I never wanted the young guys to feel like.

31:31So every young guy, I took time to get to know them, to talk to them, and understand what makes everybody tick. So I knew I could go to a young guy and I knew this guy I got to yell at. That guy I can just talk to. Just every once at random, how's your daughter doing? How's your mom? Just very little things, right, that make people know that you see them, that they matter. And I think that's the culture at SMAC. It's like we want people to know that they matter to us. It's more of a family feel instead of a corporate feel where you walk to an office, you're just another number. And I think the reason that we've been very selective, and Khan's been great at this, very selective on who we represent and the way in which we represent them.

32:14If it's someone that we do work with, because all the time I get, hey, you guys, we want talent. We're talent. We want to work with you. We want to try this. Are you guys open to it? and it takes a lot to get them to say yes and i'm not gonna go in and bogart and say hey we're gonna work with this person it's not like that because at the end of the day everybody in this company's got to deal with this individual and if they don't fit they don't fit yeah and so many things along the way as con said we've lost out on so much um you know financially because we won't work with certain people or there will be some things that come along that or could be really lucrative, but it doesn't fit that person.

32:52It doesn't fit my brand. It doesn't fit our brand. And we just have to let it go because at the end of the day, all you got is your attitude, your integrity, right? What was the show in Israel? Oh, the show in Israel that we wanted to do, man. This is a classic example. This show is amazing. We're in Israel. And we're obviously on the same page because we're up late. Like it's two, three in the morning. This show is on. I texted him. I'm like, are you up? I'm like, turn to this channel. It's called Dating Naked. Dating Naked, right? You ever seen the show? No. Dude. Go on YouTube after. It's like somebody comes out with the host, and they're talking about dating, and they introduce these people, and they're coming.

33:35They're behind the screen. The screen comes up a little bit. The show, like, waist down. Naked. Butt naked. Butt naked. And then they're commenting, like, you know, the scrotum is a little too saggy for me. shut. Or with the women. Dude. And then it comes up a little bit more and they eliminate people as they go. This is about as fucked up of a show concept I've ever heard. We couldn't stop watching it. I'm sure. This is insane. Insane. And then once you choose somebody, you both go backstage, you both come out naked. And you go on a naked date. Then you go on a date. No, you don't go on a naked date.

34:13You go on a date. Now, if you get naked at the end of the date, that's on you. But You go on a date with Kobe. You do come out at the end of the show naked with the person you chose. And we were like, we got to bring that. You couldn't get away with it here. Well, especially Michael being in Walt Disney. By the way, we're getting close to it being somehow like there is a home for it here, sadly. On some cable network. Yeah, but I agree. You might not be the one you want Mike standing in front of. I'm still into it. I'm sorry. I'm still into it. All right, well. I'm going to watch some on YouTube when I leave here.

34:49Dating naked. Dating naked. Dating naked. Coach crime.

34:59So this is something, and this is the best interviews for me, is when I can honestly learn peer-to-peer and really pick up on some of the things you guys are saying. Because as my business has evolved, when I was younger, I repped a handful of musicians and DJs and athletes. And then chose to really focus on building a business and building IP and building an asset. But I'm a manager. That's what I came from. That's what I've been doing my whole career. But the reluctance has been because how can I replicate this relationship? How can I replicate the magic? You know what I'm saying? The same magic the two of you have.

35:34And you can't probably. And I would imagine you have different magic with different clients. And you chime in and have your own relationship with different clients as well. but is that part of it is that like it is so hard to figure out who to work with at times or to understand how you can scale what this magic was because what the two of you have and even if you compromise a deal or you pass on something what the two of you have you're doing it collectively and you're making more money later on because of it without knowing it you've made more money on something else because you passed on that but those are the things that I think about if I go and rep four or five other people.

36:13I'm running a media company. I built this entire business around Kevin. And how do you do that and look at all of your roster of athletes and personalities, but never lose this? I'll tell you why. For me, I understand the responsibilities of everybody in the company, right? I understand her responsibility. I understand my responsibility. I know my responsibility isn't to wake up every day and go in and run the business day to day. I understand it's not what I do. That's what she does. That's what April Godone, who we hired to be our COO, does. That's what Corral does. That's what Jose does, running there to different divisions.

36:54My job is to know what's going on within the company. And I tell them I read everything. There are emails that go out and come to anything I read. Then I'll eventually have to chime in and let them know. You know, someone misspelled something right there. Let them know you're watching. Just to let them know I'm watching. but I have realized that what my strengths are, I got to lean on those, right? And one of the strengths that I have in our relationship in a lot of ways is just getting us in the room, right? Get us in the room. And then I know I have the people around me to support that, but also to know that I need to make sure that we can stay in the room by showing that I know what the hell's going on.

37:31One of the worst things is to go into a meeting because everyone looks and they go, the athlete, he's got him in here. Oh, shit, I'm going to get my kid a football signed and take a picture, and that's it. But no, once we're in that room, I guarantee you, I know what's going on. I'm going to show you I know what's going on, and I'm going to take the pressure off of them. And I remember the first time we were working on a clothing brand. This is getting embarrassing for you, Constance. Not me. We're working on our clothing brand deal, and we're in a meeting with JCPenney. They had co-CEOs at the time, and we're in there pitching them about starting a clothing brand with them.

38:08suits and everything else. And I know that they're looking going, okay, we got the athlete in here but she's going to do all the talking. And I think she thought that. But I, from the beginning of the meeting, took over. This is what we're going to do. This is our demographic. This is why we think what's going to work. This is what we're trying to hit. This is the price point which we hit. And the guys, I talk, then the two CEOs talk. Then go to the conference and And I look over there, she's crying. Tears of joy. Tears. I was like, the student just became the teacher. And I'm sitting there going, I'm like, not now.

38:47Like, not now. This ain't the time for that. And I'm not emotional. You're like, I'm letting it go. It was like, truly like, oh my gosh. This ain't the time for that shit. Not right now. That's incredible. It was important for me, and I think that's why this works, because I know that she knows if she can't do something, that she can hit me, and I can do it. And I know 100%. she's got my back. She's got to talk me out of doing stuff because she's like, I know it's a lot of money, but it ain't going to work. I know her interest and her ability to see long term is unbelievable. I've never seen anybody.

39:19It's a gift. She'll call, I had a dream last night. 3 a.m. What are you dreaming about? Something that she throws out there, she goes, you're going to think I'm crazy, but she's right. That's how these words, and they get overused, but that's how these words were meant to be used. That's what a visionary is. Yeah. I mean, that's legitimately, you have the ability to see something and then build towards it. And I'd like to think that I do the same. And then the beauty is that the journey there, even if it ends up being that the vision was wrong is really the joy of all of this. And like you said, you learn from it.

39:54Um, you know, we talk about other athletes. I know smack is not just management. You guys create original content. You consult for brands, you create original consumer brands with your talent, all things that were needed in the sports landscape. You had these like relationships like Maverick and Rich and Randy with LeBron and they could do it. But then agencies would say, we're going to do the same thing. But that's not easy. You can't scale that. You can't say every athlete goes to an agency and gets the exact same thought and vision and strategy as we were able to do or that you're able to do or that Tom's able to do.

40:29And agencies are evolving. But you guys built this from the beginning knowing because of who you are that what someone needs from their company is if they're going to build a consumer skincare brand or they want to have a deal with men's warehouse or if they want to have a Netflix reality show that you have to be able to do all of this and to treat all of them like their own enterprise and the only other person you know that can even and all of the town on your roster is special you are in this elite company but But Dion is as well in this elite company. Crazy. Someone like him comes into the conversation.

41:05When did you guys start working with him? And where was he at in his career when you first kind of aligned with Prime? He just retired maybe for two years, I think he'd been out. And when I was working with Snoop, I helped him start the Snoop Youth Football League. And every year at the Super Bowl, Dion and Snoop's teams would play in the Snooper Bowl. And that's how I reconnected with Dion. because I didn't have a relationship with him like I did with Michael or Tony Gonzalez or any of the guys. And I get a call from him and he says, who handles all the snoops marketing? I was like, I do. And he said, well, who handles this?

41:39I said, well, we have a team around us, but I'm the GM. Like I'm telling everybody what's going on. I said, what's up? And he said, I need to make a change with my team. And I was looking for some suggestions. I said, well, what about me? And he was like, oh, great. And as I've gotten to know him, that's him. Is it that easy? It wasn't even that. He didn't want to ask me. You needed to throw it out there. I needed to throw it out there to him. And when we started working together, and he's very in tune with where he was with his brand, it was really hard to get any brand partners to come on board because he didn't have the greatest reputation.

42:15I said, look, we're going to find the right partner, and if they're going to pay you a dollar, but it's a national campaign and we get you back out there, we're doing it. And to his credit, he rolled with it, trusted me. and here we are you know 15 years later 14 years later and similar to when Stray you know filled in for Regis and he comes back to the dressing room and I was like this is what you're going to do Dion I met him at the net and if he was working at the NFL Network and he had the truth league he'd been coaching his kids his whole post career like he would have had a different TV career than Michael but he could have had something pretty big he wouldn't leave Dallas it's all about the kids so when Shador was leaving to go to college she said okay I have an idea um my I just reached out to Florida State you know my alumni and I want to help them recruit so I reached out to the AD and I'm going to help them recruit I go no you're not he's like what do you mean I said we're going for a head coaching job I said just because you haven't done it at the collegiate level you've got the skills and he always says this in his recruiting meetings he was the kid being recruited he's been the parent of a kid being recruited and now he's the recruiter like he knows how the game is played I said you've got all this now what these guys all know about me I'm really good at what I know but I'm better at what I don't know and I didn't know the college coaching landscape so we tapped in a really good friend of ours Jordan Bajon who was a WME at the time I said will you do this with us and that's how that went with him and this is his calling like I don't I know at the height of his career playing baseball and football.

43:50You know, something ESPN just put a stat out that said he's one of two people who's scored a touchdown at all six positions, which is crazy. But he's a motivator now. He's just gone into such another level. And the trust and friendship and brotherhood that they have and the support for each other, that's what makes our company so special that it's not just the team it's it's all the clients as well i think everybody like you're all the clients we're all connected um you know and i love dion and i think that he's truly committed to the kids because at first i was like is he really like it's not about kids really it's like dion he's really committed to these kids to the point where he sacrificed the whole tv side of his career and now i'm glad to see him doing what he's doing he wears his pants It's a little too tight in the crotch area.

44:39Here we go. But, you know, does he know you saw that? You'll get a sound bite. That's what he says to him. That's our thing with each other. We go back and forth about these tight-sitting suits. But he is an incredible dude. And he just wants to motivate these kids. And for him, it's more than just on the field. It's like life after. He wants his kids to have a life after because everybody's not going to play sports. It's just not realistic. of anything basketball football baseball whatever it may be but I I take my hat off to to Dion and um he definitely is a special one and I think he's gonna crush it at Colorado how did you guys feel about um and obviously you played a big part in it but was it emotional for him and for everyone the switch to Colorado it was very emotional um but he said he went in to do a job and he felt like he accomplished it he shined a light on all hbcus he helped you know they they were practicing at a high school like the field at jackson state was not usable so the first thing we did was like two days before christmas we got on a zoom with um the ceo of walmart doug mcmillan and he said what do you guys need we need a football field so it was all that where he brought everybody there hell gma was down there i mean michael was out there for homecoming and you know and you guys I have to say thank you because you are just been the biggest supporter of his whole coaching career and will literally rattle off all the stats you guys are posting and repost and just it's you have no idea the impact you make um on on all of us but it wasn't easy but at the same time he's a very spiritual man and even when he was deciding if it was going to be Colorado or some of the other schools I was talking to he calls me up and he said okay God just spoke to me let's go to Colorado and we called the AD and we're like we coming we coming but he's done so much for HBCUs and I went to HBCU it's a struggle man it's tough and and he's still doing it he's doing a did you know this he's doing a camp he still does the camp the combines for these kids and he's never been about just my JSU athletes he's inviting every school every school HBCUs bring your kids let these scouts get a chance to see these kids who they may not have gotten a chance to see and give them possibly an opportunity.

46:59And so for me, watching the amount of attention that HBCUs have gotten, we played on BET once when I was in college. Once. And it was like Monday Night Football. I'm out there guys painting my spats and trying to look sweet. It was like John Madden's about to call this game. I'm on BET. One time. We bust everywhere. We bust a Florida to play. We bust a Georgia. It's crazy. In Alabama. Crazy. In Mississippi. And they used to, like, paperback lunches. Then we would get off the bus and eat at Shoney's, all-you-can-eat buffets. Truck stop. Chicken wing. Got food poisoned a few times on those. But, like, all that stuff, man.

47:41It was such a struggle. But to see these kids now be on ESPN. Yep. Every weekend you could turn on an HBCU game? Yeah. What? But do you think that was that what Dion was? Was there any like, I can't I can't leave. I've done this. Or he felt confident in the platform he had built and that he'll continue and commit to it. And I get the idea that with the bigger platform, his voice is louder and he can continue to put people in position and continue to promote exhibitions and out of conference games with HBCUs. And he probably has a plan, I would imagine. Yeah, I mean, and there's a couple things I don't think a lot of people know.

48:22He hired the head coach, Mississippi Valley. So he brought other HBCU coaches with him. Home to Jerry Rice. Yeah, home to Jerry Rice. And then a bunch of the young ladies that worked in the training room at Jackson State, now at Colorado with scholarships, you know, finishing their education there. And quite frankly, he's bringing flavor to Boulder. And we all know it's one of the whitest cities in the country. And they've opened their arms up to him. and it's true. He told me I didn't have to filter. And the merch is probably, like Colorado is probably selling. They're probably making, the school's making money, everything.

48:56I mean, the spring game went from no one to sold out stadium just from last year to this year. And definitely a struggle for him to leave Jackson State. There were also struggles there internally that a lot of people probably don't know about there for him that, you know, just could not be kind of worked out. Yeah. And it's kind of a shame. But one thing I will say, he took a lot of criticism for leaving. But he didn't talk about those things because it wasn't about that. It wasn't about him. It was about moving on, moving forward, helping more kids and taking care of his coaches as well. And I commend him for that because personally I would have been like, no, these are some of the other reasons that I had to make this move.

49:41but you know it's just not the guy he is yeah he'll take you he doesn't care he's not even looking at the comments anyway you know dion he claps back every once in a while and they're but claps but he's but he's more focused on what he has to do because he's very aware that um a lot of people don't want him to succeed yeah and the only way to succeed is for him to nose to the grind and the work and put in the work yeah that's what he's doing um tell me everything you have personally uh in the works right now you talked a little bit about your skincare line and yeah we got the um skincare line we just just rolled that out at target now um rite aid uh cvs amazon amazon michaelstrahandskin.com um that then we have a clothing line at men's warehouse and jc penny and um we do you know custom linings and all these different programs we're rolling out our juniors line as well um which is which is fantastic what else we got going on yeah tell me everything we just finished filming um the next season of a hundred thousand dollar pyramid last week so we that'll be fun we've gotten it down to filming a whole season in a week wow four days 20 episodes a lot a lot of shooting but it if it goes by so fast because we have so much fun on set and create a great environment there um then we got where by Aaron Andrews which is fun especially because of the whole like we said the teamwork so where by Aaron Andrews if you don't know is the female fashion forward sports license line by women for women and as soon as coach got the job at Colorado we're like we need the license for wear and the license for MSX and it's going to just be really cool next level things and that's the fun part too we have our NFL license my brand as well she's in NBA she's in NHL she's in everything we got a documentary that's premiering at Sundance Tribeca called BS High which is the Bishop Sycamore we'll invite you to this one which is a pretty incredible story I mean These kids playing against IMG and getting smoked and then come to find out the legitimacy behind all of it.

52:07But actually, the fascinating thing about the documentary is you're not talking around the situation. You're talking directly to the people in it, from Roy, who is the coach and the guy who created it, to his partner in it, to the kid, to their parents. And all I can say is, whoa. Yeah. Whoa. I can't wait to see that one. way the people work is is something else man there are endless incredible sports stories yes right absolutely would you say that oh my gosh it's it's so interesting because we didn't set out to be this like sports production company but it's working out for us that's for sure i mean we still have other projects that aren't in the sports field um you know we've got game shows and And then we just got our official on Coach 2, I mean Coach 2, Coach Prime Season 2.

53:00We started filming a couple weeks ago, and that will be back, Prime on Prime. Amazing. Which I've been loving to say that. But we've got so many projects. Michael Vick with us for Black Quarterback stuff. We're doing the Evolution of Black Quarterback documentary where I'm with Michael Vick that we sold. And Michael's been going around the country interviewing all, not just black quarterbacks. I think the interesting thing when you're talking to Michael, and this is really when he's doing this he's really good at talking to these other quarterbacks I was blown away by how good Michael was at this but the thing is with Mike his influences were Joe Montana John Elway Steve Young I'm like so he's talking to them talking to Andy Reid because it's not just a black quarterback being so good but he had somebody who had to give them opportunities too but also all of them are influenced by different types of guys so everyone would think he's influenced by Randall Cunningham or something that's just not the case yeah that story is really incredible I spoke to Mike years ago just kind of he was on the show actually and it's funny because institutionally that was one of the most broken myths ever and one of the most like institutionally racist narratives that were created which was that the quarterback looked like this and then that if you weren't they only compared to each other as if Michael Vick had to have idolized Warren Moon or Randall Cunningham or I don't get it what do you mean you idolized Joe Montana right and that really was the myth so when scouts would look at somebody and I'm not knocking you know Mitchell Trubitsky or Ryan Leaf but what would happen in those instances is it checked these boxes yeah period it's like if you're looking for something and you check the boxes of what you're looking at then you're going to get the same thing over and over again and i think it's amazing you're telling that story because it's bigger than just like there was one or two and now there's 20 it's this was like broken at the core and had to be re-educated and like walls broken down because you cities and owners didn't want to have a black quarterback there was like that's not this is my company my quarterback's my CEO and that's what you saw and that didn't exist that face needs to look like this yeah to be the head of my company my corporation but you know I think I think that I think people period need to realize and and especially you know athletes always hit me up about what's next and what's next and what's next and what can I do after and and my thing when I look back at my career and what Khan has helped me build and what we built together is you got to start thinking that you're able to be a part of anything you see, right?

55:41You're not just stuck being an athlete who only talks about athletic things. You're not just stuck in the sports world. You're not just stuck being someone who's told what to do. You can create things for yourself. And what you look like in a lot of ways, I feel like my career has kind of redefined what is expected of athletes and what is expected from the public to think that they want to see because I've taken over for two of the most historic white guys in television from Regis to Dick Clark doing a game show who the hell would ever thought and and to me that shows that the world has changed still a lot of work to do but the world has changed and people are willing to accept someone that is I guess non-traditional to do things and I think if you're someone who thinking about a career change you're thinking about what your next step is or whatever the world is open for you yeah do you're not stuck do you still pinch yourself at like where football has taken you because man it it starts with that and i always talk about that with kevin like we'll be sitting somewhere and i'll be like you realize what the game of basketball just did for us like yeah we're sitting in india with the world leaders and you're building courts all over the world and people are screaming at you and that's because of this like the work you put into this sport does that still amaze you all the time we do that all the time yeah we do that all the time like thursday um i had we run our 20th show i had to leave at the end of the 19th show for pyramid and race to a preview for a movie we just produced with snoop called the underdogs and mgm was screening it to do a focus group and i was exhausted obviously but i literally like as soon as i walked into the theater i went holy shit like just produced season seven of hundred thousand dollar pyramid which is not easy especially in this climate and now I just did my first feature film like start to finish and we're going to hear what people think of it and then I was leaving to go to the spring game I was like oh my god you know and and again I'm so thankful for my start at the NFL always like yeah were there hurdles and were there challenges of course but again every one of those just made me a stronger better smarter person and got me here today with you guys I mean as he knows three years ago I wouldn't have been here I would be like no Michael's doing it like she wouldn't have said a word she was she was always kind of behind the scenes and wouldn't talk and but for me it's like just so much that to be learned from her and it's so much inspiration to come from from what confidence is built because I understand that I'm going to get a lot of credit for a lot of stuff that I don't deserve credit for but it's important for me to let other people see that okay you know it's a collaboration this is we do this together I may be in front of the camera and everyone oh you're so good you're so this and you're so that but I'm not there without this without her and without the team that we built around so I think you when you realize that your success is not all by you the better you'll be for it and I'm like conscious I've had to learn to step back and go wow because I was always kind of just live it man wake up do it what's next what's next went to space oh cool what's up you know what's next like I in my mind for some reason I kind of make experiences kind of downplay them a lot and I don't know why but yeah now I'm learning to take a step back and go that's pretty cool oh man I'm hanging out with this like this is That's something I never would have imagined or only see on TV or see someone else do and think, oh, how cool is that?

59:25Now, that's my life. Yeah. And be grateful for it. Well, every time I go into CVS or Rite Aid, I run over to the men's shaving section where their skin care is. And I'm just like, oh, my God, we have men's skin care sitting next to these, you know, legendary brands that have been in business for how many years? And we launched it during the pandemic. Like, those are the things. And, again, we couldn't do it without the team. See, I don't do that. Because I feel weird walking in the display. Well, it's different for you. It's a little different. Yeah. Like, I just feel weird. Y 'all see what I did?

59:53And then I go, I must say, I have gone and, like, bought some of my own stuff. I'm sure. And it's a little weird. You're like, oh, you don't recognize me. Let me go to self-checkout. Yeah, straight up. Beep, beep, beep. Yo, Strayhan's in aisle nine staring at his own shit. Wait, you know what? To his credit, when we were at Penny's Only, he'd go in and he'd literally be hanging the clothes back on the rack. Oh, I'd straighten my rack up, man. I remember I'm in JCPenney when we first started his business. and I go in there and I'm like re-racking and putting color coordinating, getting it right.

1:00:22And some dude, he looked at the side, like, what you doing here, man? What you doing now? I said, well, if I don't care, who's going to care? Who else is going to look at this? And who else is going to care? We're always very hands-on and personal with everything. That's amazing. The fabrics and touching them, looking at approving them. Everything we've done, it's never been, yeah, that's a great idea. Yeah, you go ahead and take it. Just throw the name on it and we'll just promote it. It's never been like that because I don't think that – I always would say I did a show years ago and it was a great experience, but it lasted one year.

1:01:01And I'm kind of mad at myself because I didn't trust my gut. I trusted other people. Oh, we've done this a long time. But in your gut, right? And at the end of the day when the show didn't work after one season, everyone looked at the failure. I looked at other learning experience. I learned that, you know, acting's cool. But, you know, I'm not born to naturally think it's what I actually want to do every single day. But what it did do is it taught me that if you're going to be into something, trust your gut. Especially when you're the one, if it fails, your name's going to be at the top of the ledger.

1:01:40And if it's successful, you're going to get all the credit. So either way, you can feel good about it. If I know I did my best and trusted my gut and it failed, I can live with that. And that's one thing that bothers me, one regret, that I didn't trust myself, it didn't work, and I'm mad because I always will second guess how it would have gone had I trusted my gut. And then when you get recredited, if something does work, and you were a big part of it, you don't feel guilty for taking credit someone else deserves. And so I'm all in, and we've always been all in everything that we've done. We're like that with all of our partners, whether it's his lines or Snoop in Shantae's lines, like Aaron's line, everybody's hands on.

1:02:18And I think some of our partners still have a hard time getting used to that, but it's for exactly what he just said. It's their name on the packaging. And they're not going to say, oh, it was Constance's failure. It's going to be their failure. We got our marketing department here, and you just turn it over to us. No. Never. We know how that story ends. Because I'm not in the business of asking for forgiveness. Yes. Not on this. well guys um you know before i let you go i obviously i love you and i love what you've built um and i know early in the interview i said i wasn't going to make it about you but i'm going to end with something about you because the one thing that i've noticed and has totally been cemented in this conversation and i try to instill in this in my kids is you live the shit out of life and i think that is like incredible you tried that show for a year you went to space you played football you retired before anyone else wanted you to and obviously you've dealt with shit everyone deals with shit but you show up like you always show up and there's a level of comfort that i think is your biggest gift that you give people when they watch you when they're around you and it's a special thing and and that's you know a fortunate thing to have a partner like this but the fuel that you give everything i'm sure is you would say the battery in like the back of everybody and it's a pretty amazing amazing gift you have thank you no i appreciate that and what are you laughing at huh she's laughing over there she's laughing at me being honest public sees that that's what counts no you know what what are you talking about you know my thing is this so and this is very true people always say how do you do so much and i just kind of wake up and go i don't even think about it because i enjoy everything that i do and if i don't then i probably won't do it.

1:03:59But I will try everything. I'll try something once. And I go, yeah, I won't do that anymore. I just won't do it. But I don't know, man. I don't know how to half-ass anything. Like, if I'm there, I'm there. You're maximizing. Yeah, I wanted to quit. I didn't play football in high school one year. And I go to TSU, I wanted to quit. And then my dad made me go back to school, thank God. But at that moment, like, something clicked in my mind that, you know what? I can't go back home. I gotta be here. I have to play football. I have to go to school. So why just be like everyone else who just goes through the motion just to get through it?

1:04:37You're gonna be here. Do the best you can at it and see what happens. And be just and it doesn't take that much more effort to be better. And you know but if you're trying to be better every day it compounds to where the separation between you and everyone else is is is probably too much to overcome by for most people but yeah i i live every day man i i love experiences i try everything i have fun and i just try to have people's backs well guys thank you for showing up for me today thank you for telling your story i can't wait to work with the two of you guys in the future thanks for tuning in thanks for listening thanks for watching go to boardroom.tv and we'll see you all soon.

1:05:24Peace!