Who’s In Your Circle? Steve Smith on Mentorship

0:00Ladies and gentlemen, this is an amazing episode with Steve Smith Sr. We actually talk more about business and we talk about life. Steve Smith was somebody that he said if he could reinvent himself or play the game today, he would play it like Steve Smith. I'm just so proud and honored of the man that Steve Smith is. And in this episode, you're going to hear some really cool stories. And you're going to hear Steve Smith talk about emotional intelligence and break it down. Ladies and gentlemen, I present the GOAT, Steve Smith Sr. you're listening to mick unplugged hosted by the one and only mick hunt this is where purpose meets power and stories spark transformation mick takes you beyond the motivation and into meaning helping you discover your because and becoming unstoppable i'm rudy rush and trust me you're in the right place let's get unplugged Steve Smith.

0:55How you doing? Good morning. Good afternoon. I appreciate you, man. Like, you have no idea what you mean to me because there's something about you that is also in me. And you said this, being an older sibling, being the person that people looked up to, I didn't have a plan B, bro. Like, if I was going to change the life of my mom and my sister and my brother, there wasn't representation in my household. There wasn't representation in those four walls that were going to show me how to change. I have a plan B. And I know that that's something that you've always said, too, man. Like, football was it.

1:32Football was it. And, you know, for some people that's watching this and some people who put athletes in a category, the opportunity to get a scholarship an athletic scholarship I believe is no different than getting a scholarship for academics, right? Because I'm very aware there's a lot of sports, non-football who their whole structure is built off of having an athletic but also intelligent athlete so they can utilize and have a lot of flexibility. So like soccer, golf, some of the women's sports, that stuff is happening where they get guys who financially can afford to go to college, but they also have great grades.

2:33And so where I'm going with that is no plan B was playing football. My whole eggs were in the football basket. However, what I've been able to experience and learn and be able to be mentored and taught from people in business-wise, man, yes, if I couldn't catch a football, I wouldn't have got my foot in the door. But understanding my intelligence and my willingness to learn keeps me in the door. And so, yes, I am a football player. Yes, I went to school. And what's crazy is I did not do the typical psychology. At the time, I actually did family consumer studies. And they had this crazy myth that one day people would be willing to, they would forfeit a gallon of gas to go get a gallon of milk.

3:44And I was, so they were teaching us about how the consumer consumes. Yeah. Dude, that's why you are who you are, man. Like I tell people all the time just about the fire that you have, the energy that you've played with, but more importantly, what you were just talking about, right? Like you're going to be the best no matter what it is. And to me, that's your plan A, is to dominate no matter what it is that you do, to give your all and to learn the little details that most people don't have the patience to go do, to be different, to make a name for yourself, to make a brand for yourself. And bro, like it shows in everything that you do.

4:31So kudos to you for that, bro. I appreciate that. Appreciate that. You talked about something that I think is critically important, right? The power of mentorship. My mentors are celebrity chef, Robert Irvine and Damon. Slight flex, but continue. No flex, no flex. But they told me, right? Like sometimes we talk about taking the stairs and it's cool to take the stairs. But when the elevator is there, the smart person takes the elevator, right? Because nobody cares about all that you went through to get there sometimes. Like you still need to know the journey, but when the elevator is present, take the freaking elevator sometime.

5:10And that's what mentorship has done for me. It's like, hey, I don't want you to make this mistake because I've already made it. Let me tell you what the journey is like, but press the elevator to the top floor so you can just go there. Like to me, that's what mentorship and getting in front of these rooms are. It's like you still need your journey, but every lesson you don't have to learn when somebody else can tell you what they've learned. Yes. Yes. So so I'll tell you a quick story is, man, just my by my building and business. So I started doing rental properties. I started right after I retired, like oh six.

5:47and so I'm doing these rental properties and how I got started was I went to look at this this property and man the property was so dilapidated it was it was ridiculous but it was a duplex I grew up in a duplex so I'm very aware of that and so I'm looking through and man we doing inspection to go look at the property and section eight uh because i was on section eight as a kid so trying to stay in that realm i try to do a lot of programs uh with my foundation or just a business wise my niche is um i'm a poor poor black kid who was on subsidized you know now they call it snack but uh right latchkey kid and man so a lot of the things i do are about the things that i experienced or did not have at my disposal so i go on there in the 68 house and she has the oven open on and the tub still has water in it because of in not draining properly, not having any heat.

7:05So she was using the oven to heat the one bedroom. And bro, it broke me. It broke me that this landlord had reduced all these people to live in those conditions where they deserve more. Just because they are receiving assistance doesn't mean you lessen their respect of who they are as a human being. And man, so from there, I was so pissed off and angry. Man, I had a buddy of Mike Salomon. He came to my house. We sat in the basement and I kind of talked to him, right, about these things and laid it out to him. Like, this is what I want to do. man out of my group of people even my mentor he was like nah I don't like it you're at the end of your career you shouldn't do this you shouldn't do that bro then another person said the same thing but this guy I knew Mike Salomon he was a home builder he was like man you know your numbers if your numbers are aligned do it man I did it and ended up having some good stuff happen, having some bad stuff happen.

8:25But I rode the roller coaster and then went into COVID. And that's when it showed me. Right. And so in business, I have three phases. The first five years, that's risky. Right. Then two years later, which is the seventh year, it starts to kind of shape out in year 10 though it's either the real deal or it's not and man I learned that bro and it's uh it's been awesome it's been awesome man so everybody that's watching I mean I've been a huge fan of Steve Smith forever so like I knew some of these things You know that business mind that he had, did you? Like, that's what I'm talking about, man. Like, when I say you go all in in everything that you do, that's it, man.

9:23Like, when did that become a part of who you were? Or is that just always being part of that no plan B? I've always been that way, but here's the caveat. But I only do a few things, and I only do those things. so so so i i it may seem like i'm doing 100 i may be doing really 50 or 75 things but they're all intertwined and they're all on the same page so i'm not doing you know i'm doing golf i do football but my golf is in between then i do my football which is every week right so i got days that i have those days that's slotted for studying getting ready preparing and then recording. And then some of the other things that I'm asked to do, I really weigh now, what is it going to cost me time-wise?

10:25What am I going to lose out on doing? And so I've learned how to say no. And that's been tough. That's been really tough because when you say no to people and you have a little bit like me, a bad reputation of a lot of times saying no, when you genuinely are saying no because you really just don't have the bandwidth or you don't have the energy, man, people don't always take it for what it is. I used to be like that. And then somebody told me a long time ago, Mick, just remember, no is a complete sentence. You don't have to justify it. You don't have to feel bad about it. And that was a complete.

11:08And once I adopted that, I just started to understand because then I realized, like, some people just want you to say yes or at least hear them out so that it begins to tug on your heart. And I've just been really quick to just say, hey, I don't have it in me right now. Yes, sir. So, you know, you talked about the one or two things. And again, there's so many things that I appreciate about you. And I think your journey post-career, I've gotten to see it a little bit on how you keep things simple. I remember it was one of your first analyst roles, like one of the first days. And you were on set and people were going back and forth.

11:51And you were like, hey, guys, you can say all that. but the truth is this guy is just better than the other guy and he knows it. Like it ain't about technique. Like this guy is just a better player. Like you can be cute, but he's just better. And sometimes it is, you know, sometimes we get caught up in our head trying to overanalyze because there's so many great analysts out there. There's also so many comments about people, how they should or shouldn't do what they, what they don't like about them. You know, the people that like you, they generally don't comment. They heart. They thumbs up. They watch and continue to move on, press on through their day.

12:29The haters, the people who have something to say, they're going to make sure they take the time to leave a comment. But what's crazy, we're in a world right now where people desire to leave a comment about your line of work and put you down. But if you were to do that to them, it gets so offended. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. So see, this is this is personal for me. I need I need coaching and mentoring from Steve Smith right now. Oh, the kettle calling the pot black. OK. No, I need it. So. Again, we have so much in common. You've got that. I guess we call it the dog, right? Like you've got that, that fire inside.

13:20I know that there were times that your team didn't share that same fire that you had. How do you, and this is, this is for the viewers and listeners, the business leaders that are watching. How do you take your competitive fire, that streak that you have? And, and I don't know, like when you see that your teammate doesn't have it and you want to be disappointed, but you also understand like maybe that's just not them. And so you start to act a different way. Like how do you handle that? This is you coaching me right now. Well, one, every situation is different. And here's the thing that I do believe.

14:02When you're a tough credit on your teammates, that can wear them down. So I would say a lot of my teammates who love me, also when they play with me, were annoyed by me, We're irritated because of doing that. And it wears on people, right? When they say, you know, you get more bees with honey, right? But man, ultimately, you know, the best way you can do it is start to really analyze yourself and say, okay, you know, why am I reacting in that way? And then it goes to a deeper question. What am I really feeling? What's really going on? Right. What are the end? Because you could be triggered or somebody can do something unintentionally that reminds you of another situation and you don't even know it.

15:01And then they they cross hairs. And the only thing that, you know, is rage, disappointment, anger, all that stuff. So for me, man, is I've really started to take the approach. I'm a wait. Sometimes I will wait a long time. There's other times where if I receive an email that I don't really I'm not liking the vibe of the email. So I already know I can't respond immediately. I got to let a couple of days go by and think about think about a few times. And if I'm thinking about it like a couple hours later, I'm still like irritated. Like I could be irritated, but that wasn't their attention. They didn't wake up and say, hey, I want to irritate you.

15:53However, what was in there that made me feel that way, that's what I got to focus on. And once I, you know, kind of go through that long process and do that, man, I really started to be able to say yes and no and no, no more on temperature. I know you didn't do this purposely, but you just broke down the pillars of emotional intelligence, man. And like, that's what I speak about. Like, that's what I get hired. Don't don't tell don't tell people I'm intelligent. Hey, but but you are in the emotional intelligence, man. Self-awareness, knowing who you are, the self-regulation. Right. They're taking the minute to pause or the day to pause.

16:35The motivation behind it, the social skills of communication. and the one I struggle with the most is empathy. Like I am probably the least empathetic person in the world. And it sucks because you want to feel it, but you also like, well, gotta get my hustle on. Gotta move on, you know? Yeah, that literally is me, man. It's like, I work on that more than anything else. is just being empathetic, showing empathy. Because when you have that grind, when you have that dog, when you don't have a plan B, like sometimes empathy feels like excuses, right? Like I feel like people are giving me excuses and I know they're not.

17:22And that's why I have to work on it every day because it's like, if I know this is the end result that we need to get to, let's just get there. Like, yeah, I want to pause and listen to you, but that train ain't stopping. like we still got to go yeah man and like now I want to go to your career and again you played the position that my uncle played so I feel like I know wide receiver even though I didn't play bro like the things that you did that you that another person your size that had to go through the same journey that you had would not have been able to do it like that's just me being honest because there isn't another Steve Smith.

18:05Like, people can say what they want to, they can get mad at me, or they can go look at the facts. The facts show, the data shows, there hasn't been another Steve Smith. Do you look at it that way, too? I would say there's not another Steve Smith because we all want our own names. Right. Not that I am so unique to the world. Now, I'm unique right to in overall because there's no one else like me right right however there's also no one else like you either so this isn't about who's better but so what i realized is just kind of you just be who you are man yeah you you just be who you are and that's gonna be some good and we know dang sure there's going to be some bad too.

19:02Yeah, man. So you guys surround yourself around people who really can walk things through with you and you can trust them. Yeah. And they can trust you. That's the key. That's the key. That is totally the key. You know, So we watched the game of football today, and it doesn't seem like you retired long ago, but it seems like the game has changed so much since you've retired, right? Like the things that you did on the field just from, these are the words of Mick and Mick only, from totally punishing your opponent in a good way, right? Like people get suspended for that now, right? Or they get looked at in a negative.

19:52But it's like, hey, sometimes Steve Smith just knows he's better than the person on the other side. And he doesn't need that opponent to think that he's got a chance to hang with him. Right. Well, that goes. Here's the other part I got sidetracked on. You know, we go in the Hall of Fame and you go in the Hall of Fame or they have your individual numbers and your name on the back of your jersey because they want to identify who you are. And so if they are already saying that we need to identify each player in each position, then yes, there also will never be another Randy Moss. There are people who maybe look like him from the eye test.

20:38But there are things about Randy Moss that when God created Randy, it was only unique to him. Yeah. You know, so so for me, if there's another me, if there was another me or if there were other players like me, then I no longer would be needed. I would have lost my job because they can just they can just go out when I do something stupid. They can just go out on the corner, just grab another one. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, one of the things that I thought made you talk about a Randy Moss, I would say you. Randy Moss Chris Carter had this unique skill set and this is why my uncle said if he could reinvent himself he would be Steve Smith forget the feistiness forget that that dog that you had you had such a canny ability to not give tells when the ball was arriving like you would almost prepare to catch it at literally the last moment so the DB didn't know the ball because you know playing the position, right?

21:45Like, DBs know when the ball is coming because the eyes raise and you're starting to put your hands out. Like, you had this ability, like, last moment, bam, I showed. Like, talk to us about that, bro, because that's a skill that most people don't have. Yeah, just studying my opponents. A lot of opponents would look at your eyes or try to hit your arm. I remember studying Nate Clemons. He was with San Francisco after he had left Buffalo. And I just remember studying him and watching him. And it was one of those things with him. He knew when a ball was coming. And so he rarely turned around and he would just hit his hands.

22:19So that forced me at that time to learn a new technique because if I didn't, I didn't eat that week. Yes, sir. So it was just, it was things that I picked up that I started to do, right? And so in football, man, you see players that have up and down seasons because every year, it's a new habit for you to break. Every single year. Right. There are going to be things that you do well and there are going to be things that you want to cover your eyes just because you create a new habit that you weren't even aware of because there are scouting reports and players who watch all your film to see what bad habits you have.

22:59Yes, sir. Also to see what good habits you have. yeah and again that's why i love how you break things down simple and and i think you i know you know people look at you as an analyst and and they may say oh well steve's hard on on these players but like you're trying to give advice you're actually trying to mentor them through the platforms that you have actually i'm not that's the crazy part no i'm i'm not like i'm I'm not trying to mentor anybody through my podcast and through my crafts. I believe mentorship is, you know, reaching out to each other and conversating. Man, sometimes I have been harsh.

23:38And so now for me is I'm trying to have that balance, too, because I am a pessimistic Paul, right? Very not much optimistic Oscar. And so trying to find that balance. And so what I catch myself doing is a lot of times when I do my notes and I'm saying, why is this player not going to perform well? Devil's advocate. What why did he perform well? And so I'm trying to see those balance and the new, you know, the the new age guys, they they prefer, you know, they prefer the compliments laid on more than the criticism. and so just trying to find different words and different ways that I'm comfortable with how I can critique but not criticize okay right and give guys the benefit of the doubt however if the film tells enough of the story I can't give you what you didn't earn right Hey, Steve Smith Sr.

24:47is always going to tell the truth. If anything else, you're always going to tell the truth, bro. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. So you also have something that's dear to my heart. You are always active in the community. You're always trying to, I don't want to say leave things better than you found them, but find ways to make impact. And I think in community, you do that really well. And I want to talk and give you the floor to talk about BHUK for a minute because I'm a huge fan of what you're doing there and the mission behind it. Well, the BHUK is acronym for Behavioral Health Urgent Care. And this urgent care is basically we do assessments and then assessments your health for 23 hours.

25:40It's all volunteer. But also we have some places where most of the time people with mental health go to the emergency room. And so if you go to emergency room and you are arrested or accompanied by a police officer, now that police officer must sit in the same emergency room with that patient for however long it takes. And sometimes it could take up to 13 hours. So now these police officers who were probably off five hours ago, he's still or she is still she's still at the hospital waiting for a clinician because at the emergency room, emergency room for mental health and emergency room for medical help.

26:24There's a there's a difference. Yeah. Right. There's a difference. And so by having our B-Huck, now police officers can drop this person off and they can go home. And then once they're assessed and there's a plan in action or the next steps, then they call the police and then they go back. And so even if they did a crime, they get the opportunity to be evaluated if it's mental health versus just going to jail. right having a plan assessment um we do kids from ages four all the way to 80 year old um and the best part about it because a lot of the things i do is things i experience with no insurance so if you don't have insurance don't matter come on in if you do have insurance we'll take that too right so um and so working with medicaid working with um some of the people in the city and the county man um i've learned a lot in it i i've learned a ton and it's been awesome and from based off that we've created um hygiene kits right and so given given some of these folks hygiene kits being able you know they own the street some of those things that they have going on uh the basic necessities they don't have so uh it's been i've learned a lot in the mental health and it all stemmed.

27:49We have a medical clinic as well, but it was the first time the medical clinic in COVID, we had received in the first eight months, 1 ,600 hours of clinical work. And we had 6 ,000 medical patients, but everybody wanted to come in for counseling. And then that's when we knew that it needed to be a standalone. Yeah. Yeah. Dude, that is so impactful, man. And again, kudos to you for addressing a need and doing something about it, because a lot of times, you know, when you and I were growing up in our community, it wasn't a thing. And even if it was a thing, you didn't want to talk about it. You didn't want to do it.

28:36Right. So I think you more than you know about. Thank you. About bringing that to awareness. I'm a huge mental health advocate. I do a lot in the mental health space as well, too. But a lot of that stem from people like you saying it's OK to talk about it. And then that led me to understand that, like, wait a second, like I didn't talk about the things that were going through my head, which was great. Like if people would have knew the 10 to 20 year old me, they would have literally thought I was crazy. Some of the things that was going in my head. But like, I didn't have that outlet. And I just felt like the only way to get out was to get out.

29:11And so that's what I did. And so, again, I applaud you for that, bro. I applaud you for that. And I usually start the show with this, but I'm going to end it with this. I like asking my guests, what's their because? That purpose, that mission that you have, right? Like Simon Sinek said, start with why, right? And you ask people what their why is, and they'll tell you whatever. I like going a little bit deeper. Like, what's your because? Like if I were to say, what's your why? And then say, but why? You usually say, well, because A, B, and C. I care about what happens after because. Because at the age and stages that I'm at right now, I'm just learning some new elements and some new layers about me that I've never really approached before.

29:58I'm really going in with such, I just got LASIK. So it's a great analogy. I'm going in with such a new vision. like it right that the the blurriness like is is is starting to kind of it's been two weeks now the blurriness is starting to starting to come come away and i'm starting oh oh that's what it looks like you know that's what it looks like clear huh yeah so yeah so to wake up and not have to put glasses or contacts on must feel great bro i've been i've been in glasses or contact since I was like 20. I do all this the first time, so I'm not really sure. There you go. We'll see, man. I appreciate your time.

30:43I know how busy you are. You mean the world to me, brother. Keep impacting. Keep doing the amazing things that you do and just know that you always got somebody in your corner, bro. Appreciate it. Thank you so much. You got it. And to all the viewers and listeners, remember, your because is your superpower. Go Unleash It. that's another powerful conversation on mick unplugged if this episode moved you and i'm sure it did follow the show wherever you listen share it with someone who needs that spark and leave a review so more people can find their because i'm rudy rush and until next time stay driven stay focused and stay unplugged Thank you.