Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Geoff Pope Full Interview
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Listening makes us smarter, more connected people. It makes us
- 0:03Speaker 1: better partners, parents, and leaders, and there's no better place
- 0:06Speaker 1: to start listening than Audible. Audible is where so many
- 0:09Speaker 1: inspiring voices and compelling stories open listeners up to new
- 0:12Speaker 1: experiences in ways of thinking. Audible members now get more
- 0:15Speaker 1: than ever before. Members choose three titles every month, one
- 0:18Speaker 1: audiobook plus two Audible originals that you can't hear anywhere else.
- 0:22Speaker 1: Members also have unlimited access to more than a hundred
- 0:24Speaker 1: audio guided fitness and meditation programs. Audible delivers best sellers, business,
- 0:29Speaker 1: self improvement memoirs, and more, all professionally narrated by actors, authors,
- 0:33Speaker 1: and motivational superstars like Rachel Hollis, David Goggins, and Mel Robbins.
- 0:37Speaker 1: Audible members can also get free access to the New
- 0:39Speaker 1: York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post delivered daily
- 0:43Speaker 1: to the Audible app. With a convenient app, members can
- 0:45Speaker 1: access Audible any time at the gym, while commuting or
- 0:48Speaker 1: on the go, and on any device will always pick
- 0:51Speaker 1: right back up where you left off. Audible also offers
- 0:54Speaker 1: free and easy audiobook exchanges. Credits you can roll over
- 0:56Speaker 1: for a year in a library you keep forever, even
- 0:59Speaker 1: if you cancel. Explore all the ways listening on Audible
- 1:02Speaker 1: can help improve mind, body, and soul with entertainment, information
- 1:06Speaker 1: and inspiration. You can get titles from your favorite I
- 1:08Speaker 1: Heeart talent such as Chelsea Handler, Danny Shapiro, Charlemagne, the God,
- 1:12Speaker 1: and Bobby Bones on Audible. Start listening now with a
- 1:14Speaker 1: thirty day Audible trial and your first audiobook plus two
- 1:17Speaker 1: Audible originals are free. Visit audible dot com, slash I
- 1:21Speaker 1: heart or text I Heeart to five hundred five hundred.
- 1:24Speaker 1: But next guest, I'm excited to have him on the phone,
- 1:26Speaker 1: his own whole. He's a super Bowl champion with the
- 1:29Speaker 1: New York Giants. You know when once you want the
- 1:31Speaker 1: super Bowl, you always super Bowl champion. You know when
- 1:33Speaker 1: out with the Wolves, not with former, you are a
- 1:35Speaker 1: super Bowl Champion. He's the founder of the a LCR,
- 1:38Speaker 1: which is a digital platform to share his unique perspectives
- 1:41Speaker 1: on social and political issues. The LCR has garner a
- 1:45Speaker 1: great attention from the academic community regarding this ability to
- 1:48Speaker 1: create significant social change. He is a philanthropist and entrepreneur.
- 1:52Speaker 1: He is currently a vice president and a publicly traded
- 1:55Speaker 1: risk management firm, where he specialized in the managing in
- 1:58Speaker 1: managing risk for financial institutions and technology companies. Please welcome
- 2:03Speaker 1: to money making conversation. Jeff Pope. How you doing, sir?
- 2:08Speaker 1: I'm doing. What are you doing today? Pretty good? What
- 2:10Speaker 1: part of the country? And Mrs Pope, what part of
- 2:12Speaker 1: the country? A year? I'm in Philadelphia, Oh, Philly, home
- 2:17Speaker 1: of the last Super Bowl championship. He's just like hanging
- 2:19Speaker 1: around champions. I'm assuming that's uh, that's your brand. Huh yeah.
- 2:24Speaker 1: I love phill Well, you know, I I love taking
- 2:28Speaker 1: a seller from from New York through phill A down
- 2:32Speaker 1: to d C is one of my favorite rides I take.
- 2:35Speaker 1: And now somebody fairly a lot? And so are you
- 2:38Speaker 1: based there? For your for your entrepreneur, for your back,
- 2:41Speaker 1: for you, what you're doing in your business life? Why
- 2:42Speaker 1: are you based in Philly now? So? Um Philly was
- 2:47Speaker 1: the last team I played for, the Eagles, UM and
- 2:50Speaker 1: so when I got hurt in two thousand and ten,
- 2:52Speaker 1: I just fell in love with the East Coast. Transferred
- 2:54Speaker 1: to Howard University. I played for New York for a while,
- 2:57Speaker 1: and I would always come back to DC to train
- 2:59Speaker 1: in the off seats. Them so um being from Detroit
- 3:02Speaker 1: and it being around two ten when the crafts hit. Um,
- 3:06Speaker 1: you know, the economy was hit hard, obviously, probably harder
- 3:09Speaker 1: in the Midwest and a lot of other areas. I
- 3:11Speaker 1: just knew I want to come back out to the
- 3:12Speaker 1: East coast, right, So I I mentioned several things in
- 3:16Speaker 1: your in your credits. First of all, congratulations on making
- 3:19Speaker 1: the transition from what won't consider an athlete until the
- 3:23Speaker 1: entrepreneur world, because a lot of a lot of people
- 3:26Speaker 1: don't see that happening. They don't understand how can that
- 3:28Speaker 1: transition happen? How were you able? Did you start uh
- 3:33Speaker 1: as a high schooler or in college? Did you have
- 3:35Speaker 1: the entrepreneurial spirit? Then? How did it? How did it
- 3:38Speaker 1: develop for you? Mr Pope? Uh? Well for me, Um,
- 3:42Speaker 1: you know, I grew up in a single parent house,
- 3:44Speaker 1: so my mom and grandma raised me, which I know
- 3:46Speaker 1: we're similar to a lot of us out there. And
- 3:49Speaker 1: so you know, growing up in Detroit, a tough environment,
- 3:52Speaker 1: tough community. You know, they did everything they could right
- 3:55Speaker 1: to kind of keep me on the on the straight
- 3:57Speaker 1: in their path. And so UM, I had an opportunity
- 3:59Speaker 1: to up to an all boys Jesuit high school. Um,
- 4:02Speaker 1: that really kind of laid the foundation as far as
- 4:04Speaker 1: like business and finance. And so when I went to
- 4:07Speaker 1: Eastern Mission University on a fourth athletic scholarship, I really
- 4:10Speaker 1: didn't even think about the NFL until I was able
- 4:14Speaker 1: to clock a four to forty and a forty yard dash, um,
- 4:18Speaker 1: and so from their NFL became a reality. But I
- 4:21Speaker 1: always knew you too far. You just threw that out
- 4:25Speaker 1: there like everybody just sprinting just out there until I
- 4:28Speaker 1: was able that you you were fast. Now you just
- 4:31Speaker 1: suddenly came up and clocked for too far there? Why
- 4:34Speaker 1: did that happen? And so so I never ran track
- 4:38Speaker 1: in high school, and uh, um, you know, I ended
- 4:42Speaker 1: up somehow, I ended up talking too much smack, and
- 4:46Speaker 1: I ended up challenging another football player who was a
- 4:50Speaker 1: senior who happened to be the track star. Right, he
- 4:53Speaker 1: had the records, right, And I mean I beat him
- 4:57Speaker 1: pretty pretty well in a foot race. This was probably
- 5:00Speaker 1: my sophomore. Here is my sophomore in high school. And
- 5:02Speaker 1: so then it was like, well, look if he got
- 5:05Speaker 1: all the records and he just lost to you, you
- 5:06Speaker 1: should probably run track. So so I ran track my
- 5:11Speaker 1: last years in college and I was able to run
- 5:14Speaker 1: some some pretty fast times. We still got a lot
- 5:17Speaker 1: of state and meet records actually dating back to two
- 5:19Speaker 1: thousand two. But from there, um, that's when I knew
- 5:23Speaker 1: I was fast, But it didn't hit me that I
- 5:24Speaker 1: had elite speed until I was able to beat him.
- 5:26Speaker 1: And this kid, you know, he had literally every record
- 5:30Speaker 1: in the city in the high school, right, so that
- 5:32Speaker 1: was pretty much the blueprint. Yeah, so so basically you're
- 5:35Speaker 1: a natural athlete. Can we say that it's probably my
- 5:40Speaker 1: Jamaican blood, but yeah, I always gets well, all the
- 5:43Speaker 1: sprinters come from Jamaica. Now, all the sprinters come from Jamaica.
- 5:47Speaker 1: So so you know, I know thised near Bio and said,
- 5:49Speaker 1: you overcame a lot of diversity, you know, growing up
- 5:53Speaker 1: and to be where you were at today. And we're
- 5:55Speaker 1: gonna we have have two breaks, so we're really getting
- 5:57Speaker 1: detail about what you're doing today. When you said adverse
- 6:00Speaker 1: to what exactly does that mean? Absolutely? So? I mean,
- 6:04Speaker 1: you know, one, I think, you know, not enough people
- 6:07Speaker 1: give young people of color coming from tough environments enough
- 6:11Speaker 1: credit right for making it. But too, you know, when
- 6:14Speaker 1: I got to Eastern Michigan, you know, I was playing
- 6:16Speaker 1: a lot, and I had a devastating injury. I tored
- 6:18Speaker 1: my quadra set off the bone, um, which is you
- 6:22Speaker 1: know the quad there's four obviously there's four parts of
- 6:25Speaker 1: that much. So that's the biggest muscle in your body, right,
- 6:27Speaker 1: And so you know, you often hear about a c
- 6:29Speaker 1: l s and ncs, you don't really hear about quads.
- 6:31Speaker 1: And so, um, they was they was prepared. When I
- 6:35Speaker 1: say day, I mean the coaching staff of the medical
- 6:37Speaker 1: staff at Eastern Michigan was pretty much prepared to hang
- 6:40Speaker 1: it up for me, you know what I mean. UM say, look, well,
- 6:42Speaker 1: I know your scholarship, you'll never had a speed that
- 6:46Speaker 1: you want to had. You probably won't even be able
- 6:48Speaker 1: to play competitive at this Division one level. We're ready
- 6:50Speaker 1: to hang it up for you. And I wasn't ready
- 6:53Speaker 1: to hang it up. And so I found I finally
- 6:56Speaker 1: found a doctor that would approved my rehab um and
- 7:00Speaker 1: once I came back, the biggest test for me was
- 7:03Speaker 1: to be able to come back from that injury and
- 7:05Speaker 1: still running four to forty, right, And I was able.
- 7:08Speaker 1: I was able to do that. And I'm talking about
- 7:10Speaker 1: rehabbing for ten months, six hours a day, six days
- 7:14Speaker 1: a week, right, um. And so I came back from
- 7:17Speaker 1: that injury, um, and still had the speed and despite
- 7:21Speaker 1: being a starter, despite playing as you can imagine, the
- 7:25Speaker 1: relationship was just I mean, it was just torn between
- 7:28Speaker 1: me and them. And so my high school coach said, look,
- 7:31Speaker 1: I know a coach at Howard University and they're actually
- 7:35Speaker 1: putting defensive backs in the NFL. And I had a
- 7:37Speaker 1: I had an underclassman draft grade. But that coach, who
- 7:41Speaker 1: was by the name of Keith Gilmore, I forever be thankful,
- 7:44Speaker 1: drove all the way from d C to Detroit to
- 7:48Speaker 1: look at me and my mom in his face and said, look,
- 7:50Speaker 1: I take care of your kids. If he transferred to Howard,
- 7:53Speaker 1: I take care of your kid. And he did that,
- 7:54Speaker 1: and I transferred the Howard. Um. You know, it was
- 7:57Speaker 1: ever going to overcome that injury. And even though didn't
- 8:00Speaker 1: get drafted one on a Howard Bison. So you can't
- 8:03Speaker 1: lose with that, right, you know. I went on went
- 8:06Speaker 1: on to the NFL and played four years. I got
- 8:08Speaker 1: my pension before I got hurt again. So now now
- 8:11Speaker 1: that's important that first of all, I always when it's
- 8:15Speaker 1: about relationships and people believing in you, I think that
- 8:18Speaker 1: and then you took it. You took advantage of somebody
- 8:21Speaker 1: believing in you. And that's the situation with him and
- 8:25Speaker 1: going to Howard. So when you talk to young people
- 8:28Speaker 1: about aspirations or next level opportunity, what do you Because
- 8:33Speaker 1: you do a lot of public speaking, what do you
- 8:34Speaker 1: talk about? I always tell them, you know, it's funny
- 8:38Speaker 1: to look at me and I'm not this six five
- 8:41Speaker 1: and sixty pound cat, right, you know, I'm six ft
- 8:44Speaker 1: butt ninety. I'm my average dude. And so I always
- 8:47Speaker 1: tell them, I say, look, there's nothing wrong with wanting
- 8:49Speaker 1: to go to the NBA or the NFL. But two
- 8:53Speaker 1: things you should realize. One, less than one percent of
- 8:56Speaker 1: high school cast is making it death far right, So
- 8:59Speaker 1: in anything that has a probability less than one percent,
- 9:03Speaker 1: it's probably not a good goal. Right. Um, that's that's
- 9:07Speaker 1: number one. Right, let's just look at the numbers. And
- 9:08Speaker 1: then number two. All them cats that you see on Sunday,
- 9:12Speaker 1: even me, who looks like a regular guy, got something
- 9:14Speaker 1: that you can't teach. Um, something that you can't coach.
- 9:18Speaker 1: That's something that God said. You know what, you know what, Jeff,
- 9:21Speaker 1: I'm gonna make you ridiculously fast. You know what, Um,
- 9:24Speaker 1: Jason Witten, I'm gonna make you six ft six right. Um.
- 9:28Speaker 1: So when you factor that in, you know that should
- 9:30Speaker 1: be the backup plan, right, you know that should be
- 9:33Speaker 1: the backup plan. But when you look at all these
- 9:35Speaker 1: other professors that we can easily do if we apply
- 9:38Speaker 1: ourselves right, whether it's engineering, medicine, finance, economics, whatever it is,
- 9:43Speaker 1: that just takes us applying ourselves right, and and and
- 9:46Speaker 1: the probability to do that can be a right. So
- 9:50Speaker 1: so often, so many of our young people are spinning
- 9:53Speaker 1: their wheels, putting all their eggs in this NFL, NBA basket.
- 9:57Speaker 1: And I gotta tell them, you know, some of that
- 10:00Speaker 1: side of your control. Everything has to go right. It's
- 10:03Speaker 1: just a really bad goal to half for a young
- 10:05Speaker 1: minority sixty seventy year old looking at these cats on
- 10:09Speaker 1: TV every week. So, like I say, my degree is
- 10:11Speaker 1: in mathematics, my miners and sociology, and so like I
- 10:15Speaker 1: always tell people, you can't report a degree, you know,
- 10:17Speaker 1: once it's on that walk and nobody comes, you've got
- 10:19Speaker 1: bad credit. Can we have a degree back? Now, that's
- 10:22Speaker 1: something that you can that you can own up and
- 10:24Speaker 1: you can hang with, right with pride and so so.
- 10:28Speaker 1: But getting young people who don't see it, don't see
- 10:32Speaker 1: you know, some some young people in the African American community,
- 10:35Speaker 1: they never get out of the hood. They don't even
- 10:36Speaker 1: know the other side of the hill, the other side
- 10:39Speaker 1: of another zip code. That's the life that they see.
- 10:41Speaker 1: So so sometimes they limited in their dreams. How does
- 10:44Speaker 1: one reshape that you said, you came from Detroit and
- 10:47Speaker 1: somebody pulled you out of Detroit and now you you
- 10:50Speaker 1: love New York and now you're in Philadelphia and your
- 10:52Speaker 1: your Bison, Howard Bison forever. So that's a that's a
- 10:56Speaker 1: different leap from where you started. How do we how
- 10:59Speaker 1: do we help them get there? I'm always anxious to
- 11:01Speaker 1: hear the different stories because I have my story. How
- 11:04Speaker 1: how do we help them out? Jeff, I think it's
- 11:07Speaker 1: I think it's a few things, right. Um. One, I
- 11:09Speaker 1: think you've got to be self motivated, right. Um. I
- 11:12Speaker 1: don't need anybody to motivate me. Right. I want to
- 11:15Speaker 1: make X amount of dollars, I want to launch this
- 11:17Speaker 1: platform and grant four whatever it might be, market share
- 11:21Speaker 1: from social social media, whatever, whatever it is. I gotta
- 11:25Speaker 1: be self motivated, right, And so that's something that I've
- 11:27Speaker 1: always done. And then I think another thing, you know,
- 11:30Speaker 1: many young people um that look like us and come
- 11:32Speaker 1: from similar backgrounds can do is use the negative stereotypes
- 11:35Speaker 1: and use it. It's fuel, right. And so one thing
- 11:39Speaker 1: for me growing up, people would always say, like Jeff,
- 11:41Speaker 1: you're really good, but you're not Division one football good. Right, Um,
- 11:47Speaker 1: You're really good, but I mean you're not NFL good,
- 11:49Speaker 1: or you're smart, but you can't get an Ivy League NBA, right.
- 11:53Speaker 1: And so what I've done, I think I've mastered the
- 11:56Speaker 1: ability to take those negatives, um and those it was
- 12:00Speaker 1: that people put on me, and you was it inspired?
- 12:02Speaker 1: You know? I tell people all the time, yeah, I
- 12:03Speaker 1: want to go to the NFL. Yeah, I don't like
- 12:05Speaker 1: JA right and the accents. But the main reason I
- 12:07Speaker 1: want to go to the NFL is because I had
- 12:09Speaker 1: people in my own camp, people in my own family
- 12:12Speaker 1: that was telling me you ain't gonna You're not good
- 12:14Speaker 1: enough to do it, right. So I was self motivated
- 12:17Speaker 1: and I was able to use, um the labels, the
- 12:20Speaker 1: negative labels that everybody put on me, the stale types
- 12:22Speaker 1: of everybody put on me, as positive fuel to to
- 12:25Speaker 1: to take that leap I love the I love that
- 12:28Speaker 1: tone because that's that's how I drive. I strive through
- 12:32Speaker 1: that whole. You know, you can't stop me. And if
- 12:34Speaker 1: somebody tells me no, I always tell people I try
- 12:37Speaker 1: to get it in front of I use a driving analogy.
- 12:40Speaker 1: I try to keep my car in front of their bumper.
- 12:42Speaker 1: If they can't get around me, They're always gonna recognize
- 12:45Speaker 1: my goals. To stay in front of your front bumper,
- 12:47Speaker 1: that's my goal. And so if I still in front
- 12:49Speaker 1: from your front bumper all the time, You're gonna eventually
- 12:52Speaker 1: recognize me and have to acknowledge that I'm doing something successful.
- 12:56Speaker 1: And if I'm doing something successful, you have to accept
- 12:58Speaker 1: me and welcome me for my allance. And a lot
- 13:00Speaker 1: of people don't understand that. And that's what you That's
- 13:02Speaker 1: the philosopher year of saying, somebody tell you know, you
- 13:05Speaker 1: don't just walk away and go. Well, he told me
- 13:07Speaker 1: I was dumb. Well he told me I was under athletic,
- 13:10Speaker 1: or he told me I was African American or black,
- 13:12Speaker 1: or I'm in the hood. I'm gonna still and die
- 13:15Speaker 1: in the hood. You say, man, who are you talking to?
- 13:18Speaker 1: That's not my value, that's not my system that coats
- 13:20Speaker 1: from something that your mom taught you, and that has
- 13:22Speaker 1: to be very special. On the phone as my man,
- 13:24Speaker 1: he's a he's a super Bowl champion, he wanted with
- 13:27Speaker 1: the New York Giants. He's the founder of the LCR.
- 13:29Speaker 1: He has an NBA D he got from Columbia University.
- 13:31Speaker 1: I'll be back more talking about his life, his risk,
- 13:35Speaker 1: man of it, and he's handling money for people, big
- 13:37Speaker 1: money money. I might want to give to him a
- 13:40Speaker 1: little bit there, but we'll be right back with more
- 13:41Speaker 1: money making conversation and joined it. Man, this is life.
- 13:46Speaker 1: I just re shying McDonald. You're back. I'm back. Excuse me.
- 13:49Speaker 1: It means if I'm back, you're back. You're listening to
- 13:51Speaker 1: money making conversations. I'm your host. My next guest who's
- 13:54Speaker 1: on the line, and we talked to just finished a tremendous,
- 13:57Speaker 1: uh inspiring. The first break is Jeff. He's been invited
- 14:01Speaker 1: to speak at Harvard and several of the institutions regarding
- 14:03Speaker 1: entrepreneurship and money making. Conversation is about entrepreneurship and you
- 14:07Speaker 1: have what they call the l c R business model.
- 14:10Speaker 1: What exactly is that? Mr Pope? Yeah? So, um, the
- 14:14Speaker 1: CR or central lesson right is a digital publication that
- 14:18Speaker 1: shares unique perspectives from all different socio economic backgrounds and
- 14:23Speaker 1: professional lines. Right. And so the goal behind that UM
- 14:26Speaker 1: is that basically, you know, multimedia is broken, right, it's
- 14:31Speaker 1: a lot of fair markering. UM, it's extremely biased. And
- 14:34Speaker 1: the folks where there's me, you, people from our communities, teachers, veterans, UH,
- 14:40Speaker 1: formally encroporate individuals, UM, even the folks on Wall Street.
- 14:43Speaker 1: Their opinions matter, and their opinions are essentially what's going
- 14:47Speaker 1: to help us solve a lot of these tough social
- 14:49Speaker 1: issues in our communities. Right. And so what we've essentially
- 14:52Speaker 1: done UM is attempted to take the narrative back from
- 14:56Speaker 1: the ratings, the mega news organizations and give it back
- 15:00Speaker 1: to the people. UM. And we've had a lot of
- 15:02Speaker 1: success doing it. So how do how does one use that?
- 15:06Speaker 1: You know, if if if I'm an individual? How does
- 15:08Speaker 1: it? It It sounds like an algorithm that gathers information correct? UM,
- 15:14Speaker 1: So not exactly an algorithm, UM, it's it's kind of
- 15:16Speaker 1: old fast and the way we curate content. So we
- 15:19Speaker 1: reach out to folks and then we also allow folks
- 15:22Speaker 1: to reach out to us, and so um. One thing
- 15:26Speaker 1: that we've done is allowed our contributors to remain anonymous,
- 15:29Speaker 1: right and so um as as I'm sure you know,
- 15:32Speaker 1: folks that don't work in politics or media, you might
- 15:35Speaker 1: have an opinion, but you might be afraid, and rightfully so,
- 15:38Speaker 1: of how your your co workers or how your family
- 15:41Speaker 1: might respond to you. Right. So, we have some folks
- 15:43Speaker 1: in some high places, um that have a lot on
- 15:46Speaker 1: the line if their name was behind their perspective. At
- 15:49Speaker 1: the same time, you know, we don't. We don't believe
- 15:52Speaker 1: it's about keeping it real or or selling out. At
- 15:55Speaker 1: the same time, offering a perspective that can be valuable
- 15:59Speaker 1: to somebody else, maybe across the country, who feels the
- 16:01Speaker 1: exact same way, but hasn't identified with somebody to connect
- 16:05Speaker 1: with HS. That makes sense. Basically getting a person in
- 16:07Speaker 1: a position they have an honest opinion about the situation
- 16:12Speaker 1: versus the quote unquote opinion that we should they should
- 16:16Speaker 1: be that we feel they should be saying about somebody.
- 16:19Speaker 1: So basically that's what you're saying, right absolutely, and it's
- 16:23Speaker 1: also giving specifically, it's for everybody, but we're really targeting
- 16:28Speaker 1: high school kids and college kids to give them an
- 16:30Speaker 1: opportunity to weigh in on these issues. Right. And so
- 16:33Speaker 1: you know, we had several school shootings over the past
- 16:37Speaker 1: couple of months. Um, that's really the only time we
- 16:40Speaker 1: stick a microphone in the high school kids face, right
- 16:43Speaker 1: and them what do they think? But I talked to
- 16:46Speaker 1: these kids every day. My team talked to these kids
- 16:48Speaker 1: every day, and they have opinions on you know, teenage
- 16:53Speaker 1: pregnancy and violence and cyber bullying and suicide. Why don't
- 16:58Speaker 1: we get their opinions because the more the more information
- 17:01Speaker 1: that we're able to gather from them, the more we
- 17:02Speaker 1: allow them to speak, the better decisions us quote unquote
- 17:06Speaker 1: adults can make, you know, whether it's legislatives or it's
- 17:09Speaker 1: you know, school policy or whatever it might be, right
- 17:12Speaker 1: and so um, you know academia and rightfully, so you know,
- 17:17Speaker 1: it's kind of jumped on board. But we've got a
- 17:19Speaker 1: lot of great support from them. Um. And it's really
- 17:22Speaker 1: you know, we consider the social enterprise because the more perspectives, um,
- 17:27Speaker 1: we're open to, the better decisions we make. Um, almost overnight, Right,
- 17:31Speaker 1: That's kind of what the fine says. So that's suggest
- 17:33Speaker 1: that what we're doing. This is amazing to me because,
- 17:36Speaker 1: first of all, I know, everybody should be on board,
- 17:39Speaker 1: not just just academia, because of the fact that you're
- 17:44Speaker 1: you're saying you're talking to the source instead of the
- 17:46Speaker 1: source being described by people who don't live that lifestyle.
- 17:50Speaker 1: And so so that's really key me. How did you
- 17:53Speaker 1: come up with that? You know, I always look at
- 17:54Speaker 1: people's lifestyle. You know, you said you come from Detroit.
- 17:56Speaker 1: You said, the hard part of Detroit, single, single parents,
- 18:01Speaker 1: you know, single mom, raised by a single mom. Correct, okay,
- 18:05Speaker 1: and then UH had a horrible injury in college, didn't
- 18:10Speaker 1: get drafted, won a Super Bowl, and UH got the
- 18:14Speaker 1: NBA from Ivy League school. How what's driving you? I'm
- 18:23Speaker 1: just trying. I'm trying to make it, you know what
- 18:28Speaker 1: to say. What I'm saying, well, you know what I'm saying.
- 18:30Speaker 1: It's it's like, okay, like I've said a lot of
- 18:34Speaker 1: things that should have shut you down along the way,
- 18:36Speaker 1: according to the system of tough inner city background that
- 18:39Speaker 1: should have shut you down. You know, single mom that
- 18:41Speaker 1: should have shut you down. Injury in college that should
- 18:44Speaker 1: have shut you down. You know, not drafted by the NFL,
- 18:46Speaker 1: that should have shut you down. So you know, you
- 18:49Speaker 1: went to an ivy League school that should have shut
- 18:51Speaker 1: you down. You know what I'm saying, not even getting
- 18:53Speaker 1: in one. So I keep hearing these these layers where
- 18:56Speaker 1: you told me earlier, Rashan, what you're not gonna do
- 18:58Speaker 1: to me is tell me what I'm so posted do.
- 19:00Speaker 1: I'm gonna show you what I can do. How can
- 19:03Speaker 1: we bottle that, sir? How can we bottle that and
- 19:06Speaker 1: and and and and sell it or passive around so
- 19:09Speaker 1: everybody can get a dose of Mr Pope? You know
- 19:12Speaker 1: it's running man. I was just speaking to some of
- 19:14Speaker 1: my high school kids last week who were kind of
- 19:17Speaker 1: down on themselves in the inner city right here in Philadelphia,
- 19:20Speaker 1: and I told him, I was like, look, you got
- 19:21Speaker 1: something that everybody want, which is that dog right with
- 19:26Speaker 1: that ability to overcome adversity. Right, you might not see
- 19:29Speaker 1: it today, but you know, despite the violence in your community,
- 19:32Speaker 1: despite the drugs, despite of broken home, you find a
- 19:35Speaker 1: way to make it every day. Um, if you can,
- 19:38Speaker 1: if you can just figure out how to turn that
- 19:40Speaker 1: around and use it as fuel of motivation, you'll take over.
- 19:44Speaker 1: You'll be able to do anything you want to do.
- 19:46Speaker 1: And that's something that I think, you know. Big props
- 19:49Speaker 1: to my mom and my grandma and my my continuous network.
- 19:52Speaker 1: Um that pushes me to kind of want to achieve
- 19:55Speaker 1: great things. I always have people and I'm probably I'm
- 19:58Speaker 1: sure you can probably relate, but always have people to say, Man,
- 20:01Speaker 1: you're killing that, You're doing that, you're doing that, and
- 20:03Speaker 1: I always feel like I ain't doing enough. I always
- 20:05Speaker 1: still like I'm behind, you know what I mean. So
- 20:08Speaker 1: you know it's it's it's I'm a pretty self motivated dude.
- 20:11Speaker 1: And I pushed that initiative literally throughout my whole network
- 20:15Speaker 1: and it's reciprocated and I love it. I love it
- 20:18Speaker 1: because of the fact that, uh, you you are a
- 20:20Speaker 1: younger version of me, you know, because of the fact
- 20:23Speaker 1: that my friends always called me and uh, they go,
- 20:25Speaker 1: what city you in, Rashawn, what city you in? You know?
- 20:29Speaker 1: And these are busy people and they always know that
- 20:31Speaker 1: I'm I'm I'm doing something that's not normal, and I
- 20:34Speaker 1: have to bring that out, you know, after sometimes when
- 20:36Speaker 1: you you're a type of guy, I know, it's not
- 20:38Speaker 1: a guy who hangs onto a goal. Once you accomplish
- 20:42Speaker 1: the goal, you move on to the next goal, and
- 20:44Speaker 1: people like you tend to be not satisfied because of
- 20:48Speaker 1: the fact that you you just just take a step back, sir,
- 20:51Speaker 1: just take a step back and realize what God has
- 20:53Speaker 1: given you the opportunity to accomplish. You need to do
- 20:56Speaker 1: that periodically. I didn't do that, you know as much
- 20:58Speaker 1: as I should that A you can better better focus
- 21:02Speaker 1: on where you're about to go with your next step,
- 21:04Speaker 1: because I want to see greatness in your life. Because
- 21:06Speaker 1: of the fact that you do not understand the word no.
- 21:10Speaker 1: You do not understand the word I can't. You do
- 21:13Speaker 1: not understand the word uh, why are you doing that?
- 21:16Speaker 1: And I hate when people tell me why are you
- 21:17Speaker 1: doing that? Why? Why? Why can't I? Why should not?
- 21:20Speaker 1: You know? And so many people limit themselves through fear,
- 21:23Speaker 1: and that's not. Part of your vocabulary is fear. And
- 21:26Speaker 1: I go back to saying that your team and tell
- 21:29Speaker 1: us about the team that that that that keeps you going,
- 21:32Speaker 1: that challenges you, that makes you be who you are today.
- 21:37Speaker 1: Absolutely so, I got a great network. One is whom i'mutu,
- 21:40Speaker 1: a friend of ours, Marquees gassing Um, who is the
- 21:44Speaker 1: NBA agent based in the Washington, D C. Area. But
- 21:48Speaker 1: I mean I probably got about ten or fifteen friends
- 21:51Speaker 1: like him Um and completely different hemispheres and lanes in life.
- 21:56Speaker 1: I'm talking about the cat that's making men and on
- 22:00Speaker 1: wage and a such a tooth teacher, um to the
- 22:03Speaker 1: cat that just closed a four hundred million dollar deal. Right.
- 22:06Speaker 1: It's like, I think the ability to grow and extremely diverse,
- 22:10Speaker 1: unique network, and I'm talking about folks that are keep
- 22:14Speaker 1: it real. I was joking with a couple of buddies
- 22:16Speaker 1: and I was like, the last thing I want to
- 22:18Speaker 1: do is have a Kanye effect, right, which means I
- 22:21Speaker 1: surround myself with a whole bunch of yes people. They
- 22:24Speaker 1: can't tell me when I dropped the ball, right, And
- 22:26Speaker 1: so I'm I'm surrounded myself with a whole bunch of
- 22:29Speaker 1: blunt people that are not afraid to tell me when
- 22:32Speaker 1: I messed up, when I need what I need to
- 22:34Speaker 1: do better, how I need to improve. And you know,
- 22:36Speaker 1: they always say your network is in net worth, right,
- 22:39Speaker 1: And I truly believe that, right. And so it's no
- 22:42Speaker 1: point of me being part of somebody's network if I
- 22:45Speaker 1: can't add value and vice versa, right, Because as much
- 22:47Speaker 1: as people want to see me succeed, I want to
- 22:50Speaker 1: see them succeed. You this as much, right, um, Especially
- 22:54Speaker 1: when they look like me because I know that grind,
- 22:56Speaker 1: you know what I mean. So it's it's really it's
- 22:58Speaker 1: really a testament to my network and the folks that
- 23:01Speaker 1: you know continuously pushed me to do bigger and better things. Well,
- 23:04Speaker 1: you know the interesting part of the more I talk,
- 23:06Speaker 1: the more I understand your brand and uh and I
- 23:10Speaker 1: would love to have you on my show Wants a
- 23:12Speaker 1: Quarter about money Making Conversations. In twin and eighteen, I'm
- 23:15Speaker 1: putting together this tour called the Influencers. It's about unique
- 23:19Speaker 1: people who are share the stage with me and talk
- 23:22Speaker 1: about They tell people their stories, and I really it's
- 23:25Speaker 1: so much more to your story because of the fact
- 23:27Speaker 1: that you have such a clean understanding about hard working
- 23:31Speaker 1: success and a lot of people don't get that. You
- 23:34Speaker 1: know what do who taught you that or what did
- 23:37Speaker 1: you pick up those little gems to understand that this
- 23:42Speaker 1: is what I have to do to win? So it's funny. Um,
- 23:47Speaker 1: I read a lot. I read a lot, right, Um,
- 23:51Speaker 1: I read a lot of history, but I read I
- 23:54Speaker 1: read a lot of biographies. I want to know, you
- 23:56Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, how folks overcame hurdles, right, whether
- 24:00Speaker 1: it's Joe Lewis right or it is you know Barack
- 24:03Speaker 1: Obama when he made it, like I want to know,
- 24:06Speaker 1: right because I can take a little piece of that
- 24:07Speaker 1: and add it to my story. Right. And So one,
- 24:10Speaker 1: I read a lot. I mean, I mean I read
- 24:12Speaker 1: a lot. I've fallen asleep often times with Slavery on
- 24:16Speaker 1: page forty eight, right. Um, so I read a lot.
- 24:19Speaker 1: That's one. And then to um, you know, whether it's
- 24:23Speaker 1: Marquis as other people in my network, Um, you know,
- 24:26Speaker 1: we constantly just have sessions, just just brainstormy sessions right
- 24:30Speaker 1: where we get together and we say, look, this is
- 24:33Speaker 1: what I'm doing, this is where I'm at. You know. Um.
- 24:35Speaker 1: I was speaking to actually Marquise about a huge board
- 24:38Speaker 1: commitment I got for the FCR, and I was overthinking
- 24:42Speaker 1: and I was saying, look, I don't think she's gonna
- 24:44Speaker 1: come on board. And before I could even get it out,
- 24:48Speaker 1: and you know, in one of our cars, she said,
- 24:49Speaker 1: how can I be involved? I gotta be involved with this? Right?
- 24:52Speaker 1: And so you know, the ability to talk that stuff
- 24:55Speaker 1: through with like minded folks is it is valuable, you
- 24:58Speaker 1: know what I mean? So a man, uh, I appreciate you,
- 25:02Speaker 1: and uh Gatson is a is a good uh person
- 25:05Speaker 1: to have in my life. You know. He he tells
- 25:08Speaker 1: me how great I am and I sometimes don't understand it,
- 25:11Speaker 1: but I I just said, thank you. Uh, I'm now
- 25:14Speaker 1: you're part of my family. Mr Pope. That means it
- 25:16Speaker 1: once a quarter, you gotta talk to me and I
- 25:18Speaker 1: want you to be a part of my influencer campaign. Okay,
- 25:21Speaker 1: I appreciate. I look forward to So I really do
- 25:23Speaker 1: you need to check out the wireless earbuds from Recon.
- 25:27Speaker 1: Racon earbuds start off about half the price of any
- 25:29Speaker 1: other premium wireless earbuds on the market, and they sound
- 25:31Speaker 1: just as amazing. Unlike some of your other wireless options,
- 25:34Speaker 1: Recon earbuds are both stylish and discreet, with no dangling
- 25:36Speaker 1: wires or stems. And of course they don't just look great,
- 25:39Speaker 1: they sound great too, and they're perfect for listening to
- 25:41Speaker 1: all your favorite I heart radio podcasts on the go.
- 25:45Speaker 1: So go to buy Recon dot com slash I heart
- 25:48Speaker 1: to get off your order. That's by Recon dot com
- 25:51Speaker 1: slash I heart for off Recon wireless earbuds. If you've
- 25:54Speaker 1: been eyeing a parent, now is the time to get
- 25:56Speaker 1: an amazing deal. One more Time by recon dot com.
- 25:59Speaker 1: Slash my Heart