Jed York, CEO of the San Francisco 49ers

CEO of the San Francisco 49ers, Jed York, chats team success with John Hope Bryant and shares some first-hand knowledge regarding sports and social injustices.

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Building the Good Life with John Hope Bryant is brought
to you by Credentials Financial. My mom would always tell me,
you know, tell me who you go with, and I'll
tell you who you are. And we all have friends
that that we love, that we would be there for,
but they may not bring out the best in us.
And and it's very very hard to make that decision.
Doesn't mean you don't love him, it doesn't mean that
you can't support him. But if you are around people

(00:24):
that are around trouble, at some point, trouble will find you. Hey, Hey,
it's John Hope Bryant, and this is Building the Good Life.
I'm the founder of Operation Hope, the Promise Homes Company
and Brian Crew Ventures. I'm also a little black boy
from Comedy California and South and Georgia, lady with a
lot of dreams and a mother who tol him and
she loved them every day of my life. That sort

(00:45):
of makes me a brother for another mother. With my
next guest, my friend, my partner, my brother, get York.
You would know Jed Yorke as the principal owner and
the CEO of the San Francisco forty Niners. I would
just know him to be a good guy. I've got
a lot of backstory and I'm gonna share. He's uh,

(01:05):
he gets it. Gets make the sort of the formaties
out of the way, and when you have a real conversation,
I think you're gonna really We're also gonna get into
some controversy that's not to me a controversy, but it's
an enlightenment. We're gonna get the first hand knowledge from
Jed on something that is on most of your mind
if you follow sports and social justice at all. Jed York,
the CEO of the San Francisco forty Niners, oversees all

(01:27):
aspects of the organization. Now in the seventeenth year with
the team in twelve and CEO, Jed has been a
driving force behind the forty Niners success on and off
the field during that time. New York recognizes the values
and shares the ongoing passion of the team's faithful fans.
During Jed York's tenure, the team has experienced great success,
having won three NFC West Division titles as the two

(01:49):
thousand eleven and twelve eighteen advanced four NFC Championship games.
That's twenty eleven, thirteen, and twenty nineteen and two super Bowls.
The super Bowl, well you would know that if you're
following the team. If not, I want you to go
to your own research. And actually they've won the super
Bowl more than a h they've become super Bowl champions

(02:10):
more than a half dozen times. I think it's nine
times when he quitting me about Wong over the whole
history of the franchise. His parents are special people. He
also credits his uncle and his grandfather, Edward the Bartolo Seniors,
being positive role models and for teaching him character values
such as integrity and a strong work ethm in respect
for others. He serves on many boards and including the

(02:32):
board of Operation Hope. Check him out. He's a cool dude,
and he's my friend. Ladies and gentlemen, My man, Jed York,
thanks for having me on, John fier Man, I'm glad
you're here. He has a cool wife, jer Bowl much
better than I am, so so Jed. Let's get into this.
What I sort of met you, um before I met you, uh,

(02:56):
because people were talking about you, um and a certain
uh player Uh that was with the Fort and now
it's going on to become a symbol for uh, for
justice and freedom and for for for many people. And UH,

(03:17):
let me just say that what I thought I knew
about you and what I found out about you and
that whole situation were radically uh different. And UH I
would like for you to unpacked this, if you will,
UM for for the audience and help them understand the

(03:39):
backstory here I'm talking about Colin Kaepernick. Of course, with
those who who are wondering where I'm going with this,
Colin Kaepernick worked played for the forty Niners under Jed's tenure. Alright,
Jed over to you. Let's get to the chase. Cut
to it. So, I mean, I've known Colin for a
long time. We drafted him and leave two thousand eleven. UM.

(04:02):
And I think some of the controversy that that you're
talking about started in twenty six. Um. You know he
decided to take a knee. Well, first he sat down
during the national anthem, which no one really saw in UM.
I think it was Denver or from one of our

(04:25):
early preseason games. And then the next home preseason game, Uh,
somebody saw him, uh sitting down during the national anthem,
and that's when it started to become sort of public. UM.
And obviously there are people on all sides arguing and
supporting CAP and and and you know, railing against CAP

(04:48):
and one of our long long time consultant's friends, Dr
Harry Edwards, UH, somebody that Bill Walsh brought into the
organization probably in the mid eight to help with race
relations with players and coaches, and you know, really started
um a lot of the things in the NFL that

(05:09):
you see today about helping minority coaches build their UM,
build their careers, enhance their careers, and connect better between
coaches and players. You know, Dr Edwards sat down with
with me, he sat down with Colin, and you know,
helped try to form and shape what Colin was hoping

(05:32):
to get across. And you know, I mean I think
a lot of people didn't understand what Colin was sort
of fighting for and and trying to bring attention to. Uh.
You know, Dr Edwards helped connect him with some UM
Navy seals and some other UM. I believe it was
a Navy seal, it may have been a ranger UM

(05:54):
just about you know, respect for troops and things like that,
which was one of the first biggest backlashes against Colin,
and Colin decided to sort of change his approach during
the national anthem from sitting to taking a knee. And
I mean, I think that was something that the Doctor
Edwards helped with and and Colin sort of took on
as there's nothing in any culture we're taking a knee

(06:18):
is disrespectful and and I think that's what Dr Edwards
was trying to help Colin understand, was let's try to
people are gonna take your message and run with it
however they want. Let's give them less opportunity to do
that by taking a knee as opposed to sitting. And
and Colin took that feedback and I think started a

(06:40):
you know, at least to me, a very peaceful protests
and a peaceful you know, I I think information sharing
opportunity for most people that don't understand what minorities go through,
whether it's through police interactions. I mean, there's obviously a

(07:04):
lot of other things, but that was Colin's main focus.
And you know, it was a very very interesting time
to see all the threats, like all the praise and
in the middle try to win some football games. And that's,
you know, first and foremost, that's what we are here

(07:24):
to do. But as as the CEO of the team.
You know, when you see somebody that that brings a
lot of scrutiny onto himself, And clearly there was a
lot of scrutiny places on the NFL. I mean, we had,
you know, Vice President at the time, Pence stage of
a walk out at our you know, at our game

(07:46):
in Indianapolis and his and uh, I mean, there's just
just a lot of things, and I mean you can
just see where I don't I don't believe that Colin
was trying to do this to create notoriety or attention
for himself, you know, but there were a lot of
other people that try to capitalize on this and use
this for whatever platform they were stumping for. And that

(08:10):
was that was one of the eye opening things to me,
is just to see all the people around it. They
tried to use cap or to use what he was
protesting for their own benefit. So the first thing that
should jump out to the audience again, people who follow
sports and social justice and what happened in the last

(08:33):
five years in this country is nothing less than historic,
and the shifts in conversations that we've been having one
are the first things that jump out, is it there's
nothing that my man just said there's actually against Colin.
So one of the one of the lies out there
was that somehow you were against him and not supporting

(08:59):
the the merits of his core argument. And unless I
got it wrong, I heard nothing in what you just
said that suggested that at all. In fact, I think
that you were just trying to make them better. Yeah,
I mean, I think we try to make sure that
all of our players, wherever, whatever walk of life they
come from, whatever situations they have, we we have resources

(09:22):
to help them, and we're very fortunate, like I said,
to have something like Dr Edwards here that I'm I'm
not the right expert to help Colin on on his
social justice quest and how people are gonna blast him
in the media and blast him on social media like
that's that is not my expertise. Thankfully there was somebody

(09:42):
like Dr Edwards that you know, can help with Colin,
but certainly with me. You know, it's obviously been a
little strange over the last two years with COVID, But
pre COVID, you know, I'd have lunch with Dr Edwards,
you know, two or three times a month during the
football season, and you know he would challenge you. You know,

(10:02):
if you know anybody that took his classes at Berkeley,
you know he's somebody that you know, he's not a
shrinking violet, so to so to speak like he he
will push different topics and different ideas. And certainly for me,
as you know a white guy that grew up in Youngstown, Ohio,

(10:22):
you know he opened your eyes to certain things that
you wouldn't necessarily see no or if he had experience
in personally. And when you're dealing with a professional football
team where you know, I don't know what the exact
numbers are, but probably three quarters of our players are
African American, you have to understand where your employee base

(10:43):
comes from and and the way that they view the world,
and you have to put yourself in those types of situations,
in my opinion, if you want to be able to
be the best leader that you can for your organization.
Agreed and um. The second um misunderstanding I think coming

(11:06):
from this is that you fired Kay that that's I
hear that all the time. That's I can tell that's
just not true unless I mistaken. So when we so
the season, Chip Kelly was her head coach. She's now
at u C l A. I think we finished two
and fourteen and Collins started, I know, a little over

(11:30):
half the games. I think Colin was like one in
nine or one in ten, and you know, we were,
you know, one in four, one in five or whatever
with with another quarterback, Lane Gabbert, who started that year.
So obviously it wasn't a super successful season. We ended
up drafting second overall. We had the second worst record
in the NFL, and we made a complete change with

(11:51):
our coach and general manager. Brought in John Lynch and
Kyle Shanahan, who brought us to one Super Bowl and
two NFC Championship games in their tenures so far. And
they decided, you know, as as most new coaches and
general managers do, that they wanted to overhaul our you know,
roster or staff everything. And they sat down with Colin

(12:15):
and let them know that, you know, they're going to
probably go in a different direction, and asked if you know,
he wanted to be cut, if you wanted to be released,
what he wanted to do. And Colin asked to you know,
to to go on his own and opt out of
his contracts so he could become a free agent. And obviously,
he was not picked up by anybody else, um, But

(12:37):
that's that's how it started with us. So it was
not firing calling for you know, anything that he did,
you know as a as a protest or anything that
he stood for. It was making a change and going
in a different direction. And you know that was an open,
honest conversation between John Kyle and Colin before anything happened

(13:00):
that season. With lots of respect to color absolutely, I
mean Colin. He helped us get to a Super Bowl.
He helped us get to two NFC Championship games as
a starting quarterback, and you know, he played a lot
of good football for us. And to clarify, by the way,
the forty nine has have appeared in seven Super Bowls

(13:20):
and one five to get there, right, Yes, I was
gonna let you stick with the nine. I'm not having
to hold onto that. I'm just nine sounds better when
I when I was in your office. Is so, I
saw those beautiful trophies in the window. I thought I
saw nine, but it's probably includes it the other the
other trophy. To so, my my family owned the Pittsburgh

(13:42):
Penguins hockey team, um, and there were two Stanley Cup
championships there. Building the good life is brought to you
by Prudential Financial. For over one and forty five years,
millions of people have counted on Prudential to help solve
for life's most important financial needs. Because that Prudential, they
live their purpose to make life better by solving for

(14:03):
the financial challenges of our changing world. Prudentials Who's Your
Rock campaign is also about helping people reach new heights
and providing a platform for people to reach their financial goals.
All right, so we've checked the box on that, and
let's h let's let's now pivot. So when I first

(14:24):
met um Jed and I can't say where and all
that stuff, but we met at an undisclosed location, and uh,
let's just say the place we met was full of
people who believe they're very important. And with many of
these people, they were very important. But the problem is

(14:44):
in life sometimes people actually act like they are very important.
Jet wasn't one of them. Not only was he not
one of them. Jet asked for my mobile number, as
I recalled I had spoken at this as this was
right in the midst of the whole social justice moment,

(15:07):
and I get a call. I remember it was eight
or nine o'clock at night, out of the blue from
Jed York, the principal owner for nine. You know arguably,
you know, very successful guy. He's got better things to do.
I mean, I'm not on the draft roster. I don't think,
although I could probably play reasonably well. And uh, he was.

(15:28):
He wanted to talk about social justice and injustice. He
want to talk about what's going on this this crazy
country of ours and how to make it right. Um
and this just fascinated meet him to no end. I
had to check to make sure it wasn't a prank call. Jed,
what was on your mind when you called me? And
then I want to back up and talk after we

(15:49):
answer this question, I want to back up and go.
I want to go to Youngstown. I want to go back.
I want to go to the family. I want to
go to to the where the history of the team.
There's some fascinating nuances. Rainbows after storm story is tied
to how you even got here, which shows how resilient
you are and maybe even relates because I know you
grew up with a bunch of brothers and Youngstown may
relate to Actually this question I'm asking now, why did

(16:10):
you call me. But when when we originally connected, it
was it was right right after the season, after Colin
started his protests um, and I remember asking you questions about,
you know, what, what can we do a lot of
what we do philanthropically, it was sort of before social

(16:30):
justice was a well used term, and we talked about
this of look like I want to I want to help,
Like what are we doing? And I mean your message
and you know what you were talking about about financial
literacy and obviously now being on the board of Operation Hope,
I mean, it just makes so much sense to me.
I just did a tribute for a friend of mine

(16:53):
that's retiring from a healthcare company. And you know, we've
been talking about health equity and and you look at
these things, and you look at social justice, and you
look at all this stuff together. If you can teach
people how to understand finances and their own personal finances,
if you can help people have better access to healthcare

(17:15):
and be healthier for themselves and for their children, you
know a lot of the problems that we've see that
are that our race related in our country today. I
don't know that anything goes away forever, but those are
two really, really big pieces of the puzzle that that
should not be that difficult to solve if we go

(17:37):
about them with with a with a with the right focus.
And I mean your your message on financial literacy just
hit me like a ton of bricks the first time
I heard it. It's like, look like, that's what we're
trying to do. We want people to rise up out
of poverty, rise up out of situations that they're in,
whether they put themselves there, and in most cases they
did not put themselves there. But if you don't know

(17:59):
what you don't know, you you can't rise up from
from where you are and and be better tomorrow than
what you were today. And I mean, that's that's what
I love about you. Know, everything that you stand for
and everything that you work towards, you've helped I don't
know how many millions of people understand how to generate

(18:22):
wealth and how to generate you know, sustainable income and
and a sustainable living model that most people just are
never taught. And those are things that for me, we're
second nature growing up. And you look at those skills
and you know what I mean, I wish that I was,
you know, six ft five and could sling a football

(18:44):
seven yards like those. That's not the skill that I
was born with. I was fortunate enough to be born
into a family that understood, you know, personal finance and
understood how to you know, create an entrepreneurial mindset. Those
aren't things that you don't need to be six ft
five and run a four four forty to to be
able to be successful as an entrepreneur. You just need

(19:08):
to know the manual of how do you get started?
Like what do you do? And obviously there are certain
people that don't need the manual, but but a lot
of people need some type of education and some type
of guidance in order to get there. And and I mean,
I think that's a huge piece to to the social
justice problem that we face in our country right now. Yeah,

(19:28):
I call it social justice through an economic lens. The
color is not black or white as in race, or
red and blue as in politics. It's green, as the
color of U S currency. The new h civil rights
issue of this generation, beyond reaffirmation of the right to vote,
is financial literacy. Um, and that's something you and I

(19:51):
are passionate about. As we look back, Let's roll the
tape back, and I'm gonna say this for the purpose
of making a point not to be braggadocious. My brother
Jed and the family are in the billionaire club. Is
one of the coolest, most approachable billionaires you'll ever meet,
is Mom and Dad included. Let's roll the tape back

(20:12):
now though, to youngsters, because you, you guys started from
reasonably humble beginnings in a town that most of the
country is sort of not taking. You know, they don't
think of that town and think about it. Oh, that's
the growth center for economic prosperity. And in the world
or in the country, you grew up with some people
of color who are really smart, and by no fault

(20:37):
of your own and maybe even no fault of theirs,
different paths you've done your your family has done much
better than they have done economically, and I think that
a lot of that is they didn't get the memo
on how you build wealth in your sleep. You make
money during the day, which is what a lot of
my people do. We hustle, hustle, hustle, But at the
end of the day, you build wealth in your sleep.

(20:58):
So the story, yeah, of the backstory of and talk
about this as much as you feel comfortable or not.
Mom and I think her brother had made a decision.
If I remember this properly, one had taken one part
of there was the team was owned someplace, and there
was a real estate company. And I think your mom

(21:20):
got what was perceived to be the raw end of
the deal by giving her one company. And I think
your mother's bad sister. She grew that thing. Okay, tell
tell the story straight, straighten me out here. So my
grandfather was you know, his father died before he was born.
They were both Italian immigrants. His parents his mom remarried

(21:43):
another Italian immigrant, and he built himself up through education
and hard work. Um and for a long time was
his His stepfather was a master mason from Italy, and
my grandfather learned, you know, the the art of building
from a man uster mason. Went to the U. S.

(22:03):
Army Corps of Engineers. He was there during World War Two,
came back, and before he left, they essentially did work
for you know, the city of Youngstown, for different municipalities
and when the city was doing well, like they had work,
and when the city wasn't doing well, they didn't have work.
So he, you know, sort of after after going through

(22:25):
World War two, decided um, I'm gonna take that that
piece of the equation out of it, and I'm going
to go into into business for myself. And he sort
of saw the suburbanization of America, so he started with
shopping plazas and then then sort of migrated to shopping
malls and build I think over nineties shopping malls during
his time, two children, my my mom and my uncle Lettie.

(22:49):
My Unclettie ran the forty nine is for a long time,
won five Super Bowls, you know, and and when when
my grandfather passed away, there was you know, a situation
with my mom and my uncle where my mom ended
up getting the forty nine my uncle ended up getting
assets in the real estate company, which was neither neither

(23:13):
one really wanted the assets that they received. It was
just sort of the situation that that presented itself at
the time and their external external factors that sort of
pushed that. For me growing up, you know, always idolizing
my grandfather, you know, wanting to be a part of
the family business, I decided that the forty niners was

(23:34):
something that I wanted to do, and I came out
here after after college and working in New York at
Googene im partners for a while, um and and knew
that we needed to build a new football stadium. We
need to sort of stabilize the football team. And you know,
that's where the entrepreneurial piece really kicked in was once
we've sort of fixed the business issues of our core business,

(23:58):
that's what we've been trying to do, is whether through
direct investing or we're building our own companies. You know,
how do we build things in and around the forty
niners empire to to continue to be entrepreneurial and create opportunities,
Amen and and for the women out there who are
wondering whether you can succeed just like a man. And

(24:20):
this is no disk to uh Ja's uncle because he
was a bad brother too. His mother kicks Merran. His
mother built some real asset value in the forty niners.
When she was discounted and sort of written off. I
mean in a time where a lady running the forty
nine is a lady running the NFL team was like now,
we don't think so. She might have been the only one.

(24:40):
I don't know, but she built real value and when
she was disrespected by many in the NFL thinking that
you know, it was above her pay grade. And and
now Jed's taking that to the next uh level in
building this into a real brand and a multifaceted corporation
that goes on just a game, uh you know that

(25:03):
happens once a week and so and so forth. And
we're gonna get into that in a second, because I
think it ties into the social justice piece as well. Jed,
what would you say for those listening here want to
learn how to build build a brand, build a company,
build a net worth? What are a couple of rainbows

(25:24):
after storms stories? This first part we discussed before we pivot.
What are a couple of stories or lessons that you
want to leave the audience with that you wish you knew.
I don't know twenty years before, but you know now.
I mean, I think I think the first thing is is,
you know, having no fear mm hmm. And I think

(25:46):
it's hard for people to give up. They're you know,
guaranteed income of whatever it is, whether it's twelve bucks
an hour working at you know, a fast food place
where what whatever the job happens to be to to
just pursue your passion, and it's you know, I'm always

(26:08):
reminded of the of the quote, you know, the best
time to planet Tree was twenty years ago. The second
best time is today. Like it's the same thing with
being an entrepreneur, you know, it's it's a lot easier
to you know, have no income and devote your life
to something when you're young and you're unattached and you
don't have children. But you're still better off if you're

(26:31):
thirty or forty or fifty or whatever age you are,
if you have a burning desire to do something and
you see an opportunity to to have a product, have
a service, do something that other people can't do that
that you see, you know, taking three months, six months,
twelve months, eighteen months, whatever it is, of of some

(26:52):
short term pain. I promise you it will pay off
when you become a millionaire. And I mean you know
that the hardest million to make is your first And
I mean like, I mean we we had a brief
conversation before, and you know, just listening to you talk
like you you earn money during the day, but you

(27:14):
you build wealth while you sleep. And it's just so
much harder to get people to understand how quickly you
can get to being a millionaire and being relatively financially set.
But you have to sacrifice first, and a lot of
people don't want to sacrifice. I mean we, you know,
we made a change um with our head coach in

(27:38):
Jim Harbaugh. We had gone to three NFC Championship games
in four years, and it wasn't a super popular decision.
We had to you know, sort of failed coaching hires
back to back, and then we hired Kyle Shanahan and
John Lynch and we've gone to one Super Bowl and
two NFC Championship games in that time period. We're building

(28:00):
a team that I think the community rallies around, loves, supports,
and to me, you have to be willing to do
things that are unpopular and deal with those storms in
order to get to that rainbow. And we're in a
pretty good spot now. Like I wish that we would
have finished the job in in l A. God, you

(28:24):
guys are close. I know that must have hurt. Man,
that was like ah, but but I'm proud of our
guys and I'm proud of everything that we're we're doing
and that that we're fighting for that you you have
to be willing to take some of the backlash and
deal with some of the you know, unpopularity of decisions
or unpopularity with your friends and family where you say like,

(28:46):
look like, I'm not you know, I'm not hanging around
with you know, this cast of characters. My mom would
always tell me, you know, tell me who you go with,
and I'll tell you who you are. And we all
have friends that that we love that we would be
there were, but they may not bring out the best
in us. And and it's very very hard to make

(29:06):
that decision. Doesn't mean you don't love them, it doesn't
mean that you can't support them. But if you are
around people that are around trouble, at some point, trouble
will find you. And that's I mean, I've seen it
with a lot of our players, where you know, they're
the ones that when there's a gun involved or there's

(29:27):
drugs involved, it's the player that gets dragged through the mud.
It's not all the people that are around, and generally
of the time it's somebody else that's the cause of
that problem. But those guys can't extricate themselves from that
situation and figure out how to build their own brand
and be entrepreneurial and and build a life that they

(29:48):
deserve and and it's it's very, very tough. It's tough
for me to see and watch guys that that mean well,
that are great people, that are bright people, that that
they end up being in a situation that doesn't allow
them to be successful. Let me just tell the audience
that's listening to this, anybody who wants to say easy
for you to say, Jed so on and so forth,

(30:09):
let me tell you something. He's right. I grew up
in the hood D a hyphen h O D the hood.
I was homeless and six months in my life when
I was eighteen years old, Copland, California, south Central l A.
I am financially independent today. I have an eight hundred
credit score, and I am one of the people that

(30:32):
Jed speaks about about. You know, after you make that
first million or two or three, it gets easier and
so on and so forth. Everything he said was correct.
It delayed gratification and all of that stuff. Please listen
and take heed to the advice. UH. And a couple
of things you said, I love I'll say a different

(30:53):
way than something you said. I said, if you hang
around nine broke people, you'll be the tenth. It's the
way I would say something about, you know basically the
company that you keep. I love what you said about
the best time through Planet Tree is twenty years ago
and the next best time is today. Don't let the
perfect become the death of the good. Do something right now.
Just do it and do a software upgrade as you go.

(31:15):
Another thing, there's making money building wealth. Um A good
portion of NFL players after they retire five years out
end up bankrupt. People don't know that because they made
it but didn't keep it, because they make confused making
money with building wealth and confused being rich with being wealthy.
Those are completely different things. Money has velocity and if

(31:38):
you don't manage it will it will find its way
in somebody else's pocket, not yours. I get that right yet, absolutely,
I mean I I've watched you know. There are two
guys that come to mind. I look at Patrick Willis
and Frank were guys that have been very, very smart
with their money, and but they asked questions. And that's

(31:58):
the thing. If you don't know, you should find people
that know more than you and figure out how do
I keep my money, how do I grow my money,
how do I protect it? And how do I build
wealth and and that's I mean, I give those two
guys specifically a ton of credit for you know, coming
from virtually nothing, from from very very you know, poor backgrounds,

(32:22):
you know, making a lot of money playing professional football,
but then building business sales and building brands and investing
in things the right way so that they can have
generational wealth for their kids and for their kids. And
that's I mean, that's what it's about. It's about providing
a better life for your kids and your grandkids than

(32:43):
what you had. Yep. So we can go from taking
a knee to owning some stock, from taking a knee
to holding up, you know, some real estate, From taking
a knee to starting a school. From from taking a knee,
uh to building some buildings for affordable housing, from taking

(33:05):
a need to extending your arms to others to give
them a shot of that first contract. Taking a knee
was great, It's really important. Brought attention to the issue.
We've got to not not We've got to now move
to a strategy that is not emotional, because whatever a
distances you make emotionally is going to be the wrong decision.
Thank you, Cap, thank you others for bringing attention to
these issues. Now we need a business plan for social

(33:28):
justice in the twenty one century through an economic lens
talked to us Jed about some of the things an
Operational Hope as a partnership. Uh, not only within but
through my partnership with Jed, I met well. I had
met NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell separately, but the relationship was

(33:48):
greatly enhanced once he understood I was a partner with
the forty niners. Now now Operation Hope is a partnership
with the entire NFL as a financial inclusion. Nash no partner,
and we were just with the commissioner at the NFL,
I mean at the Super Bowl game. All that was
because of my relationship that came through Jed York. He

(34:10):
never asked for attention. He's he's never asked for a
thank you. He does he he bows out of any credit.
This is probably the first time anybody has even heard that.
But our NFL partnership, which is just helping countless people
around this country, came through the San Francisco forts And
that's all about financial literacy. Economic opportunity creating homeowners and

(34:32):
small business owners is also right there in the San
Francisco area. Sansco Bay Area. We're doing critical community building
work tied to the forty Niners Foundation UM and getting
the people in the foundation and the staff engaged in helping.
They're all also our one million Black Business Initiative, which
is about to kick off with getting some of their

(34:53):
expertise leaning into these businesses. Explained to us, Jed your strategy,
you're playing your thoughts around social justice in the century
using the baseline the foundation of to do it. So,
my wife, Danielle and clearly my better half, she was

(35:15):
a teacher, uh where, and I remember she called me
and you know, they're great museums in San Francisco, science museums,
and you know, she she calls in tears and she said,
you know, we can't go to this museum for a
field trip. And I'm like, well, I mean, let me
know who to call and she no, no, no, like,
we we can't go, Like what do you what do

(35:36):
you mean you can't go? Sha, Well, I I've got
nineties students, there are four teachers, and there's not enough
money in the budget for a bus to get us
to the science museum. So they want us to take
public transit with nineties students and like it's just not possible,
and like okay, like that's crazy. So I figured out,
like we'll do a bus and that really spawns an

(36:01):
education program that we've built at the stadium, in our
in our Hall of Fame area, in our museum where
we have a Steam program, and we have you know,
no matter who you are, you know, if you are
one student or or you're you know, a rich suburban
kid like you have free access to our STEAM program.

(36:23):
You have science, technology, engineering, arts, and math. So we
try to take you know, the engineering of a football stadium,
and how do you turn football and something that most
kids you know like and are interested in, and how
do you turn that into learning about math, learning about engineering,
learning about technology and putting all these things together. But

(36:46):
we wanted to make it free for every kid in
northern California to be able to come to and and
I mean that's that's always been a huge piece. But
I mean, you know, you've really hit and we've always
foke is on healthcare and education, but you hit on
the piece of why you can give those two things
to people. But if you can't get out of your

(37:09):
own way from a financial you know, knowledge and and
just building a mindset of we're not gonna go from Okay,
we have education and we have you know, health care,
and we're taking care of today. But if you don't
know how to continue to build on that, then then
you don't see growth. And I think that's the third

(37:29):
leg of the stool that needs to be there is
financial literacy. And if you can put education, financial literacy,
and health care altogether, and again, I mean, you do
great work, but it's not like it's not rocket science
what you're doing, you know, And that's that's what you
try to explain to people now. Like health care is

(37:49):
a little bit more challenging in certain areas, education shouldn't be.
But you know, politically we've made education a lot more
you know, diff called to deal with the financial litters. See,
of those three things is the easiest one to solve,
and and that's what blows me away. It's like, if
you can put those three things together, we can take

(38:11):
the lower class of our country and and raise it
several notches to make people have a better life, a
better quality of life. And these are not Republican ideas,
These are not democratic ideas, like these are just human
ideas that everybody who's been successful started from somewhere and

(38:32):
and they they bettered themselves, and they bettered their family.
And if you can put those too, those three things together,
you know, again you solve a lot of problems in
the world. So so we're talking about a really a
radical movement of common sense. That's what I'm hearing. There's
nothing crazy about these It's applied logic, correct, I mean,

(38:57):
And that's that's what is so frustrated when you look
at the problems that we face in our country, and
I look at some of the problems that we face
in San Francisco right now, you know, it's just it's
applied logic. Like how do we like there there's a
very very simple solution. We spend a lot of money
on a lot of different things, but why are we
not spending just a little bit of time to teach

(39:19):
people how to use their own finances, how to better
their finances, how to earn a little bit more money,
how to have you know, a little bit lower you know,
debt and in their life, and how to pay a
little bit less interest than what they're paying somewhere else,
and how to you know, get their credit score up.
I mean, like That's one of the amazing things about

(39:40):
Operation Hope. You know, it's it's credit scores that are
bad that they're not really bad. It's just there things
that you don't know, and you have no idea how
to fix your credit score. So to go from a
five hundred to a six hundred, from a six to
a seven hundred, it's not that complicated, but you have
to know the system them and you have to know

(40:00):
how to get there. And we can do a better
job teaching people so you have more money to spend
on better food, to spend on education, to spend on healthcare.
And you know, I'm hopeful that philanthropy can't solve the problem,
but I'm hoping that philanthropy can at least show the
way where you need to open up bigger government checkbooks

(40:24):
if you're going to really make a huge impact. And
half of Black America Jet and you, by the way,
you just got me all excited about getting more companies
signed up to Financial Literacy for All, which is being
co chaired by me and Doug Millan, CEO Walmart, for
which you are also supporting. UM, So, so thank you
for the initial energy. I'm gonna really dig down deeper there. Um. Yeah, well,

(40:50):
the real problem today is a lack of leadership. Um.
He has applied common sense and apply logic, but also leadership,
and people like you're willing to stay in the breach
and actually do something and not just talk about something
that admire the problem to death. And so thank you
for that. If you're if listen, if if CEOs and
leaders are listening to this right now and they're wondering

(41:12):
what are the two or three things they can do
through their business to help to solve one of the problems.
We've talked about social justice through an economic lens before
we pivot to the last topic of building a team
and how important that is. Uh, and any final thoughts
you've got to leave with the audience on this issue
of social justice. What suggestions do you have, if any,

(41:33):
for leaders listening to this, What can they do? I mean,
even if you don't want to work in areas of
your community that that need help with financial literacy, just
helping your employees and and this is not just a
lower class problem, it's a middle class problem. There there's
a lot of people in the middle class that don't
understand how to take care of their own finances and

(41:56):
and and understand financial literacy. So if you're a CEO
being able to have a seminar course or somebody that
can help people where a lot of the questions and
a lot of the things that you cover that they're
relatively basic to somebody that knows understands it. But there
are a lot of people that don't want to ask
a relatively basic question because they don't want to think,

(42:19):
they don't want to appear stupid. So I mean, if
you just start with your own company and you have
fifty employees, a thousand employees, whatever it is, and you
help that group become financially literate, like that's that's a
huge piece. And if you are financially literate, you you
now know that your cousin, your uncle, your your sister,

(42:42):
whoever is not you can help them become financially literate.
Like that that's where CEOs can start. I mean the
next pieces you should you should join Operation Hope and
the and the and the you know, the message that
we're trying to get out and the mission that we're
trying to build upon, because it's it does not cost

(43:02):
a lot of money, it does not take a ton
of time, and effort to do this. It just it
takes getting the ball rolling and once you do like,
the program does the work for you. And as data driven,
we've partnered with the forty niners and we're delivering data
driven results. You know that half of black folks have

(43:22):
a credit score below six forty. We're smart, we're intelligent,
we go to church, we're nice, we're kind, we're brilliant,
we're talented on the basketball field, football field. We got
where are where artisans were artistry, But our credit score
will not allow the bank to say, yes, half of
the Black Americans locked out of the free enterprise system. Um,
it has nothing to do with how nice you are.
If your credit scores below seven, not getting a small

(43:43):
business loan is considered risky credit. If you cred scores
below six, eight, you're not getting a good mortgage, and
crest score below six may not get any mortgage unless
it is a hard money loan. You're locked out of
the free enterprise system. And that problem, as you said earlier,
we can solve. Nothing changed your life more than God
or love, than moving your sure points. Whether you're black, white, red,
brenda yellow, you want to see some more green and

(44:07):
I mean, and even that, I think we get tied
up in the arguments, in the debates of why is
Black America in that situation? And there are a lot
of reasons for it. There are a lot of things
that we should address as a as a country, as
a society, and I think that will all help us grow.

(44:28):
But if we just cut to the chase on the
front end and say this is what we're gonna do
to help people that are disadvantaged and people that just
don't have the knowledge, that that wipes out so many
ills that people deal with, and then you can actually
have a healthier conversation of how do we get to
this place because people are in a better situation than

(44:51):
what they were in the start. And then you can
look and say, all right, wow, like there's some really
bad race facts in our countries his street, Like, let's
have that conversation. But it's a lot easier to have
the conversation when you can fix, you know, the the
underlying issue and you can start building that foundation. Because

(45:12):
if if you're coming from a place of of hate
and anger, you're you're not you're not going to have
an open and honest dialogue. And if you're coming from
a place of sort of you know, if you just
look at it at white America and rich white America,
there are a lot of people that don't understand the

(45:33):
issues that are there, and they and they don't have
the time to understand the issues that are there. But
if we can solve the underlying financial literacy piece, like you,
you knock out se the problem and then you can
actually have honest, face to face, real legit question comments
and questions and debate about the race history in our country.

(45:57):
So Dr King's there. Daddy King served on the board
of a bank for forty years. Yeah, no one really
knows it. So he was a preacher on Sunday and
a banker capitalists on Monday. So Dr King was playing,
they called him Marty back then, playing outside as a
kid with a white kid across the street. And the

(46:20):
father came out and said, you can't play with that
black kid. Made a big deal about it, sort of
embarrassed Dr King. Marty Martin back then. Father Daddy King
and granddad Adie Williams, who was also a capitalist, um
heard about this, and yeah, they went over very gently

(46:40):
to the owner the to the owner of the store
where the the little kid was playing around Jed. He said, Now,
I understand that you just said something really inappropriate to
my child. And unfortunately, feeding your child is poison of culture.
And I guess you have right to misinform your child

(47:02):
anyway you like. But the next time you talk to
my kid, I need to understand this. I want you
to remember that we own the land underneath your store.
Little known fact. That's awesome, little know in fact the
guy's the guy got quiet immediately yet, right, So it's

(47:23):
it's your comments you made earlier. Look, this country is
two thirds, from a world history perspective, forty year old
country America. You know, two thirds enslaved, one third free.
That's that's the facts. We can argue about that. We
can say, we can explain all the reasons why blacks
don't deserve what the hand they got and what that's
why we have wealth and income in quality or as
you said, and that's all important are you can you

(47:45):
can decide whether you're gonna talk about a tree twenty
years ago or two hundred years ago or fourty years ago,
or you can plant one now. And I love, I
love that we're trying to plant one then, and I don't.
I don't know that we're ever going to get to
a place where everybody agrees on the race history of
our country. Yeah, and and I think it's important that
we have a conversation, but it's a lot more important

(48:05):
to get people out of poverty and and to teach
them how to stay out of poverty. Whether again, whether
you're white, black, whatever color, whatever, whatever religion, but it
doesn't matter, like that's the vast majority of ills in
our society stem from poverty. Yeah. So, as we wrap

(48:28):
this thing up, and I'm just so excited about we
did this, and so thanks, thanks, thank you for your time.
Good brother, I know you're busy as we wrap this up,
and I want you to talk about team building, um
as you see it. Uh, But as we're trying to
help inspire people to build the good life, can you
also as you're talking about teams in your final comments,
I'm gonna let you just go here. What are some

(48:50):
closing commons thoughts that you tell the twenty year old
Jet York maybe or your brothers that you grew up,
your brothers meaning black friends growing up and other and
others who are who didn't have the family structure you
had growing up. What would you tell them about building today?
What inspiration would you leave with them? As we wrap up,
But let's talk about team building first. Well, I mean

(49:12):
I think team and this is something that that it's hard,
it's hard to understand this early on in your career
as a leader, but it's something that reinforces itself time
and time again. If you have an access of how
talented you are and how dependable you are, obviously you
want people in the top right quadrant. You want you

(49:32):
want highly dependable, highly talented, that's easy. The question is
do you want somebody that maybe isn't quite as talented
that it's highly dependable, or maybe highly talented but not
quite as dependable. And this is something that that the
Navy Seals have worked on a ton. We we do
a lot of stuff in the Navy Seals here and

(49:54):
the reason why the Navy Seals are so successful is
that they will always air on dependability. M Alan And
I'm sure you've seen this in your life in your career,
but this guy went to this perfect school and like
has this you know whatever, and you know they're they're

(50:15):
they're they're just so smart. They have a hundred and
sixty i Q. But if they're not dependable, if they're selfish,
your your organization, your team will fail. You need to
find how how dependable can your team be and you
can help them become more talented. Now, it's harder to

(50:36):
become more talented as a football player. Some of it
is just naturally god given. But if you're willing to
work hard and you're dependable, you will become more talented.
And I mean, I I look at one of the
greatest football players of all time. He was drafted in
the sixth round. You know, was was a quasi starting
quarterback in college in Michigan, and he ended up winning

(50:58):
you know, seven Super Bowl goles and winning in New
England and winning one in Tampa. Because the guy is
dependable and he worked his table off, and he's probably
in better shape at forty five whatever a g is
now than what he was at twenty two when he
came into the draft because he kept working his ass off.

(51:19):
Is that the guy who just retired, Yes, yeah, you
know he's from the different teams. We won't mention his name,
but it's a bad brother. But but I mean, but
that's the thing, Like he's dependable and and he became
more talented. And that's I think that's as a leader,
always airing on the on on the on the side
of dependability over talent, you you will not go wrong.

(51:41):
That's the drop the mic moment right there. That's it.
That's everything. I mean. My whole life is about my
my my father in love, uh, my father in law.
Dr Dalton, who's runs the twenty second largest black owned
business America, says that half of life is just showing up. Uh.
And once you show up, show out, but show up
and and be consistent and be dependable. There you go,

(52:04):
um Man, I show up, I get there earlier, I
stay there late. I work harder. You may be smarter
than me, but I'm gonna work harder than you and
I and I and it is hard to hit and
moving target. I will wear you out with my persistence,
consistency and resiliency and I will and I'll just I'll
run circles around every NBA, around the table. And because
I came from humble beginnings, yeah, I've had to be

(52:27):
an open university. I had to, you know. My whole
life is filled with books and knowledge. And as Quincy
Jones would say, how did you get so smart, Quincy,
I'm just nosy as hell. I want to know everything
about everything. Those folks who came from more privileged backgrounds
and me weren't nosy. They were set. They were comfortable,
and the Bible suggests be how to be cold. If
you look warm, I'll spat you out. Translation. Even God

(52:48):
doesn't like mediocrity. There's a lot of very smart people
who just sit back because they think they're talented. Let
me tell you what talent is overrated. So I think
that if it listen folks, if you don't have time
to tell your friends and listen to the whole podcast
this week that you want, maybe you can listen to
the whole podcast next week. But make sure they listen

(53:10):
to the last five minutes of this podcast right now,
because Dead York dropped some gems that will change your life.
This is John Hobryant's Building a Good Life. My friend
Jed Jordan. Hey, Hey, is John Hopebryant building the good life.

(53:32):
I've got a master class for you right now with
my friend Jed York. A master class summary of our
incredible session we just had together. He talks about sacrifice first,
do the right thing, Rainbows after storms. But the most
powerful thing he said, we're two things. The first best
time to plant a treat was probably twenty years ago.
The second best time to planet treat is right now.

(53:54):
So don't let the perfect become the death of the good.
Plant the tree right now, Get up and it right now.
Don't enable gays, don't admire the problem. Don't sit there
and rationalize and analyze why you can't do it, because
things are not perfect. There is no perfect. That's only
what you have at this moment. That's why iPhone as
a software upgrade. Things always change. Get in the game

(54:16):
right now and understand who you hang around us, who
you will be. If you hang around nine growth people,
you will be the tenth. He also said, if you
hang around people who are in trouble, sooner, lady, trouble
will find you. And the most important thing he said
was about team building. Please hear this. Please, This is
the drop the mic moment of the whole interview. Please
hear this and tell this to all of your friends.
The talent itself is underrated. That the Navy Seals have

(54:36):
taught Jed's team this dependability. It's always more important than talent.
It applies to parents, It applies to partnerships, It applies
to marriages and friendship, It applies to life. Dependability is
always more important than talent. You can increase the talent,
but you cannot replace dependability. This is John O'Brien, and

(54:59):
this is building the good life. Building the good Life
with John Hope Bryant is brought to you by Credential Financial.

(59:14):
Building the Good Life with John Hope Bryant is brought
to you by Prudential Financial