Unpacking the NFL with Jed York

In this episode, John sits down with San Francisco 49ers CEO, Jed York, for a rare and candid conversation. From breaking down the NFL’s unique financial model to unpacking his team’s commitment to social justice and economic empowerment, York offers a behind-the-scenes look at the business and purpose of professional sports. Plus, the truth about Colin Kaepernick, building Levi’s Stadium, the rise of Operation HOPE within the NFL, and what it means to lead with empathy and vision. Whether you're a sports fan, entrepreneur, or aspiring leader, this is a masterclass in values-driven success.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome the Money in Wealth with John O'Bryant, a production
of the Black Effect Podcast Network and iHeartRadio. Hey, Hey, Hey,
this is John O'Briant and this is Money and Wealth.
I want to thank everybody for making this podcast one

(00:22):
of the top one percent in the US, one of
the top two hundred podcasts for business and entrepreneurship on
every content in the world at top one hundred here
in the US one Apple for Business and Entrepreneurship. Also
thanks everybody for including my guest today for the support
of my favorite charity, Operation Hope, and I intentionally have

(00:44):
for those watching video outakes of this interview, I have
the logo for Operation Hope behind me because I want
to show it off because my guest is also a
supporter and partner of Operation Hope and a board member
with me on the big board of Operation Hope. Let
me get now to who this guest is. You know,

(01:08):
I don't do guests very often. If I do, it's
someone very special. Such is the case today. You have
a chance to meet a genuine, authentic, one of a kind,
one of very few, owner of an NFL team, CEO,
his family and he owned the San Francisco forty nine ers.

(01:31):
His name is Jed York. He'd be very uncomfortable when
I say this, but he is one of the nicest
billionaires you'll ever want to meet. He's incredibly humble, easy
to talk to. If you saw on the street, you
would have no idea who you met or there's a
nice person. His wife is nicer than him to me.

(01:54):
Now you know, we're a family. And his name is
Jed York and he was born March ninth, nineteen eighty
eighty one. Ah, okay, I was giving you a little
bit of additional maturity credit like age. Why they were okay,
you cut yourself off with the knee says okay, you

(02:14):
can do it. He's a CEO now of the San
Francisco forty nine ers. But that does not tell any
of the proper story. Before I get into how we
met and why I think he's so special, let me
tell you who he is a little bit. For those
listening to this podcast and watching video outtakes, and we're
going to on this episode Unpacked. The National Football League NFL,

(02:40):
which is one of the most valuable, if not the
most valuable franchise. I guess it would be neck connected
with soccer, certainly the most valuable franchise of sports, professional
sports in the United States of America, which is the
biggest economy in the world, and I think it would
be very close to the global franchise of soccer. My
friend Jed will tell me again whether I'm right or

(03:01):
wrong by that. We'll get into this. He also owns
a soccer team, by the way, but we'll get into
that as well, because there's an interesting dichotomy that we
share talked about between NFL and soccer. But he's he's
gonna unpack how the NFL works. My friend, our friend
Roger Goodell, who I think, well, I met Roger my
own but Jed gave me credibility by walking into a

(03:21):
meeting with me in New York. Flew out to New
York with me to go and meet with Roger, where
effectively he put his arms around me and said this
is my guy. And when and when one of the
owners does that, it changes the whole context of the conversation. Relationship,
capital matters. So we're going to unpack NFL unpacked owning. Uh,

(03:43):
what is how do the economics work for an NFL team?
For the NFL franchise. How does that differ from other sports,
let's say soccer. So we're going to give you, take
you behind the curtain and almost never heard before kind
of conversation. But then forty five minutes for an hour,
you're going to be a pro in pro sports. As

(04:07):
interesting as Jed is his mother to me now he's
got his mom and dad are super cool. His uncle,
Edward J. De Bartolo Junior, was the legendary former owner
of the team. He's also in the Pro Football Hall
of Fame. His family, Deep Bartolo in New York. Family

(04:28):
owned the team as a family unit. I met most
of the family members. Honored to be brought into as
an honorary member of the family. His mother is off
the chain, passionately, I mean, just a unique force of nature,
and I want to talk a little bit about what
he got from his mother's. Pops is a little more

(04:53):
low key or understated, as he's more of a slow burn,
quiet force.

Speaker 2 (04:59):
Mom is she's a firecracker.

Speaker 1 (05:01):
He's a firecracker and making a difference also in her
home city to this day.

Speaker 2 (05:05):
Right always always Ohile.

Speaker 1 (05:08):
Youngstown, Ohio. So okay, so let's get into this. He
became CEO the forty nine Ers while he was president
and then CEO, but somewhere around two thousand and eight,
two thousand and nine at the rifle age of twenty eight,
succeeding his parents, John and Denise York. Denise York, Missus
yorkis who I just referred to, who I believe sent

(05:30):
me a personal donation Operation Hope. I believe if I
met her, I just can't say enough about her. He
built and moved, under his leadership into Levi Stadium in
Santa Clara and around twenty fourteen a major infrastructure in
business achievement. We'll talk a little bit about that, because
that was economic development for the entire area. It just

(05:51):
popped the entire area. And actually Operation Hope apartment with
the forty nine Ers and the forty nine Ers Foundation
with a Hope inside the community, I believe to help
the community to raise up its credit score and raise
up its economic energy around the stadium. And actually that
partnership that we have with the forty nine Ers, that
Operation Hope has become was I think indirectly led to

(06:13):
a partnership we have with the NFL where we are
a partner now for successive years on economic conclusion with
in financial literacy with the NFL, and I believe other
owners of teams are going to follow suit. We just,
by the way, sign a partnership with an NBA team
in Chicago. But I think it was indirectly. We were

(06:33):
sort of in the pro sports family and now everybody
feels sort of It's okay, but George, but Jed was
the first mover. He reached the Super Bowl in twenty thirteen,
twenty twenty and again in twenty twenty four, and probably
doesn't want to be talk want to talk too much

(06:53):
about the twenty twenty four thank too much. He gets it,
gets cranky when he loses and it doesn't make sense
to him. By the way, verious, like my friend Tony
rest rounds Atlanta Hawks if he loses it, don't want
to talk to Tony. He's a little cranky because he's
you know, they want to win. Established the forty nine
ers as a as a consistent playoff contender. Of course

(07:16):
they've won the Super Bowl successive times. We'll talk about
He'll talk about that. Strong advocate for long term coaching
stability helped build the forty nine ers off field brand
is one of the most valuable franchises and sports itself
valued at billions. I won't get into their pockets. It's
nobody's business, but it's to say it's billions. Known for

(07:37):
his tech forward mindset, embracing analytics, sports, sports science, and
corporate partnerships, the forty nine ers are now involved in
real estate development around Levi Stadium, and they have equity
and I guess venue next. I believe that's right, a
technology company. He's on the board of directors of the

(07:57):
Levi Strass Company and Operation Hope. I might say, uh,
he's and he is seen as a bridge between old
school sports ownership and new era tech leadership, especially given
the forty nine US location in Silicone Valley. You know,
family man, father, a good dude, and my dear friend

(08:17):
now Jed and I met like in a weird way,
like we we met at a conference that we can
we can't talk about that doesn't have a website. And
I got this call out of the blue. I remember
exactly where I was. It was in my old home,
old office downstairs, early evening, and I get this call

(08:41):
on my mobile phone with somebody sort of going off
a little bit, but not on me, just sort of
going off in general with frustrations and the like, this
is a BS. What I can't understand what's going on
in this world is crazy. And I thought it was
like one of my crazy uncles or something. And it's
Jed Yorke and he's upset because of the George Floyd murder.

(09:05):
Do you remember that call, Jed? I do? I do.
He was very frustrated, and he thought this was not America.
That's not the country. He knew he didn't understand why
humans would do this to each other, and he wanted
to have a conversation about it, and more importantly, wanted
to figure out a way to help. And this started

(09:25):
a beautiful friendship. And I consider Jed my brother, my
brother from another mother. He is a just just a
genuine article. And there's been times when Jed has called
me when he thought I needed emotional support. Flew out
to meet me again a separate situation. I don't know
if you're already there, but I think I met you

(09:46):
in New York. It was for lunch, yep, and he
was just you, just making sure I was okay. And
this was this is what what he does when nobody's looking.
That's that's what a real friend and a real leader
and a real person is. So jed. Why did you
call me after George Floyd's murder. I never asked you

(10:07):
this question. What was going on with you?

Speaker 3 (10:09):
Well, I mean, I think there's there's more to it,
and I know you and I talked a little bit about,
you know, Colin Kaepernick beforehand. I mean, there was all
the CAP stuff with the NFL. I was gonna say,
I was going to say to you for that, imagine that.
But that was part of I mean, that was part
of it where when you're looking at social justice reform
and trying to figure things out, I think, I mean,

(10:32):
we can get into the CAP stuff, but there was
stuff that that he started.

Speaker 1 (10:38):
CAP was for those who are not thinking about living
on Mars and doesn't know Colin Kaepernick was a quarterback
for the forty.

Speaker 3 (10:46):
Nine ers good and I mean when he started protesting
during the anthem and taking a knee for different social
justice reforms and then you see it sort of play
out with George Floyd what we wanted to connect on.
And obviously when I can't remember the name of the
book that you wrote at the time on financial literacy,

(11:06):
but but you were, you were promoting that book at
the conference, or you had just come out with that,
but it just hit me with how the pork.

Speaker 1 (11:14):
And said capitalism maybe up from nothing? I think it
was how the pork And said capitalism back then, or
the memo the memo.

Speaker 3 (11:20):
It was the memo. It was a memo. But it's
just like, look like people don't have the memo. Like
I just I literally just came from a meeting today
with a group that we helped start called Golden Heart
Fund that helps our former alumni players that fall into
hard times, and we went from sort of dire need
cases to sort of preventive cases. And I said, I

(11:43):
know who we need to connect with. We need to
connect with Operation Hope, and we need to figure out
financial literacy. But that's I mean, all of this kind
of ties together where it's you look at poor communities,
and not even just poor communities, but most communities they
don't have financial literacy ye, and they need the memo.
And if they don't have the memo, they can't help

(12:04):
pull themselves out of poverty and pull themselves out of
things that are sort of outside of their control. And
that was the frustration that I felt, and I think
we've connected, And I hope that I know that Operation
Hope has done a lot. I hope collectively we've done
a lot to help people and get more people financially
literate to help solve some of the social justice issues

(12:26):
that exist mainly because of financial literacy.

Speaker 1 (12:29):
So you've done a lot without even knowing you've done. Yes,
we're going to get back to some people listening might
going might be saying what does financial literacy have to
do with Kaepernick and George Floyd? And you're about to
get into why this guy is so wicked smart and
how his brain works and how it connects with his
heart with the answer. But before we get to that,

(12:53):
because I believe in ancil literacy is a civil rights
issue of this generation, let me tell you how this
get works. Jed jack just writing me a check if
he wanted to, but he knows that that can only
go but so far. But if Jed introduces me to

(13:14):
his team and says, this is my dude, and don't
you know, it's not a handout program, but if he's
got something viable here, you should listen to him, all
of a sudden, the tone changes with his team they're
more open. This is just human nature anywhere. And I
believe in the James Brown version of affirmative action. Open
the door. I'll get it myself. Well, he's opened a
lot of doors. I tried to open a few doors

(13:35):
for him. He certainly opened some doors for the work
of Operation Hope. Whether it's the NFL, whether it was
civic and civic groups in Silicon Valley who were trying
to bridge the gap. I don't know if you remember
that Jed those calls we had in the video calls,
whether it's one on one meetings. So he's willing to
come and sit with me in the meeting, like the

(13:55):
commissioner for the NFL, who's become now a very dear
friend and a partner on his own. And frankly, we
had all of the commissioners on stage last December at
Hope Global Form and I'm total it was the first
time in history that all of the sports commissioners were
at one place in a public setting ever, and that

(14:16):
then led to several months later the first Green Sox
Day April of this year, where all the commissioners were
engaged with their sports offices and wearing a green socks
financial literacy, posting and being engaged, and now they want
to do more next year. Now it's going to beyond
the NFL Adam Silver, the NBA rob and others. You know, Baseball,

(14:40):
the Major League Baseball, et cetera, et cetera, National Hockey League,
et cetera, and NASCAR. All that started because Jed walked
me into the meeting with Roger Goodell. Now I had
to do the rest after that, and then I had
to make sure I didn't embarrassed Roger made him comfortable,
and then understand the dynamics between all the commissioners. But
Ed open that first door, and he's been opening doors consistently,

(15:04):
and if I ever call him and say I need
an introduction before I can get out of my mouth,
he's like already moving to make it happen. That sounds
like a little but it's everything because every time he
does that, he's putting his credibility on the line. But
that's what we need to do for each other in
order to move the line for people who are invisible,
who feel invisible in a society where the color is

(15:26):
not so much black or white or red or blue
ay more, even though it feels it that way, it's green,
it's economic in nature. You got to move folks from
the streets to the suites. I e. Financial literacy being
the civil rights issue of the generation. So I'm gonna say,
once again, what does Colin Kappenick and George Floyd, the murder,
the memo, the book, financial literacy and your interests, how

(15:50):
do those in your friendship with me? How do all
those things come together?

Speaker 2 (15:54):
I mean, I don't know if we have enough time
on the podcast, but.

Speaker 4 (15:58):
We want to get to other topics, so YESK yeah,
I mean I think when I look at CAP I
realized it was very controversial what he did, and there
were people that were completely against ing, people completely for it,
and a lot of people that are completely confused.

Speaker 2 (16:13):
And when I look.

Speaker 3 (16:14):
At what he did, he brought light to issues people
weren't really talking about in mainstream.

Speaker 1 (16:21):
Right.

Speaker 3 (16:21):
People knew that they were there, but people weren't talking
about them in mainstream. And you can agree disagree on
his method and whatever. That's that's that's in the past.
That's besides the point. Now it's how do we take
what he started and getting this to be a national
conversation and figure out how to help.

Speaker 2 (16:41):
People that need help and that are in need.

Speaker 3 (16:43):
And that's where when when you started speaking about the
memo and figuring out, you know, well this area and
social justice to this area and social justice. If you
if you get to financial literacy, you're going to solve
ninety plus percent of the issues that are there. And
that's what connected me to you and your message is

(17:04):
that we need to make sure that we are going
from you know, protests in the streets to actually making
something happen and getting people to a better place in life.

Speaker 2 (17:15):
And that's that's the key.

Speaker 3 (17:16):
And when you're fortunate enough to be in the situation
that I'm in, when you represent the San Francisco forty
nine Ers and Leeds United and Glasgow Rangers and the
National Football League and all these tremendous brands and folks
that you're a part of, I think you have an
obligation to give back and try to help. And to me,
I think financial literacy covers more areas than just about anything.

Speaker 1 (17:42):
My Jewish brothers and sisters are Jewish brothers and sisters
who are discriminated against for thousands of years only and
they had no country for most of that time. The
way that they were able to succeed was they became
experts in financial literacy, and they use that expertise and
ownership to get power and position in the world. And
I think that other greed groups should look at that

(18:02):
as a model for how they come up. And essentially,
I do believe that if you look at all the
ethnic groups in this country, the three groups that have
been left behind have been left behind for economic or
lack lack of economic prominence and access to capital and
opportunity reasons. Black Americans enslaved in American soil. Poor whites.

(18:27):
They're more poor whites in America than poor anybody else.
That's doctor King's day to this day. I think they've
been riding at the ballot box most recently because they're
really frustrated and they want somebody to pay attention to them,
and somebody should, by the way, we just need to
give them some solutions and not just flame their frustrations.
I'm trying to do that with our work and operation.
Hopefully center my offices are in poor white Rolal neighborhoods,

(18:47):
by the way, in the South, and Native American Indians
on Indian reservations. Now, those three memos group, those three
groups never got the memo on how free enterprise, capitals
and economics, ownership and opportunity work. So you've got the
largest opioid addiction. Well, I think it's show true. The
number one group dying today or high school educated white

(19:08):
men shocking to most people to hear that that's opioid addiction.
Lack of aspirational attainment, depression, Native American Indians, that's alcoholism.
Same thing in my opinion, And I think that a
vast majority of people I love have depression because they feel,

(19:30):
you know, they don't feel seen in the biggest economy
in the world or properly dealt with or addressed economically
and aspirationally. And you want to do something about that.
You have put your money where your mouth is. You
and your family. Let's clear up some misinformation. One of
the reason I love this podcast is I'm able to

(19:52):
bring light to topics. You know, typically you're on TV,
it's three minutes, two minutes, seven minutes, seven minutes a
long episode, and you're responding to whatever the anchor is saying.
We have a chance here to unpack and remove disinformation
and replace it with real information. Colin Kaepernick, there's a
lot of misinformation about this. Get out the way you

(20:14):
guys did him dirty, whatever that means, what really happened.

Speaker 3 (20:20):
I mean, Kap was with US, redrafted a CAP in
twenty eleven, and his protests happened in twenty seventeen, I
believe sixteen or seventeen. I can't remember the exact year.
It's crazy, it was almost ten years ago now. But

(20:43):
Cap decided to sit during the national anthem. I think
we were in Denver, and no one really recognized it, right,
and then he sat the following week when people started
to recognize. And if you know doctor Harry Edwards, who's
worked with us, I mean he was a founding member

(21:06):
of the Black Panthers. He helped with Cap go from
sitting in something that can very easily be taken as
a disingenuous gesture and something that was a slap in
the face to getting him to think about his protest
tactics and getting him to take a knee. And he
connected him with some former military folks. And again, whether

(21:30):
you like it or not, like it's it's hard to
say that taking a knee, at least to me, I
don't know any situation where somebody taking a knee is
a gesture that's like a slap in the face to you,
and I think he was able to help him sort
of refocus where he can focus more on the message.
And at the time, Colin was our highest paid player

(21:54):
we ended up having I think we were two and
fourteen that season. We were the second worst team in
the league, and we moved on from our coach that year.
We hired Kyle Shanahan the following season, so I think
it was twenty sixteen, and we hired Kyle in twenty seventeen,
and we moved on from Colin. We moved on from
a lot of players, and two years later we were
in the Super Bowl. But all of that, the heat

(22:19):
that I received was probably more for quote allowing Colin
to do this to me. The last time I checked,
we lived in the United States of America. People have
the right for free speech. That doesn't mean that you
don't have the right from repercussions from free speech that
you make. And that's sort of what happened was we

(22:41):
supported Kap the entire season.

Speaker 2 (22:43):
No one told him to not do that.

Speaker 3 (22:45):
We tried to help and I think we've done a
lot and changed our focus and our foundation from things
that were probably not social justice related beforehand to being more.

Speaker 2 (22:54):
Social justice related moving forward.

Speaker 3 (22:57):
And I think it started a movement that hopefully people
are going on in their own way.

Speaker 2 (23:01):
And I mean in the NFL. I mean you've you've
spent time with Roger.

Speaker 3 (23:06):
Yeah, and Roger maybe hasn't embraced Colin Kaepernick specifically and
everything that he said and did, But the things that
the NFL is working on today, I don't think we
would be doing if it wasn't for Colin Kaepernick.

Speaker 1 (23:32):
So you just said something positive about basically about about Cap.
You have no problem with the social justice.

Speaker 3 (23:39):
Our goal is to win a lot of football games
and hopefully win Super Bowls.

Speaker 1 (23:44):
That's right. He's not social justice central. He's an NFL team.
He wants to win some games. But along the way,
he didn't mind folks expressing themselves.

Speaker 3 (23:53):
No, And I mean it wasn't just Colin. There were
other guys. Eric Reid was very close with Colin.

Speaker 1 (23:58):
Eric.

Speaker 3 (23:59):
I think he's staid on a team several more years
and I know he knelt the entire following season in
twenty seventeen when when Kyle came in, I went to
we were playing DC. We took a train together to
New York to meet with the NFL and talk about
some of the social justice reforms and things like that.
So I mean, it's it is not specific with Colin

(24:21):
to say, well, you know, he took a knee, so
he got blackballed, Like I can't speak for any other
teams like that certainly wasn't the case with the forty
nine ers. And I still think a lot of Colin.
I think a lot of the guys that were there,
and they were part of that movement. And again, like
you have to go from protest to progress, and that's
you know, I want to make sure that I adequately

(24:42):
give respect to doctor Edwards because that was his whole
line when we started, Like protests is great, but if
you don't go from protest to progress, protest doesn't matter.

Speaker 1 (24:53):
Amen. And I'm probably talking out a turn here, and
I'm going back a few years. I could swear you
actually offered Colin a contract or something, or somebody somebody
said that you didn't offer a contum Like, no, that's
not that, that wasn't accurate.

Speaker 3 (25:06):
No, When when Kyle and John came in, they sat
down with them and said, you know, we're gonna we're
gonna probably move on from you, and sort of had
the conversation of do you do you want us to
release you? Do you want us to how do you
want this to happen? He said, you know, I'm fine
being released, and again like I don't I don't know

(25:27):
the specifics of them having conversations, but.

Speaker 2 (25:30):
He he was released.

Speaker 3 (25:32):
And he was able to be a free agent and
move on and try to find another team.

Speaker 2 (25:37):
Unfortunately for him, he.

Speaker 3 (25:38):
He didn't have a great opportunity to find another team,
and I think that's where a lot of the controversy came.

Speaker 1 (25:44):
But nothing nothing to do with you allowing him to
take a knee and all that stuff. This was this
was this was you want You're just trying to win.
You're trying to win the Super Bowl, right.

Speaker 2 (25:55):
We're trying to win games.

Speaker 3 (25:57):
And we went from being the worst team in the
league to being in the Super Bowl three years later.
And I give a ton of credit to John and
Kyle for rebuilding the core and the foundation of this
team that reflected what my uncle built in the eighties
and nineties of a team that you know, won with class,
went on the field and went off the field, and

(26:19):
that's that's what we're always trying to do.

Speaker 1 (26:22):
In no shade to cut the Cap. I mean again great,
I mean tap, Cap is incredibly talented and made a
contribution when he was there, and uh, but you know,
sometimes the chemistry doesn't work. And as people who just
heard my brother just gave enormous love for him, which
he never told me. This is the first time I've

(26:44):
heard it. And even the influence that that his foundation
has had at the forty nine ers in direct, directly
indirectly influenced by CAP's efforts. And now I'm yeah, I'm
thinking about it. Yes, the forty nine ers and what
they're doing with jay Z and all that stuff, I
think a lot of that was influenced by Colin Kaepernick
and his spirit. And I mean, people don't know that

(27:06):
Roger Goodell's father was a US senator. It was very
interested in public policy and probably lost his seat in
the Senate because of his civil rights work in the sixties.
Like I know that's the case. And so this was
also Roger Goodell's way within the NFL to lean in
and be for something. They're still doing it to this day,
and unfortunately EGO sometimes get arrows in the broader sense

(27:30):
of maybe you might be ahead of your time, society
doesn't completely understand what you're doing, so on and so forth,
and he picked up contracts. I want to name names
with major companies. Whatever Colin did and seems to be
doing really well in his nonprofit versts wish him well.
So thank you for all you did there. Thanks for clarifying.

Speaker 2 (27:50):
Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (27:52):
Let's now get on to anybody who said, Okay, that's
all cool. I want to understand this business model. Thanks
for the t Now I want some coffee. Explain, Explain,
Explain the NFL, and explain owning a team and the economics,

(28:13):
the cash flows, how's it work.

Speaker 3 (28:15):
So, I mean, it's interesting you talked about global soccer,
and there are they're probably larger brands and more well
known brands in soccer than there are in American football.
But I think you'd be hard pressed to find a
league that is as valuable from top club to the
thirty second club as the National Football League because the

(28:37):
way that the league is structured. And this goes back
to you know, Wellington Mara from the New York Giants,
who when television became a new revenue stream and something
that people saw it was going to be something that
was a focal point for the growth of the National
Football League in the.

Speaker 2 (28:55):
Fifties and sixties.

Speaker 3 (28:57):
Right, he went from saying we're going to key all
of the New York revenue to saying we're going to
pool all of national television and we're going to pull
this together and we're all going to make the same
amount of money. So we have a very very socialist
approach to the National Football League where we share a
ton of revenue. Probably two thirds of our revenue, if

(29:20):
not more, is shared, So you share piece of your
ticket revenue. So third of our gate goes into our
ticket sales goes into a shared pool where all thirty
two teams receive the same amount back, but everybody puts
in a third of their own revenue. Right, one hundred
percent of all television revenues shared. There's other revenue that shared,

(29:41):
like the national sponsorships and things like that, like Super
Bowl revenue, things like that that's all shared equally amongst
all the teams. So this year we host Super Bowl sixty, Right,
you'll probably see one of the highest grossing, if not
the highest grossing Super Bowls in history.

Speaker 1 (29:58):
By the way. She has already said she's got I'll
be there, So I told me to tell you that.

Speaker 2 (30:03):
It should be a great party.

Speaker 3 (30:05):
But they just in terms of how financial league works,
we pay for and raise money from the host committee
to put things on, and then the NFL shares revenue
from the tickets. So it's not like we host a
super Bowl and the forty nine ers make a ton
of money because we host the super Bowl. It's something
that's good for the league and it's something that we
work on together, and I think that's what makes the

(30:27):
NFL so compelling. Right when you look at most sports leagues,
you have a pretty good sense who's going to win
the English Premier League. You have a pretty good sense
who's going to win the top European soccer leagues. You
have a pretty good sense of who's going to be
in the playoffs or who's going to be in a
championship in the NBA or MLB. The NFL is really
the most competitive league from top to bottom, and that

(30:50):
allows us to be, maybe not individually, the most valuable franchise.
Where you saw the Lakers go for ten billion dollar right,
the LA Lakers are a great brand, they own Los Angeles.
It's an unbelievable market, But other teams in the NBA
don't necessarily share in that with the Lakers, where the

(31:12):
La Rams are going to share all the same revenue
with the Green Bay Packers, and the Green Bay Packers
are going to have as much of a chance to
win the Super Bowl as the Los Angeles Rams because
things are relatively equal in the National Football League. And
I think that's what makes the National Football League the
best sports league in the world.

Speaker 1 (31:30):
And you guys share broadcasting rights revenue right, which is
a big piece of the revenue model, as I understand.

Speaker 2 (31:38):
It's a huge piece.

Speaker 3 (31:40):
And you know, as you get into next generation media, right.

Speaker 2 (31:44):
When you're looking at streaming and you're looking at.

Speaker 3 (31:46):
Digital services, the NFL is generally not going to be
the first mover. And when you are sort of the
eight hundred pound grill in the room, like you, you're
generally not the first mover. But I give Roger and
team credit. They they see where things are headed, they
see what works and what doesn't work, and then they
figure out how to move into those spaces. And social media,

(32:08):
I think the NBA did a great job jumping on
the social media first. Now, the NFL is as strong,
if not stronger, on social media than the NBA, but
they were they were not the first movers, but they
saw some of the mistakes that were made and they
built out a great program to be as engaged, if
not the most engaged social media property, you know, in
professional sports.

Speaker 1 (32:30):
Yes, and they're embedding in the Super Bowl. By the way,
how many times have you guys won the Super Bowl?
The forty nine ers, by the way, so.

Speaker 3 (32:37):
We won five times, four in the eighties, one in
the nineties, and we've played in eight Super Bowls.

Speaker 1 (32:43):
There you go, a historic winning team. When when I've
seen almost at every Super Bowl the advert the advertisements
interspersed with that mission statements, mission statements about purpose, statements,

(33:05):
anti hate, anti semitism, black and brown empowerment, women achievement,
just trying to bring light at this moment in time
to not something other than just pure capitalism and commerce,
but to community and compassion too. That's intentional by the owners, correct.

Speaker 2 (33:26):
It's absolutely intentional.

Speaker 3 (33:28):
I mean, I think breast cancer awareness is probably the
most successful thing that the NFL has been a part
of in terms of philanthropic ideas. You know, using the
my cause my cleats and you know, wearing pink shoes
and having having that be a piece of what we
do during the year. I don't know how many people

(33:51):
have found lumps in their breast because of mammograms that
the NFL has has brought awareness to. Yeah, and again
that's gone from breast can awareness to cancer in general.
And you know, we're not probably at the same level
of success with social justice, but it's something that we've
started working on over the last probably seven or eight years.

Speaker 1 (34:13):
Inspired Change that Operation Nope is a partner absolutely at
NFL Inspired Change, which again Roger and his team deserve
incredible credit for.

Speaker 3 (34:21):
And again, we can't answer everybody's problems and cure all
ills in the world. But when you think about the
super Bowl, right, it's really the last place that is
water cooler talk. Right, Like your podcast is great. There's
a lot of great podcasts. It's not like one hundred
million people are tuning into one podcast.

Speaker 1 (34:42):
Right.

Speaker 3 (34:42):
We had over two hundred million Americans watch the last
super Bowl, right, like you have hundreds of millions of
people worldwide watching the super Bowl. Outside of the Olympics
or the World Cup, there just aren't many things that
drive that type of viewership for a one time sitting,
and that's something that the NFL is very fortunate to

(35:03):
be in that position. I think the top one hundred
television shows over ninety of them, or NFL games or
NFL related every year.

Speaker 1 (35:12):
The value of the NFL franchise for all thirty two
teams is over one hundred and sixty billion dollars. Is
that number right?

Speaker 3 (35:21):
I don't know if I can do my math, but
I mean it's a large number. Whatever it is, I
know it's a large number.

Speaker 1 (35:29):
And as you just said, NFL games account for seventy
and eighty percent of the most watched TV broadcast in
America annually, and major broadcasts deal.

Speaker 3 (35:39):
Over ninety percent. It's over ninety percent of the top
one hundred watch shows. I think we were ninety one
or ninety two of the top one hundred watched television
shows last year.

Speaker 1 (35:49):
With broadcast deals with Fox, CBS, NBC, ESPN, Amazon, totaling
over one hundred and ten billion dollars across an eleven
year space. And that goes to twenty thirty three. That's
part of the socialism that Jed joked about, what we're

(36:10):
serious about too. It's economic socialism in the sense that
they're shared economics. And then you have people who do
good work with this franchise their franchise, like our friend
Robert Kraft, who has created nonprofits trying to do good
in the world. Another good man that I respected, Ad Meyer.
We become friends.

Speaker 3 (36:28):
Listen, pivot robertson a great job, like so many people
have done a great job. Like you said it earlier,
Robert can write a check, but bringing the Patriots brand
along with it brings so much more awareness than just
writing a check. And I would say that's what I'm
proud of most of the majority of my partners. They're

(36:50):
going to do things that are going to move the
needle to try to make their world a better place.

Speaker 1 (36:53):
Yes, yes, and I this was with Roger. We were
with Roger Robert last week and ninety percent of his
conversation was about how do we impact the world in
a positive way, how do we move the world forward,
and what can we do to do that. He wasn't
talking about himself or his wealth, or his team, or

(37:14):
or or his pocketbooks or It was all about how
do we give, how do we contribute?

Speaker 2 (37:19):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (37:19):
And again, nobody was watching. It was a private conversation.
Let's now shift to the business model for a team.
So we talked about the franchise system. How does a
team's economics work down to the level of all the
way down to the level of a game and ticket
prices and how much is the gate visa VI you

(37:40):
know everything else. Now I want to go. I want
to go to soccer, which you also want a soccer team,
as I understand a part of a soccer team. Yep.

Speaker 3 (37:47):
So essentially, the NFL, like I said, the league generates
a lot of revenue that I think it's about two
thirds seventy percent, give or take, is shared revenue.

Speaker 1 (38:00):
Right.

Speaker 3 (38:00):
What you generate on your own is sponsorships, sweet sales,
ticket sales. You share some piece of your ticket sales,
but the majority of your ticket sales you get to keep.
That's where the differentiation happens with revenues, right, And for
us in a larger market, in a great market like
the Bay Area San Francisco, we're going to generate higher revenues,

(38:21):
but you're also going to have more cost here. Right,
We're not going to get a ton of public money
and public equity going into a stadium for us to
be built right. We've built our stadium, Levi's in Santa
Clara in twenty fourteen. We opened up with no impact
to the city's general fund, no impact on tax payers,
which is going to be different than potentially smaller markets

(38:44):
where making sure that they keep a sports team in
their location. There's going to be more taxes going into that,
there's going to be more public direct investment going into that.
So we may have a different cost structure than some
of the other teams. We also have a different revenue structure.
Sure and go ahead.

Speaker 1 (39:03):
No, it was pretty risky of you to build this
new stadium. I'm sure others people have said, if it's
not broke, don't fix it, keep the other one. Why
go through all this house? Are you going to put
yourself at a risk as a new CEO? Keep your
head down? Why'd you do it anyway? And what was

(39:23):
your vision? And has that vision matched your reality?

Speaker 3 (39:26):
So we had a wonderful run at Candlestick from I
think we opened. We started playing in Candlesick in nineteen
seventy two to played in Candasick from seventy two to
twenty thirteen. Great Historical Stadium was originally built for baseball
so they brought the New York Baseball Giants out. After

(39:48):
the Dodgers left Brooklyn, they brought the New York Baseball
Giants out. And funny story, if you've ever been to Candlestick,
certainly if you know San Francisco, the weather in the
fall in San Francis goes awesome, right, So it brought
the Giants' ownership to Candlestick point in I think October,

(40:08):
and the weather was beautiful, and they kind of tricked
them to build a stadium at Candlesticks. It was just
great in October. Imagine how wonderful it's going to be
in the summer. And summer baseball is always a little chilly.
At Candlestick, it's always great weather for us during football season.

Speaker 2 (40:24):
But it was originally built for baseball.

Speaker 3 (40:26):
It was the oldest unrenovated stadium in the National Football League,
and it was just one of those things where the
cost of referred the stadium for maybe a ten to
fifteen year life expectancy was seventy five percent of the
cost of building a new stadium. My uncle, when he

(40:47):
was still running the team, they passed a ballot measure
in nineteen ninety seven to build a stadium in a
shopping mall at that location that ended up not coming
to fruition. We looked at over ninety sites in and
around the Bay area and found yeah, and found.

Speaker 2 (41:03):
What we felt was the best location.

Speaker 3 (41:05):
In Santa Clara that was great access to public transit,
great access to the freeway systems, and it happened to
be right next to order to where our training facility was,
and having our training facility and stadium together made a
lot of sense and making sure I grew up in Youngstown, Ohio,
I watched the Cleveland Browns become the Baltimore Ravens, and

(41:26):
then I watched the Browns come back several years later
in Cleveland, and I never wanted to take our franchise
from the fans that loved it the most in the
Bay Area, and if you couldn't stay in the city
of San Francisco, we wanted to make sure that we
broadened our our approach and figure out how do we
how do we put a stadium in the Bay Area
where all of our fans can still reach that on

(41:48):
ten Sundays a year when we're playing our home games.
And that's really that was the thinking, and it's it's
like anything else, you have to make a bet, you
have to take a risk in order to build something
that's going to last for the future. And I think
we've been able to do that with the forty nine
ers in building Levi Stadium. So the bet paid off,

(42:16):
or is paying off, It is paying off, and I
mean it's been it's been a great partnership. You know,
we've been able to do amazing events that we just
couldn't do a candlestick at the old stadium. We just
didn't have the facilities to be able to pull it off.
We'll host your second Super Bowl, we host the World
Cup coming up this year. This will be the first

(42:37):
time in history and I assume the last time that
a Super Bowl and a World Cup will be played
in the same venue in the same year.

Speaker 1 (42:46):
Wow Wow cool. Yeah, and no cost to the taxpayers.
Correct At a time where San Francisco really does need
some good news from a branding and imaging perspective, you
are part of that good news. Now, you made a
bet that was unpopular and nobody understood or few understood it,

(43:07):
and that bet is paid off. That showed that means
you're a bit of a visionary in business and it
means you've got guts. It reminds me what your mother did.
And as I understand it, uh, and we're not getting
too much in the family business. Your your there was
a real estate company or something that.

Speaker 2 (43:24):
A real estate developer.

Speaker 3 (43:26):
Was one of the first people that that saw the
suburban shopping mall as being the new downtown. And you know,
after World War Two, he came back and he started
with shopping plazas and then saw sort of the flight
from inner cities to suburbs and the growth of suburbs,

(43:47):
and he was looking for a new downtown for suburbs
and it ended up becoming the shopping mall.

Speaker 1 (43:53):
And he made a fortune in real estate in shopping malls.
And as I recall, said to the kids, Okay, you know,
let's divvy this up. I'm getting older, and brother got
one bunch of assets or preferred I guess a bunch
of assets, which I think was the real estate and business.

Speaker 3 (44:14):
So I would say not to go too deep into
family history, but my grandfather's estate planning strategy was to
not die. Definitely, for folks who're looking for financial literacy lessons,
that is that is generally not the best choice, but
everything was owned by the corporation, and.

Speaker 2 (44:36):
My uncle ran the forty nine ers for a long time.

Speaker 3 (44:38):
My mom ran other aspects of the family business, and
you know, there were some circumstances that came up that
then my uncle decided to sort of leave his half
for the forty nine ers and sort of trade his
half of the forty nine ers for other real estate assets,
and they made a swap in nineteen ninety nine two thousand.

Speaker 1 (44:59):
And your mother he ended up with the team. Is
that right? Yes, brilliant move. I mean for everybody one.

Speaker 3 (45:08):
But everything wine and most importantly, my mom and uncle
are very close and very tight, and like I couldn't
ask for a better uncle and godfather than than than
my uncle.

Speaker 2 (45:19):
Leaddy.

Speaker 1 (45:20):
Your family is fantastic. I mean, everybody I met has
just been first class. And I'm sure even that your
uncle would admit, would acknowledge and admit, you're that his
that his sister has done wonders uh with this team.
So they didn't for everybody watching, they didn't start out
with a football team. They started out in real estate

(45:42):
and business, and the team came later, and they just
built it into something that really is magic, was creating
value and by the way, we're honored to be your
partner and Operation Hope in communities now and we want
to do more with you. By the way, let's not
pivot to why soccer wit me back up back before.
Why so, why is there a good reason why there
aren't yet blacks and browns of people who own significant

(46:10):
parts of NFL teams? This is simply because a dollar
number is just so large.

Speaker 3 (46:14):
I think we we are again we the NFL is
generally slower to adopt newer policies, right, you said it earlier.

Speaker 1 (46:22):
They're not they're late adopters, is what you said earlier before.

Speaker 3 (46:25):
Other leagues have now taken a lot of private equity
money and adjusted. The NFL now allows private equity to
buy up to ten percent of teams, which just gives
you the ability to pull capital much more so than
going to individuals to buy a limited partner stake and
a team. And there's just a small number of people

(46:46):
that can be in that world, right, So I've been
trying to push the league like I would love to
put together the right diverse group of people to be
a you know, limited partner group and figure out how
to get that together. And I think you're going to
see that change over time where you're going to have
more and more people of color and more people of
diverse backgrounds be part of ownership of NFL teams.

Speaker 1 (47:11):
So I really can't say more than a sentence of
what I'm about to say, other than because because it
would it would allow people to get brand crumbs to
go to the details. But I got a call from
Jet one day at dinner in New York asking me
about a situation because he was trying to put together
a minority investment group not in the NFL, around sports

(47:31):
and let's just say, no good d shall go unpunished.
It didn't really work out, but Jed really tried and
it didn't have to. Let's now switch. Now you all up.
I think you heard you. I think I heard you
say baseball.

Speaker 3 (47:42):
Or no Leaders to Leads United in the English Premier League.
Leads has been a top brand in English football for
one hundred years. Fell on some hard times and I
was out of the Premier League, which is the first division,
the second in soccer they called football there, So I

(48:05):
have to be very careful of English football.

Speaker 1 (48:08):
Any places outside of the US, soccer is football.

Speaker 3 (48:11):
Yes, we saw Leads as a great opportunity. It's a
great brand Leads. The city reminds me a lot of
where I grew up in Youngstown, Ohio.

Speaker 2 (48:21):
Right.

Speaker 3 (48:21):
It's a very very blue collar, great working class, lots
of pride, and it was a team that had a
great brand that that hadn't performed well on the pitch.
We invested probably the field, mean for the audience, which
is the field So British going for a minute to
switch my lingo when I'm talking about American football versus

(48:44):
global football. But we've we've tried to help Leads get back.
We were up in the Premier League for a few years,
got relegated, So they're for folks that don't know. The
bottom three teams of the Premier League moved down a level,
and then two teams on the second division automatically move
up and there's a playoff for the third spot, so
three teams move up. We were able to buy the

(49:07):
team out right three years ago when we got relegated,
and then we played in that championship game the first
year and lost. Unfortunately, we won the league last year,
so we had an automatic promotion and we are back
in the Premier League starting August eighteenth will host our
first Premier League game, and that it is the toughest

(49:30):
league in sports. Right You're competing against not just other teams,
but you have sovereign wealth funds that owned teams. You
have to be very very smart in order to be
able to keep your team up and work very very
hard and very very diligently. And that's a very very
difficult league to win. But we're hoping to make ourselves

(49:50):
a mainstay in the Premier League and keep building and growing.
We've loved soccer global football so much. There's an opportunity
some of our investors with leads to buy Glasgow Rangers,
which is a great, great storied franchise in Scottish football.

(50:11):
The one team has kind of dominated the Scottish League
for the last decade plus. Who is our biggest rival,
and they need a little bit of competition, so we're
gonna We're gonna bring them some competition.

Speaker 1 (50:25):
So outside of the US, football is soccer, yes, all
around the world.

Speaker 2 (50:32):
All around this is the only place where it's not.

Speaker 1 (50:35):
And the players in soccer football outside of the US
our household names outside the US, yes, just like our
players here household names in the US absolutely very quickly.
I know we got it. We're coming short on time,
and thanks so much for this time. This has been
really beautiful. Jed, can you give people a snapshot of

(50:55):
the economic how the economics are different owing a soccer
team from owning an NFL team, and then we're going
to wrap up with any advice you have for builders, leaders, investors,
people were trying to come up in this aspiration generation
to try to become a Jed York in the making
of John O'Brien and the making you know whatever, whoever

(51:17):
the hero Sheiro happens to be just in with some
some thoughtful advice you might give to them. But let's
get this the what's there between the soccer team, owning
a soccer team is economics and a US based NFL team.

Speaker 3 (51:32):
So a soccer team, you have global rights, so you
can sell jerseys, you can sell your your brand anywhere
and everywhere. The NFL it's that so there's a there's
a huge global opportunity, but you have to be good
enough for somebody in China or somebody on Australia to
care about your soccer team, right, and Leeds has a

(51:54):
big piece of that brand Rangers has a big piece
of that brand. We just need to make sure that
they continue to perform well on the pitch and continue
to perform better to continue to build and grow that.
But it's like anything, American football and global football are
the same. Like if if you can't create a great
atmosphere in your stadium, like that's where it starts, right,

(52:15):
No one wants to watch something on television if people
aren't going to go to the game, And like I
will put Leads and Rangers up against anyone in the world.
Their fans are the best of the best, and to
be able to watch a game in either one of
their stadiums, it's just it's a life changing experience. And

(52:37):
I think we can continue to do great things with
those brands and great things with those clubs and continue
to build them. And it's you know, there's obviously long
term asset appreciation. You know, teams trade for maybe one
to two times revenue in the smaller in the lower divisions,
and as you continue to build and grow, they can
trade from three day eight x revenue news and your

(53:00):
revenues increase significantly the higher up you get in the
leagues like that, that playoff game that I talked about
where there's a playoff from the third through the sixth
team in the second division in English football. They call
that it's like I think it's now like the two
hundred million pound game because that's the revenue increase that
you get from television from going from the second division

(53:22):
to the first division.

Speaker 1 (53:23):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (53:23):
So that's there's there's a great book called The Club
that sort of explains the history of the business of
global soccer and English football and how things have changed.
But that's a great read for anybody. That's the plan
the business aspects of the English Premier League. But there's

(53:46):
with our brand, with the forty nine ers and great
global brands and soccer and global soccer, there's just so
much more that we can do together and taking our
expertise and running a sports team and making sure that
we take the experiences that you have at those stadiums
today and continue to increase them and continue to make
them better. I think you're going to see a great
return on your investment. But this is not a widget business, right.

(54:12):
I would much rather be involved in sports. There's a
lot of ways to make money for people out there,
and you may not ever have the opportunity to invest
in a sports team. But if you do, you have
to have passion for the team that you're involved with.
You have to want to win, or number one, you're
just not gonna have any fun. And number two, I

(54:32):
don't think you're going to make that much money because
at the end of the day, it's an entertainment.

Speaker 2 (54:37):
Product and your fans will win.

Speaker 3 (54:40):
And if you don't have that passion to go win,
you're never going to see a financial return.

Speaker 1 (54:45):
It's the sports business, the business of sports brilliant. And
so what I heard you say is soccer football outside
the US is pure capitalism as it relates to the
US based version of this, which is more socio capitalism

(55:05):
in the sense that you're sharing revenue in front and
licensing rights with others. You got to sort of collaborate
with soccer. You do as you want within the rules.

Speaker 3 (55:15):
Yes, globally, and I mean even within the rules, like
their rules are are much much further out than what
any global and any American sports league is. There's still
people that break rules that like aren't aren't even written right.
You just have people that are spending a lot of
money that they shouldn't be spending. There's some it's too

(55:39):
complicated to get into, but financial fair play, you're only
allowed to spend so much money. You're only allowed to
lose so much money based off of how much revenue
you have coming in. And there are people that try
to game that system, and you see those people get
dock points every once in a while. But if that
was the NFL, if some of the things that happened
in the English Premier League happin in the n f L,

(56:01):
Roger would would take people to task. And then I
don't know that that happens in in in global football,
in soccer the same.

Speaker 1 (56:09):
So you me so excited about soccer. Now I'm gonna
I'm going. I'm going with you to one of these
few games. I'm just going to tag along. This is great.
So look, let's let's uh before you kick me out,
before your office says you got to go to another
appointment and thank you so much for this time. What
do you have to say to people who are strivers

(56:29):
who didn't get the memo? But as you and I
well know as Milki, as Michael Milkin has said that
intelligence is equally distributed, but opportunity is not. And one
thing one of the things you and I both anguish over.
And that's why when we are together, you and I
both will talk to the waiter, We'll say hello, to
the to the to the bellman, will stop and talk
to anybody because we realize we've been blessed and other

(56:53):
people are stressed. What advice do you have as somebody
who's gone And I'm sure you were underestimated because you
were the for the family. They just dismissed you because
you're a young person. Oh, they're just giving us to him.
And you have to prove yourself and your own worth
on your own terms and get your own respect. What
advice do you have for people coming up?

Speaker 3 (57:14):
Look, you're going to fail, and if you're not willing
to fail, like the bigger you're willing to fail, the
more you're willing to achieve able to achieve. And I
see it all the time where I have a few
students that I try to mentor and you know, somebody

(57:36):
said something to me very nice, like you said that
I'm the nicest billionaire that you know. There's only like,
however many billionaires, So hopefully I strive to be one
of the nicest people.

Speaker 2 (57:45):
I don't think it's that hard to.

Speaker 3 (57:46):
Be one of the nicest billionaires to a low bar, right,
But I was talking to a young student who she's.

Speaker 1 (57:54):
More of a nicer kind by the way, good.

Speaker 3 (57:57):
Thank you kind. That's probably right nice. My wife would
definitely say.

Speaker 1 (58:04):
Folks negotiating with you wouldn't say you're nice, but they
I would say you're kind.

Speaker 3 (58:10):
I know for me, my family built two buildings at
the University of Notre Dame. I went to Notre Dame,
so it's very easy to say, like, you got in
here for this reason, that reason, whatever.

Speaker 2 (58:20):
That's fine.

Speaker 3 (58:20):
People can say whatever they want, like I graduated with honors.
No one let me graduate with honors, right, And somebody
can say to you, oh, well, the color of your
skin and you got in for this, and you know
there's this and that, Like that's great. You can say
whatever you want, like what you've achieved. No one gave
you your achievements like you've earned them.

Speaker 2 (58:41):
And that's where I.

Speaker 3 (58:43):
Would tell anybody, don't worry about what people say. Don't
worry about whatever failures happened, because they're going to happen.
You look at the statistics of billionaires. Most people aren't
billionaires until they're in their fifties or sixties, right, My
grandfather are millionaires, by the way, Yes, And it is
like it's it sounds cliche, but like the first million,

(59:04):
the first whatever is always the hardest to make. And
then once you figure out what you love and you
figure out how to be really really good at that,
it is so much easier to continue to build and grow.

Speaker 2 (59:16):
And I see it.

Speaker 3 (59:17):
A great friend of mine and I we talk about it,
especially with athletes, right, Like they become black belts in
what they do, and a lot of athletes struggle because
they don't know how to go back to being a
white belt in entrepreneurship, in whatever else. So if you're
willing to go back to being a white belt and
you've already figured out how to be a black belt

(59:38):
and you know that process to get there, you're going
to get there much quicker than other people. But you
always have to go back to being a white belt.
You always have to start from the beginning. And the
more time and effort you're willing to put into something
at the beginning and something that you love, the much
more you can achieve and don't worry about whatever that

(01:00:00):
struggle is for a year for three years, for five years.
It is worth it if you're willing to go put
that time and effort into it to achieve what you want.

Speaker 1 (01:00:09):
Now I understand why you called me. You were a
white build in social justice. You were you were a
white built in race relations. You were a white build
and stupid people doing stupid things that you didn't understand.
You were a white built in and going and people
going backwards. And you're trying to become a black built
in solution so that you can be a bridge for others.

(01:00:33):
And I thank you for that.

Speaker 3 (01:00:35):
I mean, you've been a wonderful, wonderful teacher, and I've
had a lot of other great mentors, and that's probably
the best experience I've had, is giving back to young
people and being a mentor. Like I've been a mentee,
and I still try to find mentors for myself. But
when you can have both, when you have mentors and

(01:00:56):
mentees like I don't know that there's a better situation
in that in the world and being able to give back.
And that's what I tell anybody that is a mentee.
So you know, you don't know me anything except when
you're as old as I am, when you're forty four.
Please please pay this forward and give this to somebody else.

Speaker 1 (01:01:14):
Yes, uh, and you've been You're also a very good friend.
And my staff, my team was all excited about you
coming over. Like Jay was like, they don't do it.
He doesn't do this very often, Like you don't see
Ja doesn't do an interview. I said, really, all right,
we talk all the time. But thanks for trusting me
and for sharing with this audience. I think a lot

(01:01:35):
of people will get a lot out of this. The
whole black belt going to white belt to get back
up the black belt in a different area, to bucket
to sort of buckle up, go up, and then be
willing to unbuckle, come down to a new space, buckle
up again, come back up a new mountain. I mean
to do that repeatedly, and I mean that's that's that's

(01:01:56):
a masterclass all by itself.

Speaker 3 (01:01:58):
Well, I'll plug my buddy Targe his book and Power.
I'm one of the chapters in it that that's Tark. Yeah,
so I you know, even send me that's my age.
He's a year younger.

Speaker 1 (01:02:10):
Target black.

Speaker 3 (01:02:11):
No, he's he's from Afghanistan. Originally that's honorary black. He
read that book as well. But that's that's the key.
You ought to be willing to learn and grow and
that that's what keeps you young.

Speaker 1 (01:02:25):
Well. I love you, man, and my love to the family.
Thanks for this time you've you've you've put some pebbles
out into the universe, into the water that will create
ripples and turn into waves of opportunity as people have
taken this and will listen and I'm sure re listen
to pieces of this, share with their family and figure
out how they can become and their children can become

(01:02:47):
the Jed Yorks of the future. I love you, man,
this love it.

Speaker 2 (01:02:51):
Thank you so much.

Speaker 1 (01:02:52):
This is the Black Effect Network and iHeartRadio and season two,
Money and Wealth with John O'Bryant. We're Out. Money and

(01:03:14):
Wealth with John O'Brien is a production of the Black
Effect podcast Network. For more podcasts from the Black Effect
Podcast Network, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows.