Ep 28: The Politics of Black Business Ownership - Featuring Lanny Smith - Spolitics

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, what's up everybody.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
I'm Jameel Hill and welcome to politics and I heart
podcast and unbothered production.

Speaker 1 (00:07):
Time to get spolitical.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Here's something I never thought i'd be doing, delving into
Bill Belichick's personal life. Now one I didn't know someone
like Bill Belichick was actually capable of having a personal
life because he's this guy.

Speaker 3 (00:30):
But you think having a thirty.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
Seven year on a Cincinnati it's nothing about the past,
nothing about the futures. Right now, we're praying for Cincinnati.

Speaker 3 (00:39):
Do you feel like the talent you have here as good?
We're getting ready for Cincinnati.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
To quote Shack, Bill, I was unfamiliar with your game,
so I never never, never, ever, ever ever thought i'd
see a day. Well, your seventy three year old ass
is out here dating a twenty four year old.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
It's giving.

Speaker 3 (00:57):
Why would a woman?

Speaker 4 (00:58):
It's fine if you be Andrews and a big fat, greasy, bloated,
stink gelatine ass.

Speaker 1 (01:05):
Motherfuck I kid, I kid.

Speaker 2 (01:07):
Now consider that just an excuse to play a little
clip from Harlem Knights. Now, we have seen relationships torpedo
many a sports career, even coaches. I mean, I'm old
enough to remember when former Arkansas hit football coach Bobby
Patrino literally crashed out. Now former UFL football coach Bobby
Patrino is now off the field after new information comes

(01:28):
to light about his recent motorcycle crash in Arkansas.

Speaker 5 (01:30):
Patrino is now the head football coach at the University
of Arkansas, and this morning he's on paid administrative leave.

Speaker 1 (01:35):
Our Eric King joins US Now with more on this story.

Speaker 3 (01:38):
Good morning, Eric, Good morning to you.

Speaker 6 (01:39):
You guys will remember Patrino was in a motorcycle accident
Sunday nights near the University of Arkansas. Originally, he said
no one was with him at the time of the crash. Well,
yesterday a police report confirmed that was not the case.
Please say, twenty five year old Jessica Durell was on
the bike with him. Darell is a newly hired employee
with the football team. Immediately after that report was released,
the fifty one year old coach was put on administrative leave.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
Yo, Bobby was out there, fulan. The woman he was
in the accident with was twenty five. Patrino was a
married father of four at the time. Now, I know
this is going to be hard to believe, but they
were more than just friends. Patrino even gave her twenty
thousand dollars of the University of Arkansas's money.

Speaker 1 (02:20):
I that young old love.

Speaker 5 (02:22):
Now.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
I don't really like to be all up in somebody
else's relationship, but this Bill Belichick situation is pretty hard
to avoid. Bill is the greatest NFL coach of the
salary cap era. But right now that man needs a
pep talk from John Witherspoon.

Speaker 3 (02:36):
I'm Marcy.

Speaker 7 (02:39):
I hear a girl doctor got you pussy with whyn't
you you first? It don't be pushy's whip whipped that
puzzy look.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
This ladies and gentlemen is full on simping. Bill Belichick
was born in nineteen fifty two. That is, are you
civil rights in voting rights legislation? He was born basically
on the coketails of Jim Crow. That man grew up
with a black and white TV. A gallon of milk
wasn't even a dollar, gas was twenty three cents a
gallon rosa parks hadn't even happened yet. He is civil

(03:17):
rights worker years old. He is Cold War years old.
He is motherfucker's still getting polio years old. But all
jokes aside this relationship is having an impact on Bill's
professional life, their reports that Hudson is the real CEO
of Bill Belichick. She c seed on emails. He refers
to her as his muse in his book. She ain't

(03:39):
just some random arm candy. She's out here running shit,
and that much was made clear after this awkward exchange.
During the sixty minutes Profile on Bill Belichick.

Speaker 3 (03:49):
Jordan was a constant presence during our interview. You have
Jordan right over there. Everybody in the world seems to
be following this relationship. They've got an opinion about private life.
He's got nothing to do with them, but they're invested
in it. How do you deal with that?

Speaker 1 (04:06):
Never been too worried about what everybody else.

Speaker 3 (04:08):
Thanks, just to try to do what I feel like
is that's for me and what's right? How did you
guys meet?

Speaker 1 (04:13):
Not talking about this?

Speaker 4 (04:15):
No, No, it's a topic neither one of them is
comfortable commenting on.

Speaker 2 (04:20):
Now, seeing that exchange is why people are not only
side ey A'm Bill Belichick, but they're actually concerned about him.

Speaker 1 (04:26):
People such as Charles Barkley.

Speaker 3 (04:28):
What is Bill Belichick doing? Well?

Speaker 5 (04:31):
This is a very slippery subject for me because Bill's
one of my really good friends. I don't I'm not
sure what's going on. You know, He's been a great
friend for me for a long time. We've been Fransance,
he coach for the Browns. I think he got to
be very careful right now. This is starting to be

(04:53):
on a very slippery slope.

Speaker 1 (04:54):
If Barkley is worried, then we all need to be
worried now.

Speaker 2 (04:58):
While on the face of it, it looks like a
class that's a case of old guy getting caught up
with a young woman. I'm wondering, though, what his players
and even prospects who might be considering going to University
of North Carolina are thinking right about now. Is it
possible to lose a little bit of respect for someone
whose nose appears to be so wide open about someone
who is around the same age as his players. But

(05:20):
if he likes it, I guess the rest of us
just have to love it, Which is the nicest way
that I can say. Ay, Bill, you tripping. I'm Jamelle Hill,
and I approved this message. I'm so excited about today's
show because one of the great joys in life is
just putting good people on and not that my guess
today needs me, but I pretty much rock his clothing

(05:42):
four or five times a week. He has such an
incredible story sharing how his NBA career ended just mere
weeks before he was about to take his place on
the Sacramento Kings. His business is on the rise and
is considered to be one of the best clothing brands
out there in the nation.

Speaker 1 (05:58):
And so all I can say is that you guys
are going to learn.

Speaker 2 (06:02):
A ton of gems from the founder of Actively Black.
Coming up next on Spolitics, Lanny Smith. So, Lanny, I'm
gonna start this episode with the question I ask every

(06:22):
guest that appears on Politics, and that is name an
athlete or a moment that made you love sports.

Speaker 4 (06:28):
Oh, Michael Jordan, I'm a Jordan's stand. Uh so, Yeah,
when I fell in love with Michael Jordan, that's what
made me want to play in the NBA.

Speaker 3 (06:38):
I was obsessed.

Speaker 4 (06:40):
I was born in eighty four, so I would say
around that first championship, Yeah, it was.

Speaker 3 (06:46):
It was a rap for me.

Speaker 4 (06:47):
I'm still walking around waring Jordan's just because of that.

Speaker 6 (06:51):
That.

Speaker 1 (06:52):
Yeah, mj Well, you you wore twenty three.

Speaker 4 (06:55):
As a player, right, Yeah, when I say I was
a stand it was. It was like, really, I tried
to I was a point guard though, so it was
like my game didn't match trying to play like him.
But everything from the number too. I would wear legs, leave,
I wore a wristband. Yeah, I thought I was MJ
in my mind for sure.

Speaker 2 (07:14):
Now, like a lot of young players, especially like everybody
sort of has that dream of I want to make
it to the NBA, but you actually did made it there,
and then you're a month into your NBA career and
you suffered a devastating injury.

Speaker 1 (07:29):
What happened?

Speaker 4 (07:31):
Man, I'm guarding pick and roll and practice the two
bigs fighting over each other. So I have two six ten,
six eleven, two hundred and fifty pound guys that tripped
over each other, fell into my left knee, tod the
articulate carlage in my left knee, and I had two microfracture.

Speaker 3 (07:45):
Surgeries, and it was it was, it was over with.

Speaker 4 (07:49):
And it was When you say devastating, I mean, like
this is my my dream.

Speaker 3 (07:55):
Like it was. It was playing a B and C.
I had no backup.

Speaker 4 (07:58):
Playing Every birthday wish growing up it was to play
in the NBA.

Speaker 3 (08:04):
That was like my singular focus.

Speaker 4 (08:06):
So to get that opportunity to be blessed to put
that jersey on that's got Jerry West on the chest
and it's got my name on the back meant everything
to me. And then to have it be gone so
quickly with something that really really changed a lot of
things in my life. And I'd say even now to
this day, I still have my moments where I feel

(08:29):
the mourning of a dream that I had.

Speaker 3 (08:34):
But I'm still kind of mourning it a little bit.

Speaker 2 (08:37):
Does that make it hard for you to watch basketball?

Speaker 1 (08:40):
Sometimes?

Speaker 3 (08:41):
It did in the beginning.

Speaker 4 (08:42):
In the beginning I could, I just couldn't watch it.
I was, you know, I played my college ball at
the University of Houston. I got asked if I wanted
to be an assistant coach, and I was like, I don't
even want to be around the game like it was.

Speaker 3 (08:53):
They was that painful. And then you know.

Speaker 4 (08:55):
My class it's a little better now because it's only
I think two guys in the league form my class.

Speaker 3 (09:01):
My class is you know, Lebron James, that's you know.

Speaker 4 (09:05):
We My first time playing against Lebron was in the
seventh grade at AU Nationals in Orlando, you know what
I mean. And so seeing so many of you know,
my peers playing at you know, early on when when
it when it ended, was hard. It was hard to
see all these guys still in the league knowing that, man,
this is this is my dream that I fought for.
But that healing process for me came when, you know,

(09:27):
God blessed me with some other dreams afterwards, you know,
launching active faith and then obviously actively black. Being able
to kind of transfer that same passion and work ethic
and drive that it took to make it to the league.
I've been able to transfer that into that and then
the blessing even from that is the NBA for the
last I don't know how many years now, you know,
they've invited me in to come speak at rookie Transition

(09:50):
program the G League, speak to the different teams and
talking to guys about transitioning into life after basketball. Because normally,
you know, it's a guy from a a previous generation,
an older guy, and guys aren't really in tune with that.
But when I stand up in front of the fellas
and I'm like, the last time you played basketball could
be the last time, and You never know when your

(10:10):
last time to step on that court will be. They
perk up when they see somebody that looks like them
and can talk their language, telling them this this, this
thing could end at any moment, So at least be
preparing your mind for what that life after basketball will be.

Speaker 2 (10:24):
That's not an easy thing to heal from. So what
did what did your healing journey look like after it
was clear your career was over in basketball.

Speaker 3 (10:34):
I'm still on that journey.

Speaker 4 (10:35):
But I'll say my faith is something that I leaned on,
and I leaned on heavily. My mother raised me in
the church, and you know, she always would would tell
me whatever God has for you is for you. And
the fact that I even got to where I was
with the Sacramento Kings was already a testament to that

(10:56):
because I actually had what they thought was a career
in the injury in college. I broke my foot. Had
three surgeries on my foot. The last one was to
save half my foot from being amputated. They tried to
put a screw in to fuse the bone together and
it got infected and that infection threatened, you know, the
health of my foot.

Speaker 3 (11:15):
Luckily, they saved the foot.

Speaker 4 (11:16):
But the doctors told me then that you probably won't
be able to play basketball anymore. So I came back
from that and still, you know, was able to touch
my dream. And so I knew that if God has
something for you, it's for you, regardless of what anybody
else says, in regardless of the circumstances. So I leaned
on that, you know, and faith is evidence of things

(11:36):
I've seen. So it's like I couldn't see what my
future was going to be after basketball ended. I didn't
know what I was going to be doing. But I
just relied heavily on prayer, my family. My mother was
still very supportive of me.

Speaker 8 (11:50):
And.

Speaker 4 (11:52):
I think just grasping the fact that God had a
different plan for my life and submitting to that, that's
really what helped that healing. How hard was that to accept, though,
I mean I went through deep stages of depression. I
mean I went through stages where I felt like my
life was worthless, you know what I mean, Because like
I said, I hadn't it was NBA was playing a

(12:14):
B and C and often what happens, and I see
this with a lot of athletes, even those who make
it and are able to enjoy their careers. At some
point that ball stops bouncing and they still have that
struggle afterwards. And what I noticed is this, it's this
emotional and psychological connection that you start the game early.

(12:36):
You start to receive kind of that praise and adoration
even at an early age, and I think you start
to attach your self worth, your self identity, your self
esteem to this thing. It only gets worse as you
get older, because you in high school, you're the man
in your city, the man in your state. You go
to college, and then you make it. The longer you're
in it, the more attached your being becomes to this

(12:57):
this thing. And when it ends, that identity crisis, I
think it happens to everybody. I've talked to guys who
played ten fifteen years in the league and they're still
dealing with it, like I don't know who I am
without this basketball, you know what I mean.

Speaker 3 (13:15):
And so.

Speaker 4 (13:18):
Yeah, I think it's it's tough. Even when I go
talk two kids now, I do not encourage them to
go play in the NBA. And I don't say that
from a place of discouragement. The truth of the matter is,
it's four hundred and fifty jobs in the NBA, and
all those jobs don't open up every year. So you're
literally talking about lottery ticket chances to play in the NBA.

(13:41):
But it's not as easy to just going to the
corner store and buying that lottery ticket.

Speaker 3 (13:45):
You got to dedicate.

Speaker 4 (13:46):
Fifteen, sixteen, seventeen years of your life just to even
have the chance for the lottery ticket. And especially for
the black community, I feel like so many of us
when we're young, we see these opportunities as the only
way out.

Speaker 3 (14:02):
I got to make it to the league.

Speaker 4 (14:04):
I got to make it rapping these opportunities that are
really lottery take chances. So then what happens when you
don't win that lottery is you've got to You got a.

Speaker 3 (14:13):
Ton of a ton of.

Speaker 4 (14:15):
Unhealed people walking around with that resentment inside that you
gave your whole life to something and you didn't get
the end result that you were that you were aiming for.
And I think that's I think that's dangerous. So one
of the things that I try to do is let
us know we can be more, you know what I mean.
It's cool to have that dream, but we can actually
be more, and let's broaden our horizons on what we

(14:38):
think we can be.

Speaker 2 (14:39):
You know, So when did you start to put the
pieces together and and really giving some serious thought and
putting stuff in motion in terms of like what your
life was going to look like without basketball.

Speaker 4 (14:54):
The injury in college was a wake up call to
a certain degree, like wait, a minut like this, you know, well,
what am I gonna do if this doesn't work out?

Speaker 3 (15:04):
You know what I mean.

Speaker 4 (15:04):
I still don't think I put a lot of thought
into it, but I will say it changed my mentality
to the point where when I was at rookie transition program,
I remember Chris A Chin, who's like the league mama,
everybody's mama to everybody. I remember meeting her and I
went up after our meeting and I introduced myself.

Speaker 3 (15:27):
I'm like, my name is Lanny Smith. Pleasure to meet you.

Speaker 4 (15:30):
I just like to if there's any opportunities in the
league office or whatever, I just want to explore those things.
And she was so taken back that she was like,
let's let's let me take you to dinner tonight, so
let's sit down and talk about this. And to this day,
like she's a phone call away, and she says every
time I remember you being so intentional about introducing yourself
to everybody who came to speak, and She's like a
lot of players don't even recognize how much those relationships

(15:53):
and that networking can help them when the game ends.
So I don't think I had no vision. I had
no idea did this is what I would be doing?
But I did know that I needed to start at
least widening my network outside of just playing basketball. What
are the other things that I could possibly be doing?

(16:14):
And that's that's proven to be very fruitful for me.

Speaker 2 (16:18):
Yeah, the first step was active faith, that active faith
come together.

Speaker 4 (16:25):
Yeah, jay Z got this line that I quote often.
He said, and if they would have told him that
whole was sell clothing not in his lifetime, wasn't in
my right mind. And I think about that often because
there's now a single point in my life that I
ever thought this is what I would be doing, and
with active faith I was. It was literally after my

(16:47):
second microfracture surgery. So microfractic surgery is an eleven and
a half eleven and a half month rehab, it's a
year of rehab.

Speaker 3 (16:55):
I had two of them.

Speaker 4 (16:56):
So when I had the first one and the doctors
was like, yes, oh, it's over for you.

Speaker 3 (17:01):
I was like, yeah, I heard that before, you know,
I heard that before. I'm gonna be back.

Speaker 4 (17:05):
So I went full into the training of trying to
come back to play. I wasn't going to give up
with my dream that easy. And my knee couldn't handle
the training. They had to go back in and redo
the microfracture surgery. So then that's a whole nother year.
And I knew right. And so after that surgery, I
remember praying and I talked to God just like this.

(17:27):
I said, God, if this is being taken from me,
I'm begging you to show me what you want me
to do with my life. I literally said this, like that,
whatever you showed me, that's what I'm.

Speaker 3 (17:33):
Going to do.

Speaker 4 (17:34):
And it was probably two weeks after I said that prayer,
this idea came to me of merging my faith, which
was very important to me, and my love for sports.
And it was like, how can I merge that in
a meaningful way? And it was like I grew up
wearing Nike and Adidas and these different brands, but those
brands don't speak to this part of me. And I

(17:55):
knew from being in fellowship of Christian athletes. I knew
from having you know, the friends that I had, like
Jeremy Lynn and Steph Curry, whose faith was something that
they carried with them. I was like, this means something
to a lot of people. Let me create in my mind,
which was like the faith based version of Nike.

Speaker 3 (18:12):
That's what That's how I saw it in my mind.

Speaker 4 (18:14):
And yeah, I felt very like purpose driven and missions
driven with it, that this would be a way to
spread the Gospel in a way that would be you know,
maybe not in your face, and something that a lot
of us can relate to that that carry our faith
with us wherever we go. That double entendre of being

(18:35):
active in your faith and also being an active were
brand was something that resonated with a lot of people,
and so I launched that brand out of my mom's house.
Steph and Jeremy Lynn were the first guys that were
like wearing the brand. And at the time, Jeremy was
in the g League. He gets called up and still
even then, you know, I remember him coming to Houston

(18:58):
and he's at the end of the bench with the
next we met for lunch and I gave him some
orange wrist bands. I said, active faith in Jesus name
I play and the guards that were in front of
him that got hurt. Next thing, you know, he's the
starting point guard for the New York Knicks and the
insanity happens. So he's on the cover of Time magazine
and Sports Illustrating. He's laying the ball up and you
see Active Faith on the wrist and like the website

(19:21):
crashed four times. It was just it was crazy. Yeah,
and then you know, and then obviously Steph becoming who
he became, and he still doesn't play a game without
wearing that risk band. It was something that really helped,
you know, launch the brand. But then I think the
biggest thing that I saw was that it was bigger

(19:41):
than just another apparel brand. We would get emails from
customers who would write and say, I just got diagnosed
with I got diagnosed with cancer and I felt like
giving up, but I wore my Active Face shirt to
my chemo treatment and it was just something that reminded
me to keep fighting and keep the faith. Still getting
chills I tell that story, but I was like, this

(20:03):
is this is powerful, you know what I mean? This
is not just another hoodie that somebody's wearing. It's something
that's positively impacting somebody's life.

Speaker 3 (20:11):
And the seed that was planning.

Speaker 4 (20:13):
To me understanding what was being built with that also
helped me, you know, with Actively Black as well.

Speaker 2 (20:18):
But Active Faith, I mean, as you just mentioned, was
quite successful, and then you make the decision to change
the brand and make it and turn it into Actively
It was.

Speaker 3 (20:28):
Actually two different brands. So I still own that.

Speaker 4 (20:30):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, we're working on some things to kind
of relaunch that in a in a different way, but
it's two separate brands.

Speaker 3 (20:37):
Okay, gotcha.

Speaker 2 (20:39):
But nevertheless you decided to pivot from that to Actively Black.

Speaker 1 (20:45):
How did that idea come about?

Speaker 3 (20:47):
Yeah, so, because it's a much.

Speaker 1 (20:50):
Different statement than Active Faith.

Speaker 4 (20:54):
So you know, my my parents raised me to be
proud of my culture, proud of who I am, proud
of my blacks. And one of the things that I
was doing as Active Faith was rising was I was
hiding myself from people knowing that I was the founder
of Active Faith. Like my personal social media was private.
You couldn't follow me unless I allowed you to follow me.

(21:14):
I was afraid that if the people knew that it
was this young black man, that it would negatively affect
the business. I would say about sixty five percent of
the customers for Active Faith were white Evangelical Christian, which
in this country, unfortunately, can be synonymous with racist. And

(21:36):
I had several incidents that supported that fear. You know,
you're a young entrepreneur, You're wearing all the hats, I'm
doing customer service. I'll never forget being on the phone
with a customer He's like, you sound like you're black,
and I was like, well, yeah, I am black, immediately
asked for a refund. There was an investment group that
was writing in over email about investing in Active Faith.

(21:57):
Went back and forth over email. We set up an
in person meeting. I'll never forget walking in that room
and seeing the looks on their face like they didn't
know it was me, and when they saw it was me,
all of a sudden, those conversations changed really quickly, you
know what I mean. And so then You've got twenty sixteen,

(22:18):
Donald Trump's first term and I'm seeing a lot of
the same people who are big supporters of Active Faith,
who are on their social brand, you know, talking about
how great it is to have a brand that represents
you know, their faith and this and that, and then
I could scroll and see them saying the most racist

(22:38):
thing you.

Speaker 3 (22:39):
Know, possible, and I'm just like.

Speaker 4 (22:42):
I was internally, I had this internal conflict because here
I am hiding myself from this multi billion dollar brand
that built out of my mom's house, that is doing
these great things. But I was hiding myself and the
reasons why it just really bothered me, you know what
I mean.

Speaker 3 (23:00):
And so.

Speaker 4 (23:02):
The thought already started creeping into my mind. If I
can build this type of brand for the faith based community,
can I do this for the black community? Put the
idea on the shelf. Twenty eighteen comes in the movie
Black Panther Comes Out, and.

Speaker 3 (23:17):
That movie, just that movie did something to me.

Speaker 4 (23:22):
It was like everything from seeing Chadwick Boseman on that
screen and seeing this representation of a black superhero with
skin like mine and hair like mine. We often don't
see very many positive images of black males, you know,
in media and movies, you know, so outside of athletics

(23:42):
and things like that, Like to see this superhero on
the screen was was so impactful to me personally. And
then to see the diaspora the way it came together
around that film was so powerful. So I remember walking
out of the theater saying, I want to create a
brand that makes my people feel the way that movie
made us feel. Put the idea on the shelf again.

(24:02):
I moved to la maybe six months before the pandemic hit,
and you know, the city was on lockdown, and I
remember saying, I don't want to let this time pass
without birthing something new. And then we all experienced twenty
twenty from our different vantage points, and I saw after
the murder of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, all of
these brands coming out making these performative declarations, and it

(24:25):
felt performative to me in the moment.

Speaker 3 (24:27):
Now, four or five years later.

Speaker 4 (24:28):
We see that it was, but in a moment, I
called it out for what it was, and that actually
what made me take that idea off the shelf. And
I was like, you know what, it's time for us
to stop asking for a seat at their table and.

Speaker 3 (24:40):
Build our own table.

Speaker 4 (24:41):
And that was the mentality and the attitude around actively
black being an athlete growing up wearing Nike and Adidas
and all these other brands. There are multi billion dollar
brands that have built their brands and have profited billions
of dollars off of black culture, black talent, black consumer
and I felt like hadn't adequately given back to the

(25:02):
black community. And so I was like, like, I said, well,
let's just stop asking for a seat at that table.
Let's build our own table, and then we can we
can feed our people in a meaningful way.

Speaker 3 (25:12):
So that was that was really what led to it.

Speaker 4 (25:16):
And then, you know, just put my head down and yeah,
it was during COVID Out of my Apartment launch Actively
Black on Black Friday twenty twenty.

Speaker 2 (25:24):
You, as I said a moment ago, actively black is
a much different statement.

Speaker 1 (25:30):
Immediately.

Speaker 2 (25:30):
It is because whenever I wear actively Black, it never fails.
Somebody white asked me about it. They're like actively black
once that. Yeah, I was like, yeah, don't get it,
but no, I'm just kidding.

Speaker 6 (25:43):
No.

Speaker 2 (25:43):
But I was like, oh, it's just a it's an
athletic brand, you know whatever. And I'll give like a
twenty second spill.

Speaker 3 (25:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (25:50):
But you know, and this is a debate I know
that we've always had in our community, and it seems
like it pops up every couple months now social media.
Is that saying you're a black owned business and now
you have a a actively.

Speaker 3 (26:06):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (26:06):
Yeah, I'm sure some people probably told you maybe that's
not a good idea.

Speaker 4 (26:11):
Yeah, not some people, Damn everybody. I mean, I had
black people telling me that's not going to work, that's
not going to be successful.

Speaker 5 (26:19):
You know.

Speaker 3 (26:19):
I was calling around, I was talking.

Speaker 4 (26:21):
I was sharing this idea with some different people, just
trying to get some feedback before I launched it. I
had x Nike executives that were black that told me
if you put black and his name, it's not going
to be successful. Do not do that, you know what
I mean. And I received it in a way where
I was like the fact that so many people are

(26:42):
telling me not to do this actually makes me think
that this is purposeful and that I need to because
I felt like so many people were speaking from a
place of trauma, speaking from a place of fear. Oftentimes,
especially in those corporate environments, people are having to minimize
who they are in order to be successful. They're having

(27:03):
to minimize their blackness, They're having to code switch, they're
having to do whatever in order to not be seen
as a threat in order to be successful. Like that's
where that's coming from, Is that that trauma that fear,
So I actually need to do this to show you
that it can work, but also so that we can

(27:24):
reclaim and redefine what that means, because I think you're
also taking the definition that everybody else has given you
of what that means to be black and the negative
connotations that have been associated with it. And then when
you look at when you look at the numbers, Mackenzie
released a report that said Black Americans today are spending

(27:48):
fifty billion annually on apparel and shoes, and by twenty
thirty that number is going to rise to seventy billion
annually on apparel and shoes. This is just Black America, right,
So all these people that were telling me, oh, you're
going to alienate so much of the market and it's
going to be too small for you to scale, Nike

(28:12):
does fifty five billion a year in revenue, and I'm
not saying that that's what we're going to do. But
what I'm saying is, if my people are spending fifty
to seventy billion annually on apparel and shoes and we
don't have a single multi billion dollar black owned apparel
of brand, that's a problem.

Speaker 3 (28:30):
And I'm going to build it. You know, what I mean,
And we've seen in the past.

Speaker 4 (28:38):
We see now whatever Black culture creates or becomes cool
to Black culture, the rest of the world adopts.

Speaker 3 (28:44):
Anyway.

Speaker 4 (28:46):
Hip hop is one of the biggest art forms in
the world right now. That will started by black and
brown kids that weren't necessarily creating something for the entire world.
They were creating something that was an expression for them,
and then the whole world adopted.

Speaker 3 (28:59):

Speaker 4 (29:00):
They're doing break dance competitions in the Olympics, even though
I don't think I saw any black people.

Speaker 1 (29:05):
Manich was very started.

Speaker 3 (29:08):
It was like we kind of create you know what
I'm saying, Fubu.

Speaker 4 (29:13):
I remember in Sync and justin Timberlake and Britney Spears
wearing fubu, you know what I mean, for us by us,
you know what I mean.

Speaker 3 (29:20):
So it's like that's one part of it.

Speaker 4 (29:23):
But then the other part I think is also important
to mention is we welcome everybody to buy and we're
actively black.

Speaker 3 (29:30):
Right if you support.

Speaker 4 (29:33):
The black community and you respect and love black culture,
you could wear actively black and you don't have to
be black to do those.

Speaker 3 (29:41):
Things, you know what I mean? And I Liken it too.

Speaker 4 (29:44):
I've never been to a Mexican restaurant where people stood
outside and said, oh, I'm not Mexican, I can't eat here.
Never been to an Italian restaurant where people stood outside like,
you know, I'm not Italian, I can't eat here. You
go inside and you enjoy somebody else's culture. You go
into a Mexican restaurant. They got Mexican music playing, and
they've got some brail rows and everything hanging on the wall.
You're immersed in Mexican culture and you're eating Mexican food,

(30:06):
and you can still remain who you are. And you
walk out and you still who you are? Why is
that so taboo and an issue when it comes to
black culture? You can enjoy this if you're respectful and
honor you know who we are and what this is
being built for.

Speaker 3 (30:20):
Anybody can wear it as you were.

Speaker 2 (30:25):
You know, once you've made the decision, as you say,
to take this off the shelf and launch this, what
would you say was like sort of the first big
turning point, Like you knew it could work, But what
was the first turning point where we're like, oh, it's
definitely going to work.

Speaker 3 (30:40):
Day one to launch.

Speaker 4 (30:43):
After having the experience with Active Faith and building a
brand from the ground up. Active Faith at about one
hundred thousand revenue the first year. Actively Black did fifty
five thousand in the first day. And the inventory that
I ordered that I thought would last the first three
months for actively black sold out in the first three weeks.

Speaker 2 (31:04):
So was this was this just like through word like
your marketing, Like what that is a hell of a yeah?

Speaker 4 (31:13):
Yeah, yeah. Social media is such an amazing tool. You know,
you use it the right way and all that, It's
an amazing tool. And so what I learned from Active
Faith and also what I've seen from other startup brands
that have that have really had success over the last
ten years, is the focus on building community and not
just finding somebody to sell a product to.

Speaker 6 (31:35):
Right.

Speaker 4 (31:35):
So I started the Instagram for Active Black long before
we actually had a product ready, and was everything that
we posted was about what the brand stood for, what
it represented. I would post even product mockups of what
was coming, and I saw the tribe as I called them,

(31:58):
they started gravitating towards to ward it immediately because we
have lacked representation in this industry that, like I said,
it's profited billions off of us, but what ownership have
you seen in this industry? So I think there was
already this awakening of our people of understanding that. And
so before we launched, I had ten thousand email addresses collected.

(32:21):
There's probably about four or five thousand text messages that
were collected. So on launch day, there was already this
anticipation of this brand, and I could tell that the people,
you know, it was something that they didn't even know
that they necessarily needed or wanted, but then when they

(32:42):
saw it, they're like, you know what this represents me?

Speaker 3 (32:44):
That's that's that's what we need to be.

Speaker 4 (32:46):
And so it started this snowball from day one that
we're still trying to catch up to. So you know,
if any of the tribe sees this, I know y'all
frustrated with us being out of stock all the time.
We're trying to catch up to the to the to
the growth. But yeah, the tribe has just been supported
from day one.

Speaker 2 (33:04):
As you said, the response, I mean it was so immediate.
I think Essence had an event and he was in
the super Bowl the year I want to say the
year the Rams were in it, and I think that's
where I met you and you handed me a bag
of actively Black stuff. Now I can say, you know
when you, I guess have some level of fame about you.
People give you free stuff all the time, right, and

(33:25):
I remember looking through the stuff. I think I might
have looked through it at the event. I was like, man,
this is some kind of dope like and you also,
thankfully you gave it back to my husband too. And
then ever since that day, it's like, I mean, we
just love the brand so much, and people ask me,
you know how often you were actively black every day?

Speaker 1 (33:47):
That is in a while, that would be the answer.
It is by far my favorite thing, you know, to wear.

Speaker 2 (33:53):
So and then seeing the response on social media, as
you said, you built a community around it, which gives
you a much different feel. But nevertheless, for any business,
but especially for a black business, there's a lot of sort.

Speaker 3 (34:05):
Of challenges with that.

Speaker 1 (34:07):
Your brand took off super fast, and it said people complain.
I'll see them on your Instagram page, always complained.

Speaker 2 (34:15):
But nevertheless, though you know what were even as you
knew you had something, were some of those those challenges.

Speaker 4 (34:21):
That faced Yeah, you know, one one important piece that
I think you touched on when you got to see
the gear was I was very intentional about the quality right.
Being an athlete, I was privy to the best of
the best, and I wanted to knock down the stereotype
that if you buy a black own that you got
to sacrifice quality, because unfortunately, that is the stereotype, and

(34:44):
sometimes there is some there is some truth to it,
but I think that all stems from the the inequalities
that have existed as far as black founders and black
businesses getting the access to the resources to be able
to build their businesses in a certain way. Like the
numbers are insane, less than zero point zero three percent

(35:04):
of all black founders receive venture capital investment, you know
what I mean. And so when you're a lot of
times our people don't understand that difference that some of
these white owned European on brands, the level of resource
that they have to invest in the best quality and
build out their teams and all that kind of stuff

(35:25):
that changes that customer experience. And so a lot of
us are starting from from nothing or negatives and a
lot of us are poring our life savings into something
to build from scratch.

Speaker 3 (35:35):
So there is this.

Speaker 4 (35:36):
There's a space of grace that sometimes we need for
those growing pains until we can get to the point
where we have the resources to truly invest into all
the things that it takes to operate that level.

Speaker 3 (35:50):
But I would say some of those challenges were one.

Speaker 4 (35:55):
The racist that started hitting me up was was insane,
and I mean to this day, they still haven't stopped
my my inbox, my comments, my email, my everything. I mean,
there was a lot of anger from certain folks that
we were building this black owned thing, you know what
I mean, that was so boldly.

Speaker 3 (36:17):
And unapologetically black.

Speaker 4 (36:21):
And on the flip side, some of the opposition even
from our own people that didn't understand what we're building
and why we're building it this way. Even some of
those black people are like, why you got to say
that it's black owned? Why do you know?

Speaker 8 (36:35):
And And.

Speaker 3 (36:40):
That's That's been some of the toughest.

Speaker 4 (36:42):
Some of the issues I've had with my own people
have been some of the toughest because it hurts because
I look at us like family, right, and your proximity
to somebody affects the level of hurt that you feel.
Whenever there's there's something you know, there's friction. The racist
at the end of the day, they are news, you
know what I'm saying, But they don't hurt my feelings
I expected from them. Anytime black people have decided to

(37:07):
build our own there, it's always been met with backlash
and opposition. You know, whether you're talking about Black Wall
Street and Rosewood, these these black communities that were built
that was self sufficient, that saw you know, black wealth thriving,
and then they were burnt to the ground and massacred,
you know what I'm saying. So but outside of that,
you know, the giants that are in the game, I

(37:30):
didn't think that they would be. I didn't think I'd
be on their radar this soon. So I've had some
issues with some of those bigger brands blocking deals for me.

Speaker 3 (37:42):
You know, our first we.

Speaker 4 (37:46):
Our first NIL deal was Travis Hunter, Shaduor Sanders, and
Shiloh Sanders when they were at Jackson State. That was
actually our first one was Daja Kelly. We signed a
black woman first, Daja Kelly, Sho's the point guard at
UNC at the time. And then the second one was
Shaduor Sanders, Shot Santas and Travis Hunner And when they
went to Colorado and Nike got more involved.

Speaker 3 (38:09):
They you know, they paid the big they played the
big bank, take a little bank. They played gangsters a little.

Speaker 4 (38:13):
Bit, and I received some phone calls like stop posting
these guys on the brand page. I'm like, we have
a signed agreement, in a contract with them. There are
certain assets that we're supposed to be able to do
this for. And the behind the scenes of that got ugly,
and that that level of opposition is something that I

(38:36):
wasn't prepared for at this early stage. You're talking about
multi billion dollar brand, you know what I mean. And
I want to make sure I clarify like I've remained
quiet on that one, especially while those guys were still
in college, because I didn't want there to be any issues,
especially publicly with young black men. Make no mistake about it,

(38:57):
I have no b for a problem with them. I've
been cheering them on NonStop, So proud of those those
young kings. But what that brand did on the back end,
it was something that, you know, it made me realize
what I'm dealing with stepping into this game.

Speaker 2 (39:18):
I don't know if you looked at it this way,
but in a strange way, it's actually it should be
flattering because See, they wouldn't do that if they didn't
consider you threatening, you know what I mean, Like if
you were nobody for them to be concerned about, then
that would be one thing.

Speaker 3 (39:32):
But validation.

Speaker 2 (39:33):
See, they see that you are somebody. Hey, we need
to worry about this.

Speaker 3 (39:38):
And I'm gonna say this humbly. They do need to
be worried about us.

Speaker 4 (39:42):
And the reason why I say that is people have
asked me, well, how are you going to compete in
this space with the with the Nikes and Lululemons and
Adidas of the world. And I said, well, I can't
compete on R and D. They spend hundreds of millions
in research and developmental product. I can't compete with marketing dollars,
none of that. But the authoruthenticity in which we're.

Speaker 3 (40:01):
Building this brand.

Speaker 4 (40:03):
Nike can spend a billion dollars, they can't out black
actively black. This is who we are twenty four to seven,
three sixty five, not just for a Black History Month collection,
not just for Juneteenth. This is who we are twenty
four to seven, three sixty five. And as I continue
to see more and more of the tribe and more
and more of my people understand the value in supporting
and wearing and buying something that is black on that

(40:27):
represents you unapologetically. That's the moat that protects us from
having to compete in these other areas. I can't compete
in those other areas, and I know that. But you know,
I often tell people Nike, Adidas, all these brands, they
want you to be a walking billboard for them. They
want you to walk around with the swoosh, with the
three stripes whatever on your chest and be a walking

(40:49):
billboard for the brand. The strength of actively black is
the tribe is wearing the product and they don't feel
like they're walking billboards.

Speaker 3 (40:55):
For the brand.

Speaker 4 (40:56):
They feel like the brand is a billboard for them.
They feel like actively black represents who they are, you
know what I mean. And that's an intrinsic value that
can't be penetrated by another brand, no matter what they
spend and what they do. So I'm not anti anybody else,
just like I've always said, being pro black doesn't mean

(41:17):
I'm anti anybody else. It just means I love me
and I love my people. Same thing here, I'm wearing
Jordan's right now. You know what I'm saying, I'm not
anti Nike. I'm not anti Adidas anybody, but I do
believe it's time for us to build and own something
that the culture owns.

Speaker 3 (41:34):
Yeah so.

Speaker 2 (41:35):
But nevertheless, though you have been able to sign some
really big deals and do some great collaborations. I want
to ask you about that, and in particular, I want
to ask you about a collaboration that seemed to come
about because it's something you ask Ryan Cooler. But we're
going to take a quick break and we'll be right
back with more with Landysmith. So, I saw something that

(42:04):
you posted on your Instagram where it was about Ryan Coopler.
You know, Centers for a lot of people, myself included
best movie I've seen this year, and I've had a
chance to sit down with Ryan a few times.

Speaker 1 (42:15):
Great guy.

Speaker 2 (42:16):
But Ryan was speaking in Los Angeles. Y, he was
speaking in Los Angeles, and you asked him a question, right.

Speaker 4 (42:24):
And what was it that I was asking him about
how he wrote the character kill Monger and.

Speaker 2 (42:30):
Asked him about that, and he had a very thoughtful,
as he often does, a thoughtful answer. So I'm going
to play that clip and then ask you a question
about it after we hear what he said.

Speaker 4 (42:42):
And there has been this divide between African Americans and Africans,
and I saw that being able to have that conversation
was powerful and how it brought brought us together. So
I wanted to ask you how much of that has
been intention or to make sure that you're telling our

(43:02):
story as well as those lost people who are trying
to find our ways, who are trying to connect back
to the continent and know who we are. Yeah, so
I just wanted to give your followers an askatro right.

Speaker 3 (43:13):
You've been in continent?

Speaker 4 (43:14):
Yeah, my bro, Yeah, I'll prioritize getting here if you can.

Speaker 3 (43:20):
You know, because I did it before I made the
wooie bro. You know what I'm saying. And I came
away with like.

Speaker 8 (43:28):
A deep senshit healing bro, like like a deep.

Speaker 4 (43:31):
Sense of fulfillment, Like it made me a less angry person.
I'll say for.

Speaker 8 (43:36):
Sure, you know what I'm saying, Like just just the
experience of being being here and realizing that, like, you know,
the people that enschlaged our ancest right, they didn't have the.

Speaker 3 (43:48):
Power and take away from from from us, but I
thought they did.

Speaker 8 (43:52):
You know, they weren't actually sessed.

Speaker 3 (43:54):
With you talk.

Speaker 1 (43:56):
So he told you to go to Africa. Yeah, yeah, right,
go to Africa if you can, and you did.

Speaker 3 (44:03):
You went to right.

Speaker 2 (44:04):
I went to Ghana, Yeah, Ghana as well. So how
did his advice, How did that change change your life?

Speaker 4 (44:11):
Basically, yeah, I had to tell him he changed my
life twice because the first movie was really one of
the seeds that was planning for me to even start
actively black to begin with.

Speaker 3 (44:19):
But when he told me that, we booked up.

Speaker 4 (44:23):
We booked our flights that that that night we went
in December to Acra and one just just touching the
continent for the first time.

Speaker 1 (44:31):
When all the black people left. The rest of those
black people here.

Speaker 3 (44:33):
Went that year.

Speaker 4 (44:34):
Then you right, Well, actually this was in twenty twenty two,
twenty two, so that first time was in twenty nineteen.
I believe everybody went and and so like it was,
it was just powerful that energies I felt just touching
the continent for the first time.

Speaker 3 (44:50):
And then I got a chance to visit the slave
castles on the coast.

Speaker 4 (44:53):
And you know, Ryan said something in his answer where
he said he went and it made him less angry
because he realized that the oppressors didn't take everything from
us that we thought they had, you know, and when
I asked them about the kill mugger characters, because I
didn't see him as a villain. I understood that anger
of feeling lost, we were cut off from our lineage,

(45:15):
and you know, everything from him want to take back
the artifacts in the museum to all of that. I
was a kill I was a kill mugger fan, you
know what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (45:24):
And so.

Speaker 4 (45:27):
That experience in the slave castles really brought it home
why Ryan said that. So I thought I was going
to be in a rage. I thought I was just
going to be full of anger. And there were some
moments where you're standing in these slave dungeons and it's
overwhelming to think that your ancestors, human beings were in
were being treated the way that they were being treated. There,

(45:49):
the suffering, the torture, it's just unimaginable. And you're standing
these these these dungeons that are five hundred and six
hundred years old, and then you walk through this archway
that says the point of no return and this is
where they were loading these enslaves.

Speaker 1 (46:05):
Here archway is so small.

Speaker 2 (46:07):
Yeah, yeah, because I think they tell you, the guy
tells you that the archway is that small because they
feared they might try to escape because you know, obviously
large numbers, and they want to make sure you had
something small you had to go through so you could
not come back.

Speaker 4 (46:23):
It's how they do cattle, yeah, you know what I mean,
like herring cattle into so and it said the point
of no return. And so I'm out there and I'm
just kind of taking it all in and then this
epiphany hit me that like, like, I returned, you know
what I mean. So they set the point of no return,
but I returned. So even if my ancestors didn't, I did.

(46:43):
And the tagline for actively Black is there's greatness in
our DNA. And in that moment, that tagline became even
more real to me because it was like, Okay, that
means somebody in my DNA lineage survived. Jim Crow survived
the three hundred years of slaves were here in America,
survived that Middle Passage where a lot of people didn't
even make it on that Middle Passage, and survived those dungeons,

(47:06):
you know what I mean. And so that gave me
this empowering feeling that man, they couldn't destroy us, all
this stuff, all this suffering that my people have gone
through and like, but I'm standing here, you.

Speaker 3 (47:17):
Know what I mean?

Speaker 4 (47:18):
And it was like, man, Ryan, Ryan told me that night.
He was like, if you ain't been to the content,
you need to go. And then I felt it, like
why he told me that?

Speaker 6 (47:28):
And then.

Speaker 4 (47:30):
And then we go back to the hotel and I'm
wearing the actively black Black Panther Collapse and Letitia Wright
walked into the lobby at the same time when the lobby,
who obviously she ends up playing becoming Black Panther in
the second film, got a chance to.

Speaker 3 (47:45):
Meet her and talk to her, and I told her like,
this is crazy meeting you.

Speaker 4 (47:49):
One because I'm a black panther stand But two I'm
only here because Ryan Couger literally told me at a
fireside chat, bro, you need to go to Africa.

Speaker 3 (47:58):
And here I am, you know, on the other out
of the world. And I happened to run.

Speaker 4 (48:01):
Into the Black Panther in the hotel lobby. Yeah, just
an incredible, incredible full circle.

Speaker 3 (48:07):
Moment for me.

Speaker 1 (48:08):
It really tripped me out.

Speaker 2 (48:09):
When I went I didn't realize there was a church
on top of the dungeons and I was like, so,
you mean in.

Speaker 1 (48:15):
Church service services.

Speaker 2 (48:16):
They would hear this suffering and still and it just
it really sort of in a way crystallized as we
discussed earlier about that nefarious relationship that Christianity has had
with this you know, kind of human indignity that they suffered.
But yeah, I felt very changed after after going to

(48:39):
Ghana and it was one of the few places I've been.

Speaker 1 (48:42):
We're walking around and You're like, there really are no
white people here.

Speaker 3 (48:47):
It's really all of us, you know, like, oh wow,
Like this is.

Speaker 2 (48:51):
Very different than what we normally experienced in our day
to day live You brought up the collaboration with Black Panther.
There's a there's a Wakanda line, Yeah, is that you
have with Actively Black? So how did how were you
able to get that partnership because getting in partnership with
Marvel is not easy at.

Speaker 3 (49:11):
All at all? Yeah, at all.

Speaker 4 (49:14):
So all all growing from that first movie being such
an inspiration for me. When I launched Actively Black, I
actually created a deck of what an Actively Black Black
Panther collab would look like. And at the time, at
the time, you know, Chadwick had passed rest in peace

(49:35):
and we didn't even know if there was going to
be another film at the time when when this deck
was created and shout out to Jordan Jackson, black designer
that I worked with to bring this deck to Fruition.
And so Damon John, founder Fubu, reached out and he
was like, I love what you've been on Actively Black.
It reminds me of what we were doing we were
building Fubu. I'd love to talk about a Fubuo Actively

(49:58):
Black collab.

Speaker 3 (49:59):
So he come la. I walked into the meeting and
Damon John is wearing.

Speaker 4 (50:03):
An actively black hoodie and I'm just like, like, I'm
having to keep my cool in the meeting because growing
up wearing fooboos everything to me, you know, to see
these these four black men being the faces of this
brand and what it meant for.

Speaker 3 (50:16):
Us by us, So to see Damon John wearing actively
black hoodie was just it was crazy.

Speaker 4 (50:21):
So I'm keeping my cool in the meeting and talk
about the Footboo collab and he asked, well, what else
are you working on? And I almost didn't show it
to him because obviously Damon John is also you know,
on Shark Tank and I've seen them. You know, when
somebody gives an idea, but they don't have anything behind it.
They're like, well, this is just idea, so you know,
I almost didn't show it to him, but I was like,

(50:42):
put out my laptop. I showed him the deck that
was created for the Black Panther actively Black.

Speaker 3 (50:47):
Collab and.

Speaker 4 (50:49):
Damon John in the middle of the meeting, picks up
the phone and he calls the head of licensing from
Marvel and Disney.

Speaker 3 (50:56):
A man get.

Speaker 4 (50:58):
Emotional again, saying this man, last time I told the story,
I got emotional. There's often a lot of a lot
of trauma based responses when things happen when black people

(51:19):
are unable to work together on things right. There's been
a purposeful plan to keep us divided. And in that moment,
this black man did something that he did not have
to do. He picked up the phone for me in
the middle of his meeting and he called Marvel and Disney.

(51:39):
He's like, you need to see exactly what I just saw.
And it was probably three days later, I'm in a
meeting with Marvel and Disney pitching this deck and they
were blown away. And when the announcement for Wakanda Forever
came out, they they they pushed this thing through, Like
I didn't even go through the normal journey of what

(52:01):
it takes to get that licensing deal, which is very cumbersome,
it's really really tough.

Speaker 3 (52:05):
They pushed it.

Speaker 4 (52:06):
They pushed it through on behalf of Damon John's co
sign and them loving the work that was done. And
so yeah, we had the official collaboration for Wakanda Forever.
And that really legitimized us in a certain way because
even my own audience that at one point.

Speaker 3 (52:24):
Was still kind of questioning, like Okay, what is this really?
Is this real? And then they're like, okay, well, for
Marvel to do this official collaboration for this movie means something.
And that opened the floodgates.

Speaker 4 (52:36):
I mean, Lani Ali, Muhammad Ali's wife, she found out
about us because of that collaboration and she reached out
and wanted us to do the collab with Muhammad Ali,
which I mean, some of the stuff still feels surreal,
it's crazy. And then you know Malcolm X, Martin Luther
King the Tupaca State and Michael Jackson the State, John Carlos,

(53:02):
It's it's sometimes it's unbelievable, you know what I mean,
But it really opened the floodgates. And then what I
saw was the thing that everybody was telling me in
the beginning that if you name it actively Black and
you make it focus on black culture, it won't be successful.
That's actually what has been the strongest point for me
now because you know, Lani I Lee told me to

(53:25):
my face, she said, We've done collaborations with a ton
of brands and they all focus on float like a
butterflyes thing like a beat. But my husband's still for
so much more than what he just did inside of
that ring. Actively Black can tell that story authentically. So
you know, us standing ten toes down on being who

(53:48):
we are unapologetically is actually now the strength of who
we are, and it's actually attracting a lot of these opportunities.

Speaker 1 (53:55):
It's like it's your superpower basically.

Speaker 2 (53:58):
And sometimes that's the way it works, is like people,
well people's perceived weaknesses becomes the strongest, uh, kind of
the strongest thing about you. Now, we know for a
lot of businesses, given these trade wars, these errors, this
is a bit of an unpredictable and volatile time.

Speaker 1 (54:15):
How has that How has that impacted Actively Black?

Speaker 2 (54:19):
Because you send out some emails, I get one letting
people know, hey, you might see some price changes. So
how what's been the impact on your business?

Speaker 4 (54:28):
Yeah, I would say ninety five percent of all of
our product up to this point is made in China,
so one hundred and forty five percent tariff, and then
I think he went up to two hundred and back
to one hundred and forty five.

Speaker 3 (54:42):
That's crippling to a small business like ours.

Speaker 1 (54:47):
You know, so you still consider yourself a small a
small one.

Speaker 3 (54:50):
Thousand thousand percent just from from one.

Speaker 4 (54:54):
We're nowhere near the vision that I was given for
this brand, you know, and when I think about, you know,
we out their team Nigeria and the Summer Olympics last summer,
and that was like a taste of what I wanted
the world to see, Like, I'm not just building this
for Black Americans. I'm builing this for the diaspora. And
when you understand how big the diaspora is and if
we can ever unify, that's a whole other level of

(55:15):
of of of power and unity there. And so we're
just we're nowhere near there. We've got three full time employees, myself,
my co founder, the black woman behind Actively Black, Bianca Winslow,
and my mom, you know, that's the three full time
employees for Actively Black.

Speaker 3 (55:31):
So yes, we're still small business.

Speaker 4 (55:33):
And when you think about like the Nikes of the
world that profit billions, they have at least.

Speaker 3 (55:42):
Some padding where they can withstand.

Speaker 4 (55:45):
Some of these changes, even if that means, you know,
some of their profit margin is is eating into But
the worst for them will be their their stock prices
get hit.

Speaker 3 (55:55):
For us, it's.

Speaker 4 (55:56):
Literally the cash flow that we need to get the
inventory to this audience. One hundred and forty five percent
tariff means the tariff actually now makes that product cost
me more than the product costs.

Speaker 3 (56:09):
So I'm either just.

Speaker 4 (56:11):
Gonna lose money on every product sold, or I'm gonna
have to raise my prices on those products in order
to even turn a profit to survive. And the thing
that I try to make sure that our audience knows
is when I'm saying profit, I'm just I'm not talking
about what goes into my personal pocket, and I'm not
even talking about just what goes into the actively Black

(56:31):
bank account because we give back so much to our community.

Speaker 3 (56:35):
You know, we're donating real money.

Speaker 4 (56:38):
Like when we did five million two years ago, we
donated five hundred thousand that's ten percent of our revenue.
You go check the percentages of what some of these
companies are are donating and giving. You're talking about less
than one percent of their revenue that they're actually donateing.
We're donating ten percent of our revenue. So that margin
is a is not eating up and it does make

(57:01):
some things difficult. But we were already working on some
pivots even before this tear of stuff happened. We had
some of the uniforms and some of the outfits Fortem
Nigeria actually made in Legos, Nigeria. I wanted that authenticity
to be there for that team, you know, competing at
the Olympics, and so that relationship with that factory in

(57:23):
Legos is now one where we're looking at shifting some
of our production to the continent, you know what I mean.
And that was a big picture of vision for my
anyway that when this gets to where it's going to be,
the bulk of the production is going to be on
the continent. So it's speeding up what we're having to
do to make that pivot. But that's part of the plan,

(57:44):
is changing where we're getting some of these products made.
Even if we have to import those fabrics from China,
and just for everybody to know making things in China
is not just because of the cost being cheaper. The
level of expertise that they have in making these products

(58:05):
is not matched anywhere in the world. So even if
you're talking about trying to bring that here and make
it here. One, those premium ath Leisure were fabrics that
you love from Lolulemon and Nike and actively Black that
feel how they feel. You're not going to find them
all over the world. And then two, the level of
craftsmanship to be able to make the flat seene six

(58:25):
needles stitching that is a premium stitch that you'll find
on those hot premium level of products. It takes a
certain skill set to be able to even use the
machines to do that. So a lot of people don't
even understand, like just the skill that a lot of
their workers have to make this stuff. But the other

(58:45):
pivot that we're making that I'm super excited about is
the first collection actually drop Juneteenth. We're working with some
black farmers in North Carolina that own the land that
they grow this cotton front And.

Speaker 1 (59:00):
Because I saw you said announced me coming soon and
I'm like.

Speaker 3 (59:05):
Yeah, is what is happening. Yeah, I'm so excited about
this because.

Speaker 4 (59:11):
For this particular collection, it will expand on it after
the launch, but for this collection, the entire supply chain
is black owned, from the dirt to the shirt. You know,
this is these are black farmers who own the land
who will shirt. And the power in that is like
this level of black ownership is not just the brand

(59:34):
being black owned, but also the raw materials that's being
used to make the shirt, that's being used to make
the product that then our audience is going to wear.

Speaker 3 (59:43):
I feel like there's a the symbolism in that is
so powerful. But then also you know your.

Speaker 4 (59:49):
Purchase is supporting these black farmers who historically have been
discriminated against from the banks to get what they need
to do what they do. I think I just I
just read something the other day. In the last twenty
years the black ownership Black farmers have lost over ninety
percent of ownership of their land. And us being able

(01:00:11):
to do something where we're supporting these black farmers while
growing a black owned business while providing this high quality
product to our audience is.

Speaker 3 (01:00:21):
Super powerful. So I'm looking forward to that.

Speaker 1 (01:00:24):
Yeah, because I know with the trade wars. It's like
that has.

Speaker 2 (01:00:31):
That has the potential to just destroy a lot of
black businesses. It's hard enough already, as you very well know,
for black business owners to thrive, but that is something
that is a real threat to all of all of
black businesses, and.

Speaker 3 (01:00:46):
It's happening already.

Speaker 4 (01:00:47):
Sadly, it's happening already, and it's not even just black
owned business all small.

Speaker 3 (01:00:52):
Businesses in general.

Speaker 1 (01:00:54):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:00:54):
Yeah, you're not sitting on.

Speaker 4 (01:00:55):
The capital that these corporations have, and a lot of
small businesses you're having to reinvest everything you make just
to keep the thing growing and growing. So when your
costs changed that dramatically, there's no contingency plan for that,
there's no backup for that. And for those who aren't
able to diversify their supply chain, it's almost a death

(01:01:16):
sentence that this administration is writing for a LOGI small
and black owned businesses I see.

Speaker 2 (01:01:23):
I feel like in the years since I met you,
I now see actively black everywhere. Has there been a
celebrity that's warned that really caught you off guard? Like, wow,
I had no idea along the lines of like you
never know who's a fan or you never know who's watching.

Speaker 6 (01:01:37):
But have you.

Speaker 2 (01:01:39):
Seen someone wearing it that you were just like, I
had no idea that this person was even you know,
had the apparel.

Speaker 3 (01:01:45):
It's honestly been so many.

Speaker 4 (01:01:49):
I would say, I'll say President Obama, you know, and
and the Queen Michelle Obama wearing a brand is something
that I want to get.

Speaker 1 (01:02:00):
That Obama collab. But actively black.

Speaker 6 (01:02:05):
Oh what.

Speaker 1 (01:02:08):
Did I break some news?

Speaker 8 (01:02:09):
No?

Speaker 3 (01:02:11):
Not not, yeah, we'll ed the best part. Well, well
we're working on something, that's all I said. That's all
I said.

Speaker 1 (01:02:20):
If you want to break some news, you can.

Speaker 4 (01:02:21):
But okay, but you know, when when President Obama, when
he when he sent me the letter that that him
and Michelle wrote, uh, just talking about how much they
love the brand and what it's still for.

Speaker 3 (01:02:37):
That meant. That meant a lot to me obviously.

Speaker 4 (01:02:41):
But the funny thing about it is whether it's a celebrity,
whether it's an NBA player, whether it's a you know,
whoever it is, I get. I get very similar joy
seeing a random person in the in the airport weren't
actively black. And you know, y'all forgive me. I turned
into a creep, you know what I mean? I run

(01:03:02):
up you know, I'm trying to take a.

Speaker 5 (01:03:03):
Picture of it.

Speaker 3 (01:03:04):
I'm like, yo, somebody's were actively black, because it's.

Speaker 4 (01:03:08):
One we launched during the pandemic, and we built this
thing online first, and we were, you know, on lockdown.
So there's so much of this that we're still adjusting
to because we're looking at this from the inside out.
So I'm putting out the fires. I'm putting out every day.
I don't sleep, you know, I'm up till four am
with my manufacturers every night. I can't see what the

(01:03:29):
brand looks like from the outside looking at and so
when I'm out in public and I'm seeing people where
it's still a shock to me.

Speaker 3 (01:03:37):
You know, seeing it.

Speaker 4 (01:03:38):
Seeing people posting it on Instagram is dope, don't get
me wrong, But it's different when you seeing it in person.
And so celebrity or not, anybody who's part of the
tribe wearing it means so much to me.

Speaker 2 (01:03:50):
Yeah, as I said a moment ago, you know, black
businesses face unique challenges. But now that you are a
business owner, and I'm sure you get an opportunity to
be in community with other black business owners, why do
so many black businesses fail?

Speaker 3 (01:04:08):
Yeah? Oh man, great question. Mac, Mom'm so glad you
asked this question.

Speaker 4 (01:04:12):
One that lack of access to the startup capital that
other businesses get is a huge reason because all businesses,
I think the numbers are like, it's like eighty percent
of startups failed within the first two years.

Speaker 3 (01:04:28):
So that's all businesses, right.

Speaker 4 (01:04:30):
So then if you you know, you filter that down
to black businesses who normally don't get the startup capital
that other businesses get. You got to think even some
of the biggest businesses. Uber was running at a loss
for fourteen years. They didn't start turning a profit until
year fifteen, but they were able to continue raising money
and you know, billions and billions of dollars every round

(01:04:52):
to grow their business until it got to the point
where they could then turn a profit. Black founders and
black owned businesses don't have that, uh, that privilege of
being able to continue to receive investment to grow the
thing and have the learnings and the pivots to get
it to be profitable. You're normally putting in whatever you

(01:05:12):
have and then there's no outside support from that from
a from a capital investment standpoint. So that's one, two
and and And I say this with grace for my people.
I need us to have more grace for our black founders.
It's a very lonely space, right. You're fighting in a

(01:05:33):
system that doesn't want you to succeed anyway because you're
a black founder.

Speaker 3 (01:05:36):
That's one. You're not getting access to the same resources.
That's two.

Speaker 4 (01:05:41):
But then we're normally building something from zero, which means
if you if you've seen, if you've seen the beginning
of of a skyscraper, right, they dig so deep down
into the ground and start building underneath that ground for
a while before the breaks ground, and then they build up.

(01:06:02):
Most black founders, we're down there building so you can't
see the shiny thing that is polished, that is that
that the world can see and.

Speaker 3 (01:06:11):
Is ready.

Speaker 4 (01:06:11):
In that way, we're building from underneath the ground, and
a lot of times our people give up on us
before we even.

Speaker 3 (01:06:17):
Break the surface.

Speaker 4 (01:06:19):
And so yes, I understand there's times where customer service
may not be up to par where you needed to go.
Also understand there's likely a black business owner behind behind
that customer service that is wearing every single hat imaginable
and they're already stretched thin to the max and they're
trying to hold it together, and they're trying to pay
their bills and they're trying to you know, they're they're

(01:06:40):
they're trying to.

Speaker 3 (01:06:41):
Make something out of nothing.

Speaker 4 (01:06:43):
And so when you don't have outside investment, the only
capital injection you're really getting is the support of your customers.
That's the only capital injection that you're getting.

Speaker 3 (01:06:54):
And so you need that over and over again.

Speaker 4 (01:06:58):
You need the return customers, You need your custom and
then go tell somebody else, hey, go support this brand
because we also normally don't have the marketing dollars to
run the commercials to get our businesses out there. And
then there's this tough space that talking with a lot
of black founders, there is a struggle, Like the founders
of Mael are friends of ours, and you see no

(01:07:22):
safe space because if you're too small and you're not
able to service the demand, then your audience is mad
at you because it's like, man, your costumer service ain't there?

Speaker 3 (01:07:30):
Your product that ain't there? This and that, this and that.

Speaker 4 (01:07:31):
Then if you accept the bigger investment or the acquisition
from a larger company, which then allows you to be
in a position where you can services, then you people
are like, y'all ain't Black owed no more and you
sold out? Where do you want us to be? There
is no like you're either in a constant struggle of
how am I going to cover these expenses? How am

(01:07:53):
I going to make payroll? How am I going to
increase my inventory so I can meet the growing demand?
And if there's nothing else outside support for that, that's
just on me of that constant grind. And when people
see the valuations and they see their revenue, they think
that's what's in black Founder's pockets. That ain't what's in
my bank account. When you see actively Black value at

(01:08:14):
sixty million dollars, I don't have sixty million dollars in
my bank account. I just want you all to know that,
because they'll see that and they'll be like, oh, well,
you can sponsor this event for one hundred thousand, and
I'm asking you for this, And we're flooded with everybody
asking for something not knowing.

Speaker 3 (01:08:28):
Yo, I'm still building. I'm still I'm.

Speaker 4 (01:08:30):
Really still in this building process, and I have to
reinvest everything that I have back into this so that
it can exist. So it can still exist. That lack
of understanding sometimes from our own audience is another barrier
that we are often fighting, and the reason why so
many fail is you're fighting on both fronts. You're fighting

(01:08:54):
this that's trying to keep you for climbing. You're fighting
this that's holding you back, and God forbid you do
something like what Male's founders did and allowed themselves not
only the financial freedom of the reward for working.

Speaker 3 (01:09:08):
Y'alln't understand these people.

Speaker 4 (01:09:12):
Invest their lives into trying to build something for us,
right That financial reward doesn't come from the sales. It
often only comes if there's an acquisition or you go public.
How many black on brands you know that are on
the stock exchange that are going public? So if you're
not supporting them all the way to them going public,
their only option is to be acquired or to accept

(01:09:33):
an investment that's large enough to change the structure of
the business and so that they're not being that safe
space for founders is.

Speaker 3 (01:09:42):
A tough thing.

Speaker 1 (01:09:43):
Yeah, because I.

Speaker 6 (01:09:46):
Like you.

Speaker 2 (01:09:46):
I mean, I seeing that sometimes how people respond on
your social media pages, Like I think it was one
where you I don't know how it came up, but
it was a post you made, and I remember seeing
people in the comments like, well, why don't you get
this athlete or this celebrity to do actively black.

Speaker 1 (01:10:03):
And I'm like, do y'all know how much that costs?

Speaker 3 (01:10:06):
Yo?

Speaker 2 (01:10:06):
Let me, that is an exorbitant fee to get you know,
somebody of notoriety.

Speaker 3 (01:10:13):
Right to where your brand where your brand.

Speaker 1 (01:10:15):
It costs a lot of money.

Speaker 3 (01:10:16):
They get paid millions of dollars to do this.

Speaker 4 (01:10:18):
And once again, if you don't have access to the resources,
you can't just go sign these professional athletes to these deals.

Speaker 3 (01:10:25):
And oftentimes, and a lot of people don't even notice.
A lot of times, those.

Speaker 4 (01:10:29):
Bigger brands, they don't even see a return on that,
but they've got so much money. That's a marketing spend
for them. And like this at least keeps us in
front of the audience that we're trying to reach, even
if we don't make a return on that specific investment.

Speaker 3 (01:10:44):
For small businesses, for black owned businesses, we have to receive.

Speaker 4 (01:10:47):
We have to see a return on what we invest
in because we're not sitting on a bunch of a
bunch of cash. And so yeah, I think there's this,
there's and and this is the grace that I hold.
There is a lack of education and standing on what
it actually means to build a brand in this space.
You know from the endorsement deals that people think, hey,
just go get such a such the way your brand,

(01:11:08):
and it don't work that way. And even like for
the inventory, right is if I if I buy let's
say a shirt costs me five dollars and I sell
it for ten and I sell that, now I can
go buy two shirts with what I just sold that, right,
But what if when I sold that shirt and it

(01:11:30):
was shared on social media and one hundred people now
want that shirt the profit that I made from that shirt,
I can still only go buy two shirts and now
go serve two people, even though one hundred people want
that shirt. Right, So, even if I'm reinvesting everything that
I'm making, it's hard to catch up to the demand
as it grows in that way. And then it's like, okay,
now what about if I want to hire employees, where

(01:11:52):
does that cast come from? If I want to you know,
you want customer service people who can be their answer
the phone, I got to pay them, you know what
I mean? Like all of the op X, the operating
expenses to run a business like this that I don't
think people calculate when they're making those comments on you know,
on on social media.

Speaker 1 (01:12:09):
So yeah, have you have you thought about that yourself?

Speaker 2 (01:12:13):
Like you talked about Mala and we saw this happened
with a few other products that where some big investor
in and just they say, hey, I'll.

Speaker 1 (01:12:23):
Give you one hundred million or you know to buy
the product.

Speaker 2 (01:12:27):
Have you thought or how much have you thought about
what you would do if a non black owned brand, yeah,
or business you know venture came to you and said,
here's one hundred mil for Actively Black.

Speaker 4 (01:12:39):
No, they answered me, no, No, I've I've turned down
millions already. Actively Black is not a This wasn't a
thing where it's like, man, how do I think of
a business venture? I can make a bunch of money.
This is very purpose driven and mission driven to me,
and there are certain things I'm just not going to

(01:13:01):
compromise on, you know what I mean.

Speaker 5 (01:13:03):
And so.

Speaker 4 (01:13:06):
If it's a situation where there's I can ensure that
the essence of what Actively Black is, the purpose and
the mission and all that doesn't change. You know, you
sit down and you have that discussion. But from what
I've seen, that hasn't necessarily been the case. And so
Phil Knight didn't sell Nike.

Speaker 3 (01:13:28):

Speaker 4 (01:13:29):
He started selling shoes out the back of a trunk
at track meets. And Phil Knight did not sell Nike.
He built it to the point where it could go public,
and then then you're able to generate the capital you
need from it going public. So my dream of all
dreams would be to build Actively Black to the point
where it can go public and then I don't have
to sell it to another company. I don't have to

(01:13:51):
get acquired by somebody else. That's how investors can get
their return on there, on their money. That's how Actively
Black can raise the capital we need to keep expanding
and growing. Nobody asked those founders to sell their brands
that they're able to grow and keep it growing to
the point where they can do that. And I stand

(01:14:14):
on this. I'll say this, I'll share this here. We
turned out to deal with Peloton that we had. We
had to deal with Peloton on the table, and not
not just on the table.

Speaker 3 (01:14:23):
It was in motion, and.

Speaker 4 (01:14:27):
They wanted to do a Black History Month collection, which
made me a little leery, but I was like, okay,
we started moving forward with it. They presented me the
collection that they wanted to move forward with.

Speaker 2 (01:14:40):
And they.

Speaker 3 (01:14:42):
Put our logos on the stuff.

Speaker 4 (01:14:43):
And put what they wanted to put on stuff, but
they did not include us in any of the design process.
And I'm like, that's already showing that you're not respecting
you know, what we're building and why we're building it.
And then when you looked at the design, it was
all the typical corporate Black History Month stuff together in
this the peace and I was like, Nah, that's the

(01:15:03):
message for the oppressors. That message don't need to go
to my people. My people have been the one fighting
against this stuff. So why is it that in Black
History Month you want to preach to us togetherness and
unity and peace. Preach that to the people. That is
the reason why we have to have Black History Month,
you know what I'm saying. And I was like, Nah,
this doesn't reflect what our brand does.

Speaker 3 (01:15:21):
Let's change this.

Speaker 4 (01:15:22):
And they were like, nah, this is what we want
to go to market with. And I said, well, if
that's if that's what you want to do, we're not
moving forward with this. And you know, I'll never forget
having that meeting and having that call. And I think
it was the founder's wife who was like, well, we
asked some black employees and they said, yeah, this is cool.

Speaker 1 (01:15:38):
I was like, Yo, did she just give you the
We got some black friends?

Speaker 4 (01:15:43):
That's exactly That's exactly what it felt like. Well, I
got black friends, you know what I mean. And so
my integrity on what I'm building is something that I
won't compromise. And so no matter how much money was
on the table with that, I have to stay true
to why I started this. I have to stay true
to this tribe that truck me. They trust actively Black
to be authentic, and to me, selling out is even

(01:16:08):
when you start to compromise who you are and compromise
your integrity for that dollar. Muhammad Ali, you know, is
somebody that I have always looked up to as a hero,
and he was somebody who was willing to sacrifice what
it meant for his bank account to stand up for
what he was about. It's not too many of us

(01:16:28):
that's willing to really do that. You know a lot
of times when that money gets thrown in front of us,
we change our value.

Speaker 3 (01:16:33):
So that's not where actively Black is.

Speaker 1 (01:16:37):
I'm sure you probably talked to aspiring entrepreneurs all the time.

Speaker 2 (01:16:41):
You've dropped a lot of gems that they can certainly
learn from just in our conversation, But was there an
area or that you wish you knew better when you
started this that would have been helpful. I'm sure it
was a lot, but like, yeah, what is it? As
you were starting you wish you would have known that.
You hope you know aspiring entrepreneurs that they understand.

Speaker 4 (01:17:04):
One like making sure that you get you know, the
right accountant and understanding the accounting side of the business.
I think for a lot of entrepreneurs, including myself, you
get excited about the the product or the brand and
all the forward facing things and as you should be,
but like that internal structure of your finances and the

(01:17:27):
financials and understanding what the P and L is, your
profit and law statement, your balance sheet, like those are
things that you know.

Speaker 3 (01:17:35):
For me, I didn't go to business school, you know
what I mean?

Speaker 4 (01:17:37):
Like I joke all the time, I tell people I
went to YouTube University because I didn't even know how
to come up with a company name.

Speaker 3 (01:17:43):
I googled that, you know.

Speaker 4 (01:17:44):
I spent hours on YouTube learning how to cold my
own website because I didn't have the money to pay
the thirty thousand dollars that somebody called me to build
a website. So I self taught myself all these things,
but the understanding of the financial side, the taxes, all
that goes into it. Make sure that you're spending the

(01:18:04):
time either learning that yourself or that you got somebody
with you or on your team, that that's what their
focus is, because a lot of times, as we get
excited to build the thing, that foundation isn't solid and
that's what ends up causing it to crumble from the
financial side. And then also I would say for those entrepreneurs,

(01:18:27):
man run your race. And I know it's tough in
this era of social media to not compare yourself to
what's happening to somebody else's thing. But everybody's story is
so unique and the journey is so unique that I
could literally tell you every single thing that I did
and you can try to follow that to the t

(01:18:49):
and it doesn't ensure success, you know. I mean, there's
so many parts of this that one I feel like
God opened some doors that I just can't explain. It
wasn't part of my business plan and what I had
written down. If you're led by passion for something, if

(01:19:10):
you're led by a purpose for something. That's what's going
to sustain you. If it's just the money and the
flashing stuff and the trips and all that, I promise you,
you're setting yourself up for failure because even with all
the success we had we've had, I've received way more
knows than yes's. I've received way more rejection than acceptance.

(01:19:33):
And there are those moments where that thing that's going
to pick you up or get you up in the
morning after you've suffered this loss or you've got this rejection,
it's going to be the why of why you're doing
what you're doing. Find that first, and that's going to
lead you and guide you, you know, on on your
entrepreneurial journey.

Speaker 2 (01:19:50):
All right, now, you know I was gonna let you
escape what I'm talking about your Houston basketball team.

Speaker 3 (01:19:56):
And I think which one the rockets of the Cougar.

Speaker 1 (01:19:59):
The Cougar.

Speaker 3 (01:20:00):
Okay, what's been in the e lad day?

Speaker 2 (01:20:03):
Like four times in the last seven eight years, final
four twice? Make sure you make a national title game,
tough loss to Florida for it all. Are you happy
with the consistency or more disappointed that you guys haven't
won the title?

Speaker 4 (01:20:19):
Yet honestly, I'm so happy with the program that coach
Sampson has built for a couple of reasons.

Speaker 3 (01:20:27):
One, there's a huge gap in that consistency.

Speaker 4 (01:20:31):
Right, So you're talking about a keem olajuw and Clyde Drexler,
Fox Slammon Jama, Ricky Winslow. You know, Fianca's father played
on those five Slamon Jama teams at University of Houston, where.

Speaker 3 (01:20:44):
It was expected for us to compete at that level.

Speaker 4 (01:20:47):
You're talking about three final fours and four years and
then there was this huge, huge gap where we weren't
on that national stage. I was one of the last
Houston and Texas player of the year to actually stay
home and play at the Universe. Houston now recruited all
over the country, but I stayed home in a long time.
So seeing that drought, I'm actually very proud of just

(01:21:08):
the program that Coach Sampson has built to the point
where you can be disappointed in not winning the national championship.
There's a lot of teams that's fighting just to get
to the tournament. The tournament is like, that's a given.
Every year, that's a given. Let's win this chip and
so I think what he's built is this culture that
is now attracting you know, I think we've got two
million dollars all Americans coming in, the number two recruiting

(01:21:28):
class in the country coming in for next year. So
he's built this culture that's now attracting top talent in
the country. I think it's just I think it's just
a matter of time.

Speaker 3 (01:21:36):
We'll be back.

Speaker 2 (01:21:37):
That must have been brutal to watch this year because
I think with that last possession, you guys didn't get
a shot off.

Speaker 4 (01:21:42):
Didn't get a shot off, and just the roller coaster
of the previous game, we kind of did the reverse
to do they had the game won, and we kept fighting,
didn't give up, and we came back and won that game.
And we saw those Duke fans just stunned, like not
knowing how to process what they thought was all yeah,
we had a tompership game and then it's over with
and then we were in the same boat. But I'm

(01:22:04):
proud of those guys, man. They represented the city and
the university very well.

Speaker 2 (01:22:08):
So yeah, all right, I end each podcast with what
I call a messy question. All right, this is where
you make the headlines. We make the blog because there's
something you said. All the messy question is this, you
are a self proclaimed Jordan's stand You have on Jordan's
right now, right now?

Speaker 1 (01:22:27):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (01:22:28):
If you had a choice of doing a actively black
collab with Jordan or Lebron, who you choosing?

Speaker 4 (01:22:38):
Ooh, okay, man, If it's anybody else, that answer would
have been Jordan, No hesitation. The reason why I really
have to pause and think about this is because I
respect what Lebron James has and built so much. One

(01:23:04):
from a standpoint of being in the same class and
playing against him in the seventh grade and seeing this
kid go from nobody knowing him to then I think
two years later in the ninth grade, he's on the
cover Sports Illustrated as the Chosen One. The level of
expectation and pressure and eyeballs on him from being fifteen
years old, it's something I don't think we've ever seen before,

(01:23:27):
right So to meet that and exceed that expectation is
dope in itself. I love that he's got this black
wife and these beautiful black children. That's I love that.
I love that he empowered others around him, you know
what I mean, other young black men that were able

(01:23:49):
to grow with him and now are building their own things,
you know what I mean. So that sense of empowerment
is him building the school. You know, There's so many
things about that that give me just a certain level
of respect for Lebron that exists beyond the greatness that
he's that he's that he's exhibited on the court. And
I will say, and I do have to say this

(01:24:10):
because a lot of people get this misconstrued, Michael Jordan
does a lot of stuff behind the scenes that people
just don't know about, you know what I mean, for
the black community, I'm gonna make sure I be clear
about that one. When he was the owner Charlote Bobcats
had the most Black people in the front office in
the entire NBA. You know, what he does quietly is

(01:24:31):
something that I almost wish he put it out there
more so people could understand.

Speaker 1 (01:24:37):
But just go ahead and say it. Damn.

Speaker 3 (01:24:48):
I'm yeah, yo, I'm really, I'm really stumped. I'm really
really stumped.

Speaker 4 (01:24:55):
Because there's everything I know why I would say Michael Jordan,
I know why I would say Lebron.

Speaker 3 (01:25:01):
I mean, the projects got the lifetime deal with Nike,
so I.

Speaker 4 (01:25:03):
Know, I mean, neither one of them, I know, is
a real option, but I'm there's something even about with Bronnie.
It's like there's greatness in our DNA. That tagline is
literally greatness in his DNA. So I'm gonna go bron
on that. M j don't get mad at me.

Speaker 2 (01:25:23):
I love you, man, enjoyed the limits of your stand.
Your standum, there are limits. Let that be the headline.
He's picking lebron over Michael Jordan's.

Speaker 6 (01:25:37):
Lenny.

Speaker 2 (01:25:38):
I want to thank you so much for spending this
time with me, and I just think your origin story
is really really amazing and the way that you pivoted
into something you never saw coming and so much success
to you, to Bianca, to the brand.

Speaker 1 (01:25:53):
I can't wait till you guys are publicly traded. I'm
mind stock.

Speaker 3 (01:25:57):
I mean speak existence there you go. All right, thank you,
thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:26:02):
All right, y'all know what's coming up next, final segment
of politics that's on the way in just a moment.
As you all know, I'd like to answer your questions,
But in lieu of answering your questions this week, I
instead want to give a tip of the cap to

(01:26:24):
former San Antonio Spurs coach Greg Popovich, and it feels
really weird to call him former since most of us
are accustomed to an NBA where Greg Popovich is coaching.
But this week, Papovich announced he is stepping down from
his coaching duties with the Spurs and instead transitioning to
being the Spurs President of basketball Operations. Though I'm happy

(01:26:45):
that Pop is still connected to the game, it was
still a little sad seeing how pop is physically still
dealing with the effects of the stroke that he suffered
last November. At the press conference where he announced his
move to the front office, Papovich was escorted by his
former players Tim Duncan and Mynu Genobili. Now, when it
comes to professional sports, very few people are able to

(01:27:06):
retire on their own terms, and it would have been
phenomenal to see Popovich guid Victor Womenjana's career the same
way that he did with Tim Duncan's. Nevertheless, Popovich is
arguably the best coach in NBA history. No coach has
won more games than him, and pop was able to
win championships in both the Shaq and Kobe era, and

(01:27:28):
during the Miami Heatos era, his first teams were able
to Dethrone essentially what were super teams. But as much
as I will remember Pop's success, I'll also remember how
he treated me as a young reporter.

Speaker 1 (01:27:41):
In two thousand and four, I was assigned to cover
the Summer Olympics in Greece.

Speaker 2 (01:27:45):
Now, one of my responsibilities was covering the men's national
basketball team, which included a young Lebron, a young Carmelo,
and a young d Wade. They also had Duncan Allen Iverson,
Carlos Boozer, Lamar Odom, and Shawn Marion on others. Now,
as you might recall, that team got smoked in the Olympics.
I was there when they lost to Puerto Rico. I

(01:28:06):
sent it, but before Team USA finished with the Brons,
I was working on a piece about whether head coach
Larry Brown was the right fit for these young players,
since Larry had a rep of not really liking the youngins.
Lebron on that team only averaged about eleven minutes per game,
if you can believe it. Anyway, I asked Pop, an

(01:28:27):
assistant with Team USA, and if I could talk to
him about his friend Larry Brown. He said sure, And me,
being somewhat inexperienced as a reporter kinda asked him.

Speaker 1 (01:28:38):
A shitty question. Rather, I framed the question in a
shitty way.

Speaker 2 (01:28:43):
Think I might have hit him with the people are
saying Larry Brown maybe isn't the right fit to coach
this team, and Pop basically said, what people now kind
of stammered out an answer because the people that were
talking was really the media. It's not like I could say, well,
it was at the corner bar, and that's kind of
a bullshit way to.

Speaker 1 (01:29:03):
Ask a question. Anyway, the old people are saying anyway.

Speaker 2 (01:29:07):
After posting me up verbally, Pop said, whoever said Larry
Brown wasn't a good coach is full of shit and
he walked away from me. So a day or so later,
I saw Pop at another game. He was scouting another
country that the USA was going to face. Can't remember
which team it was. And when I saw him, he
called me over and I was thinking, oh, brother, here

(01:29:27):
we go again. He about to let me have it
just one mogain, just for posterity. He told me to
sit down and watch the game with him, and during
the game he said, Okay, here's the answer to your question,
and he gave me a very eloquent response.

Speaker 1 (01:29:42):
With no cuss words involved.

Speaker 2 (01:29:44):
I actually said to him that I was sorry about
the way that I asked that question about Larry Brown.
And then we started to talk about basketball, and I
asked him a question about what he was looking for
by scouting that particular team. Now, I never forgot that,
And people who cover Popovich on a regular basis, they'll
all tell you that while his sideline interviews often showed

(01:30:07):
him as cranky, as a curmudgeon who hated the media,
the folks that covered him all the time paint a
much different picture of him. He does sometimes challenge the media,
but in a way that makes us better at our jobs.
Pop also has been one of the most outspoken sports
figures when it comes to speaking about injustice and social issues,

(01:30:30):
and he has taken a hatchet to Donald Trump.

Speaker 1 (01:30:33):
Many many times.

Speaker 2 (01:30:35):
Now, as much as I'm going to miss seeing him
out there coaching, I have no doubt he will continue
to speak boldly about the things.

Speaker 1 (01:30:42):
That really matter. Now, if you have a question for me,
you can hit me up on social media or email.

Speaker 2 (01:30:48):
I'm at Jamel Hill across all social media platforms, Twitter, Instagram,
fan based, Blue Sky, and threads. Please use the hashtags
politics you also have the option of email telling me
at Spolitics twenty twenty four at gmail dot com. You
can also send me a video of your question, but
please make sure that video is thirty seconds or less.

(01:31:10):
Don't forget to follow Spolitics on TikTok and across other
social media platforms. Also don't forget to follow and subscribe
to Spolitics on iHeart. A new episode of politics drops
every Thursday on iHeart podcast or wherever you get your podcasts.
This is politics where sports and politics don't just mix,

(01:31:31):
they matter. Politics is the production of iHeart Podcasts and
the Unbothered Network. I'm your host Jamel Hill. Executive producer
is Taylor Shakoigne. Lucas Hymen is head of audio and
executive producer. Original music for Spolitics provided by Kyle VISs
from wiz Fx

All Episodes

Ep 28: The Politics of Black Business Ownership - Featuring Lanny Smith

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

24/7 News: The Latest

Therapy Gecko

The Joe Rogan Experience

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Ep 28: The Politics of Black Business Ownership - Featuring Lanny Smith