Michael Strahan on How to Reinvent Yourself

Michael Strahan gets real with Keke about what it takes to bet on yourself, especially when people only see one version of you. From the NFL to Good Morning America, he shares the “when, not if” mindset his military father instilled in him that helped him win a Super Bowl and shaped his success, the advice he’d give anyone ready to reinvent themselves, and how his daughter Isabella’s cancer journey changed his perspective on life. Plus, a surprise reunion with former GMA3 co-host Sara Haines! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Keke Palmer?

  My guest today is an Emmy Award-winning multi-hyphenate who may actually have more jobs than I do. And one of those jobs, being my former co-host on our talk show, GMA3. Michael Strahan is a Hall of Fame and Super Bowl-winning football player, a TV anchor, sportscaster, game show host, entrepreneur, and somehow still one of the most dedicated fathers I know. Oh, and how could I forget? He has literally been to space, y'all. When you've lived this many chapters, the real question becomes, how do you decide where your energy really goes and make time for what actually matters? Today, we're getting into how our priorities shift as life expands and what finding balance looks like along the way. Because, baby, this is Keke Palmer.

• 1:14Keke Palmer?

  Now, Michael, we are recording this at the new ABC offices.

• 1:18Speaker 01

  Yes, we are.

• 1:19Keke Palmer?

  So I just thought to myself, there's no way that I can have a reunion with you and not bring in Sarah Haines.

• 1:25Speaker 01

  Yeah, you kidding me? Are you joking?

• 1:32Keke Palmer?

  You guys!

• 1:39Keke Palmer?

  Sit your little booty down. Please, you gotta hang out. My little booty? Do you want to invite me? Yeah, little booty. Yes, boo.

• 1:45Speaker 01

  Here we go. Right back to where it started. Right back.

• 1:48Keke Palmer?

  Guys, it's back. It's us. It's the gang back together. Guys, we had the best time with GMA3, and it happened so organically.

• 1:54Speaker 02

  The clips replay in my head. Do you remember the time? I watched this clip over and over. When you went to do an intro, but you, like, said... And I go, what did you... We both looked at you, go, what did you just say?

• 2:05Keke Palmer?

  Honestly, guys, pretty much what you'll do is, you know, you dance, you get into it, but, you know, this is the twerking part, but the flirting part is like this. You're like, eh, you know? And then you're out.

• 2:17Speaker 02

  I love that the knocked up woman is the one that's like riding your back.

• 2:20Speaker 01

  Flirty.

• 2:21Keke Palmer?

  Guys, this was actually life before covid also, by the way.

• 2:24Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's right.

• 2:25Keke Palmer?

  Remember, which was, which feels like, you know, a whole different world.

• 2:28Speaker 02

  Totally different time.

• 2:30Speaker 01

  I honestly cannot believe I'm sitting here looking at you. You know what? It's so weird because I feel like my little babies are all grown up.

• 2:39Keke Palmer?

  You know, it's so crazy.

• 2:40Speaker 02

  You're growing up at the same rate as us. She became a mama.

• 2:42Keke Palmer?

  Isn't that nuts? You had just had your youngest.

• 2:45Speaker 02

  Caleb, yeah.

• 2:45Keke Palmer?

  Yeah, you just had Caleb and I didn't even have a man then. So like then the baby came.

• 2:49Speaker 02

  Those are small details.

• 2:50Speaker 01

  I'm not getting into none of that.

• 2:52Keke Palmer?

  Was I a good coworker?

• 2:53Speaker 01

  Huh?

• 2:54Keke Palmer?

  Was I a good coworker, guys?

• 2:55Speaker 02

  You were the best. Are you kidding me, Mike?

• 2:59Keke Palmer?

  My God.

• 2:59Speaker 02

  Hesitating.

• 3:01Speaker 01

  Kika and I got in a one fight one day.

• 3:03Keke Palmer?

  You taught me so well.

• 3:04Speaker 01

  You know what? No, no, no.

• 3:06Speaker 02

  What was the problem?

• 3:06Speaker 01

  No, she was incredible. You know what? You were incredible. Both of you were absolutely incredible.

• 3:11Keke Palmer?

  It was an OG to a young buck combo.

• 3:14Speaker 01

  You know what it was?

• 3:14Speaker 02

  Oh.

• 3:15Speaker 01

  One day, no, no, no. I was in a bad mood, which is very rare.

• 3:18Speaker 02

  It is very rare.

• 3:19Speaker 01

  And then I was just like something and I was not willing to be patient.

• 3:24Speaker 02

  You snapped at my shit.

• 3:25Speaker 01

  We kind of stepped, we kind of went at it a little bit.

• 3:27Keke Palmer?

  We went at it, but he was right. It was one of those situations where it's like, I'm come, I mean, I really do walk in your footsteps, Mike. I know you don't like to say, you know, we, obviously I didn't do football, but like, you know, that's an entertaining career. I did, I do entertainment, but I want to do, I'm entrepreneur as well. Like you do so many things. So you were teaching me something about presenting myself, walking in the rooms, how to hold myself, the conversations to have, how to represent. And so it was important what you said. You know what I mean? I really always remember it.

• 3:55Speaker 01

  But I'll never, I'll never forget that because I always felt bad about it because, yeah, we felt bad about that. Because like my, my, it's like my family, but then I looked at it and I'm like, well, you know, siblings or whatever, your family, you kind of have to. And we were together all day, every day.

• 4:10Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 4:10Speaker 01

  I was literally coming off of super early GMA and then doubling up on that right afterwards and. All the stress of that, of that new show and everything else, I think. But you were, you were incredible coworker and you worked hard.

• 4:25Keke Palmer?

  You work your butt off.

• 4:27Speaker 01

  Incredibly just like funny, entertaining. You brought it every day. You were creative. And, and I know I loved it. I love working with you two. I, I mean.

• 4:36Keke Palmer?

  I love working with you guys as well.

• 4:38Speaker 02

  The laughter, the amount of like, you guys, you have a job to do speeches we got.

• 4:43Keke Palmer?

  Shout out to Roy Albanese.

• 4:44Speaker 02

  I mean, literally doubled over laughing behind the set before we could ever get in there.

• 4:49Keke Palmer?

  It's so true. And we had so many diverse conversations. I remember feeling that way coming up with y'all that I was always able to bring my world and you guys were able to bring y'all world. Cause all of our worlds are so different. Like at that time, I, I didn't know much about as a mom. And also your background as a producer, how you taught me that, like you guys all were teaching me and I feel really grateful.

• 5:09Speaker 01

  I was learning how to dance.

• 5:12Keke Palmer?

  Yo, not, yo, you guys, that is so pre-COVID dance work.

• 5:19Speaker 01

  See, I'm still doing it. See, I need to hang out with you boys so I can know what's free. Now with something new, but all that stuff, I'll never forget all that and like the terminology and what the, it was like you brought like a, a different.

• 5:32Keke Palmer?

  Oh, man.

• 5:33Speaker 01

  I was old, you know, and you two kind of made me younger, made me like more.

• 5:39Speaker 02

  Oh, my gosh.

• 5:40Speaker 01

  What was going on in me. Like you, you had, you had a pulse on like now and that was important. And both of you though, I will say that I'm happy that all of us have just continued to elevate.

• 5:53Keke Palmer?

  Okay.

• 5:54Speaker 01

  We all, we all really have.

• 5:55Keke Palmer?

  We really have been on our game, all of us. We can't be stopped.

• 6:01Speaker 01

  You would never shout about giving yourself credit.

• 6:06Speaker 02

  Yeah, but you're, oh my gosh, guys. You're hilarious. You're creative. You're always throwing ideas in. And I think when you're around people that have that zest for life. Cause the beauty in both of you actually is it's a zest for life that shows up everywhere you're at. It wasn't just like, I'm coming to this one job. I can't imagine you guys being any different wherever you go unless it's one minute overtime that Michael's been paid in.

• 6:31Keke Palmer?

  Okay.

• 6:31Speaker 02

  Done.

• 6:32Speaker 01

  We are like that though.

• 6:33Keke Palmer?

  We are like that.

• 6:34Speaker 01

  Not like, you know what it is? My mind is like, okay, I got this from this to this and that for that to that and that and this to that. And I wake up in the morning, look at my schedule.

• 6:42Keke Palmer?

  That's it, baby.

• 6:43Speaker 01

  I program my mind and my body to have all the energy I need. But it's like somebody unplugged the socket when I, when it's over.

• 6:49Keke Palmer?

  That's real.

• 6:51Speaker 01

  And I am, I like quiet.

• 6:54Speaker 02

  Uh, yeah.

• 6:55Speaker 01

  I like.

• 6:56Speaker 02

  That's what he calls it.

• 6:57Speaker 01

  Solitude.

• 6:59Speaker 02

  We brought the quiet.

• 7:00Speaker 01

  But I, but I like, I love working. I love being around people, but I need to recharge because I really, it takes a lot of energy for me to be around people.

• 7:09Keke Palmer?

  That's kind of actually all that I'm going to be talking to you about, everything that we're talking about here. I know you gotta get ready to go here. I love you.

• 7:14Speaker 01

  You gotta go to work?

• 7:15Keke Palmer?

  I know, isn't that crazy?

• 7:16Speaker 02

  I love your faces so much.

• 7:17Keke Palmer?

  And by the way, y'all don't even know, everybody that's listening in, we was all just together at Michael's crib. Michael is an amazing party holster. We was eating some catfish. What? Y'all had catfish neck and cheese?

• 7:28Speaker 02

  Fried food. It was so good.

• 7:30Keke Palmer?

  Michael throws the best parties.

• 7:31Speaker 01

  Every once in a while.

• 7:32Keke Palmer?

  He also has one of the most amazing places I've ever seen.

• 7:34Speaker 01

  Yeah, right. But we had a good time and we had good food. You two drank too much. That's another story.

• 7:42Keke Palmer?

  And I was playing, oh my gosh, I was playing spades with your fa- with your friends.

• 7:46Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 7:46Keke Palmer?

  And they whooped my ass.

• 7:48Speaker 02

  I love your faces. Continue.

• 7:49Keke Palmer?

  Love you.

• 7:50Speaker 01

  See you later.

• 7:50Keke Palmer?

  You're the best, Sarah.

• 7:51Speaker 01

  Hey, have fun on the show today.

• 7:53Keke Palmer?

  They really whooped me. I was pissed. They did that old school playa type thing on me.

• 7:57Speaker 01

  All I heard when y'all were playing cards, but you were in there yelling at somebody about knowing how, not know how to play spades.

• 8:03Keke Palmer?

  When you got a bad partner, you're screwed. My partner was messing me up. I had to blame my partner.

• 8:08Speaker 01

  It wasn't your fault. It was your partner.

• 8:10Keke Palmer?

  All right. So, you know, like the true diva that Michael is, he didn't do my pre-show pull-up questions. So I'm just gonna ask you.

• 8:16Speaker 01

  I don't do pre-interviews.

• 8:19Keke Palmer?

  That is actually a thing. Okay. You're Zodiac sign. You're Scorpio, right?

• 8:23Speaker 01

  I'm a Scorpio. Well, I, yeah, I'm on the cusp.

• 8:26Keke Palmer?

  Do you know you're rising in your moon?

• 8:27Speaker 01

  I have no idea.

• 8:29Keke Palmer?

  And when you say you're on the cusp, you're on the cusp which way?

• 8:31Speaker 01

  I guess Scor- Scorpio Sagittarius, depending on what chart you look at.

• 8:34Keke Palmer?

  I see Sagittarius a lot.

• 8:36Speaker 01

  I see a lot of Scorpio too, and it needs to be.

• 8:39Keke Palmer?

  What parts of you that feel very Scorpio? You're really funny like a Sagittarius though.

• 8:44Speaker 01

  Okay, that part could be Sagittarius, but the Scorpio part of me is if you wrong me. Oh, boy.

• 8:51Keke Palmer?

  Yeah. That's scurrying.

• 8:54Speaker 01

  Yes, but it served me well in football. Because I can switch, like, on the field. And I didn't have to be mad at you. I just did the competitive side, right? So I switch it up on you real quick and get serious. Then I can back off and be the Sagittarius. So I, I, yeah, I think I'm on the cusp.

• 9:09Keke Palmer?

  Yeah, yeah. Okay, on the cusp. Now, what is your love language? I think I know what your love language is. But if you've ever heard of this, it's kind of like, either it could be, it's a couple of things, right? Oh, you already know?

• 9:19Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, I would probably say acts of, um...

• 9:24Keke Palmer?

  Service for sure. I already know that's number one for you.

• 9:26Speaker 01

  Like, I like...

• 9:26Keke Palmer?

  That's you, now.

• 9:27Speaker 01

  Taking care of people, making sure they're good and, and all that stuff. I don't want anything. Um, I would, I would probably say like, like, physical touch, hugging somebody, like, that's important to me.

• 9:40Keke Palmer?

  Yeah, I feel like knowing you, that is a hundred percent true.

• 9:43Speaker 01

  What are the other ones?

• 9:44Keke Palmer?

  The other ones are like, um, words of affirmations, which you're not hard to give out a compliment. You're also very complimentary of others.

• 9:51Speaker 01

  Makes me uncomfortable.

• 9:52Keke Palmer?

  Oh, you're like, yeah, you don't actually, because whenever I compliment you, you're like, eh, eh.

• 9:55Speaker 01

  Yeah, you know, when you're saying that, when you're even saying that stuff, I'm like...

• 9:58Keke Palmer?

  You really do, like, what, what does it do to you? Why do you hate that?

• 10:02Speaker 01

  You know what I think? When I was, um, I don't know, I've always just like, I'm the youngest of six. And maybe because I, either I didn't get attention, or so would I get it. I'm like, mom and dad were like, hell, he's the last one. I don't care about this kid. No, they were fantastic, mom and dad, I love you. So, dad rest in peace.

• 10:20Keke Palmer?

  Oh, my gosh, you're hilarious.

• 10:21Speaker 01

  But, I don't know, I just never liked it. I remember my first year ever, I played football at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. I'm seven and eight years old. Then we moved to Germany, and I didn't play football until, like, the senior year of high school. But seven years old, playing defensive end for the Falcons. And I was a really good player, really good. But all the parents would like clap. And they go, my, and it made me, I just cried the whole game.

• 10:47Keke Palmer?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 10:48Speaker 01

  And I'm not just talking about like, no, I'm talking about, like... My puppy just got lost in the woods and I can't find it, cried. Ball the entire game.

• 10:59Keke Palmer?

  That is so interesting.

• 11:01Speaker 01

  And the coach would pull me out, say, "Are you OK? What's wrong?"

• 11:05Speaker 01

  And then I go right back in there and start balling. But I just never liked that. So when people do it, it's, I don't know, it just gives me a sense of...

• 11:14Keke Palmer?

  I need to talk to you more about this because my son actually does the same thing. My son, he likes, he likes being out in front, but the moment that someone is like acknowledging it, he literally will cry or he'll be like, it's, it's whatever this little thing is, he has that same vibe too.

• 11:30Speaker 01

  Yeah, that, that, I don't know what it is.

• 11:32Keke Palmer?

  What's a question that you wish that people asked you more in interviews? Because you're always interviewing people.

• 11:38Speaker 01

  I know. What's a question I wish people asked me more in interviews? I don't know, surprise me.

• 11:45Keke Palmer?

  OK.

• 11:45Speaker 01

  Oh, boy, I'm scared to ask you that, to tell you that.

• 11:51Speaker 01

  If you do it, I'll hurt you.

• 11:53Keke Palmer?

  Last pull-up question is, who's a star that made you feel starstruck?

• 11:58Speaker 01

  Oh, man.

• 11:58Keke Palmer?

  And you can't say me.

• 12:00Speaker 01

  No, are you the number one, by the way? Are you a number, absolutely number one with you?

• 12:04Keke Palmer?

  You done met everybody.

• 12:05Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah. And like certain people, a certain time, like Denzel, first time you meet Denzel, you're like,

• 12:10Keke Palmer?

  Denzel!

• 12:12Speaker 01

  Like, that's Denzel. First time I met Julia Roberts.

• 12:15Keke Palmer?

  Oh, she definitely has that vibe too. I never met her, but I feel that way about her.

• 12:19Speaker 01

  I tell you, I had the most amazing experience because like the first time I interviewed her.

• 12:22Keke Palmer?

  I love her.

• 12:23Speaker 01

  The first time I interviewed her, the Beverly Wilster Hotel in L.A., in this Pretty Woman suite on like the anniversary of Pretty Woman. So I'm filming with her in the suite, interviewing her where she shot that movie. And then afterwards, she said, "Would you like a glass of rosé?" And I said, and my head going, "Well, hell, it's Julia Roberts, give me that rosé." So, yeah, you're right. So I got the rosé. We drank a bottle of rosé.

• 12:48Keke Palmer?

  Oh, my gosh, this is amazing.

• 12:49Speaker 01

  And we just sat there and talked over a bottle of rosé. And now her birthday is the same as my twins, October 28th. So I send her a case of rosé every year. And, yeah, so it was her, and then the one dude, man, I met him once, after he won an Oscar backstage, and I was like, oh. Brad Pitt. With some, man, ever since.

• 13:11Keke Palmer?

  It was a weird vibe.

• 13:12Speaker 01

  Legend of the fall where he's Tristan and he's on that horse. And then his brother Samuel gets killed and he goes out there and he.

• 13:18Keke Palmer?

  Wow.

• 13:19Speaker 01

  Back to the camp and, and.

• 13:20Keke Palmer?

  I love this performance of this.

• 13:21Speaker 01

  And I'm like, I see why, I see why the wife's. The brother's wife fell for him, you know what I'm saying? I'm like, I can excuse that relationship sitting in the bin, but I excuse it. But yeah, man, Brad Pitt was another one. I was like, okay, I like this dude is cool.

• 13:37Keke Palmer?

  Yes, some people have these vibes where when you meet him, you just be completely freaking gagged. I was gagged when I met Will Smith too. I was a kid though as well, but I was like, I know it ain't fresh press. I know it ain't fresh press. Um, we're talking about it with, with Sarah a little bit. But I always talk about this with you. You juggle so many different things, Michael. I mean, career, your family, all of it. At this point in your life, what has stopped mattering to you and what is more important than ever?

• 14:05Speaker 01

  Um, what stopped mattering to me would be like a little thing that used to bother me. Like I used to pay such acute attention to everything. And, and it's a gift and it's a curse. The gift is that it allows me to. Do things really like think quickly on the fly. You know, if something happened to just really quickly without people say in front of a camera, even noticing somebody who's watching it won't even notice. Um, but in life, that's great, but sometimes it can be very taxing on your energy because you're constantly paying attention. If I'm in my car and my guy is driving. I'm like, dude, come on, notice the traffic pattern. I'm like looking two, three lights ahead, like move over right now so we don't get stuck behind that truck and then we gotta stop to move over.

• 14:48Speaker 01

  Like all those, just little things like that. I just let bother me. All this little small detail that most people let roll off their shoulders. So I'm trying to. I didn't care about that stuff.

• 14:59Keke Palmer?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 14:59Speaker 01

  It really means nothing. And the most important thing is family. Especially watching my kids grow up, young and old and out of college, in college.

• 15:09Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 15:09Speaker 01

  It's like, I'm just looking at all this stuff and realizing just what really matters in life because life goes so fast.

• 15:16Keke Palmer?

  It do.

• 15:16Speaker 01

  And you look around and, and you're on the, somebody reminded me, a friend of mine reminded me today, like, you know. Black men lived in an average age of 72 and you've got more time behind you than in front of you. I'm like.

• 15:29Keke Palmer?

  Oh my gosh.

• 15:29Speaker 01

  Well, just put me in the grave already.

• 15:30Keke Palmer?

  Yeah, like they've literally got it carved out.

• 15:32Speaker 01

  Jesus, gonna make me go and just quit everything and just go sit in a room, in a dark room by myself and just be depressed.

• 15:38Keke Palmer?

  I'm a holly.

• 15:39Speaker 01

  So just like family matters, friends matter, relationships matter. Can you can get a job, you can make money, you can do all those things, but you can't make more time. You can't make more like you have a love for your family and all those things because that's what they'll remember.

• 15:54Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 15:55Speaker 01

  My kids don't really remember a toy that I bought them. Heck, they barely remember any, any, anything you buy them.

• 16:00Keke Palmer?

  They remember memories you make together.

• 16:01Speaker 01

  The time, the time together.

• 16:03Keke Palmer?

  You've said that your model is hustle like you're broke and in, in, in talking to you about this, it makes me think about also my life. Cause I feel like I'm the same way. We both are like.

• 16:12Speaker 01

  You hustle.

• 16:13Keke Palmer?

  But then now I'm asking myself the question of, you know, what is hyper functioning? I think a lot of people in our generation are asking ourselves that where, you know, gone all the days where you can stick with one industry. First it was a unique thing. Now it's a mandatory thing. You have to diversify. How do you find the balance? Is that, does that model still push you or has it had to change over the years?

• 16:35Speaker 01

  I think it's evolved.

• 16:36Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 16:37Speaker 01

  But I still think I'm driven not so much for, yeah, hustle like you're broke. It, you know, I, I said that to one of these athletes that we manage.

• 16:47Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 16:48Speaker 01

  And this was a while ago when I was still like, you know, hyper focused on trying to see where I can go. And I don't, now I, I hustle because I just want to see how far I'll go. I almost look and think to myself, if these people continue to trust me with these things, let's see how far I can push them. You know what I mean?

• 17:07Keke Palmer?

  Right. Let's see what we can do.

• 17:09Speaker 01

  Ooh, give me a little more room. So that's really what my motivation is now, just to see how far I can go. And honestly, to be an example for other people who come from not just sports, for other industries. They want to make a change into something else to see that you're not only able to do one thing in life.

• 17:25Keke Palmer?

  No, for sure.

• 17:26Speaker 01

  If you want to change something in your life, you have the ability to change it at any point that you want. And you just don't have to stick with being a football player because at first I always felt I was a football player. And then when I retired and I wanted to do other things, people look, were looking at me just as this football player.

• 17:41Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 17:41Speaker 01

  And it was frustrating because I knew I wanted to do so much more and I felt like I could do so much more. And I had. You always knew that. Yeah, I knew it, but I didn't think other people saw it. And I would try to do things and try to, you know, integrate my way into things. It was kind of like, eh, you know, you're a football player. You had enough goodness over there. You don't need enough goodness in another industry because you were successful over there. Just stay in your lane. Yeah. And that was always frustrating to me. But then I got very fortunate in doing several things, of course. The daytime stuff, but that started. You know, of course, I went on live as a guest. And that kind of got to my ball, but I would go on Ellen a lot. I went on Ellen DeGeneres.

• 18:26Speaker 01

  And people got to see your personality. Quite a bit. People got to see my personality. A lot of people don't know, I was actually offered the opportunity to do my own show. Wow. At the same time that I was kind of doing live. And it just ended up working out that I got the live job. Stay at home with Strahan. I'm ready for that today. Whatever it was gonna be, but it was, but that was like my first time really cracking. Yeah. The code. And I had a friend, I have a friend of mine. This is, and this is, I guess, a lesson that I learned through that process. I'm a friend of mine who's up for a big job now, like a really big job. Good luck to them. Yeah, thank you in every way. And he called me yesterday and he was so nervous and in a lot of ways.

• 19:09Speaker 01

  And he's going, well, you know, I think I've taken it, but if it doesn't work out. And I was like, it's gonna work out, dude. It's gonna work out. I'm getting more responsibility and I'm like, yeah, because that comes with growth. You get more responsibility with growth. I said, if you, if, if, they didn't think you could do it. They wouldn't offer you the job. They wouldn't hire you, especially without doing an extensive search. They came to you and said, you're the guy. We're not even looking at other people. So I said, you have to trust and believe in yourself the way other people believe in you. You have to. Yes. You have to see in yourself what they're seeing in you. That's right. Because a lot of times we don't see in ourselves what other people see in us. So when I was offered to do my own show before I did live, I was like, okay, I'll try. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. And now I look back and I'm like, why was I ever doubting?

• 19:54Speaker 01

  I just need to trust if other people are telling me that I can do something, believe my. That I can do it because they may see something that I can't see. But sometime you're so close to the trees, you don't see you're in a forest.

• 20:04Keke Palmer?

  Yes, and it's true, the constant balance between seeing what others don't see, but then also being able to receive what people do see and being able to expand upon that. Let's take it back to the beginning.

• 20:14Speaker 01

  Can I say something about you?

• 20:15Keke Palmer?

  Yes.

• 20:22Keke Palmer?

  We are at the peak right now. This is it. July is the absolute top of summer, the most committed, most alive, most everything month of the entire year. The days are long, the energy is high, and everyone you love is finally available at the same time. This is the month summer delivers on everything it promised back in January when you were cold and optimistic. Okay, okay, so my friends and I found this home on Airbnb in Turks and Caicos. Perfect for a little couple's getaway. Beachfront, palm trees, private, secluded. The kind of place where you look around and genuinely cannot see another soul and you think, oh, it's just us.

• 21:03Keke Palmer?

  The whole world disappeared and all that was left was our little group on this beach like we had been dropped there by the universe specifically. Somebody's situationship got on the grill and did not disappoint. He was clearly prepared because he brought the sandals and everything. And moments like that, moments where everyone gathers around food that somebody actually cooked outside with the ocean right there. It was the kind of trip you stop trying to document because you're too busy enjoying it. We found that stay on Airbnb and it's set the bar for every couple's trip I take for the rest of my life. This is what peak summer can feel like when the space is right. Find a home on Airbnb this summer and meet the moment. Peak summer is not waiting for you to get ready.

• 21:48Keke Palmer?

  In every great production, there is the star. And then there's the thing that makes the star look good without ever asking for credit. Think about it. The right lighting paired with the perfectly timed music cue. The one friend who fixes your collar before you walk into a room. They're unsung, but yet absolutely essential. Life is already asking a lot of you. The best things are the ones that take something off your plate without you even having to ask. That's what Fruit of the Loom Women's underwear is in my daily lineup. I'm putting together looks, I'm making entrances, I'm doing the most as always. And underneath all of it is something so comfortable and so reliable that I genuinely forget it's there. And when you're going to do the most, the last thing you need is one more decision.

• 22:33Keke Palmer?

  Fruit of the Loom is the one I already made. Comfortable, reliable, completely off my mental checklist. The fit doesn't shift and the fabric doesn't fight me, it just lets me do what I do. The most powerful pieces in any ensemble are the ones that elevate without competing. And when something supports you that effortlessly, you stop searching and you start trusting. It becomes the easy choice, not because it's basic, because it's exactly right. One less thing to figure out, one decision you never have to second guess about. Fruit of the Loom proves that simple feels really good.

• 23:11Speaker 01

  You try to hustle like you're broke, you hustle like you're broken five lifetimes, though.

• 23:19Speaker 01

  I knew.

• 23:20Keke Palmer?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 23:21Speaker 01

  Gee, I'm turning on, I'm watching the birds, I'm watching this show and I'm watching this show and I got this movie coming out and I got this TV show coming out and, and, and I'm, I'm figure skating in the Olympics. What, what aren't you doing?

• 23:33Keke Palmer?

  You know, Michael, we are the same way. Like, we really come from that, and I feel you on the energy or the skill set can remain the same even if the, the, the reasoning has evolved, right? Like, at the beginning, it was definitely like a lot of survival mode, like, you just don't realize that.

• 23:50Speaker 01

  You gotta make it.

• 23:51Keke Palmer?

  I'm out of here. Why do I keep running for that reason? Even though I like running, I want the reason to be different now. And for me, it's, it's very similar to what you've said of, well, let's see how far I can take it. You know, let's see, if I'm interested in that, if I feel I have a vision for that, why not let it keep going? As opposed to always feeling like you're on a, you know, that you have to, it, it changes. So I really relate, I relate to you so much.

• 24:13Speaker 01

  And I'm sure a lot of what you do, you want to make people around you proud. You don't want to disappoint anybody. That's why I think everything that you do and everything that I try to do is like max effort. When I'm in it, I'm in it, right? And that, because I'm like, I'm in it, I've got to go out here and just put it all in there, because if it doesn't work... Then I could, if something, I've learned this too, if something doesn't work, I could take the criticism of it if I know I did my best at it.

• 24:40Keke Palmer?

  That's it.

• 24:40Speaker 01

  But if I am not putting everything into it and then I get criticized for it, or if I'm trusting somebody else with something, I feel like I know it doesn't fit and it didn't right, and then it doesn't work, then I'm mad.

• 24:52Keke Palmer?

  Yes.

• 24:52Speaker 01

  Because I'm like, I should just trust in my gut because I could take the criticism as long as I know I'm responsible.

• 24:56Keke Palmer?

  That's right.

• 24:57Speaker 01

  But when I put it in somebody else's hands and it doesn't work and I'm getting criticized for it,

• 25:01Keke Palmer?

  That's crazy. No, that very much bothers me, but there's something that I'm picking up on that my mom used to always say this to me. She would be like, you weren't, you weren't an athlete, but you think like an athlete. She used to tell me that because I feel like it is this mindset of discipline, of max effort. Like, I don't know what you call them, if you're one of them people that have, it's the three Cs or whatever it is. But what is, what do you think is the mentality that made you a successful Hall of Fame, famer? That also makes you a successful entrepreneur?

• 25:29Speaker 01

  Well, first of all, I love you, mama.

• 25:30Keke Palmer?

  She's the best.

• 25:31Speaker 01

  Sharon, I love you, mama.

• 25:34Speaker 01

  She's, you know, and I love you, you always had your family with you, which I think was one more, most impressive thing. So I always loved that. Um, the thing that I think it helped me in, in football, to help me,

• 25:47Speaker 01

  beyond, it's nothing to do with me. I think everybody has talents, like football, I was physically, I wasn't the biggest, wasn't the strongest, wasn't the fastest guy. I wasn't any of those things. I had a desire to be great and I had a desire to work. You're not gonna outwork me. You were not, I was not going to quit. So if it's you or me in my head, it's gonna be you going down before I go down. That's just the way that I, I had it in my head. And that's kind of not, not saying that I have that competitive of me or you in this business, but I just have the ability to have the work ethic. I've carried the work ethic over. And I think the biggest thing in success in my life in every aspect, people.

• 26:30Keke Palmer?

  People.

• 26:31Speaker 01

  Understand people. Like I see people. I was somebody who was moving furniture and cutting grass and doing all that stuff and people just dismiss you, washing dishes. They just dismiss you like you're not even even a part of like this is your lot in life and you're just unseen. So being in those positions has always make made me feel like I need to show people who are often and most likely unseen feel like they're seen by somebody who's in that position. And I don't dismiss and discount the value that they add because without them, none of this stuff happens. Everything works together. And I think that gets missed. So I carry over

• 27:15Speaker 01

  being a great teammate on the football field and making people feel a certain way and understanding people to get the best out of them to television.

• 27:22Keke Palmer?

  Ah, that's an amazing, that's a leader. That's incredible. That's to me, that's like a, that they teach it in school, you know, that quality of what it means to be a leader and how to get people to engage, believe in a vision, but also know that it's a shared one. That's like really, really remarkable.

• 27:37Speaker 01

  But you know, in these, in our business, so it's like, oh, who's the headliner and who's this, who's that? And I always looked at it and said, if you have success, there's enough credit for everybody. And they're gonna be a great, you're gonna have a great day. It's gonna be great about you and I'm gonna have a great day. It's gonna be great about me. There're gonna be days you talk more than I talk because I've seen people talk about, oh, you know, I was on the show and this person was counting how much I talked. And then they didn't talk. So they had to balance out who talks the most.

• 28:06Keke Palmer?

  That's crazy.

• 28:07Speaker 01

  But I have this philosophy. The less I talk, the less I can screw it up.

• 28:12Keke Palmer?

  Yo.

• 28:12Speaker 01

  I would sit right here and say, shut up.

• 28:14Keke Palmer?

  But we would have so much fun on the show. We were like, I ain't got much to say. I mean, we would actually have moments doing GMA three, we'd be like, look today, guys, take it.

• 28:21Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 28:22Keke Palmer?

  Because I don't want much to say. And like, that was actually a relief.

• 28:25Speaker 01

  It really was. You don't have to carry everything. And then it's like, I'll, I'll be back here tomorrow and tomorrow I'll be better. But today, like I've never had that ego to be like, this is my show and you're gonna do this. And if this person steps online, I don't care. Like I've never had that. And I, but it's, it's a, I think sports taught me that, that you need other people. You need to have a team. Um, and if the team's successful, there's enough credit for everybody, man.

• 28:52Keke Palmer?

  Bingo. I mean, you got drafted by the New York Giants in 1993.

• 28:56Speaker 01

  Wow, man.

• 28:56Keke Palmer?

  That was the year I was born.

• 29:01Speaker 01

  You know what?

• 29:02Keke Palmer?

  That is so funny.

• 29:03Speaker 01

  Thank you, Kiki. I appreciate this. I'll see you later. How you gonna say that, man? Are you serious?

• 29:10Keke Palmer?

  When I read that, doing the research, I was like, oh my gosh, 32 years ago.

• 29:15Speaker 01

  You was serious?

• 29:16Keke Palmer?

  The real question is, what fountain of youth are you drinking from?

• 29:19Speaker 01

  Please.

• 29:20Keke Palmer?

  Because I felt like you damn near look younger now than you did when you was in football.

• 29:24Speaker 01

  Back then, I was carrying some, um, baby weight. Um, so I was a little bit heavier.

• 29:30Keke Palmer?

  You looked so great, Michael. It's insane.

• 29:32Speaker 01

  Thank you. Thank you very much. You're welcome. For an old man who started his professional career a year you were born. Jesus.

• 29:40Keke Palmer?

  I mean, when that happened for you in your life, somebody could say, wow, you made it. I mean, yo, but what's the difference between landing on that team and then proving that you belong there? Because I think people assume when you make it to the end of, because people assume this about any entertainment. You made it. But it's like, no, no, no. There's a lot of work to sustain it.

• 29:58Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 29:59Keke Palmer?

  What did that look like for you?

• 30:00Speaker 01

  Work, hard work, um, doing extra, showing up when other people wouldn't show up, working. When people going home and you stay in that, that weight room, or you stay in the ice tub, and you stay on the treadmill, and all these things I've noticed from every guy I saw had a very successful career in all the other sports. They always work when other guys stop working. When other guys went home, when other guys said, oh, you know, I've made it. I've seen so many guys get a contract and go, oh, I'm in the league now. I'm good. I was never that guy. Plus, I always wanted to prove and live up to the, um, contract. Like, I never wanted owners of the teams to look at me and think, oh, we paid this guy all this money, and this cat go out here and now he's just

• 30:43Speaker 01

  just gonna take our money and not give us what we, what we, uh, what we believe in him. And I had parents who I never wanted to disappoint. I never wanted my parents to look at me and think, my son is just out here just going through the motions. That's embarrassing for them.

• 30:57Keke Palmer?

  Yes.

• 30:58Speaker 01

  They got friends, they go to church. They stop at the store and have people talk to them. I can't do that to my parents. But that was always the motivating factor to me.

• 31:07Keke Palmer?

  Yes.

• 31:08Speaker 01

  And as long as I played, I wanted to be relevant.

• 31:14Keke Palmer?

  Mm hmm.

• 31:15Speaker 01

  I I could have kept playing football and just been a guy on the team. But I'm no good at just a guy on the team. I have to be the guy to I want to motivate, but it's very hard to be on a bench and then go tell a guy, you need to go do this.

• 31:28Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 31:28Speaker 01

  So I realized I had to work extra, stay on the field. So when I tell a guy, we got to do this, we got to do that. It meant something in practice. I have to practice as hard or harder than these young guys. Because when we get in the game and it's tough and we're tired and I'm looking at them, say, come on, let's step it up. If I didn't really put in the work during the week and they see me over there chilling going, young guy, you take my repetitions in practice. I don't need to do it because I'm a vet. They're going to look at me and go, why are you out here telling me this? And he's sitting in practice, ain't doing, he's not doing anything. Always conscious of making sure that I did what I told other guys to do.

• 32:03Keke Palmer?

  You talk about managing other players and, you know, helping people that are in this field. What would you say is the difficult thing that people don't understand, right? Because there are a lot of things that the NFL has helped with, like, you know, financial literacy, helping dudes when they leave. You know, there's stuff that's input in the corporation to help. But for us on the outside looking in, what are some of the biggest challenges of being in an industry like the NFL?

• 32:25Speaker 01

  Oh, no guaranteed deals. And now they got some, a lot of guys are getting deals worth a lot of guaranteed money. But this, most of these NFL deals you see, or at least back in the day, although this guy's going to make this many millions. It's not guaranteed. He's you're basically year to year to year. So you have injury. You have the, you know, lack of ability that you may get cut, maybe have a bad year, they let you go. You don't get all that money. So we're year to year, no guarantee. So to me, that was always the motivator as well.

• 32:54Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 32:55Speaker 01

  You know, and and so I I I just think that. The game has evolved in so many ways.

• 33:01Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 33:02Speaker 01

  You know, financially, especially for a lot of guys. But I think that really what made me and kind of um made me focus is that it was, if I wasn't doing that, what was I gonna do? When you come into the NFL and you walk into a locker room and you see the other guys, it's not college. I'm on scholarship.

• 33:22Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 33:22Speaker 01

  I'm gonna go out here, I'm gonna do my little practice thing, I'm gonna go over here and chill on the yard, look at the pretty girls walk by, you know what I'm saying?

• 33:28Keke Palmer?

  Mm-hmm.

• 33:28Speaker 01

  In the pros, if you don't make it as a pro, you don't have a job. Again, it's grown men. That was the biggest thing.

• 33:35Keke Palmer?

  Woo.

• 33:36Speaker 01

  I'm walking in a locker room, 21-year-old kid, back when you were born, back in 1993. And um

• 33:43Speaker 01

  and I was like, oh, you know, hey, and then like Lawrence Taylor walks in, I'm going, oh my God, he's a legend. Phil Sam's a legend. All these guys, these legends. But everybody, not those guys, but the guys who were like around my age, in the league two or three years, playing my position, not everybody's happy you're there.

• 34:04Keke Palmer?

  Yes.

• 34:05Speaker 01

  Cause you being there means somebody else gotta go home.

• 34:08Keke Palmer?

  That sucks, man.

• 34:09Speaker 01

  And then they got friends who don't want them to leave.

• 34:12Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 34:12Speaker 01

  So as a young guy, the rookie, so you take a lot of junk to stay in there and you gotta fight. It's the one thing you gotta do. You gotta fight. You never back down.

• 34:23Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 34:23Speaker 01

  And I've gotten plenty of fights, literally fistfights.

• 34:26Keke Palmer?

  Right.

• 34:27Speaker 01

  Because that's like part of the survival. But once you earn respect and once you become confident in your abilities, you know, I was always one of these guys, I never worried about them bringing in a guy who played my position. Because if he takes my job, I mean, I wasn't good enough at my job.

• 34:42Keke Palmer?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 34:43Speaker 01

  Nothing to do with him, that's on me.

• 34:45Keke Palmer?

  And then I also think about this and I'm curious what your thoughts about it. Cause there's playing the game, there's being good at the sport, but then there's also being the face of a brand. Like at the end of the day, the NFL is a corporation. I think people don't understand that even about any entertainment industry. It's like there is a whole part of it where it's, this is, you are the face of something. So when you're talking to these young dudes that are coming in NFL, what is the conversation around who you wanna be and how you wanna Represent the brand and you know, they always talk about football players with the whole helmet thing. Making yourself known.

• 35:14Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 35:14Keke Palmer?

  You know, becoming somebody that is known in the the field. How do how do you approach that?

• 35:19Speaker 01

  To me, authenticity is what sells people. You can't try to be something you're not. And then, you know, you see a lot of guys who go out of their way for attention. And a lot don't care if it's good attention or bad attention. I think a lot of guys get a contract.

• 35:34Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 35:34Speaker 01

  Make some money and think, I'm just gonna act a fool and I don't care because I got money. I got this, I got that. But we know, and I tell guys all the time, well, football's over. I was thirty six when I retired. Football is over.

• 35:47Keke Palmer?

  That's pretty young, or is that?

• 35:48Speaker 01

  That's young.

• 35:49Keke Palmer?

  Yeah, I'm gonna say this.

• 35:49Speaker 01

  But I mean, it's a long time, fifteen years.

• 35:51Keke Palmer?

  It's a long time for football, yeah.

• 35:53Speaker 01

  But it's young in life.

• 35:55Keke Palmer?

  For sure.

• 35:55Speaker 01

  And I say to guys all the time, I say, you know, when it's over, um, they'll let you come to the game, stand on the sideline or maybe go up in a box, but they don't write you a check no more. Um, so you're acting up now, you're ruining your reputation now. Life goes on so much further than this game. You need your reputation. Cause no one wants to be around somebody with a bad reputation.

• 36:18Keke Palmer?

  No.

• 36:18Speaker 01

  It just doesn't work because there's, if you wanna have a bad reputation, maybe a guy is your level, maybe not even on your level, but who people like to be around, who brings something to the table. They'll bring him in before they even come in, sniff being around you. And so your reputation is the one thing that you have, that you need to hold on to, that you do not ruin. You develop relationships while you're in the game. And now it's a different thing. A lot of guys wanna be businessmen on top of being an athlete, and I get it one hundred percent. I was kind of like backwards in a sense that can't say I had a plan.

• 36:50Keke Palmer?

  Yep.

• 36:50Speaker 01

  But football was number one for me. That was my baby. That is why I said this, I don't mess up my primary work for something secondary.

• 36:59Keke Palmer?

  Mm-hmm.

• 36:59Speaker 01

  So I always focused on football.

• 37:00Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 37:01Speaker 01

  Until it was over, and then all that focus went to something else.

• 37:04Keke Palmer?

  This is important to me with people across the board is, you know, you have this thing where everybody, they wanna show you everything they could do, and it's like, all I asked was. For you to pour the cup of tea.

• 37:13Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 37:13Keke Palmer?

  And it's like, you already trying to make a badass espresso and the tea is not even poured. You know what I mean? Cause people will do that and it's.

• 37:21Speaker 01

  I'm sorry I messed up your order at this coffee shop, Kiki. Now you're gonna throw me on the bus here?

• 37:26Keke Palmer?

  That'd be the thing where it's like, you know, just do the first thing right, you know, do it at least sufficient. You know what I mean? And then add on the next thing.

• 37:35Speaker 01

  Everybody thinks you just walked in and they gave you a job. Everybody thinks, I just walked in and they gave me a job. They didn't see the failures. They didn't see the no. They didn't see the no callbacks. They didn't see the, oh yeah, come, we'll meet with you just so we can get a picture and tell our kids we hung out with you.

• 37:53Keke Palmer?

  Oh my gosh.

• 37:54Speaker 01

  Super Bowl ring with you?

• 37:55Keke Palmer?

  That's so true. That is, that one sucks.

• 37:58Speaker 01

  That stuff sucks.

• 38:00Keke Palmer?

  This is just a fan party.

• 38:01Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 38:02Keke Palmer?

  That one's bad. Cause nobody respects your mind. They never think you have more to offer to the table. That one stinks for sure.

• 38:08Speaker 01

  Always tell these guys now, everybody wants to do these businesses and all this stuff and I got more businesses than basically I can keep on top of. But it's all fun stuff that I want to do, but I tell them all the time. I said, while you're playing, develop relationships. Meet people, be nice to people, develop these relationships. And not you're doing it for a plan when you're retired, but when you are retired or maybe you're developing these relationships and if some guy likes you and successful and goes, hey, I really want to teach you something. I really want to be a part of this. Maybe in the off season, cause you have six months off. You say, hey, I just want to come shadow you. Go learn something. Show people you're interested in something else.

• 38:45Keke Palmer?

  Yes.

• 38:46Speaker 01

  That way your fame, if I were to call somebody now and say, hey, I'd like to come in and meet, I can get in, right? You can get in the door.

• 38:53Keke Palmer?

  Yes.

• 38:53Speaker 01

  When you go in there and if it's something you're interested in, show that not only can you get in the room, but you deserve to stay in the room. So know your stuff.

• 38:59Keke Palmer?

  Yes.

• 39:00Speaker 01

  Don't just get in there and blah, blah, blah.

• 39:02Keke Palmer?

  That's the guy that I was playing spades with at your house that told me he, you know, played in football. I can't remember his name. You know his name.

• 39:09Speaker 01

  Oh yeah.

• 39:10Keke Palmer?

  He was at the, and he um.

• 39:11Speaker 01

  Justin Tuck.

• 39:12Keke Palmer?

  Yeah, Justin Tuck and became now he's a tuck, stockbroker.

• 39:15Speaker 01

  Justin Tuck played with me with the Giants. Then he went to the Raiders. He won two Super Bowl rings. He was my understudy.

• 39:21Keke Palmer?

  Whipped my ass in spades.

• 39:23Speaker 01

  Yeah, he whipped you in spades, cause your partner was your partner with me. And then Justin retired and he called me. He said, Michael, they want me to go do some comment football commentary stuff. I don't know if that's what I want to do. And I'm thinking about going to business school. And I was like, Justin, that part will always be there. If you really think you're interested in something else like business, go try that. I didn't know the guy was gonna go freaking graduate from Wharton Business School. And then now he run the whole big sports thing at Goldman Sachs.

• 39:53Keke Palmer?

  Exactly.

• 39:54Speaker 01

  He's, he's amazing. And a matter of fact, um, yeah, he turned 43 this year. He hits me up. Went on his golf trip, right? And this fool, hey, man, my birthday's coming up. Milestone birthday and I'm going on this golf trip. Well, you, you, I would love it if you would come. I'm like, absolutely milestone birthday. He turned 43. Ain't no damn milestone.

• 40:16Keke Palmer?

  What, I'm like 43?

• 40:17Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 40:18Keke Palmer?

  45, maybe even 40, 50.

• 40:20Speaker 01

  But, but.

• 40:21Keke Palmer?

  43.

• 40:22Speaker 01

  Ain't no milestone. Unless there's something going on with you, I don't know.

• 40:25Keke Palmer?

  Okay.

• 40:26Speaker 01

  Yeah. But, um, but, but he's great. And but I love about Justin is he's very easy to be around.

• 40:32Keke Palmer?

  Shout out to her.

• 40:33Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah. She Lauren is awesome and she does a lot of charity degree and like charitable works and all these other stuff. Um, but he's like goes for the trip back to Alabama to play golf. And then Sunday church.

• 40:48Keke Palmer?

  Okay.

• 40:49Speaker 01

  At the church he grew up at. And, and I'm like, only go to Alabama for you. Yeah, I've been Alabama since the senior bowl back in the day, you know? But I, I love him. It's, it's great to have teammates like that. And OC is doing great in Europe and, and, and, and England.

• 41:05Keke Palmer?

  Yeah. I love going to your, to your, any of the, your parties that you host. You have such an incredible group of friends and I soak up everything.

• 41:12Speaker 01

  Different industries.

• 41:13Keke Palmer?

  Oh, my gosh, from across the board, fashion to media to sports. It's, it's really awesome.

• 41:18Speaker 01

  Little bit of everything.

• 41:19Keke Palmer?

  Yeah, real estate ain't no joke. Let's set the scene. Okay, 2007 Super Bowl, 45 seconds left against the undefeated Patriots. The Giants are down four points. People on the sidelines have said you were running up and down the field, telling everybody, we are going to win this.

• 41:34Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 41:41Keke Palmer?

  There are two versions of me at any given moment. There's the version that is on the way somewhere, locked in, unbothered, do not interrupt me, I have a purpose. And then there's the version that sees a Starbucks and just turns, mid-stried with absolutely no hesitation. The second one is my favorite version, especially in the summer. I'm the one who orders a Tropical Butterfly Refresher, guava and passion fruit flavors, these mango pineapple flavored pearls that pop in your mouth, and a butterfly pea flower infusion on top that just shifts the color of the whole drink right in front of you. And I stand there watching it happen like it's the most important thing that happened all week, because it might be. One small choice can lead to a whole shift. Unlock your best summer memories with the Tropical Butterfly Refresher from Starbucks.

• 42:26Keke Palmer?

  Order now on the app.

• 42:30Keke Palmer?

  How do you think you learned to respond to adversity? Having situations like that?

• 42:34Speaker 01

  Gene, Willie, Strahan, Singa. My dad. My dad was a man.

• 42:39Keke Palmer?

  Yo, military, right?

• 42:41Speaker 01

  Military, retired major, 82nd Airborne Division, commander of the 1st CEC, which is Combat Equipment Company in Mannheim, Germany. And my dad was amazing. He was just positive. And I've said this all the time, but I'll say it here again. When, not if. My dad never said if to me as a kid. He always said when. So it was like, when this happens? When that happens? I mean, I'm a kid growing up in Germany. I'm 13 years old, I'm little, I'm big boned, you know?

• 43:16Keke Palmer?

  I can't wear big bones.

• 43:18Speaker 01

  My brothers and their friends like making fun of me. You know, they called me Bob, right?

• 43:21Keke Palmer?

  Oh my god.

• 43:21Speaker 01

  The booty on back.

• 43:22Keke Palmer?

  Booty on back is crazy. The girls are paying for that now.

• 43:26Speaker 01

  Yeah, they're paying for it now. So I started working out. So I started doing like Jane Fonda. I bought Jane Fonda tapes.

• 43:32Keke Palmer?

  Oh, man.

• 43:33Speaker 01

  I did Herschel Walker was doing pushups and situps. That was a big thing back then when he was at University of Georgia, the football player. I started doing all those things, started working out with my dad. And by the time I was 16, my dad was, you want to play football? And I watched it on TV at that point, hadn't played it. It's like, yeah. Send me to Houston, live with my uncle.

• 43:52Keke Palmer?

  Mm-hmm.

• 43:52Speaker 01

  And he said, I'm gonna send you back, you're gonna stay with your uncle, and you're gonna get a football scholarship.

• 43:57Keke Palmer?

  Dang, that's crazy.

• 43:58Speaker 01

  I hadn't played, I'm like, okay, I was just so naive. And then, when you make it to the pros, when you do this, when you do that, when you win the Super Bowl, he was always when, he never said if. So when the time's running out in that game, and we go down by, you know, four points, now I literally go up there, hey, fella, seventeen fourteen will be the final score. Believe it, and it will happen.

• 44:20Keke Palmer?

  No!

• 44:20Speaker 01

  We won touchdown, and we are world champions, believe it, and it will happen. And it was literally channeling my father. And I didn't realize until after we won the Super Bowl, and a little while later, I'm sitting around going, how the hell did that happen?

• 44:33Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 44:34Speaker 01

  I was like, man, my dad, Gene Gene was always like preaching that, and he was one hundred percent on the money. But I think it helps me life now. Because if there's something I really want to do, nothing, I don't believe I can't do something I really tell my mind to do.

• 44:49Keke Palmer?

  But you have this, even you just looking at me, reliving the moment and saying, I believe that I could win the Super Bowl. Like, that is crazy.

• 44:57Speaker 01

  I can get your tryout right now, you wanna go?

• 45:00Keke Palmer?

  The fierceness of you saying, I can just imagine what was going through the veins of your teammates, because you're literally like, it will be.

• 45:08Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 45:08Keke Palmer?

  Like, that certainty is powerful.

• 45:12Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 45:12Keke Palmer?

  And that came from your dad, man.

• 45:14Speaker 01

  Came from my dad.

• 45:14Keke Palmer?

  That's so dope.

• 45:15Speaker 01

  Came from my dad.

• 45:17Keke Palmer?

  When you think about your pro ball years, what parts of your character remained, remained, that helped you be who you were in the sport? And what things that you say, okay, that's gotta go? And I, and I, I think about like, a lot of these athletes that we see, and obviously love Tom Brady, respected Tom Brady, but it's a different thing shifting from being someone that's playing, and deciding, I'm gonna retire everything that went along with me being somebody that was playing. What was that journey like for you?

• 45:44Speaker 01

  That was tough at first.

• 45:45Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 45:46Speaker 01

  Because you're, you're just so used to, that's what you did, like, all those years.

• 45:50Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 45:50Speaker 01

  And I was never, I learned to channel aggression, right? So, we could sit here and have this conversation on the bench, and I'd have been like, oh, defense, hold on, kick heavy right back. I get my helmet off, boop, boop, and then all of a sudden, pop, switch, and become like a lion in the jungle, where I have no love, no concern. Anybody on the other side, I will hurt you and not feel bad about it in one second. But then come back, sit, take my helmet off, sit down and have the most loving conversation with you. That was just that switch.

• 46:21Keke Palmer?

  That's so cool.

• 46:22Speaker 01

  I use that switch in a different way now.

• 46:25Keke Palmer?

  Mmm.

• 46:26Speaker 01

  But not just channel aggression or anything like that, but I use it in a different way to like, okay, I gotta be ready. Then I can get myself together and come back and be ready. I so, but that I've had to leave, I guess, the. You have to, you do have to have a certain amount of macho.

• 46:45Keke Palmer?

  Mm, mm.

• 46:46Speaker 01

  Like you in that locker room, I'm in here with 60 dudes.

• 46:51Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 46:52Speaker 01

  Somebody gotta be an alpha.

• 46:55Keke Palmer?

  That's a lot. That is a lot. Also, I'd love to be there.

• 47:02Keke Palmer?

  Also, maybe we should have done this there.

• 47:06Speaker 01

  That may be the funny thing you ever said.

• 47:09Keke Palmer?

  I'd like to see it.

• 47:12Keke Palmer?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 47:13Speaker 01

  Oh, guys, so, uh, yeah, you know what? You can't say that to me. Stop it. Stop it. So, uh, so literally being in that locker room with 60 guys and somebody's gotta be the leader. Somebody's gotta be the macho. Somebody's gotta be the man. Somebody gotta be the one that's like, yo.

• 47:31Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 47:31Speaker 01

  And, and, and I do miss that part and I love that part, but it's really interesting because it's not always the biggest guy. You know, it may, yeah.

• 47:39Keke Palmer?

  Yeah, it's the biggest attitude, I guess.

• 47:41Speaker 01

  It's just an attitude. It's the energy that you bring. It's the fact that somebody knows when you look at them. Like, I, I'm watching my language here, but it was a different, that was a different, like, um, I remember I gave all the pre-game talks and all that stuff and one of the networks came and said, hey. He asked a PR guy, could you, and the PR guy comes to me and said, Michael, um, they want to air some of your pre-game speech on the network. So could you not curse within the first like 10 to 15 seconds? Give them like 10 to 15 seconds of no cursing. And I was like, get the f**k out of here. I'm gonna, I just, you know what? I'm a different thing. This is not you guys' entertainment. For me, this is life or death.

• 48:24Keke Palmer?

  Yes.

• 48:24Speaker 01

  And that was the, the mentality. So that I leave behind.

• 48:29Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 48:29Speaker 01

  But I do channel the switch on, switch off in order to juggle everything and to compartmentalize and the focus. Cause what, what I, what I realized, what I loved, I get to be in a stadium with 80,000 people. It's like you filming a show in front of a studio audience, right?

• 48:44Keke Palmer?

  Yes.

• 48:46Speaker 01

  80,000 screaming, but I get out there and I'm so hyper focused. It shows how focused you can really be if you really want. I don't hear 80,000 people. I hear the linebacker changing the play for us if he needs to. I hear the quarterback over there saying whatever they're saying. I can't even hear the guy in front of me breathing.

• 49:05Keke Palmer?

  That's crazy.

• 49:05Speaker 01

  I can't hear 80,000 people until the play is over. And then it's like they crank up the stereo and all of a sudden you hear the people. But in between those seconds that you're focusing, all that's gone. I didn't hear any of it. It's amazing.

• 49:17Keke Palmer?

  Oh my gosh, that seems so thrilling. I mean, how do you, obviously you've done so many different things. How did you approach defining yourself beyond football? And how much of it was intentional of rewriting the narrative or integrating the narrative?

• 49:32Speaker 01

  I don't think, I don't think that it was intentional in certain ways. I knew when I was done playing football, I had a job in football. You know, working at Fox, that was, that was already done. I actually had a contract a year before I retired. But everything else, I'd never looked at kind of defining the narrative. I just kind of felt like I wanted to do more than just talk about football for six months and then have six months of sitting at home.

• 49:56Keke Palmer?

  Mm-hmm.

• 49:57Speaker 01

  Like wasting away, what am I gonna do? I can only play so much golf.

• 50:00Keke Palmer?

  Come on. That golf be having y'all in chokehold.

• 50:03Speaker 01

  Yeah. It still kind of got me in chokehold. But there's only so much of that you can do. And I felt like I still had a lot of too much energy and too much creativity to just sit in the house.

• 50:13Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 50:14Speaker 01

  I mean, I just started trying different things, asking to try different things, putting myself out there instead of worrying about being embarrassed. I would just say yes to stuff that I knew probably wasn't gonna do, or at least I should try to say I did it. And by doing that, learned a lot of things along the way by failure. I learned a lot of things that I didn't think at the time I wanted to do, became successful, or taught me something that helped me become successful in something else. So getting on my own way, not worrying about being cool, failure, success, but just try different things and say yes instead of saying no, because I'm scared to try something new.

• 50:53Keke Palmer?

  Yes.

• 50:54Speaker 01

  And I think that that kind of rolled itself into people seeing me do things in a different way that was not what they usually saw athletes do. So they said, huh, let's try him here. Let's see if he can fit here. Let's see how outside of a sports audience, do they really like him outside of sports?

• 51:12Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 51:13Speaker 01

  Then it just kind of snowballed, all from saying yes and being uncomfortable and taking chances on myself.

• 51:19Keke Palmer?

  I love what you're saying too about trying things, because I think there's something that people don't often think about when it comes to evolving as a person and evolving in your career. Sometimes you can't overly design it. You really have to be open to it coming. That's what actually, how you find the legitimacy in it, is that, you know, I didn't try to preprogram this. I found myself inside of this. And you actually have your own company, SMAC. We got SMAC, S-M-A-C, SMAC Entertainment. What made you say, okay, now it's time to actually take it one step further outside of now becoming this, you know, media personality, but to actually building a business?

• 51:58Speaker 01

  Well, I think not playing football growing up, not thinking football was my life work, made me come into football, but also having a mind for... Something else in life. I just kind of felt football was what I did at the time. But after that, I always wanted to do more. I always. And, and so when I retired, I, I, I had a manager here in New York from the football side, but then football was over. So I lived in LA, I was doing Fox, and I would go by, Constance Swartz is my business partner now, but I always go by her office. And we had been friends with, we've been friends now for thirty one, thirty two years. But she was at the NFL for ten years, moved to LA to work, and we always stayed in touch. Every time I went to LA, it wasn't very often. I would go to her offices when she was working for other companies and hang out.

• 52:43Speaker 01

  Well, now she had started her own company. I would show up. She'd be talking about some of what she'd be talking in her office, doing some work, and I asked, what are you working on? She worked on this and that, and I always had opinions. Why don't you try this? Maybe this and that. And see, finally, after a while, because I was bored. Like, I had all these months, and you're having a schedule, and I had nothing. Like, what do you do with nothing? She finally said, Michael, I, I love you. I appreciate you coming in here. I appreciate you trying to help out. But you either gotta be a part of this company, or you gotta stop coming in, because I can't take it no more. Basically, you know, paraphrased it. That's what she said. So I said, okay, I'll be a part of the company. So we end up having smack. It's been like fifteen years now.

• 53:27Keke Palmer?

  Oh, my gosh. Shout out to Constance.

• 53:29Speaker 01

  And it's just been amazing, because I think she is so brilliant, so smart, so forward thinking, and she's a great cultivator of relationships and people.

• 53:41Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 53:42Speaker 01

  And through that, you know, management company, myself, Deion Sanders, Aaron Andrews, Travis Hunter, Common, Wiz Khalifa, the Bella Twins. So just, you know, you kind of keep on, um.

• 53:55Keke Palmer?

  The Bella Twins. I love them. We, we talked to them at GMA Three. I just saw them recently at the Super Bowl.

• 54:01Speaker 01

  They're great.

• 54:01Keke Palmer?

  Love those girls. Yeah.

• 54:02Speaker 01

  They're fantastic. So just in a smorgasbord of other, you know, Kurt Minifee and, and, and Deandre Jordan, and just, let's just keep on growing. So that is kind of. Just spin something, it's, it's, it's kind of funny. I remember, I was like, this is really weird. Constance calls me and said, Wiz and Snoop are going on tour. And she managed Snoop for seven years, day to day. At one point, and she said, they're going on tour, you need to come down to Florida, watch the show, and then I want you to give notes on the show. I'm going, Wiz and Snoop, ah, you want me to give notes? So I go down to the show. And I watch the show, and then I go backstage and Con basically is like.

• 54:48Speaker 01

  And I'm like, huh, you're managing now, like you, you've got, so I'm very honest in the notes, but it was interesting to see these guys go, okay, yeah, you're right. All right.

• 54:58Keke Palmer?

  Cause you know what you talking about.

• 54:59Speaker 01

  And that's the thing, you know what, sometimes because it's not something that you grew up doing, or you've been in the whole time, but you get into it late. You think, oh, I, I gotta sit back. But a lot of times, what, what I know I've had to deal with in sports. And in entertainment, television, and, and, and all different ways, from contract to finances, to just, just. PR, all these things, you've gained so much experience that you can use to help other people or give advice.

• 55:26Keke Palmer?

  Uh oh.

• 55:27Speaker 01

  And you gotta trust yourself that you freaking know it, because we.

• 55:30Keke Palmer?

  He keeps home management.

• 55:32Speaker 01

  There you go.

• 55:33Keke Palmer?

  I just came up.

• 55:34Speaker 01

  I'm telling you.

• 55:35Keke Palmer?

  With a new job.

• 55:36Speaker 01

  You'll be amazed at how much experience and how many things you can help people with that you may not have felt comfortable with, but you've experienced so much.

• 55:44Keke Palmer?

  Wow.

• 55:44Speaker 01

  And that you just trust yourself. And I've learned in all these different businesses, finance business, I'm in the finance business now.

• 55:50Keke Palmer?

  Real estate, you taught me so much on real estate.

• 55:52Speaker 01

  All these things that I knew nothing about. And I just had to go in and found out, hey, you know what, it's very similar. To sports, it's very similar to this business, everything's very similar, the language changes.

• 56:04Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 56:04Speaker 01

  But the ideas are very similar.

• 56:06Keke Palmer?

  Yeah. And now you and Constance Shorts are getting ready to do y'all's podcast together.

• 56:10Speaker 01

  Yeah, we got a podcast we're working on. I don't have a name of it yet.

• 56:14Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 56:14Speaker 01

  But it's going to be.

• 56:16Keke Palmer?

  It's gonna be so good.

• 56:17Speaker 01

  It's gonna be great, and it's gonna be funny, it's gonna be, we're gonna talk about everything.

• 56:21Keke Palmer?

  When you think about your top three guests that you, like what. Would be their type, what type of person, person would you be wanting to talk to? Obviously, I'm too many. Okay, me.

• 56:30Speaker 01

  You'd be perfect. No, and I, and I'd say that in all sincerity, not because I'm just sitting in front of you. But in all sincerity, because I think you encompass so many worlds in one. And there are very few people like you, Kiki. That's what I'm saying. I'm watching on this and I'm watching that and I'm watching that. And you can do everything and, and it's, it's very tough to do one thing right and be great at it. But you're great at all these things. So you're a perfect example of someone who doesn't limit themselves. And I, and so I think for our podcast, it's, it's gonna be a lot of fun. Trust me.

• 57:00Keke Palmer?

  I'm just not late.

• 57:01Speaker 01

  You know, it came about because both of us would sit here, we'd get in these meeting rooms and we would just kind of, we'd probably be meeting with people about serious things that we kind of go at it on our, and they're like, this should be a show.

• 57:12Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 57:12Speaker 01

  I'm like, we're not doing TV shows, um, you know, uh, but we, we will get around to a podcast maybe. But I think talking about interesting conversations, motivating conversations.

• 57:21Keke Palmer?

  Yes.

• 57:22Speaker 01

  Um, insightful conversations is what it's really all about.

• 57:25Keke Palmer?

  I mean, people getting a chance, I think, obviously, people love you and they get to see you on TV shows. But as, as always, when you're doing daytime in the structure that it actually is, you can only go so far. The conversations are you, the segments are three minutes, five minutes. You know, there's only so much you can say.

• 57:40Speaker 01

  That's about you, you're gonna rub.

• 57:41Keke Palmer?

  You know what I mean? But you, me having had so much unlimited time with you, you're gonna be able to inspire so many people. Because you are a wealth of knowledge and you are such a great leader. So it's like, you know, again, I, I just feel like, uh, people are gonna love this podcast.

• 57:57Speaker 01

  But I'm silly.

• 57:57Keke Palmer?

  And you're funny. Yeah.

• 57:59Speaker 01

  That's the, that's the thing.

• 58:00Keke Palmer?

  Crazy and funny too.

• 58:00Speaker 01

  And it's funny because I, when I get, like, I, I go to work and I can, and when I'm at GMA and Fox, I am like the cut up. I'm like the, I'm like the class clown. And then I'm also like the guy who will poke at people and like get on people. And then when I go home sometimes, I'm like, man, I gotta be serious. And my kid probably look at me a little bit more serious than I am half the time. Uh, but, but yeah, it's a little, it's a little weird thing, but I absolutely, like your podcast, like doing this.

• 58:28Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 58:29Speaker 01

  And this is like your natural element, but it's good because you, you have more room to breathe.

• 58:33Keke Palmer?

  Yes.

• 58:34Speaker 01

  And TV don't have much room to breathe.

• 58:36Keke Palmer?

  It don't.

• 58:36Speaker 01

  And you can show a little hint of personality, but not all your personality. You can say a little of this, but you can't say a lot of that.

• 58:40Keke Palmer?

  It's true. It's true. Um, also, I want to talk about your, uh, menswear collection. Obviously, you have your, uh, collection by Michael Strahan.

• 58:48Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 58:48Keke Palmer?

  But you've been doing the fashion thing for a while. Yeah, you've always, you know, so. I mean, what are some of your favorite things that are getting ready to come out that you have on your line? But also, what made you realize that this was a lane that you also could dominate? Because you have been dominating it.

• 59:03Speaker 01

  Well, I think it's, um, when you, when you start out off in football, obviously, you gotta go on these road trips and stuff. You can't show up looking like a bum, man. You gotta come right. I mean, but I gotta say, some guys, they think they're coming right, but they ain't coming right. They got suits that wearing, it suit is clean, but then they move and it's like a chameleon. It change your colors with every reflection of the light on the suit. Like dude, I don't know what fabric that is, but you need to go ahead and take that back to the lizard you got it from.

• 59:29Keke Palmer?

  I'm howling, not the lizard.

• 59:32Speaker 01

  Well, it is, it was crazy. So just being in sports and being in, in, in all that stuff, you, it's like a presentation.

• 59:38Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 59:39Speaker 01

  I'm, I'm, I learned I would dress well going on the road and put on a suit because you're going on a business trip. And I always loved these coaches like Tom Coughlin, who was like, yeah, wear a suit on the road. Um, it's not going in your sweats, like we're going on a business trip. He was teaching us more than just being, um, an athlete, teaching us how to be a man when sports was over. And, and so being on TV every day, suit, suit, suit, suit, I'm wearing suits all the time. And I was like, well, you know what? I love that. Like I love fashion, I love the suits. Why don't I create my own? You know, it's gotta depending on somebody else to go in and try to create something they think is in my style. So with that, 10 years ago, we created, um, Collection by Michael Strahan. It's been, it's been doing well 10 years. Now we're going into 100 Belk stores.

• 1:00:23Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 1:00:24Speaker 01

  And Belk online, and Belk.com online. So the business just continues to evolve, continues to grow. We're doing home goods. We're doing all these, yeah, all these crazy things. And, and it kind of blows my mind, Kiki, because here I am, this kid, who just was happy to have a job and not have to move back in with my parents. And I look back and I'm going, wow, life is crazy. And, and you never know where you're gonna end up. And...

• 1:00:54Speaker 01

  Just how, how, I, I feel like a lot of it, I could say, I, I would love to say I've made all the right decisions and I was brilliant and all that. No, I've been very fortunate, very lucky to make the right decisions when they were made. But more than that, around the right people to help me.

• 1:01:09Keke Palmer?

  Amen, because it takes a team.

• 1:01:10Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's around the people you put yourself around.

• 1:01:13Keke Palmer?

  And with all that said, life can still throw so many uncontrollable things our way. And this is, it's a good thing, right? Because Isabella's now back at USC. She's feeling better, she's cancer free, but she did have cancer.

• 1:01:25Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:01:25Keke Palmer?

  So that was crazy. I mean, I remember when I saw that news and I was blown away, man. And I already know you and your character, how much, uh, how helpless you probably felt. What did you learn from that situation and, and how are you feeling now? Because I imagine the trauma of that, even when you've moved past it, it's still kind of.

• 1:01:43Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah, that never goes. Um, you know what? I learned that in life, sometimes you gotta let go. You gotta pray, you gotta depend on prayers, you gotta trust in doctors or whoever can handle the situation. Because that's one of the things completely out of your hands. And that was the, the, the worst part was feeling helpless. I can't fix this. You know, something goes wrong at school, or I need this or that, or dad. All right, you know, your niece a ticket to this concert, you can't get them, dad, help you.

• 1:02:15Speaker 01

  You can, you can fix whatever needs to be fixed. In this case, it was no just fixing it. And you wake up in the morning, when it first happened for the first month or so, I'd wake up and go, oh, boy, that dream sucked.

• 1:02:26Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 1:02:26Speaker 01

  Then you realize, oh, this is not a dream, this is real. And it was devastating, very devastating and very scary because you don't know the outcome, if it's gonna be positive or not. You know what you're hoping for, you know what you're praying for. And even now, she's, thank God, cancer free, um, back at school, crushing it, doing well, loving, back to her, her, or her 21 year old life.

• 1:02:50Keke Palmer?

  Yep.

• 1:02:50Speaker 01

  But at the same time, every three months, she gets a scan and you still worry. You know, you still worry, even though doctors feel very good about you, still worry. I mean, it's never far away from your mind and, and I.

• 1:03:03Keke Palmer?

  Has she changed?

• 1:03:04Speaker 01

  I think so, yeah. And she was always a sweet kid, but I just think that this gave her some sense of appreciation, a little bit more of her age. And I think that she has, she really wanted to help people. Cause she did the whole documentary on ABC. And she was vlogging at first about it, cause she couldn't find anybody about her age. When she was going through this, so she just thought, I'm a vlog about it. And she found one kid, Greg, who didn't hit her back when she reached out to him. Cause she saw this young kid had it. And Greg was the captain of the LSU football team, safety. And so, but she didn't hear back from him, so she kinda said, I'm a vlog and just throw it out there.

• 1:03:49Speaker 01

  Kinda get it off her chest. And one of the ladies that she connected to, it was like, oh, my grandson had it and he had it. He had surgery, he's this and that. It ended up being Greg's grandmother. And the reason Greg didn't reach back to her, because Greg's situation of surgery wasn't as successful in a sense that, you know, it gave him some impairment and other issues. So he was battling back to come back from that. And, um, but yeah, so that was like to understand that. And then you see the community that she was able to build, I think gave her a great feeling about what she was doing. And she knew she was on the right path. And I think it gave her this whole thing about giving back and really helping people.

• 1:04:33Speaker 01

  And I've never seen a documentary that she did. I mean, I've heard people say, Michael, it's great, man. I'm so proud of your daughter. And I'm like, thank you, thank you, thank you. Yeah, I mean, I lived it. I lived it once. I don't, I think at some point, maybe I'll go back and I'll watch it. But it would be tough to watch that because this is like real life. It's your kid and you're watching them go through it. And then to me, it brings back memories of, of some of the experiences that I had with her and watching how she was in some of these situations, that it would just break my heart to see it right now.

• 1:05:02Keke Palmer?

  Yeah, I'm so thankful to God that she's good. And that you guys have gotten through that. And that they had you to lean on. Other exciting news is that you're grandfather.

• 1:05:13Speaker 01

  Yeah, I am. I'm an old man. My grandchild was born in 1993.

• 1:05:17Keke Palmer?

  Uh oh. So what do they call you? I mean, you, you, you was joking.

• 1:05:22Speaker 01

  I was joking.

• 1:05:23Keke Palmer?

  You was joking about them calling you Big Papa.

• 1:05:26Speaker 01

  Yeah, I'm I'm gonna come up with a cool name though, man. My little man Onyx.

• 1:05:32Keke Palmer?

  Aw, Onyx. How old is he? He the same age as Leo or older than Leo?

• 1:05:35Speaker 01

  No, he's younger than Leo. Leo's what, three?

• 1:05:37Keke Palmer?

  Three.

• 1:05:38Speaker 01

  Well, Onyx is gonna be two. He's gonna, he's going on two. But he um, he's got a haircut. Like he had a big buff, puffy fro and then they cut it down. And then they left it for a few weeks and they cut it down some more. Now, he looks good. He's got a nice little fade. But he looked good before. He looked good all different kind of hair, but um, yeah.

• 1:05:57Keke Palmer?

  It's so cute when a little baby's had their own little haircut.

• 1:05:59Speaker 01

  Yeah, I love it.

• 1:06:00Keke Palmer?

  That's so cute.

• 1:06:01Speaker 01

  But he, you know, he's, he's already a kid after my own heart. He loves cars.

• 1:06:07Keke Palmer?

  My son loves cars too. I actually thought it was so unique. Apparently that's what all the boys do.

• 1:06:11Speaker 01

  Yeah, well.

• 1:06:11Keke Palmer?

  I'm like, really?

• 1:06:12Speaker 01

  I'm hoping that you need.

• 1:06:13Keke Palmer?

  I thought my son was like, unique. But then every little boy is like.

• 1:06:16Speaker 01

  He loves cars. Not every little boy loves cars. Let me tell you right now. Our kids, our kid, your kid, and my grandkid are unique and refuse.

• 1:06:23Keke Palmer?

  My son is obsessed with, and he loves Lightning McQueen. Anyway, alright, I gotta come to an end because you're a busy guy. You gotta get back to your other jobs.

• 1:06:31Speaker 01

  Are we done?

• 1:06:32Keke Palmer?

  Before we leave though.

• 1:06:33Speaker 01

  Kiki, you're done with the billing already.

• 1:06:34Keke Palmer?

  We're gonna play a game. Are you ready for a game? I do it with all of my guests. And, you know, pretty much.

• 1:06:40Speaker 01

  You gonna ask me questions on all those cards? Is this rapid fire?

• 1:06:44Keke Palmer?

  This is kind of like rapid fire. So basically, it's time to say what we really think about each other. I'm gonna throw out a prompt. And we'll decide if it's giving Kiki or if it's giving Michael. Are you ready?

• 1:06:56Speaker 01

  Oh, Chris is either.

• 1:06:57Keke Palmer?

  Okay. Who's more competitive, me or you?

• 1:07:00Speaker 01

  Giving Kiki.

• 1:07:05Keke Palmer?

  I cannot believe that you're saying that. And you play the most competitive sport. That's crazy.

• 1:07:11Speaker 01

  Those days are long. That was survival, as I said. Trying to make a living.

• 1:07:15Keke Palmer?

  Michael is so fake. Okay, who is more likely to be going off in a group chat? Me or you?

• 1:07:22Speaker 01

  Like going off?

• 1:07:23Keke Palmer?

  I think both of us are quiet. We're both watching.

• 1:07:26Speaker 01

  Yeah, I'm kinda listening.

• 1:07:27Keke Palmer?

  I'll never say much in a group chat.

• 1:07:29Speaker 01

  Nah, that's me then. Oh, Michael.

• 1:07:33Keke Palmer?

  That's you.

• 1:07:33Speaker 01

  Cause usually I start something in the group chat and I kinda, I do like the Homer Simpson in the bushes. I throw something out there. And then I slide back and let everybody else fight it out and sit back in the corner.

• 1:07:44Keke Palmer?

  You're crazy. Um, who is most likely to accidentally reveal a surprise?

• 1:07:49Speaker 01

  Oh, Kiki.

• 1:07:52Speaker 01

  Absolutely.

• 1:07:53Keke Palmer?

  I get too excited.

• 1:07:54Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:07:55Keke Palmer?

  I get way too excited. Okay. Who talked more in the commercial break? Me or you? Obviously me. I don't even know why I asked that. Michael will be so tired of me, but can we just talk about that schedule and how it's actually the most undefeated schedule? You have to get up at like 3, 4 a.m., but you're done by noon.

• 1:08:12Speaker 01

  Who, me?

• 1:08:13Keke Palmer?

  You're not.

• 1:08:14Speaker 01

  Now?

• 1:08:15Keke Palmer?

  With GMA 3? That's how it was for me.

• 1:08:16Speaker 01

  Oh, GMA 3, yeah. We were finished. What time did you shoot there, so? No, we were finished about 10, 11, 11 or so.

• 1:08:23Keke Palmer?

  Done.

• 1:08:24Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:08:24Keke Palmer?

  That, I miss that life.

• 1:08:26Speaker 01

  Yeah, I know.

• 1:08:26Keke Palmer?

  I mean, it was crazy to get up early and then Michael got me so on point that I would work out before I came. You hooked me up with your trainer.

• 1:08:33Speaker 01

  You lost your mind. I wouldn't do that myself.

• 1:08:36Keke Palmer?

  I would go with your trainer. I would work out before coming to the set at 5 a.m., doing my glam for two hours. We own there at 7, do the two shows, out at 11.

• 1:08:45Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:08:46Keke Palmer?

  That was the best.

• 1:08:47Speaker 01

  It was, it was a great, it's a great schedule. Great work if you can get it.

• 1:08:50Keke Palmer?

  Okay, okay, last, last one. Hmm, which one of us was the crew's favorite? Be honest.

• 1:08:59Speaker 01

  You want me to be honest?

• 1:09:02Speaker 01

  You sure you want my honesty?

• 1:09:03Keke Palmer?

  Yes.

• 1:09:06Keke Palmer?

  Honestly, I'll admit, Michael's everyone's favorite.

• 1:09:10Keke Palmer?

  He just has this quality.

• 1:09:11Speaker 01

  I did not say that.

• 1:09:12Keke Palmer?

  He has this quality about him. He's just so lovable. I love him, you love him, and I'm so happy.

• 1:09:19Speaker 01

  Crew is family. And we, we get all the credit because we sit here in front of the camera, whatever, microphones, but the crew is the family. So I always believe in taking care of the crew. I believe in, you know, springing for lunch, springing for breakfast, um, doing anything. Who did that just, who we just had, um? I just sent the whole group to, um, I've got a box at Barclay so they can go see

• 1:09:42Keke Palmer?

  Period.

• 1:09:43Speaker 01

  New Edition, um, Boyz II Men and Toni Braxton. And I wasn't even in town, so I was like, here, here's the box. There's food, there's drink. You go enjoy yourself. Because I believe that if you give the people around you, really make it all happen, things that they appreciate outside of the job, then they'll give you everything they have in the job. And that's important.

• 1:10:03Keke Palmer?

  These are the kind of people that I get to call mentors. I'm so lucky to have you, to know you as a friend, as a collaborator, and happy to have you as a guest on Baby, This is Kiki.

• 1:10:12Speaker 01

  And the other grandfather because you were born the year I started working.

• 1:10:16Speaker 01

  I love Kiki Parker!

• 1:10:23Keke Palmer?

  Michael has done so much. But what stands out is how intentional he is about what actually matters. This isn't about chasing more, it's about how you spend your time, who you show up for, and what you carry forward. Because success may open doors, but your values decide which ones you walk through. I'm so glad that he showed up and showed his heart. Until next time, baby, this is Kiki Poma.

• 1:10:48Speaker 03

  Baby, this is, this is Kiki. Baby, this is Kiki Poma, yeah.