Torii Hunter: 5x All-Star Talks Baseball, Business Lessons, the Real Barry Bonds & Life

FOLLOW THE PIVOT PODCAST: MERCH | https://pivotpodcast.com YOUTUBE | https://www.youtube.com/thepivotpodcast INSTAGRAM | https://instagram.com/thepivot TWITTER | https://twitter.com/thepivot TIKTOK | https://tiktok.com/@thepivot FACEBOOK | https://www.facebook.com/thepivotpodcast FOLLOW HAPPY DAD: https://www.instagram.com/happydad FIND HAPPY DAD: https://www.happydad.com/find Once one of major league baseball’s biggest stars, Torii Hunter, a.k.a Spiderman joins The Pivot to discuss how he refrained from being imprisoned by his upbringing and achieved success. A young man growing up in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, no stranger to poverty, Torii was angry that an impoverished childhood chose him. He didn’t know that his pain would eventually serve as schooling and motivation to become one of the MLB’s biggest stars. Torii sits down with Ryan, Channing, and Fred to talk about overcoming the imprisonment of his pain, learning to be of service to others, and the role money plays in your relationships. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

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• 0:30Speaker 02

  So this is all year? Y'all do this all year? Every week. Every week? We probably have, shit, what? Seven, eight weeks off in the last 16 months? Yeah. If we have vacation and stuff like that, we'll take off. But if you're gonna take off, you're gonna shoot Right here, Mike. Five before you leave. Wow. Like if we're here, we can get five, six in in a day. We'll charge. And that's the other thing. Five, six in, y'all good for about a week or two? Yeah, we good for three. About three. You can chill for a little. I see y'all be everywhere, boy. Yeah. Y'all be talking to everybody, boy. Y'all be just the life. That's the life. Let me hear what this motherfucker gonna say. Don't know, what are you gonna say?

• 1:09Ryan Clark?

  But that's the thing too, T, it's like trying to cover every conversation. Because you can have somebody with a cool sports career, but if they don't have no depth, if they ain't... It's not about even going through something. If they can't impart no wisdom, talk about their experience in a way, it's a boring show for some people. Because some people don't care what we do.

• 1:31Speaker 02

  Yeah, they don't care about no sports. They wanna hear that real life stuff.

• 1:34Ryan Clark?

  They're here for the conversation.

• 1:35Speaker 02

  What about your kids?

• 1:36Ryan Clark?

  Right.

• 1:37Speaker 02

  Why they don't like you?

• 1:38Ryan Clark?

  Right. You know what I'm saying?

• 1:39Speaker 02

  You know what I'm saying? 'Cause I work too hard. Now they, now they work and they like, I get it.

• 1:44Ryan Clark?

  You see what I'm saying?

• 1:45Speaker 02

  Now you get it, huh?

• 1:46Ryan Clark?

  Yeah, but that's what people... And you know, the, the sports is what draws you in. It's like, okay. They play sports, but most of the conversation that we like, that people like we have, don't have nothing to do with it.

• 1:57Fred Taylor?

  At Floyd's crib, Mayweather out in Vegas, we sat in the kitchen for what, an hour and a half? Could have been the whole show. Right there, it could have been the whole entire show.

• 2:07Channing Crowder?

  Floyd was venting.

• 2:08Speaker 02

  Any boogers, we good?

• 2:11Speaker 02

  Alright, alright, yeah, thanks, thanks.

• 2:14Fred Taylor?

  How long you been in, uh, Tinder's?

• 2:16Speaker 02

  Man, I've been with Tinder about, this is my sixth year coming up. Yeah, we've been there six years, man, we, we got three, we got three more on the way.

• 2:23Fred Taylor?

  Oh wow.

• 2:24Speaker 02

  Barbecue, now, when I walk around, they be like, "Hey, it's Tory, the barbecue guy." I'm like, "What?"

• 2:29Channing Crowder?

  Better than the TikTok man, that's what I be getting, that's.

• 2:32Speaker 02

  He was like, "You the TikTok guy."

• 2:33Channing Crowder?

  And you are the TikTok man though, dog.

• 2:34Ryan Clark?

  These young kids don't have any idea I ever played the sport. You're the guy off TikTok, aren't you? "Yeah, how you doing?" I signed no books.

• 2:45Speaker 02

  That's funny, well, you gotta let it be then, you know?

• 2:48Ryan Clark?

  Yeah, see, I mean, whatever, it's whatever you can get known for.

• 2:51Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:52Ryan Clark?

  And for, for kids though, you gotta think, for kids, they get all their information that way. That's where they find their stars, and they could become stars from that. So to them, you like a bigger celebrity than some dudes doing movies.

• 3:03Channing Crowder?

  Oh yeah, I'm gonna be a YouTube star when I grow up. I done heard that silly shit when I go to schools.

• 3:08Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 3:08Channing Crowder?

  And I thought it was silly shit until.

• 3:10Speaker 02

  Now.

• 3:12Channing Crowder?

  I became one, yeah. Yeah, Mr. Beast, let me make a chocolate bar, hell yeah.

• 3:42Ryan Clark?

  Well, T. Hunt, man, welcome to the Pivot, Chan, Freddie T., RC. We're sitting with Tory Hunter, 19 years in the major league. How about this, you're one of only 15 players with, uh, 350 home runs, right? 150 stolen bases. 450 doubles, over 2,400 hits. Only five of y'all are not in the Hall of Fame. It's Barry Bonds, it's Alex Rodriguez, Carlos Beltran, and Gary Sheffield.

• 4:14Speaker 02

  Wow.

• 4:15Ryan Clark?

  Now, I wanted to sit down with you and have this conversation because I've gotten the opportunity to chop it up with you privately and just talk about life. You're definitely somebody I admire and look up to from the adversities you've gone through and the man you've come out on the other side to be and the men you've raised. But for you, T, to be where you are, not just an entrepreneur, a very distinguished, I dare not call you a serial entrepreneur the way that you've just accomplished so much after baseball. But you come from humble beginnings in Pine Bluff, bro. Like, you went through real life with things that you're, you dealt with your father, your older brother. Obviously, you had your mother there to make ends meet, do everything that she could for you.

• 5:00Ryan Clark?

  Uh, thank you, brother, big brother, Tyru.

• 5:02Speaker 02

  Tyru, yeah.

• 5:03Ryan Clark?

  Was basically like a father figure to you. T, I don't know if this is true, bro. You went to school and you had a crack pipe fall out your jacket?

• 5:14Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah.

• 5:15Ryan Clark?

  What is that type of life or upbringing like?

• 5:18Speaker 02

  The older I get and I look back at my past and I look at my family issues, I look at my neighborhood, I look at all the stuff around our city in Pine Bluff. I used to be angry about it, you know? Just like, man, you know, I show a little anger here and there on the field. I showed anger out in public every once in a while and I realized it was my prison. You know, I look back and I made it my prison. So anytime in my future you see me angry, it was because of my past that was holding me back. But now I kind of look back and make it my schooling. You know, I look back and I learn from it, you know? And I go, man, I could have did that different or whatever it may be. Times when my dad was a crackhead, walking down the streets

• 6:02Speaker 02

  and all the girls are like, I've seen your dad walking down the street. They're laughing, angry. You know, you throw these hands with somebody, you know. We had lights cut off, you know, knocking on doors for food. You know, the neighbors, we all took care of each other. One neighbor might didn't have sugar, you know, and they're coming to our house to get the sugar. You know, a lot of people know how it went. And if we didn't have bread, we went to the neighbor's house to get bread. But it was just some hard times. At the time, you're going through it, and you get older, you start looking to your right, and you're looking to your left. And you see other kids, they got their mother and father in the house, and they're sitting at the table, they're eating dinner together, chatting it up. And we never did that, you know. And you see, they go to the movies, they're traveling,

• 6:47Speaker 02

  they come back and say, hey, we just left Kansas City, Missouri. I'm like, what that look like, you know? I don't know what that looks like, right? Angry, you know. Now I start seeing these kids to my left and my right. They were doing things that I never thought I would be able to do. If I went to Little Rock, thirty minutes north, and I saw one big building, I'm like, we are out of Palm Bluff.

• 7:09Speaker 02

  I made it, you know? And as you got older, you start seeing different things. It wasn't until I was about thirteen, we went to, I went to Santa Fe, New Mexico, playing baseball. And that was the first time I flew on the plane. I looked down, I'm like, wow, look at the way the land is sectioned off. And, you know, you go there, you play in front of this big crowd. We had about five thousand people at the Babe Ruth game. And I was staying with the family. And they made me get up in the morning, take my shower, sit at the table, say a prayer, and say what you thankful for. I'm like, I'm thankful to be here, but they were just saying, hey, what's your dream, what are your goals, what are your tasks for the day? And I never thought I'd see something like that. And I was talking about some of the dreams and goals I wanted.

• 7:55Speaker 02

  You know, I wanted to get my mom out of poverty. I wanted to go to college and get my degree, and so I can help my family. And so I started talking about it. I never, I thought about it, but I never talked about it. Just that experience actually kind of shifted my mindset when I was in the eighth and ninth grade. And I started doing it different, you know. I started not being so angry, you know, and saying, all right, I got a goals and dreams and things I need to do to save my family. So now, when I look back at my past, I look back at making my schooling. It was my prison for a long time. If that didn't happen... I probably wouldn't even be here. Because all those things were my motivation, you know, to to get where I need to be. Get my family out of poverty. But also, I found out my why and my purpose along the way.

• 8:41Speaker 02

  So you gotta have some kind of motivation. I think my past pushed that.

• 8:44Channing Crowder?

  You said eighth, ninth grade, the anger went away. But was it all gone?

• 8:48Speaker 02

  No, it wasn't.

• 8:49Channing Crowder?

  Did that fuel anything else in your life?

• 8:51Speaker 02

  It was lying dormant, you know, it was there. I I heard Darius Daniels, man, say something about invisible prison, you know. Uh, one thing about invisible prison, you you put this little kid or you put this this person in the past in this prison with no bars. So invisible prison has no bars. It sits in this this room and whenever somebody offends you or or you have some kind of trigger from your past, it actually jumps out. Anytime it wants to because that that has no bars. So when my anger issues come out, that was that little eight-year-old or that nine-year-old kid or thirteen-year-old kid popping out and said, I got you. I'm gonna protect you this time. So those anger issues is something that I had that was in a a prison with no bars.

• 9:34Speaker 02

  And so now, I'm because of my schooling, I'm I'm forty-something.

• 9:41Channing Crowder?

  Be like Kevin Hart. Damn.

• 9:46Speaker 02

  I didn't want y'all to say that. So I'm about forty-something. So and and you look back and you go, you know what? I got you, right? I got you, little eight-year-old boy, uh, an angry boy, mad boy. And I got you, I'm gonna protect you opposed to this eight-year-old, ten-year-old boy, thirteen-year-old boy protecting me as a grown-up, you know. Uh, I think a lot of people still live that that life. You know, they can be eighty, they can be sixty, they can be forty. And uh, and still have that little child trick. When it triggers, that little child comes and say, I wanna protect you. Just because of awareness and I understand where I am today and that gives me wisdom. You know, even when I feel it coming. You know, I always say if I'm angry, somebody owe me something.

• 10:30Speaker 02

  When I feel guilty, I owe somebody else. When I'm greedy, I owe myself. If I'm jealous of somebody, then God, you owe me. Right? So I have these four keys, these four enemies of the heart. Greed, guilt, jealousy, and anger. And it's all because you owe somebody, they owe you, you owe yourself, or God owes you. Because he didn't make you the way. That person that drives that car in that house, how did they get it? Well, I don't have that talent. I'm not mad at that person. I'm mad at the one who created me. So.

• 11:02Fred Taylor?

  Talking about mindset, I read something where you said there's no such things as winners and losers. It's only winners and learners. You yourself, you had to understand how to trust the process and develop patience. Before the world knew you as Mr. Golden Glove and, you know, All-World Baseball, everything. You said there were moments where you didn't trust the process. You didn't understand why you were still in the minor leagues. You pretty much were frustrated with those moments. Could you speak to that a bit? How did you learn to trust the process and become the person that you are today?

• 11:37Speaker 02

  Boy, man, you know, going through the minor leagues was, I think, was one of the toughest things I've ever done. In 1997, I was sleeping in my car. The first couple of weeks of the season, we were leaving spring training. And when I left spring training, we were going to New Britain, Connecticut. And everybody had a place to stay, you know, they had their friends. And then this other guy named Armon Brown. And we didn't have the funds for the first month rent or anything. But we knew we were going on the road after a couple of days. So once you go on the road, the team paid for the hotel. So that would be where I could sleep. So I was like, let's save money and sleep in the car and wait for our... Then we get our first check after 14 days.

• 12:21Speaker 02

  And then we have enough money to go into this hotel called The Heartthorn. It was a thorn in my heart.

• 12:29Speaker 02

  It was horrible.

• 12:33Speaker 02

  1997, man, we sleeping in this car. You know, I'm, I'm, I'm tears in my eyes, man. I'm sleeping in this, this Neo Spectrum. The smallest car, stick shift, right? And me and him, one night, he'll sleep on the front and, and put a towel over the stick shift. And he's had his things stuck his ribs. And I'm sleeping back there, I'm comfortable. The next day is my turn. I'm like, oh my God, it's uncomfortable. But I'm looking one night, I'm with tears in my eye. I'm like, God, if you ever bless me with anything, any money or anything, I'm gonna be a good steward over it and, and watch over it. I mean, just, this situation I'm in, feel like I was gonna die. You know, I was broke. I'm calling people that I've helped four years before that, when I got drafted, five years before that. I was helping people.

• 13:17Speaker 02

  So when I call and collect on the debt, they was like, I ain't got it. I don't have it, I don't have it. You know, I'm like, golly. You know, my brother sent me a hundred bucks and he wanted it back.

• 13:29Speaker 02

  I'm like, this dude, right? I better give it back. He, he fight me every day. I'm sleeping in this car with tears in my eyes and, you know, I, I figured I, I better start studying, understanding financial literacy, you know, understanding leadership skills, understanding myself. So I kinda went on this journey of trying to, uh, figure out some things. And sleeping in that car, I almost quit. Because of that pain, because of that pressure, because of all the stuff that I was going through, I was make, I was about to make a permanent decision on a temporary situation. You know, I'm sleeping in this car and I'm like, I'm done. I was 21 years old, just turned. And I'm like, I'm done. I don't wanna play no more. Called my, my brother. He said, well, if you come home, I'm gonna fight you every day. Right, I'm like, I don't wanna fight him.

• 14:11Speaker 02

  But then I called my wife and my wife said, hey, don't quit. At the end of the season, you know, um, if you feel the same way, then yeah. But don't quit during the season, just keep going through. So that's my wife, Katrina, man, that kinda helped me, uh, stay strong through the process. And, uh, so I stayed in there and four months later, August 22nd, 1997. Uh, they called me up to the big leagues for a cup of coffee. Otis Nixon got kicked in the face and broke his, broke his jaw. And they said, you know, I hate that, but it was like he's gonna, he's gonna live. So I got a chance to go to the big leagues.

• 14:46Ryan Clark?

  He said he was gonna live?

• 14:47Speaker 02

  He'll be alright. It was this, this far from the heart, yeah. So I, I, uh, end up going to the big leagues and they, I was there like seven days and got a cup of coffee. And I realized, oh, this is what it's all for. You know, of course you're making $200, $300 every two weeks. You know, that's before taxes. And then, and then you go to the big leagues, you automatically activate, uh, the first year roster pay. So I was in the big leagues, I'm making $9,000 every two weeks. I'm like, oh my God, I'm rich, right? And then they say, hey, you're going back down to the minor leagues. And I went back down to activate that first year roster. And I was making 3,000, 4,000 every two weeks.

• 15:29Speaker 02

  And it helped me along the way and, but it actually gave me an understanding of what I was here for. You know, I'm, I'm here for this. I'm in Camden Yards, you know, I'm looking at 55,000 people in Camden Yards. And Cal Ripken is over there at shortstop at the time. And I'm like, oh my God, you know, this is what I'm here for. Sent down, my attitude, everything was totally different because I was able to see. And I, I don't know if they did that on purpose, if it was strategic. If the Twins said, hey, let's, I see some doubt in him. Let's send him to the big leagues and maybe spark him. Well, they did. It sparked me and I went to the next level, uh, and was able to stay in the big leagues in 98, 99. And, uh, and, and pursue my career. And I'll tell you what, you gotta go through something.

• 16:14Speaker 02

  All you gotta do is keep digging. You know, you might have three feet left, don't give up. That gold on the other side. But if you give it to somebody else, they gonna dig three feet and they don't have to go far and they gonna take your cookies.

• 16:25Ryan Clark?

  I'm glad we got to something happy, finally, T. Hunt. Shout out to our partners, Happy Dad. T, when you look at what you had to go through, you know, you mentioned. You helped people four years before that. So 93, you're drafted, 20th overall. You were set up. You thought you were gonna go to college. You kinda negotiated out with your uncle and you go through all these things and you finally make the big leagues. And when you're in Minnesota, like, the fielding is easy for you. What was it, 02, Bonds hits the ball in the All-Star game? You go, first of all, dawg, don't nobody do that in the All-Star game.

• 16:58Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah.

• 16:58Ryan Clark?

  Like, dude, you don't rob Barry Bonds in the All-Star game.

• 17:03Speaker 02

  You wanna know the true story behind that?

• 17:07Speaker 02

  So, one day, the day before that, we were at the Fista Hotel in Milwaukee and, you know, I think Barry was walking in the front and my brothers were walking, coming off the elevator, he was going on the elevator, so they was crossing path. And my brother was like, "What's up, Barry? How you doing?" And I think he kinda went like this, right? And my brother, I told you, he's a true gangster at the time. And he had all his friends with him, they wanted to jump him.

• 17:34Speaker 02

  They wanted to jump Barry, and I'm like, "No, no." And then Barry's wife came over, calmed the group down and, and I think A-Rod came over, saw the situation, bought them drinks or whatever. And they told me about the situation, so I'm hot, you know? I'm pissed off, right? And then I'm in centerfield the next day, and they said, "Now I'm batting Barry Bonds," right? And Derrick Low is on the mound, and I'm like, "If he hit this ball out here, I'm trying to get it," right? When he hit it off of Derrick Low, he hit the ball, crack! And I was like, I started running, I said, "Oh, that's gone, I ain't gonna be able to get that one." And then all of a sudden, it went, phew, started blowing back. I'm like, "Oh, I might have a chance." So I went up, I'm telling you, I jumped with all my might, just to rob that thing.

• 18:18Speaker 02

  And then I caught it, you know, and I came down, and Ichiro right next to me, and he said, "Holy sh-" You know, I'm like, "Oh, my God, I didn't know you spoke English like that." Right, I'm running, you can see me saying, "Nice." I'm running off, I'm like, "Nice, bro, I never knew you could do that," right? And then I'm running in, and I see Barry, he was waiting on me. I'm like, "Man, come on," right? And so I'm running towards him, and then he went low. You know, he gave me a high five, and I went high. And then he went low, and I was going like, "Nah, you ain't finna pick me up." And then he picked me up with ease, I was like, "Oh, shit, this dude is strong." I said, "Ah!"

• 18:59Speaker 02

  And he threw me down and you know what? That's when our relationship started. I got to know him a little bit and Barry actually better than most people think on in the media or whatever and portray him as. Man, he's got a golden heart, man. He's a good dude. He would call and check on me every once in a while, man. And be like, "What you doing, man? I'm just thinking about you. How you doing?" "Good." I mean, this was Barry last year just checking on me. I'm like, "This dude is a good dude." And so just getting to know someone and not because of the media, not because of what's going on, just getting to know Barry one-on-one. I think he's an awesome man.

• 19:35Channing Crowder?

  I would assume, I'd say, that y'all black players have to stick together, right? Because you said it and you got in trouble in the past saying like, "Vladimir Guerrero, that's not a black dude, that's a Hispanic."

• 19:44Speaker 02

  Right. I understand what you were saying. But, you know, who's counting? You know, as an African-American, no, it's not him. But I would go back to Palm Bluff, Arkansas. I was like, "Y'all got black players playing?" I'm like, "What are you talking about? Black Americans?" You know, they was... "No, you got black Americans playing?" I said, "No, that's Vladimir from Dominican." You know, we're trying to get African-Americans to play in America, from America, to get interested in the ghettos where I'm from, you know? And they're not interested, you know? And their minds, they're thinking that there's some playing, but you're not playing, not African-Americans. And I don't know if it's because of marketing or anything like that. You know, basketball, you got face, right? You can see the face. There's no helmet, there's no...

• 20:29Speaker 02

  And football, they got the helmets, but you actually know what those guys look like because they market those guys. Baseball, it's just a bunch of players. You market a bunch of them. And it might be a Jeter, it might be, you know, Barry Bonds every once in a while, but you just don't see them as much out there in the cities where I'm from.

• 20:48Channing Crowder?

  I'll tell you why. My son plays baseball, 11 years old. Freaking expensive. It's expensive as hell. Bats are $300. I got the little Dick's return policy bat, and I got bread. I can't... $300 per bat?

• 21:02Speaker 02

  No, don't think about... If you got two or three kids, you're talking about the bats. The glove and you gotta pay the the travel fee for travel ball, which is almost five thousand a kid a year. You know, you you gotta have another salary to fund your kids to play baseball, right? And it's all year round. So I could see where, you know, it's it's getting it's pricing us out, especially in the inner city. For some reason, we're the number one consumers in the country. I understand that. But but we also getting priced out in in in baseball, the game of baseball, which I love. I call baseball is life, life is baseball. Baseball, three out of ten, you're a hero, right? Seven out of ten, you gonna uh ten, you gonna fail, right? Life gonna give you those same apples, right? And and so when I call baseball life, life is baseball.

• 21:47Speaker 02

  You need to understand failure. You need to actually turn and make adjustment on failure quick, because you about to face Roger Clemens in thirty minutes. He struck you out, but what he do to you? So you sit and you like, for thirty minutes, I gotta face him again, what did he do to me? So what I do in life, if I have something that struck me out, I go, man, I need to make this adjustment. We had issues in this business, we had issues in my other business. And we like, alright, let's brainstorm. I they they might be patient, but I need, I got thirty more minutes to make this happen. So because of baseball, it actually taught me a crazy lesson about making adjustments. And then when you make the adjustment, execute it, right? So now I take this whole thing into my business world, into my family, my relationship.

• 22:31Speaker 02

  I if I make a mistake, I say, was it my fault, right? No, it wasn't my fault. So. It ain't never your fault.

• 22:41Speaker 02

  He struck me out. Right, right. He do got two nostrils and he driving Mercedes just like you, you know? So he trying to get you just like you trying to get him. So whoever has the best best strategic plan and adjustment, that's who gonna win. And Roger just happen to have that, you know, in his arsenal. And so um and that's what I I say about life, man. It's the same way, you gonna fail three out of ten, maybe nine out of ten in in in life. So if you can just get one, to get one of those things, you plant those seeds and do all those things. You go to the banks and say, hey, can I get a loan for this business? And they say, no, no, no. The uh the the uh the law of averages, one out of ten, right? Just get ten, you gonna get one. So if you want three, go get thirty.

• 23:25Speaker 06

  Like ask for phone numbers.

• 23:27Speaker 02

  Gotta do it. You ask for phone numbers.

• 23:30Speaker 06

  You at you at the club ask for ten phone numbers, you gonna get two, three phone numbers.

• 23:33Speaker 02

  Man, they gonna call you, they gonna call you something totally different.

• 23:37Speaker 06

  Look at that cat over there, ain't that a stalker over there?

• 23:41Speaker 06

  He thirsty, he thirsty. What did him up?

• 23:43Ryan Clark?

  You gotta ask 10 different ones in different spots though, T. You don't keep going back to the same section though, Chan.

• 23:48Speaker 06

  Same section, the bathroom.

• 23:50Speaker 00

  Flowing ad budget on metrics that look great till the CFO sees them? That's bull spend and marketers are calling it out in Dashboard Confessions.

• 24:00Speaker 01

  I remember telling my boss, "It'll be good for the brand," when leads were slow. Yeah, it wasn't.

• 24:08Speaker 00

  Cut the bull spend. LinkedIn lets you target by company, job title, and more. Advertise on LinkedIn. Spend $250 on your first campaign and get a $250 credit. Go to LinkedIn.com/campaign. Terms and conditions apply.

• 24:21Speaker 06

  You standing right by the bathroom.

• 24:22Ryan Clark?

  Ooh, boy.

• 24:23Speaker 06

  Everybody gotta pee.

• 24:24Ryan Clark?

  Hey, Chan, that is predatory.

• 24:25Speaker 06

  That is.

• 24:26Ryan Clark?

  That's predatory.

• 24:27Speaker 06

  That's a spot in the club they should get.

• 24:29Channing Crowder?

  You are the thirsty TikToker.

• 24:31Speaker 06

  They should put a rope up if they don't want me to stand by the bathroom. Bro, you all right? I'm good, now I'm married. Now, I'm talking about back in the day. I thought we was vibing on one out of 10 things. So, you married? Yeah, married, 12 years. You didn't meet her at about a bathroom, did you? I met her at a charity event I accidentally went to. Cause I don't do things like that. I'd be at the club. I accidentally walked into a charity event and met my wife.

• 24:55Ryan Clark?

  That's charity.

• 24:56Speaker 06

  What a loud music, what a little dresses. My wife was standing there. Well, at least she was doing something for a good cause. You was like, "You know what? I'm gonna marry this one, not the one in the club."

• 25:07Ryan Clark?

  That was that blessing though. You found yourself in the right spot and say, "He who finds a wife finds a good thing."

• 25:13Speaker 06

  That's a good thing.

• 25:13Ryan Clark?

  Look at you.

• 25:14Speaker 06

  And I snuck her over there. I gave a little money to the pot. You did good, man. That's great, charity. She, man, she been dealing with charity for a long time. You don't understand, Tori. My wife's the same way.

• 25:28Ryan Clark?

  T, you mentioned Katrina, obviously, you know, your boys. Coming up, you go from Minnesota to Los Angeles. You become an Angel. Well, I think it was Thanksgiving 07. You signed, and it's like you almost had two separate careers. There was this outstanding fielding career where you was figuring out hitting. And then you become a silver slugger when you get to the Angels. And so you have this career, which I think put together makes you a Hall of Famer. But you had to learn to be a family man through that.

• 25:58Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 25:58Ryan Clark?

  And you had to grow. And a lot of the wisdom that we are getting now, you had to learn through making the mistakes, making the adjustments. Uh, you mentioned Katrina, I've met your wife, lovely woman. What has been the evolution of that relationship? As you've learned to get out of some of those prisons? That you say growing up in Pine Bluff kinda set you in.

• 26:21Speaker 02

  With my wife, we grew up together in Pine Bluff. And um, and so we, we kinda know each other. I've been, been coming after her since I was 14. And then she realized like, alright, he, he did enough. Took me four years to get that.

• 26:35Ryan Clark?

  Good grief.

• 26:36Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 26:37Ryan Clark?

  That was dedication.

• 26:38Speaker 02

  I've been trying to get that. Man, she said, alright, I get you, you know. But you know, it wasn't always, you know, um, uh, pretty. You know, I, I, I was still, like I said, I was still living in some pain and, and going through a lot, you know, whether, you know, messing with other women, you know, all these different things and, and uh, and we fought through it. And we've learned a lot with each other. We communicate a lot. You know, I think communication is key. Like, sit down at, down Tuesdays, nine o'clock. Every week, we, we get up, we have a meeting. So people say, hey, can I meet you at nine o'clock? I'm like, nope, I got a meeting, right? We have a nine o'clock family business meeting. And we sit, how was, how was your week last week? What did you learn? What did you feel for me?

• 27:23Speaker 02

  You know, what can I do better for you? And then we, then we go to, you know, the house, what we need to do for the house. And do we need to fix something, the different things like that? And we sit and we write down, we have agendas and different things like that. Every week on Tuesday at nine o'clock. And just to keep that communication, how we gonna, we have date night, Wednesday night, Tuesday night. What we gonna do? What we going, what we gonna eat? And we put it on our, our calendar and we send invites to each other, right? So we can know that we're going and I look at my schedule.

• 27:50Ryan Clark?

  You got RSVP too?

• 27:52Speaker 02

  Yeah, I got all that, you know.

• 27:55Speaker 02

  And I just still try to date, so it's me getting better, is wiser. You know, early on as a father, you know, I'm grinding. My whole thing is like, I gotta play this game. I got my kids, I wanna help out to go to college to, so that I can feed them. They don't have to grow up like me in Pamela, Arkansas. And I was so driven that way, right? But as I got older, now I have five grandchildren and one on the way. And he got married and realized sex was great. But, you know. Sometimes it don't take that to realize sex is great.

• 28:28Channing Crowder?

  Shoot, actually a better that he got married before he figured it out.

• 28:33Speaker 02

  So, they brought me five beautiful grandchildren, one on the way. And now, I'm different, right? Me raising, when I was 21, I got married. And I'm a 21-year-old trying to be a man of the house and lead the house. I knew I need to provide and protect, right? But leadership skills are kinda shady. Just learning along the way and getting wisdom along the way. I'm a better grandfather than I was as a father. Because I'm a lot wiser and I have strategic ways of getting my granddaughter not to give up. You know, I have strategic ways of, you know, so my grandkids won't be narcissists or about themselves and different things like that.

• 29:15Speaker 02

  So I have little games I play to make them feel like they having fun, but they working out. They doing footwork and everything, but they have no idea. Just been along the way, just learning so many different things about life, about marriage, about fatherhood, about just being a man, you know? I was a male, but was I a man? Totally different. That's wisdom, that's something in here. And so I had to learn that along the way. And my wife was there with me the whole time. And all we do is, she knows that I'm a man and I know she's a woman. I'm not trying to make her a man, she's not trying to make me a woman. You know, she know now I'm built on respect and she's built on love.

• 29:57Speaker 02

  I know if she gave me respect, I can give her love, I give her love, she give me respect. So we kinda both in agreeance in that, we understand one another in those ways. And so, not saying that we don't argue or disagree. We don't really argue, we just debate and disagree and then we agree to disagree. You know what I mean? Or whatever it may be. And so she has past hurts. I have past hurts and she had childhood issues in her family. I had childhood issues in my family. So all we do is communicate with each other when we feel triggered. And we say, you know what, I feel, I felt this, you know, it remind me of my past, right? And I say, I felt this, it remind me of my past, not much, because I can't show too much vulnerability. Got to keep my man, you know.

• 30:44Ryan Clark?

  No, she is different. You used to be a male, now you a man. Once you a man, she know.

• 30:48Speaker 02

  She knows.

• 30:49Ryan Clark?

  Yeah, you could be a little vulnerable, you could be open, just not, more than a little bit.

• 30:53Speaker 02

  A little bit, maybe like this?

• 30:54Ryan Clark?

  Yeah, like that, but.

• 30:55Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 30:56Ryan Clark?

  You don't live in your neon spectrum, what was it?

• 30:59Speaker 02

  No, no, I mean, I be, I can't go to her and be like, baby, I'm so sorry, but, man, I lost in golf. Three hundred dollars. I can't go to her vulnerable. She be like, man, man up. You know, you don't want your wife talking about, man up.

• 31:14Fred Taylor?

  Hey T, those are the leadership qualities that you speak about in your relationship, as well as what helped you become an all-star. Do those leadership qualities help you as an entrepreneur? I think I read something where you say you got to get down and dirty and be the example. You wash dishes. Does Katrina make your ass wash dishes at home too?

• 31:36Speaker 02

  Man, you know what, yeah, that's one of her love languages. Acts of service, yeah, acts of service. So she wash the dishes, I'm like, get out of the way, I got it. And wash the dishes, or I put them in the dishwasher and let the dishwasher do the business. And then I, you know, I sweep the floor, I do all these different things and straighten up the pillows, and I vacuum and doing this, and it builds our meter up because that's her love language, you know. You build your wife meter up, things happen. It's amazing. Know your wife's love language and attack that, then you got everything. She has to know my. It ain't about the woman all the time. The man got the love language too. Mine is affirmations, appreciation of something. You keep saying, baby, you got it, you could do it.

• 32:19Speaker 02

  You see what I'm saying? You gotta have that, you gotta know your spouse's love language and that's something that I've definitely learned along the way. Leadership qualities, as far as leadership qualities, man, when I was in the clubhouse, I would, you know, when I was young, I would go and get to know every last one of the players on the team. I'm like, "Where you from?", talking to them, and then I go to the next person, talk to them at spring training, "You got six weeks to get to know all the new faces, the new players, even some of the minor league players that might be there later." I get to know all of them and know their name, their background, their city, you know, and how they move and how they tick. Some you gotta kick in the butt, some you gotta, you know, stroke their ego, or some

• 33:04Speaker 02

  you gotta just tell them, "Hey, man, you got this", and build their confidence up. And one day, when I was with the Angels, I had a guy and say, "Hey, man, you got a gift." Was that Smitty? That was Smitty, yeah, yeah. Smitty, he's like, "You got a gift." And I'm like, "What you mean?" He said, "I said, 'God blessed me to have run, throw, tell, you know, power, swing the bat, do all those different things, and I'm thankful that he blessed me with that.'" He's like, "No, no, no, no, you got a gift, man. I watched you the whole spring training, I watched you these first couple of months, and you sit and you get to know every person in that clubhouse, and you know how they tick, and you talk to them, and you..." No matter what was going on with me, I've always been like, "I need you to do great. I need you to be better than me."

• 33:48Speaker 02

  I felt confident, I had confidence that I'm gonna get out of this situation. But I'm in it, I'm in a funk right now. I struck out four times the night before, but I don't need you to strike out four times. How you feeling? How's your family? Because usually when you're having a slump or you're having a rough time, it's never really about baseball, it's something in here, right? It's something going on with your family, it's something going on off the field, you're not resting, you're not hydrated, you're not doing anything, these things that it has nothing to do with baseball. But once your mind changes, shifts, your game shifts. So I get to know these guys and say, "Hey..." How you feeling? And they tell me, and I say, alright, man, if you need to talk, we'll talk about it. And you can tell when they release it, they go out and play better.

• 34:30Speaker 02

  And so I try to bring that into my business and into my relationships as well. My sons get to know them, because you don't always know your kids. You know, but you need to go and talk to them and let them have a conversation, get their emotions out on the table, then I know how they tick. I got one that's angry, and I got one that's emotional. I know that, right? And then in business, you know, we got the team here, you know, in Makers Gym. We got the team with Tender Smokehouse, a team with LaFinka Coffee Shop. We got the team with my construction. And I go and get to know each and every last one of them. I'm still using my gift. One thing about your gift, they can retire your gift, they can't fire your gift. You know, they can't do any of those things. That gift dies with you. And once I realized that, I was 32 years old, realized what kind of gift that I had

• 35:15Speaker 02

  to make you feel like you've known me 30 years and 30 minutes.

• 35:18Ryan Clark?

  How did that develop? It's on the front end of your career, being around a great like Kirby Puckett? And then on the back end, being around a guy like Mike Trout? And sandwiched in the middle of that is your amazing career. Were you able to just take pieces from different people that you met, different experiences, different conversations? And how did you use those to relate them to life? Because so many times, athletes are sought after to become motivational speakers or to be on certain panels or certain boards, because people look at our athletic experiences and try to glean something about their life from that.

• 35:58Ryan Clark?

  So how did you use those experiences specifically to help you grow away from the field?

• 36:04Speaker 02

  Going into business, I will start with baseball. Baseball had Kirby Puckett, Paul Molitor, guys that were older than me, Medrake Comas. They always said things. I'm 20, 21, 19, and these guys are, you know, 30 years old, 28 years old, married, with kids, made money, did all these things, started businesses and all these things. And they come back and they give me all these things I needed, weapons I needed, to skip a process, you know, to help me skip a process. So they would teach me, and then, like in the game, someone tipping their pitches, right? Paul Molitor would say, hey. I was sitting on the bench in Cleveland. We were playing the Indians, the Guardians now, but we was playing the Indians. And I'm sitting there and I'm, I had the day off.

• 36:47Speaker 02

  And he said, alright, I want you to watch Dave Berba, right? And tell me what he's doing. And I'm like, what is he talking about? He said, but get your helmet in the little hole on top of the helmet. Turn it and put it facing and put the hole only on Dave Berba. And I did that. And I went, as I was looking through the hole, the third inning, I'm like, I see something, right? Dave Berba would come lower than the Indians and come lower. And then it would be off speed. It come higher than the Indians logo. It was, it was a fastball or something hard. And I'm like, oh my God, I think I see it. So I waited one inning to make sure before I told him. And I said, Molly, I got him. And he was like, what you get? They had me on TV.

• 37:29Speaker 02

  They said, why this rookie, this young bug got his helmet on his face? And looking through the hole like it was a game or something, but I was actually working.

• 37:37Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 37:38Speaker 02

  Paul Muller, he already knew about it. So he wanted me to figure that out and learn from it. And once I got it, I got it. So even though I knew like 80% of the pitches in the major leagues, what was coming. You still can't get a hit because round ball, round bat, pretty tough, right? No matter if you know it's coming, you still don't get hit. But I have a better chance of hitting some pitches, waiting on pitches and different things like that. And Paul Muller is one of the guys that actually, you know, sparked that. And so I just kind of advanced and got a little more advanced on it. I always studied. People see me in the back room, close that door and I'm studying film of all the bullpen guys and all the pitchers. And how to figure out these little things.

• 38:17Speaker 02

  So now going into my business, I actually go to people in real estate and talk to real estate gurus, you know? Hey, what are you doing this? How do you do, how did you do it? And I'll take notes, you know? We got a guy at the coffee shop. What about coffee? What is it all about? Where do you get it? Mexico, whatever it may be. Then I go to the barbecue joint, you know? How do you do these different things? I'll talk to Dee Lincoln, who helped open up Del Frisco's here in Dallas. And learn different things about the restaurant industry, the commercial real estate industry, whatever it may be. So that's what I know, to go get that wisdom from people that's been there, done that. If they hadn't drowned and failed, I don't mess with them.

• 38:54Ryan Clark?

  See, we had the Rocko and he said, his motivation was, he cannot be effing broke.

• 39:02Ryan Clark?

  You talked about growing up knocking on doors for sugar, sharing loaves of bread with whoever had them, living in your car and saying, "God, if you give me anything, I'm going to be a good steward of whatever money, whatever blessings they are." A lot of times in our community, we don't have that financial literacy. We also have the dependency of "we made it." It's not often that you get to make it, or that I made it. How has that influenced the way you work with the community? Our communities and communities of people who don't understand that type of financial literacy, who may come from the same background you do?

• 39:46Speaker 02

  That was my motivation for getting out of poverty. That was my driving factor, right? Wasn't my "why" though, you know?

• 39:54Ryan Clark?

  What was your "why"?

• 39:55Speaker 02

  Man, I could see myself in a coffin, and then a hundred years after me.

• 40:00Speaker 02

  I saw myself in a coffin. That's what men do. We go out, and we go way out and say, "All right, this is what I want my great-great-great-grandkids to have." Or, "This is what legacy I want to leave in my community, that I built businesses, I created jobs, and people go home and have food, shelter, and clothing." You know, when you can create food, shelter, and clothing and do those things, since I was a youngster, man, I always told my wife, I told my mother, "Man, I want to own a business." All because I watched Trading Places, Eddie Murphy's on the street, next thing you know, he's running the business. And that little show right there changed my life, right? And I'm like, "I want to be that." I don't see myself working nine to five. I see myself starting a business and creating jobs so people can have food, shelter, and clothing.

• 40:45Speaker 02

  I think that's the most powerful thing that you can do. My driving factor is not to be broke. You know, that's what it was when I was younger. Ain't no lights gonna be cut off from my house. I'm gonna figure out how to get it done. It's gonna be food in my house, so my wife and kids can eat, my grandkids can eat. We gonna do that. That's my driving factor, but it's not my "why." My "why" is bigger than me. My "why" is not about me. Me not being broke is about me. I can be driven by that, but my "why" is never about me, it's about others. And that's what I try to focus on, because I know I'm driven. That's not gonna happen, because I'm gonna fight through it, and that's what keeps me motivated and keeps me going. "Why" is not about you.

• 41:25Channing Crowder?

  What was not broke to you? Because not broke having $20 not broke. But what was the broke where you could take? You had enough money where you could really think about creating jobs? Because I have businesses, but my mind is not there yet, or my pockets aren't there yet to say, "Let me create jobs." I have never thought a hundred years down the road like that. Is that a number? In your mind, when did you get there? Because it's amazing to hear you say that.

• 41:49Speaker 02

  Me personally, I think you'd never get there. I think success is an ongoing process of failure that you've made adjustments on. I don't think successful, if you're someone who say they successful, then they comfortable. And they're happy. Uncomfortable, I gotta be comfortable being uncomfortable because if I'm successful and I can go and lay out on the beach nude and drink on a mati, you know, that's, that's...

• 42:13Channing Crowder?

  That's what I'm saying, bro. You touched nine figures, I believe. You can go lay naked and drink a mati. Why the hell you running around here building shit?

• 42:25Speaker 02

  Man, look, man, I just...

• 42:27Channing Crowder?

  That's your dream.

• 42:28Speaker 02

  I'm telling you. That's your dream to not do nothing? You're gonna die. You're gonna die mentally.

• 42:32Channing Crowder?

  I'm gonna do something.

• 42:33Speaker 02

  You're gonna be bored, man. You know, we don't... Once you get bored, a man that's idle is not happy, bro. I'll tell you that now. You sit idle, look at the pandemic. Look how many suicides there were, you know, amongst men. That was a lot. Right? Because we were sitting idle and they're stagnant. Things weren't moving. It's all about, you have to keep moving, man. Keep yourself going. Other than that, you're gonna get addicted to porn.

• 42:59Speaker 00

  Flowing ad budget on metrics that look great, till the CFO sees them, that's bull spend. And marketers are calling it out in Dashboard Confessions.

• 43:09Speaker 01

  I remember telling my boss, "It'll be good for the brand," when leads were slow. Yeah, it, it wasn't.

• 43:16Speaker 00

  Cut the bull spend. LinkedIn lets you target by company, job title, and more. Advertise on LinkedIn. Spend $250 on your first campaign and get a $250 credit. Go to LinkedIn.com/campaign. Terms and conditions apply.

• 43:29Speaker 06

  Sound funny, but it's true.

• 43:31Speaker 02

  It's already, we passed that, that's what we passed. What's the next step?

• 43:37Speaker 06

  Were you bored? Is that what happened? Did you get addicted to porn during COVID, Chad?

• 43:43Speaker 02

  I got addicted to porn at 11. There was no COVID when I was 11, that was 30 years ago. I was just nasty.

• 43:50Speaker 06

  You get bored, only when you get bored, I'm telling you. If you say, you know what, I feel like I want to watch it. You gotta go work out, go do something, right? It's a lot of men out here addicted to porn. No doubt about it, I've tried it, right? But every time I tried it, it's because I was bored.

• 44:08Speaker 02

  I bet you it was successful, though.

• 44:10Speaker 06

  When you realize it wasn't...

• 44:11Speaker 02

  You said it takes success.

• 44:12Speaker 06

  It was you, till you realize it was you doing it, and you're like, ugh!

• 44:17Speaker 02

  I bet myself it was.

• 44:18Fred Taylor?

  You versus you, ain't no winners and losers.

• 44:22Speaker 06

  Ain't no winners and losers. Winners and I learned that I ain't want me. Hey, Shannon loves himself, though. He loves himself.

• 44:33Speaker 02

  What is wrong with y'all, man?

• 44:34Fred Taylor?

  This guy.

• 44:35Speaker 06

  No one of y'all called, we gotta pivot, we gotta...

• 44:38Fred Taylor?

  I'm gonna help you out with that, Tori. You talk about your why, and you talk about legacy and your family. But there's another why, you have the philanthropic endeavors, the Tori Hunter Project, right? What inspired that initiative, and can you fill us in?

• 44:53Speaker 02

  You know, you look at a lot of things in your life, right? You look at me standing in line at a place called Neighbor to Neighbor. My grandma and I were just standing in line, and we go there to eat, you know? Some food we didn't have, and my grandma would say, hey, come with me. We'll walk over to Neighbor to Neighbor, and Pine Bluff, and we would eat food for free, you know? And they had it on different days, so I was always, I always felt like I wanted to do, feed millions of people. So I teamed up here with Minnie's Food Pantry with Cheryl Jackson, and all we do is try to feed people. And she's fed over 3 million people. And I'm glad I was able to be there with her to do it, because that's something near and dear to my heart.

• 45:35Speaker 02

  And I think that's what most people do, is try to do something. Something that's near and dear to their heart. You might have someone to say, hey, I need wheelchairs because one of their kids or a handicaptor, something like that. So they might be near and dear. Hey, can you help us get wheelchairs? Or can you help us do this? So it's something that's near and dear to your heart and that you would try to be philanthropic about. And that's what I, I, I look at. I want to feed people, you know, I want to shelter people, want to clothe people. Cause all the stuff that I've, I've been through in my life and seen in my life, these are the things that happened to me. So if I can kind of help solve those problems in those areas, I, I think that's living that dream and that's your why. And that's how I created a lot of my, my foundations.

• 46:17Ryan Clark?

  You kind of full circle, mentioning the way you grew up.

• 46:23Ryan Clark?

  And growing enough to where you actually said a prayer for your father to be delivered. That's a full circle moment of the way life works, right? We, we start out in pampers and usually if you live long enough, you end up back in pampers. And you go from being taken care of to taking care of people to then being taken care of again. You had shifted to almost being the father in that moment. What was that like to truly speak to God and pray for your father to be delivered from something that you said yourself was his demons?

• 47:05Speaker 02

  No, I, I prayed for him and every night, you know, every night I'm praying for him because my brothers would call me and say, hey, man, the lights are off. And I'm in the minor leagues and I would send the little cash that I had to get the lights cut on. Or my dad took the TV and pawned it for cash or whatever it may be. And you just pray that he stay healthy or somebody don't shoot him or jack him or anything like that. Or he didn't die from the drugs. I mean, I, I prayed for all those things, but at the same time, you know, me getting to the major leagues, I thought money would be the thing, you know, I, I, if I could just make, make enough money to get him in rehab. Boy, my dad been 15 rehabs, man, and he always revert back. And so it kinda made me angry, you know, a lot of my dad.

• 47:50Speaker 02

  You know, I want my relationship with my dad and, you know, I'm thirteen, fourteen, fifteen years old. Isn't that this kid, he said, "I'll be at the game." And you look in the stands, you don't see your dad, you know. And it happened all the way through high school. You're like, "I'll be there." And you get there, you like, you hit a couple of home runs, or you throw a touchdown pass, or you stick somebody. You're looking for your dad, he's not there. It's like, man, I seen this in the movies, but I'm, I'm actually living it, you know? Every time I saw he wasn't there, I got angrier and angrier, you know? And, but it wasn't till I was about twenty-five. And I said, "You know what, I'm gonna talk to my dad, see, see what's going on." He was a horrible husband, you know, and feel like he was a horrible dad, you know, all these things.

• 48:31Speaker 02

  And so I said, took him out, we hung out for a minute, and, and we were talking. And he started telling me about his demons, about his life. About how, you know, his dad died, you know, when he was young, probably from crushed glass from a mistress, you know? My dad had a lot of different family issues. He was dropped off, and his mom went to pursue the whole life in Vegas, while he dropped off with her sister. And, you know, stayed there for the rest of his life. And, and then, you know, he went to Vietnam, and his bunkmate killed himself, and blood was all over him. He thought he's, you know, he talked him off the ledge, but he ended up, you know, killing himself. And the blood was, fell through the mattress and landed on him, you know? And he woke up, couldn't believe it, right?

• 49:14Speaker 02

  And so when you start talking to your, your, your father, whoever is out there, you got a dad that's going through something. They don't talk about their demons. But if you go and you ask him about it, and, and they talk about it, don't be angry, listen. Because that's probably why they're acting out. I'm not saying my dad is great right now. My dad's still fighting his demons, he's in rehab right now. He's still fighting his demon, but I know who he is, I know his character, I know why, you know, I understand. So I'm more patient with him now, and I talk to him all the time, and I'm not talking to him with anger, I'm talking to him with love. You know, I'm telling people about father issues and how to deal with their father, but I wasn't good with my father. So there's no wisdom in that, wisdom is heal pain, right? Wisdom's not pain, right?

• 49:57Speaker 02

  I'm still going through these things, you got old people, people in here, you got people that's older, eighty years old, still mad at their dad, but yet giving advice about how to get out with your, your dad issues. Don't listen to them. Wisdom is heal pain. When that person's healed, he's had, has wisdom to give.

• 50:15Ryan Clark?

  How has that affected the way you've been as a father? Because we see sometimes you hear, whether it's the excuse or the reasoning, "I can't be a father," or "this person wasn't a father because he didn't learn to be a father because he wasn't taught." And then you'll have, you know, and I have friends that are like this, that didn't grow up with fathers. And because they missed them, because they wanted them there, they go above and beyond to be there for everything, to be supportive, to be present, to make sure that their child doesn't have the experiences that they have. How did that revelation, or even maybe that conversation, affect who you were or shape who you were as a father?

• 50:58Speaker 02

  Man, just what my dad went through, I knew what not to do, right? I still had to learn a lot of different things. And sometimes we have issues in our life, we overcorrect. And then you're gonna have the same issue, just different. Because you overcorrect the situation, you say, "No, you're not going there, no, you're not going." And next thing you know, they got rebellion, right? Because your parents went there and they did that, and they did these things, and it didn't work out for you. And sometimes our experiences, we gotta be careful putting it on our children, on our wife, or on our friends, or whatever it may be. Because sometimes those experiences that someone else had, they tell you not to do it, but yet it might not have been for them, it was actually for you. You can do it.

• 51:40Speaker 02

  So sometimes you gotta be careful overcorrecting the situation because it can get worse. And so I think I overcorrected a lot of things.

• 51:50Speaker 02

  There's no-

• 51:51Ryan Clark?

  I thought they threw the parties at your house, T.

• 51:53Speaker 02

  They did, I let them throw parties, and you know, I chaperone, and you see things that you shouldn't see. But, you know, in high school, them high school parties were, "Wow." All right, "All right, let's have a Halloween party." No, it became a strip joint.

• 52:08Speaker 02

  What is going on? I thought they have masks or whatever, but anyway.

• 52:14Speaker 02

  So man, you know, who knows how to be a father? Who knows how to be a mother? Everybody's built different. Everybody has a different DNA. Every person that died, every person that's coming, right? Don't have the same DNA you have, or fingerprints that you have. You're built and created differently, but you're all beautiful. But, you can't tell somebody how to parent that child who has a different DNA. You can't tell somebody how to... We're all different. And so that's what I've learned to just, you know, be patient with people. Understand them, get to know them. And once you get to know them, then you kind of manage them in that way. And that's what I try to do.

• 52:52Channing Crowder?

  Gee, it's interesting with your father, because I was just thinking about it. Thinking about there might be kids going through that right now. Not that made it to the major league, whatever, but get a little money and have a drug addicted parent. How did you navigate trying to help him and not enable the habit? Because knowing any $10 sitting around could become a damn rock.

• 53:11Speaker 02

  My dad was very creative, though. He was creative on how he was gonna get it, you know? And he would come up with some crazy stories. I'm like, "Man, you are creative." But that sound like a crack move.

• 53:26Channing Crowder?

  You might be going to buy rock.

• 53:29Speaker 02

  It's very creative, though. But, you know, I tried to limit my dad, you know? So I would say, "All right, you get this $1,000 a month." So I didn't want to give him a lot of money where he can kill himself, right? But I gave him enough that he can eat, right? His dad... But he worked too, you know? He made his money. He was getting... He retired, got his money, whatever. I helped him out, but I kept it limited, so he wouldn't. Man, there's people that don't have my dad's drug addiction that are worse than my dad. Once the family find out you got... You signed a five-year $90 million deal, or a five-year $47 million deal, five-year $26 million, one-year $10, right? They find out you got all that, they coming after you, right? What about me?

• 54:08Ryan Clark?

  That was facts, by the way. That wasn't... You know how we throw out, like, it's like hyperbole? You know, it's not... It's exaggeration. Like, if I say, you know, if I sign a five-year $90 million deal, you know that's not my actual deal.

• 54:21Speaker 02

  Yeah, no.

• 54:21Ryan Clark?

  That was his. And then he said, "What if you sign like another one?" It was like $47 or something like that? That was another one of his deals.

• 54:27Channing Crowder?

  And the baby, two for 26 was the baby?

• 54:30Speaker 02

  And then one for 10. That sound like the baby. That one for 10 sound like the baby.

• 54:37Fred Taylor?

  But babies are good.

• 54:39Speaker 02

  And they put it on the news, man, that's the worst thing that can happen. You put all them contracts on the news, you're like, alright guys, here's the meat. Go get them.

• 54:49Fred Taylor?

  That's a good problem to have, but the worst thing that actually happened, Tori, is to be in the NFL and to be a practice squad guy. Your family can't differentiate between this guy that has a five-year, a hundred million dollar deal. And they think that you're on the practice squad in the NFL, that you got millions.

• 55:08Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 55:08Fred Taylor?

  I think that's the worst problem that happens, because you ain't really got it like that.

• 55:12Speaker 02

  Right, that's what I'm saying. Hey, I'm saying because you have it.

• 55:15Fred Taylor?

  Right.

• 55:15Speaker 02

  You don't change. Like, people really think that people get money, they change. No, they don't. Money just exalts who you really are. I just know because I grew up in the minor leagues with a lot of these guys. And then when they sign, you know, fifty million, sixty million dollar deals, you be like, man. They be like, oh, he changed. I'm like, no, he ain't been that way. Money exalts who you really are. Money changes people around you. Money changes the vision of you, right? So when people look at you, they say, money, what can I get out of him, right? I'm not saying everybody, but it happens, right? Especially with your family members, because Team Hunter, they's like, we all made it. I don't have to work no more. You're a lie.

• 55:56Speaker 02

  Right? So they would come to me and I'd say, I was wondering why everybody's calling me in January, right? So I'm like, man, why get all these calls in January? And it took me years, my wife sitting up, we laying up, we talking like, why I keep getting like two hundred calls in January? So when I started looking at it, and I found out financial literacy had a lot to do with your emotions. The love of money is the root of all evil. Money is not the evil, the love of it, why you lie, cheat and steal. Or you get emotionally attached to like Thanksgiving. Then it carries over to Christmas, and you get a giving spirit, and you want to go out and hang out, you want to travel. You want to go see different things, and then next thing you know, January hit, you broke. I can't pay my rent. Things have happened.

• 56:41Speaker 02

  And I got these calls for five years and I'm like, why is... So I came up with this thing called January No. So you call me in January, "Oh, my house. I'm about to lose my house. I'm about to..." I'd be like, "Call me in February." Guess what? I don't get that call because they figure it out. Right? I still, to this day, get calls in January from somebody different or even repeat offenders, I call them. Right? And they call me in January and I still say, "No." February, they call me, I'll be like, "Okay, what you need?" But then, most of them don't call me back in January because they figure it out. But they know that they had an issue early on. They knew they couldn't pay their rent in January. But in December, I saw you on social media kicking it. I saw you in Vegas.

• 57:26Speaker 02

  I saw you in New Orleans. I saw you go visit your family. Somebody had to pay for that flight. Right? See, I saw you give gifts. I saw you receive gifts. So how are you calling me in January? Right? And I get that call. I figured out, if money's emotional, people spend emotionally. Every time I spend my money, I spend it because of my emotions. Not because of my mathematics. It's people that are smarter than you in this world that know math, but why they broke?

• 57:53Ryan Clark?

  Emotion.

• 57:54Speaker 02

  Emotions. Your financial literacy got everything to do with your emotions.

• 57:58Ryan Clark?

  Well, on that, I'm gonna stop being emotional. Because I'm trying to be more literate. See, huh, man, I appreciate your time, man. Thank you. It's a ton of wisdom given, ton of gems dropped. But I think more importantly, when people like you get an opportunity to share their journey, all of us learn so much from it, so we appreciate you.

• 58:18Speaker 02

  Man, I appreciate you guys having me, man. I understand why you call it the pivot. Because sometimes, you know, yeah, you guys are sports guys, but you guys come and talk real-life things to help people live. So you think that you're gonna get this, then, but we pivot. And we go the other direction. So appreciate you guys as well, man.

• 58:36Ryan Clark?

  My man.

• 58:39Ryan Clark?

  Hey, that boy dropped the contract.

• 58:43Ryan Clark?

  Hey, when he was dropping them, you know, I let the first one slide. I was like, "Okay."

• 58:47Speaker 02

  Okay, hypothetically.

• 58:48Ryan Clark?

  Yeah, that's a hypothetical. Then I heard the second one. I was like, "I just Googled that."

• 58:53Speaker 02

  You know what? Because I ain't look at mine that many times. I wasn't as happy as him.

• 58:59Speaker 07

  Three for one? Fuck y'all!

• 59:26Speaker 08

  Every game day, you show up for your team. Now, it's your time.

• 59:37Speaker 08

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