NFL LB, Jaylon Smith

count money, man.

Money, man.

I'm trying to try and told him I'm a beast.

But what's up, game?

Welcome back to another episode of the Grandcast.

Get ready.

It's a new day and we got a special guest for you guys today.

It's going to be adding some value to your week and to your weekend kicking us off.

We got Jalen Smith, Mr. Jalen Smith, NFL veteran on entrepreneur from Fort Wayne, Indiana

and got all kinds of game for us from sports to business and family, all types of wisdom.

We're going to try to pull out of them today.

And so Jalen, thank you for joining us and thank you for your time.

Absolutely, man.

It's a blessing to be on the Grandcast with you this late morning, getting a chance to

dive deep with the man.

I'm a appreciate you, man.

My dog excited.

Appreciate you too.

I know you I was just talking to you and your back home where it all started.

Fort Wayne, Indiana, right?

That's your hometown?

Yes, sir.

Yes, sir.

Born and raised.

I take pride in being a Midwest baby, you know, from the great who's your state of Indiana.

I was, you know, I was anytime that I'm with somebody and I'm impressed.

You know, I always like to hear about, you know, they're upbringing and, you know,

I thought about getting off that just to switch things up.

But I think I'm interested in hearing a little bit about your upbringing because I got

to spend some time with you, you know, last month we were in Cancun together and, you

know, obviously a lot of people know what you've been able to do athletically.

But, you know, just getting some time to spend time with you and hearing your mindset

in your heart and feeling your energy is deeper than that, you know.

So it's like, man, where does somebody, where does that all come from?

You know, so family-wise, you know, was that, was there greatness expected, you know, in

the household, you know, or anything in the beginning, mom, dad, you know, I, I had

it all that.

Yeah.

Wow.

I come from a family of extreme amount of talent from like athletically, get my size for my

father, for my dad's side of my family, I get my speed for my, for my mother's side, for

my mom's side of my family.

But then beyond the sport like, entrepreneurship, bunch of aunties that they do, whether they

do nails or, you know, cosmetology, do nails, hair, nail salons, really got a chance

to see the 1099 mindset, you know.

When you talk about entrepreneurship and building your own business and ecosystem, mom, you

know, has been running a daycare for almost 20 years now.

From the, from my uncles being very successful, you know, at the, in the high school level

and growing up, you know, being the most athletic and talented guys, I got to see a lot of

greatness.

A lot of winning.

You say it again?

A lot of winning.

A lot of winners around you in the family.

A lot of, a lot of, a lot of overcoming adversity.

Um, it really, it really forced me to, to be great, honestly, I give the most credit

to my older brother, Ross Smith, um, who we actually played in Dallas with the Cowboys

for three years.

He's an Ohio State guy, you know, when he played with Tress.

Yes, he was recruited by Tress.

Absolutely.

But he played with Tress, all right.

Luke, Vickle and, and Herbert.

So what did you, what would you say you got from him and how many years older was he than

you?

Three and a half years older than me.

Okay.

Oh, my brother, Ross, he was the chosen one.

You know, throughout the city of Fort Wayne and, you know, within our family of like, from

age four, it was you knew that he was a lead.

Like he was playing with the seven-year-olds when he was for him.

He was dominating.

Yeah, high school running back.

His freshman year at high school, he had 1800 yards to this day.

He still has, um, the rushing record for the SAC, which is our conference in Fort Wayne.

Um, still got still has the record to this day.

But like growing up, I was the, the little brother.

You know, so it's, you know, big smooth, little smooth.

My nicknames are nicknames and I never wanted to be the guy that was like the little brother

and it was, it was just average.

So it forced me to like, level up in me seeing greatness and me seeing work ethic and what

success looks like it forced me to dive deeper into that.

And that's how I was able to grow and develop transparently.

Impushing you a lot.

Absolutely.

And I'm sure you being motivated and inspired by some of his success and gifts made your

push to keep up.

We had a lot of people in our family from, from uncles that were extremely talented, you

know, but didn't make the right decisions.

Whether it was the, um, you know, whether it was grades, whether it was the females, whether

it was just a lack of opportunity because for, you know, Indiana's a basketball on

the state and football wasn't really all the way known yet how it is today.

Uh, all these different factors have went down and for me, uh, being a young and I got

a chance to see those mistakes, you know, so for me it was just about doing it right,

not doing it.

Not, you had a lot of greatness here.

Okay, I take the good at that.

I take the good at that.

And I spit out the bad, you know, so that was kind of my perspective on, on how I've been

able to come.

Brothers and sisters did you have seven of us, seven of us, seven of us, big family, big

family, third oldest.

Okay.

Yeah, but big, big family, big family.

So, you know, your mom being entrepreneurial, you know, you said for 20 years, I know you're

what, early 30s, 30 years old, early somewhere.

Yeah, 30, yeah, 30 young stud.

And so you, if I go back 20 years, that means 10, right?

So she was, you were young.

And so I know what business brings, you know, in general, running your own business, then

having a family, what sacrifices, if at all, did you see your family make that maybe

other people didn't see to make it all go around?

The sacrifices from my family was more about, I got a display of hard work.

I got a display of not cutting corners.

You know, my dad worked 19 years for steel dynamics, you know, which is a steel mill or company

in, you know, in Fort Wayne, Indiana, multi-billion dollar firm now, but he, you know, was one of

the founding, you know, fieldmen, if you will.

So I got to experience that blue collar and understand what 16-hour shifts look like,

you know, you, you coming home, you making a bunch of money, but you come home and you're

tired of your exhausted, but you still got a poor into, you know, my, my father having

four, four boys, you know, still pouring into his boys, like all of that, like kind of

shaped me of like being able to see like, okay, you get out what you put in, you know,

when you talk about how bad do you want it?

What kind of work are you willing to put into accomplish these goals?

And if, you know, we're talking about it based on my upbringing, my upbringing helped me

establish my core value, Simon.

My core values is, it goes by a clear eye view.

It's what I like to call it, a clear eye view.

And it's broken down into three pillars, a focus vision, a determined belief, and earned

dreams.

So having a focus vision is about having a laser being focused on what you want to accomplish,

being able to see it clearly.

A determined belief is that self-belief.

What is your belief capacity?

You know, proving the people that believe and you write, you know, versus worrying about

proving the naysayers wrong, believing in God, understanding He has your back.

You know, that really had what shaped me and then that last pillar is earned dreams.

What we were talking about earlier, like how bad do you want it?

You know, so that, I got that from seeing hard earn hours from my father, you know, from

my mom, you know, regardless of the financial situation, never having to worry about food

being on the table, always having to smile on her.

I say my mom cried one time to this day.

You know, so strong resilience, you know.

What made you pick, you know, no other name?

You just wanted to be home.

Is that the team that you watched, you know, growing up?

What made that your choice over all to other schools?

I'm a mama's boy, you know, first and foremost, I was going to be close to home.

I had 40 division one offers could have went anywhere.

I wanted to choose my own path and Notre Dame was an hour and a half from my hometown.

Going to a Catholic high school, winning four state championships, getting a chance to

understand.

First been a senior.

Say it again.

Freshman the senior every year.

Yeah, I started as a freshman too.

Yeah, but getting a, and prior to me going to a Catholic high school,

you know, I went to public high school in the Southeast side of Fort Wayne where, you

know, I probably had three or four white classmates, you know.

So I didn't really really understand or know about just the culture of, you know, the Catholic

demographics or, you know, whites in general.

I wanted to learn about different people and different sources, different ways that

are raised.

You know, that could, different things that I could implement into my life to help me become

the better, you know, the man that I wanted to be and the man that I want to be.

You know, so that was that, that really played a huge role in me choosing to go to a Catholic

high school.

And then when I got an offer, when, you know, when I began getting division one offers,

you know, I think my first offer was Mississippi State SEC.

Boom.

Then it was Purdue and then like Ohio State and Notre Dame both came like fifth and sixth.

My brother's playing at Ohio State, right?

You know Jim Tressel just resigned, you know?

And when I get the call, when I get the offer from Notre Dame, it's like everybody in the

school knew that I was getting offered from Notre Dame.

So it was like everybody smiling in the school, my dramatic Catholic high school, the principal

called me in the office.

I'm like, why are y'all feeling this type of way about?

No, they want you to go to Notre Dame for sure.

I didn't really know I didn't get the hype until I got on campus.

When I got on campus, I'm like, okay, I understand it.

It's a, you know, Simon Arias has an aura about himself.

Notre Dame has that same type of vibration where it's like, okay, this isn't regular.

You got to really pay attention, you know?

So, and I was able to make, I was able to make that right decision.

Also what went into it was, you know, I wanted to be an entrepreneur since I was eleven years

ago, Simon.

And being Notre Dame being a global entity, you know, a global institution from a standpoint

of like platform, right?

Every single week, we got a partnership with NBC, you know, getting a chance to be exposed

and put my talents on display weekend and week out.

I understood that opportunity.

You know, having the opportunity to play right away helps, you know?

Every five star wasn't going to the university of Notre Dame at the time.

Why?

School's hard, it's cold, you know, the rigors of being in a small intimate environment,

not the huge flashy when it comes to the nightlife of the college scene.

You know, not really available in South Bend, Indiana.

So like, all of these different factors.

I knew that I would have the chance, the opportunity to go improve in them play right away,

which I went there and I was a freshman all-American and all of these different things just kind

of helped me expand.

You talked about the last time you took, you know, one of your family members to a Notre

Dame game was actually my freshman year, 2013 versus Michigan State.

I get the fourth down tackle to win the game, you know?

So all of those different layers, I think, proved my decision to be right.

I got the study abroad in South Africa for two and a half weeks.

I got relationships still to this day.

You know, Notre Dame, we talked about.

You know, alumni is deep from Notre Dame.

No question.

Great education.

I mean, people today ain't going there to play sports, man.

You got to be on it to get in there.

It's the Dallas Cowboys.

When you talk about global institutions and sports, Dallas Cowboys, Notre Dame, what

the New York Yankees, Boston Celtics, LA Lakers, you know, these, those high caliber, I wanted

to be a part of that.

And I got two of them on my hands, for sure.

What, what do you think, you know, being a captain at Notre Dame, you know, what did

you, you know, I think I don't know how much you really necessarily learn because you're

a captain.

It's almost, there's things that you did to become a captain, you know, to be selected

as a captain.

Other than playing, what do you think made you get that?

I don't know if they do seas on the chest, you know, at the back.

Yes, they do.

Yes.

Okay.

What do you think it was outside of the, you know, athletic ability?

One of my greatest gifts is the ability to grow, nurture and value relationships.

Something I learned at a young age and outside of my individual success and talents, you

know, it was the ability to multiply when you talk about a system or an environment or

the camaraderie in between multiple individuals, you know, men, men and women.

It's something that you success breeds opportunity.

And me having a success from the time that I began playing, it almost enlighten me to,

like in order to succeed, you have to do more than just be the lead by example guy.

You know, how can you articulate information?

How can you process, we all process differently, right?

We all receive differently, right?

When you're coaching, when you're leading, you know, there's some guys that you may

got to pull off to the side, you know, and talk to them calmly and help them, or dissect

it to help them really understand, you know, because they're, you know, whatever traumas

or they're, you know, they're thinking capacity is just a little more complex.

It's not ABC one two, one plus two equals three.

You know what I mean?

One guys, what gets them going is the motivating, the ticking, the high, you know, high intensity

if you will, you know, and you got to be able to decipher who's who, who receives which

in which way?

I was able to learn that early and it's helped me to this day.

Even, you know, you over like 20, 25 years in the insurance business, you know, learning

from you, you know, I bet that you, you've got a lot of stories of when it comes to leadership

and on different ways to accomplish that.

Can you speak to that, please?

Oh yeah, no doubt, no doubt.

I think everything that you're saying, I'm just head nodding and filling every word.

That's so, so true.

You know, when I look back to maybe mistakes or things that I wish that I did and knew

at 22, 23, 24, you know, leading is, you know, not everybody is, do you take the same

approach?

You know, the main, you need, you need different tools in your belt.

Sometimes you need a hammer.

Sometimes you need a screwdriver.

Sometimes you need a paintbrush.

You know what I mean?

Sometimes you need a foot in there, but sometimes you got to hug them.

You know, sometimes they got to understand the why.

So I mean, that's true, that's true leadership, man.

You know, what you're saying right there.

And, you know, I think just sports having an athletic background, you know, to me, I didn't

have the physical gifts, you know, to play at that level.

You know, so I played Division Two football.

I was a captain, played safety captain in high school state championship, Catholic high

school, powerhouse school, similar to what you're saying.

All I was missing was being, you know, six to enhance them.

And I could have had it all.

I could have had it all.

But I think, you know, I think this athletic background, you know, to me formed a lot of

my leadership skill set and ability and able, the ability to come into a huddle and elevate

those, you know, elevate people, you know, at the time was men and now men and women.

So I think everything you said is, is not one thing that I would say anything different.

I think your own point, if anything, you know, real, recognized real.

So just here and you say those words, I understand what level of leadership that you understand,

you know, already it as such a, such a young age.

And you know, that's why I'm excited to dig into some of your other journeys outside

of football.

You know, a lot of those things people can look up, you know, and they can look up, you

know, you were, you know, I think one of the stories that people probably like to talk

to you a lot about, you know, that you could probably talk about in your sleep is going

from, you know, one of the top ranked people in college football and one of the most dominant

defensive players in all the college football, supposed to be a top five NFL pick to have

in this knee injury, you know, out of the blue, you know, in the fiesta ball against Ohio

state, you know, of all of all places.

And then, you know, a lot of times that breaks people and, you know, the mindset of, I know

I'm a top five pick to now what, you know, am I even going to get drafted at what, you

know, can I come back and initial phase mentally and then going through all that process?

You know, how did you handle going from that top top NFL prospect injury could have ended

a lot of people's career to eventually still getting drafted in the second round that

resiliency, you know, kind of what kept you going.

You spoke to me a little bit about, you know, some of your faith and how you kept pushing

forward, but maybe walk us through that journey.

You know, for me, it was really a shocker from the standpoint of, I honestly didn't believe

that the timing of the, I didn't believe that I was going to be hurt at that time.

You know, that was the most daunting thing was like the why now, you know, in the chance

to have an extreme amount of success, never been hurt in my life, you know, fresh from

the soft mordid junior year, all American, all American, all American, proving myself

to be the number one linebacker in the country, you know, about to be a top three pick and

then the injury comes in.

I get a look from our team position and he's like, he starts crying.

You know, he dropped, he sheds a tear.

And I'm like, I'm thinking that I'm good.

I think I'm going to be alright because just last year, Ty Gurley, he ended up getting

hurt, hurting his knee, still entering the draft.

He ended up being like the 10th or 11th pick in the first round still.

So I'm like, okay, I know my work ethic.

I'm going to be able to come back.

I'm going to be straight.

Well, they're like, try to lift your foot up.

I couldn't lift my foot up.

You know, perennial nerve damage which gave me droffle and the doctors are saying, hey,

you may never play the game again.

You may never play the game again.

And that broke me just from the standpoint of I've worked, I've done everything right.

I didn't cut any corners because I was a steward of like, if you do it right, you'll

get rewarded.

And that's just how I live.

That's how I live.

I told you about how, you know, seeing friends and family members have all the opportunity,

but, you know, one or two things may limit them from or hinder them from accomplishing that

goal.

I figured if I just did everything right, it'll work out.

And I'll be alright.

Well, when the injury came, it was like, after the white now, it was like, clear.

I'm going to drive you, put your head down and put in the word.

God ain't going to put you through nothing.

You can't handle it.

And that was the mentality of how I was able to persevere and overcome that, you know,

have a 10 year.

Right to the faith.

Yeah, it's right to your faith.

The faith and then the grind.

The faith and then the grind because faith without works.

Amen.

You know, I lean, I lean in on it, man.

From having to teach myself how to overcompensate from when it comes for running, you know, I had

to teach myself a completely new path on how to run.

You know, from lifting my, not being able to lift my foot up, it's hard when you're talking

about spreading and being it, not being able to dorsiflex.

So there was different things I had to do to monitor that, you know, had to wear an

AFO brace, brace to help keep my foot up, all of these different things I had to overcome.

It made me shake me to the man that I am today.

And even when I was in college, Simon, like before my, before my junior year, I got a insurance

policy on my body.

Remember that was one of the first things I was asking you.

Yeah.

But the kicker with insurance policy, I was so, I was rated as a top 10 pick.

So the way that the policy worked, it didn't start until after the first round, you know.

So I was the third pick in the second round.

So the amount of money I got was, it was okay.

It was still a 17 million dollar loss, you know.

Just talking to endowment, I can sue about that.

But I never wanted to be remembered as just being a great athlete.

Like, I've always prided myself on being more.

So it provided me an opportunity right away to begin the learning business and the terminology

from the relationships, from the access.

I was able to begin all of these things right away because of that lens of possibly never

being able to play again.

Being drafted by the Cowboys, having to red shirt my first, my rookie year in the league,

you know, 2016.

Me, Dak Prescott, Zeke, you know, we all came in in the same class.

These guys are dominating as rookies.

I'm the best linebacker coming out, but I can't show that I'm legit.

I can't add value, the value that I desire to add because I know I supposed to be the

third and fourth rookie out there on the team and value, you know.

Malik Collins, Anthony Brown, a Purdue guy, like our rookie class was legit season.

We had about five guys in that draft class that were contributing.

I couldn't contribute on the field.

So it hurt me, but also it motivated me, you know, while I was doing my rehab, you know,

I'm getting a chance to soak in game from Tony Romo who was hurt at the time, getting

a chance to learn from a guy like Sean Lee who was one of the top linebackers in the league

at the time.

But it allowed me to really put in place of being where my feet are, embracing the season

that I was in.

All these different principles that I lived by a lot of that, the injury is shaped, you

know, the makeup of what Jaylen Smith is today.

Yeah, that's strong, man.

You know, embracing the season that you're in.

You know, sometimes you get in a season and it's like, man, as much as I don't love

going through winter, there ain't nothing I could do to speed it up.

You know what I'm saying?

It's just, this where we at.

So I might as well get my skull out and embrace the snow.

You know, and I'm making it just whenever it's time, it's time until then, let me enjoy

having life, you know, versus changing, you know, something that I can't change.

And so I think at a young age, man, to learn that and emotionally be able to navigate

that, you know, I can see how that could break some people young, you know, in the mean

of any, any age, but especially going from the highest to highs and young to now I'm

in this season and I ain't really been through injuries.

So I'm used to being able to control my own destiny, the work aspect of the faith and

the works.

And now the work aspect ain't going to turn it over in a month and ain't going to turn

it over in a week.

Simon, I even prepared for it.

Like I did a SWAT analysis prior to my junior season, my final season at Notre Dame.

I understood my strengths, my weaknesses, my opportunities, my threats.

One of my threats was getting injury.

You know, but there was no formula of how to overcome that, you know, how to go through

that I had to, I had to live it, you know?

So the only, the best way to go about that was for me to just embrace it.

And that's, that's what I encourage to anyone who's going through trials and tribulations

and adversity, you know, just understand that God got your back.

He's not going to put you anything that you can't handle and embrace the season.

Absolutely.

Hey man, that's strong.

I don't care.

You in a lot of places in life and to your own children and family, you know, down the road

it's going to be priceless wisdom.

You know, being 30, you know, every season you change, you know, obviously you're a different

man at 30 than you were at 18 and you go different at 40, maybe then you are at 30, maybe still

same values and core beliefs, but you just changed through experience.

Right.

So you know, maybe you think back to I had in my teenage years or my, or my 20s, you know,

early 20s, 21, 22, that maybe now, you know, you, you maybe don't agree with looking back

eight, 10 years ago.

I would say growing up as a kid and being, you know, seven siblings, a gang of boys,

you know, both parents, remarried, so have a, you know, great relationships with my

step siblings as well.

So it was, it was a lot of, you know, I was the kid.

I was the young kid that when you, we watching them watching the movie in the family room and

it's 930 and I'm dosing off all in the sleep.

But then they tell me to go to my room, go to sleep.

And I'm like, no, I'm up because I'm trying to, hey, I'm trying to stay up and hey, you

transitioned that into being an adult, being a professional, the feeling of like you're

going to miss out, you know, I would say in my, in my ages now, in my viewpoint now,

it's like there's value in silence, there's value in a long time, there's value in limiting

your access or accessibility, you know, people being accessible to you.

You know, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's a calmness that comes with

allowing yourself that space.

And that's why I say the biggest adjustment or realization from the latter years to now

or the early years until now.

What do you think about, you know, you mentioned the Sean Lee, you know, Romo, you know, what,

what do you think from your inside view of it?

What separated some of the grates that you were around versus people that just were, you

know, there, you know, like, yeah, what do you think, what do you think separated, you

know, the people that like outside of talent and gifts, like I think everybody can grasp,

you know, sometimes special people can do special things because they got some special

special gifts.

But a lot of times the people that got the special gifts don't always go to the places

that people that didn't have those gifts go, you know, you look at a Tom Brady, you

know, who was drafted in the sixth round or, you know, you know, the list goes on and

on.

A people that were undrafted, you know, like my close friend and somebody that I spent

a lot of time with, you know, and James Harrison undrafted to defensive player to year, you know.

So obviously people didn't think he was going to be what he was in his trajectory of what

he had to go through just to make it, you know, was he had every reason to quit, you know,

and give up and then you got people that are drafted in the first round that got the

size, the speed, the talent, you know, and then you just don't see him have a 16 year career,

you know, and I mean, so what did you find or see that separated maybe some of the great

leaders from others or the, or the great players that lasted versus others?

The number one thing is the market greatness is consistency.

You know, the guy is the James Harrison.

Not us on my wall over here at the office to test the greatness and all market excellence

is consistency.

You know, it matters.

Like it matters.

It's a real core life principle that everyone should understand and value and take it serious

because you can't achieve greatness without it.

Being transparent with yourself, you talk about the guy in the glass with the man in

the mirror, that is a real thing, especially when whenever you, you know, one of my great

coaches, Rob Maranelli, so always say whenever you think you got to figure it out, you don't

humble yourself.

So those, the James Harrison, the Sean Lee, the guys, the Tony Ramos, like they constantly

put in the work.

They always were able to sink to the level of their preparation.

They didn't rely solely on their talents.

They constantly put in the work.

Like I feel like nobody ever admits that they don't work hard, but there's levels, you

know what I'm saying?

There's levels.

There's levels.

And what's the level for you talking about?

Because I think sometimes people misunderstand hard work, you know, in the mean it's like

I'm working hard.

But there's levels, you know, the meaning I think what you're talking about is these

levels when you talk about they sink to the level of their preparation.

And I was looking, I tried to dig into motivation, you know, on a weekly basis.

And I was, I was seeing the one thing about how they were, they was talking about Steph Curry,

you know, had made 77 three pointers or something in a row in practice.

And then all of a sudden, they were down 20 in the playoffs and nobody could believe

how they came back in one.

And then they just, you know, went off.

And really what it was is that confidence of, I made 77 before I can make seven now,

you know, the main is that extreme level of work ethic.

Now other people could still be working hard, but it's levels to the ones that are great

is what I think that you're saying.

And I want people to really understand the difference between good and great.

Yes.

The, you, you, you know, the rest of the piece, Kobe, but the, it's essentially the

mamba mentality of doesn't matter who I'm going against.

I've already outworked you as it pertains to time allocation, as it pertains to attention

to detail, as it pertains to humility and understanding what are my weaknesses.

I mean, you understand your weaknesses, you can protect against them.

And then we're human, right?

We all make mistakes.

Those that are great minimize those mistakes.

How, how efficient can you be with minimizing your mistakes?

These are all tools of what makes those that are great, great is they're not just doing

the norm.

You know, you hear about the whole cliche of being the first one in, being the last one

to leave.

There's true power to that.

What I will say that it's, it's extremely tough to do consistently day in and day out, but

it's worth it.

And the, the, the beautiful thing about, you talk about athletes, these, we learn so many

principles, playing sports when it comes to camaraderie, when it comes to teamwork, when

it comes to commitment, when it comes to perseverance, all of these things transfer extremely

well into the business field.

That's why athletes and companies and entities look for business athletes.

No doubt.

Athletes know how to pronounce, is what I love to identify myself as because I'm so much

more than an athlete.

I recognize the platform and the grind and the, the tools that I learn from playing the

game.

But I also understand the opportunity at hand to create an everlasting legacy for you,

your family and others.

No doubt.

And that's what I've been able to handle that, you know, balance, you know, that still

plan in the NFL, I mean, you were just playing in, in entrepreneurship at the same time.

I think you had, you know, 20 something, 21, private different investments and ventures,

you know, that you, that you may during your NFL career, shout out to you.

God bless you.

Smart.

I've watched so many people not do that.

I'm sure as you have, you know, so just that wisdom to be able to do that at such a young

age, but you know, you have the minority entrepreneurship institute.

I know, you know, one of the ones that caught my attention, you know, was the aura.

You know, you had the connection or the foresight somehow to invest into oral health in 2021.

I know you 10X that investment over a couple years.

I love oral ring.

You know, I do the oral ring on a nightly basis.

How are you able to navigate that plan and the entrepreneurship stuff at the same time,

really?

I'm able to do it because of my team, you know, like anything, you can do it alone.

Greatness happens in bundles with the clear objectives and people that are aligned in

mission.

You know, I have my own family office where, you know, the difference between a family

office and a financial advisor is a financial, a financial advisor responsibility is to

mainly preserve your capital.

Stocks and bonds, nothing too risky, modestly grow your capital where a family office objective

is to look at your entity and totality from wealth creation, wealth preservation, access

to deal flow and private investments from will state and trust, from accounting, from

charitable contributions.

Like really looking at what do you want your family to look like in the next 100 years?

That's why most of the wealthiest families in America or in the world, you know, they

adopt the principle of having a family office.

I met my business manager or the head of my family office when I was 14.

So when he became my mentor, name is Michael Lido.

And when you, I heard you talking about seeking mentors a couple of weeks ago and, you know,

my, and how important that is because you cannot gain new knowledge without seeking it from

a standpoint of individuals from a standpoint of information or in a technology based world

now.

But, you know, my family office operates as the CEO or the, or the defense of coordinator

and often some coordinator of nine enterprises or Jalen Smith enterprises, if you will, whereas

a financial advisor or sports agent or marketing firm are they, they act as position coaches

if that makes sense.

A lot of errors go wrong when you got a position coach trying to run your system if that makes

sense.

And that's what, you hear about guys going broken things like that.

That's a lot of what it, what it blows down to.

You got to have the right team of individuals that are teaching you.

But also there's governance there as well.

So that's that that that's really how you have in the discipline of wisdom to not and

you, you know, or the person, the individual, having the discipline and the wisdom to

invest it versus blow it all, you know, to mean and want to go out there and have a bunch

of fun and you know, to mean without getting these things taken care of.

So we're good 10, 15, 20 years, you know, from today.

What, what, what things, you know, we, what, what separated the opportunity or what kind

of attracted you to the opportunity here with owning an organization now with, with

Globe life.

So we, you talked about the minority osprenders to business, which is a part of my purpose

beyond athletics.

My whole mission and purpose beyond athletics is to help close the economic and educational

gap.

I founded the minority osprendership institute because I wanted to provide financial funding,

mentorship and help with strategic execution plans for the black, for the black and brown

community, the Latinx community, majority in minority woman lay at companies, dear to my

heart, right?

We have so many dreams and visions and ideas that we want to accomplish, but we lack the

infrastructure.

We lack the financial funding, only 1% of venture dollars are being invested into the minority

community.

From there, it was like, I want to do something about it.

So the first phase was we held, we opened three marketplaces, Indiana, Texas and Florida,

where we had three venture, we had three venture pitch competitions in each market.

We would have about 300 applications.

We would narrow it down to a final 20, then narrow it down to a final five.

Those five companies would then present your familiar with Shark Tank, right?

Yep.

You know, myself with three or four guest sharks would come in and we would have had these

companies and the winners would invest charitable dollars into their businesses.

And in that we developed a community, we were able to invest 1.4 million dollars into 13

different companies, raise and invest.

And when we opened back during COVID, we opened the Texas market.

We actually held our venture pitch competition at the Star, which is the Cowboys Prax facility.

You know, I'm a captain there at the time.

This was during this was in the heart of COVID.

And you know, the phenomenal organization that I got to meet and learn about what's

glow-blife, American income life.

Steve Greer, David's often, you know, they issued a check to come alongside of my calls

with with MBI.

And there, I began building and growing a relationship with these guys.

David is often under David and Steve getting a chance to understand how they built their

wealth in the insurance business.

I became infatuated with the opportunity unlimited as you will, which Simon, you can speak

more to this, but each year the most millionaires are created from this industry.

And I wanted to be a part of it because I, while first I looked around and I seen from

a demographic standpoint of how many people that are benefiting from this, you know, there's

a gap because in my community, we don't talk about life insurance.

We don't know about it.

We're not educated on it.

We don't have policies ourselves.

But on the flip side, from a career standpoint, having access to virtual sales, the opportunity

is immense.

So with that being said, I wanted to get involved.

And that's how, you know, I was personally recruited by our CEO and president.

But I'm still out there getting it.

I love it.

That's beautiful.

And we love to have you.

I'm excited for you, man.

And I know you guys are going to continue, continue to crush it.

What would you say, you know, a couple top leaders that you've bumped into, enter out of

football because you've been around a lot of different entrepreneurs, leaders, coaches,

players, athletes, some not athletes, investors, any couple that stick out to you and kind of

wisdom or lessons that you've added to your arsenal, if you will, of like, man, these

really became some of my core go to foundational beliefs or things that I've learned, you know,

from some of these people.

Just to jerk your mind a little, like, I'll give you a couple, you know, that stand out

to me that over my last 10 years, you know, that I've added to my tool belt that I didn't

have before that I've learned from others watching others' mentorship stuff like that.

And you know, one of them is Jim Tressel.

And so he would teach and preach to me, W-A-Y-T all the time.

What are you thinking knowing what somebody else is thinking versus just forcing your thoughts

on them or thinking that you assume that you know what they're thinking or maybe they're

afraid to tell you what they're thinking because they think you're going to snap out on them.

And so your job is to find out what are these people thinking?

What are the players thinking on the field because either way they're thinking it.

So if they don't tell you because they're scared of you, it's still in their mind

regardless of what you think.

So if I can get out of them what they're thinking, then I got an opportunity to either A,

let them influence my thinking of, wow, you know, I didn't realize 25, 30% of my team felt

that way or some of the seniors felt like we were over-practicing, you know, or whatever it is.

And I didn't even know about that.

So maybe that can influence some of my thoughts in coaching patterns.

Or now I got an inside scoop on their perspective.

Maybe I can help change their thinking at 21 years old.

Maybe give them a different perspective on looking at this.

But if they don't, if I don't know what they're thinking, I can't do nothing about it,

you know, to help the team and help the organization.

That's one, you know, for an example, that I could give you.

Anything that stands out to you from others that like that you've grabbed.

Eugene Parker, Reston Peace,

was arguably the greatest Asian of all time.

He represented seven Hall of Famers. He's the first Black sports Asian.

Wow.

Actually, my cousin as well. His aunt or his aunt is my grandmother.

So from the time I was from Indiana, from Fort Wayne, Indiana,

Winter Purdue was a second round pick in the NBA.

He quit playing in the league, went back to law school to become a sports Asian.

First client was Deon Sanders.

So Deon Smith, Larry Fitzgerald, Curtis Martin, Ray Lewis, Rob Woodson,

the list goes on. I was his last first client.

He died three weeks before I got drafted.

I learned so much from him.

The biggest thing I learned from him is value over cost.

There's a cost to everything.

But what is the value?

It's the value that determines what you should do.

How much time and intention you should put towards it based on the value you had.

One thing I like to do in business is

because I understand the value of a subject matter expert, a domain expert,

domain expertise. Anything I do in business, like you mentioned,

21 different investments, but there's four businesses that I'm in the day-to-day operations

with the cycle management group, partner with GlobeLife,

is being one of those entities.

I like to partner with experts. Experts, it helps mitigate the risk, but it helps also

teach me new business and new skills. What I care most about Simon, what I care most about is

like outside of servant, my God, our Lord, I care about the knowledge transfer.

What knowledge am I gaining so that I can then transfer

to the individuals coming after me, to my kids, to my kids' kids, to the community,

to the people that are in my inner and outer circle. It's about the knowledge transfer.

In that deciphering who you allow that access or who you seek that information from,

seek that wisdom from. Hence being in Cancun, and I'm asking Simon,

we gotta get it, we gotta link while we hear, man. You know, you was blessed to give me an hour

of your time after an early morning workout. We went to breakfast together. Seeking that,

it matters. In that, you can decipher what are high vibrations, what are low vibrations.

I like to lean more towards high vibrations, which gives me clarity on who I should be seeking

the wisdom or the knowledge transfer from. So that was a lot of a test.

They're picking up what you're saying. We get to the whole thing on high vibration and low

vibration. You know, you spoke about your kids and the transfer of knowledge. That's something

that I've been driven towards also. I don't even know if I shared with you that I helped

to start a youth program in my hometown, Youngstown, Ohio 11, 12 years ago for inner city youth.

Same thing here in Pittsburgh. We got five years under our belt now. You know, here in Pittsburgh,

it's called Stip City Impact. When you're a father, when your children grow up, how many kids

you got? You got one? I got one right now. Yeah, daughter. Her name is free. She is actually going to

be two next month. Oh, man, you're in trouble. I mean, girl, dad, mole, I got a towel.

It's all going to get better, better or worse, depending on how you look at it, you know what I mean?

But it only gets better from there to you. I remember my daughter is 10 right now. She's going to be 11

in June and it's amazing. I had my daughter first. I got two boys after her.

June, what? Got a Gemini? Okay. Yeah. What's her, what's her stage? June, what?

So my daughter's June 28th. Okay. June 28th. Okay. Right now. I'm July 27th. My son is September,

8th. Yes. And then my other son is January 23rd. That's my youngest number five. I was thinking

of you and your brother, you know, when I was when when you were talking to me about that,

you know, about your brother's impact on you because he's five. My son is eight. They're three.

Some different. The time to see and the same thing going, you know, to me, my my eight-year-old is

athletic and he just, you know, poor thing got daddy's size, you know, but he he's going to be able

to be alright athletically every sporty place. And he's being a good brother all the time, just beaten

up. And so, making him tough already see as a five-year-old how much further ahead that he is,

then maybe my first son was at this time because of his influence on him, you know, to mean them

spending time together and playing and him roughing them up and trying to catch up, you know,

to what he's able to do. When your children grow up, you know, right now it's your daughter, you

know, who knows if you end up with more children down the road, but I'm willing. I'm willing.

Your daughter or children, you know, or grow up. What do you hope that they look back and say, man,

this is this is what I'm most proud of in my dad.

Most proud of. Honestly, off the top, I want them to know that I want them to know that their

dad really values and really value the trajectory of our family as a whole, you know. You talk about

matriarch, you talk about patriarch, you know, there's somebody that has to make that decision to

care about what Gen 2 and Gen 3 and Gen 4 looks like. You talk about the wealthiest families. You talk

about, you talk about having a everlasting legacy, you know, a lot of Gen 1 wealth creators,

they failed to, they failed to accomplish the objective of the knowledge transfer into the next

generation. And that's it's Gen 2 or Gen 3 that loses the wealth. I don't want to be in a situation

where my family as a whole and inheritance have to start back at zero. You know, so if they can

understand that, it's deeper than money. I'm talking about like real, real access and talking about

real family values and principles, you know, those are, those are things that I want them to,

I want them to understand that, you know, the importance and the values of that.

I'd say, yeah, that's it. Fire. Yeah. You know, we talked a lot about the wins, you know, I don't,

I know I've had a couple losses. You know, you made tens of millions of dollars, you know,

before the age of 30. What would any money lessons that you learn, maybe the hard way that maybe

other people don't know or most people wouldn't know or see that you would pass on as some wisdom.

I would say, I would say you, who would you partner with matters? It's not about the, it's not about

the horse, it's about the jockey. You can have a great opportunity, a great product, a great

business, a great market area of opportunity. But if you don't have the right person driving that,

you don't have the right person driving that. Chaos can come. Chaos will come.

If inefficiency will come, and that's what I learned, you know, it's just making sure that

the vetting process of who I'm selecting to do business with, when you talk about, you know, the,

is been doing a lot of research and information and diving deep of, you know, who are those five

people that are around you the most and how infectious that is towards your success, failure,

demise, whatever the case may be paying attention to that because that matter, it matters, it really does.

For sure. I hope people give that time a five. And can you speak to that? I want you to speak to that.

I hope people give that some time and thought a lot what you said, man, you got wisdom beyond your

years. I don't know if you prayed for it. I used to pray for wisdom, you know, like that. And,

you know, to be so young and have this level of wisdom, man, really speaks to the blessing and

the gift that you've been given, the work that your family and others put in around you, the education

that maybe contributed to that in high school, college, you know, the places that you chose to play

ball and get an education, but it's really showing it could show, you know, right now in the wisdom

that you have to give to others and yourself and your family. I'm excited for you, man. I think,

so for me, yeah, everything you just said is, you know, I just really want to, I'm just here like

nod in my head and saying, amen, you know, to me, brothers, so they can hear from somebody else,

you know, other than me, but yeah, I couldn't agree more, you know, the people that you spend

the majority of your time with, you know, if they got healthy habits, you know, all of a sudden it's

going to, especially as a competitor, you know, as somebody that has the balance of, of competitive

nature, but also the humility to want to grow and learn, you know, the people that are around you,

you're going to be a sponge to be influenced by and push yourself to, to keep up with, you know,

if they got good habits, those are going to be a part of your sponge, you know, that you're

taking in, if they got bad habits, those sometimes get somehow pushed on to you also. So I think,

you know, a lot of times when you come from, you know, not being, you know, in a situation where

everybody's successful and you become the one that is successful, one of the heartbreaking parts

about the journey, that's reality is learning how to let go and learning how to say no and learning

how to protect your, your time in, in, not being accessible and available to everybody when you

have the balance of I want to give because I don't deserve everything that I've been blessed with,

I want to give so much away and make a difference, but at the same time in order to make the biggest

difference, sometimes you got to be protective of who you're allowing around you because you

understand that the energy in vibration, you know, that we're talking about is going to rub off on you,

you know, good or bad. So I just would say a amen, you know, just for people to do the work,

like you said, I've been doing some reflection of that and I think just not a lot of people take time

to think enough and to sit back and think about even reflecting on, hey, who are my, it sounds good,

you know, I've heard this, you know, you are going to be, you're going to be based on the people you

hang around in the books you read. And so, Drake, Drake, Drake, Drake, say it in best, you are who

you hang with. Right. But what I would say is like, sorry, is this barking? Saviors complex is real.

It's real, man, it's real. No, no, to be mindful of it. Survivors remorse. Yes, survivors remorse,

absolutely. It's, I mean, I could teach a whole thing on that, you know, to me,

what I've had, how I've had to navigate and I'm sure you've had to navigate just

loved ones and friends and how much we can do to make sure that we are helpful

when we can, but also make sure that that generation 2, 3, 4 for the bigger picture of the whole

family can function. Now we don't just blow it out, 2007 and everybody gets a new whip, you know,

everybody's good to understand that I'm thinking about 2007, you know, right now I can't do some

things in 2007. You want me to do so, so the name and the brand and the family is going to be good

in 2007 and sometime that's a, that's a tough, that's a tough one, you know, and I think so you just

got to start to get comfortable understanding that not everybody's going to like it or understand

and you just got to know that the reason why you're protecting yourself in that way is not

because you think you're better than anybody else or you want to stick your nose up at anybody or

you forget where you came from, it's more about not just where we came from, it's where we're going

and how I can help the people from where we came from with where I'm going, but in part of me

doing that, I'm going to have to say, notice some people places and things, you know,

you know, the greatest thing I've learned and you know, with our company, you know, that,

that you know, we're aligned with on, if being the official life insurance company,

other Dallas Cowboys, Los Angeles Lakers, Atlanta Braves, Texas Rangers, FC Dallas, all of these

different things, right? You know, me having a six and a half year career with in Dallas, with the

Dallas Cowboys Pirates in my departure, you know, I learned so many things about Jerry Jones,

you know, the greatest salesman of all time, but the one thing that I've been insurance at one point

I think. Yes, he started insurance, he started insurance, yeah, he's spoken our SGA meeting, yeah,

but the one thing that I love about him the most is his outlook on his family, his legacy,

like he is so intentional about everything as it pertains to who's up next. And it's the same

common denominator, I believe, you know, from the Henry Fawreys, from the Wal-Mart, you know,

Walton's and Wal-Mart, you know, all these major families who have grown, you know, their

entity, their enterprise, their legacy, but the whole thing is about not, it's about,

it's about a togetherness under one condition, under achieving excellence, you know, and that's

why I'm honored to be on the grindcast with you, man, is because the value of putting in the work,

the value of identifying who to be together with, and ultimately determines, you know, the success

or the failure, you know, so it's an honor, I appreciate you Simon for having me in.

I appreciate you brother, appreciate you in your time, you know, what other than the personal,

you know, relationship with Greer and Zoffen, what things do you think globe life

sticks out to you that you most excited about, you know, that we got going on our entrepreneurship

journey together. I mean, the ability to learn from others, the relationships that are

formed and cultivated through all of these different events that we have, I mean, the renewals in

themselves are the biggest reason of what got me into it, because athletes, we all go through a

moment of, okay, the game's over, what do I do now? What do I do next? That could be when I go to

high school, I don't play in high school, but I play growing up, when I go to college, I didn't play

in college, hey, regardless of whatever level college, D1, D2, D3, NAIA, whatever you went,

the game come for those who the game came to an end after college, what do I do? Me, you know,

that just finished my 10th year in the league, you know, eventually there's going to come an end,

what do I do next? Because of my injury, I started with, I started my career in the league with

the end in mind because there was a chance that I may never play again. So immediately, like for the

last 10 years, I've been doing, been intentional about what do I do next, you know, from getting

myself uncomfortable, sitting in board room meetings where I was just illiterate as a pertaincer

of the terminology of business. People try to make it seem like it's hard, it's really just

allocating your time to learn it. No different than how much time I've been allocating the game,

you know, for the game since plants since I was seven. It's about reps. I've been getting reps

in business for the past 10 years to a point to where I can do things, I can make decisions, I can

be confident in starting new business ventures and all these different things because of the time,

you know, I have four operating companies that are cash flowing me, you know, to the point to where

it's not just solely relying on being a W2 employee, a high paid employee for the National Football

and it was very intentional about that. You know, so that, I mean, that's really the base of,

you know, saying, I want to fire off, we got like five minutes left if I could take it.

Yeah, let's go. All right, let's do it. So I got some rapid fire questions. You ever see that?

I want to rapid fire question you and see, boom, what's first thing that comes to your mind.

Hardest hitter you faced.

Hardest hitter. I mean, he was defense so like hitter.

Right. Right. Maybe like maybe both. Maybe runs the ball to tough.

List. Beast mode. All right. Toughest stadium to play in.

Seattle or Arrowhead. Okay. With the cheese.

We're done in fell memory. A 69 year fumble recovery for my first

and only touched down in the National Football League. It was the day before Christmas.

And my mom was at the game. Oh, dope. Who was it against? Tampa Bay to Buckeneers.

Hi. Yeah. Favorite Notre Dame memory.

Favorite Notre Dame memory.

Man, my favorite Notre Dame memory. I would say winning the Buckets Award for the

Netbeer becoming the nation's best linebacker. I wanted in high school and in college. There's

only one other person that that's done that. Man, Titeo. Crazy. And man, Titeo, wasn't he?

That's Notre Dame too, right? Yeah. He's the guy that passed the torch to me.

Yeah. Yeah. He was a beast. I remember watching him.

Remember watching him play. Yeah. What motivates you today?

What motivates me today is the knowledge transfer.

One habit you never skip. One habit I never skip. One habit I never skip.

I always put my C but all. There you go. There you go.

All right. Anything, you know, folks that don't know you

that would like to follow your journey and what you got going on. What ways could they

track you down and what's going on? Social media wise or anything else that you got going on

that they would like to follow? Yes. Yes. Please follow me.

Instagram, Yolo underscore Smith nine or Jaylen Smith. Yolo. Yolo.

I'm going to live once Yolo underscore nine or underscore Smith nine. Smith nine.

Okay. Or you can just type in Jaylen Smith. It'll pop up. Verifications.

Is Jaylen with the O N J a Y L O N. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Also, we got some mercy.

We got some mercy. Hurts connections as well. I got my baby brother, man,

Rondale Smith. He play theirs as well. He's in psychology and all and making a change.

So I really want to connect you with with them as well.

Got a meeting. Got to meet him. Yeah. Well, thank you for your time, man.

We do it again, you know, sometime but I know you added a lot of value to the people, to the listeners.

I know I can't wait to share this with some of the kids in my youth program at a still city

impacting inspiring minds. I know there's a lot of people that are going to grab a lot of value

from this Jaylen. So congrats on all of your success on and off the field. Thank you for your time,

man. God bless you. And I'm excited to be a small part of your journey. Let's keep it rocking.

I appreciate you Simon. Hey, I am going to seek you.

I'm mentor me please in this in this transition in this business that you have so much success.

And just a friend as well. So I appreciate you taking the time to to give me nuggets and gyms.

I got your number now. I want to abuse it. Lock it in. Let's get it. Abuse it brother.

I will use you back iron sharpens iron. I love it. Hey, thank you guys.

As always, we appreciate your time and energy. Thanks for joining us on another episode of the

Grandcast. Get ready. It's a new day.