Feb. 27, 2026
Alana Beard Talks That DAWG Mentality & Project B’s Player-Ownership League
Rock-T and Crystal sit down with former Duke star and WNBA champ/Defensive Player of the Year Alana Beard to talk about where her relentless drive came from and how she handled the big transition from Shreveport to Duke. She breaks down her 2010 ankle tendon injury, the doubts that came with it, and how she reinvented herself by leaning into defense, leadership, and preparing for life after hoops through business and venture capital. A.B. then introduces Project B, a global basketball league built to center athletes with equity + cash compensation and real generational-wealth opportunity. The league is targeting a Q4 2026 launch with six men’s and six women’s teams on one platform, with a streaming-first plan and city-by-city global activations.
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00:00:01
Speaker 1: Yay media group.
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Speaker 2: What's up fellas, ladies, billy goats, cats, squirrels, rabbits. Wherever you are and your part of the world, Welcome to the perfect pair of podcast.
00:00:18
Speaker 3: Rock Teazy is who I be.
00:00:20
Speaker 2: And she showed is Man. We thank you guys for all the five star reviews. Man, go tell a friend to tell a friend.
00:00:27
Speaker 3: Man. We got some an amazing guest on today.
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Speaker 2: I've been I've been stalking her for a while, but I never really went up to her because uh, and she just called me out like before we started the podcast.
00:00:40
Speaker 3: But uh, we're gonna get into all that. Let me let me just give you your flowers right now.
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Speaker 2: Former Duke University basketball star, two time ACC Player of the Year, w NBA Champion w n B, A Defensive Player of the Year w n B, A stel leader like when when you when you look up the word okay in the dictionary on the basketball court Atlanta Beard akaa be z FORSHEEZI pictures gonna be like, haha, here I am.
00:01:13
Speaker 3: I know a b how you know the podcast?
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Speaker 1: That's me?
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Speaker 4: Thank you for having me Rock Tan Kristo, I I know no other way I may be adult on the corporate off the court, I'm pretty chilled.
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Speaker 3: So I'm gonna leave it at that.
00:01:26
Speaker 1: I'm finding the way.
00:01:28
Speaker 2: Listen, man, we appreciate you for joining from joining the podcast. It's so much that we want to get into. Let's start with you know. You know, I gave you that introduction for a reason because a lot of these young players may not understand who who you are as far as what you did and the type of player and the impact you made not only in the women's game of basketball, but just in sports in general.
00:01:50
Speaker 3: So talk to me.
00:01:51
Speaker 2: Have you always had that drive since you was like five and six or did it kind of come along as you got older as a teenager.
00:01:59
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's thank you for that rock tea. It's something that I've always had. I grew up in Shreveport, Louisiana, in the country right. My parents live on acres of land, horses and cows in the next field. But I grew up just playing the sport of basketball with my brother and his friends. Was always the only girl, and the moment I started kicking their asses, I knew that I had something really special, and so I didn't let them forget that, and so I just started to develop this love for the game. But then at some point I realized that I could make a career out of this. But more importantly, I could be the.
00:02:32
Speaker 1: First person in my family to go to college.
00:02:34
Speaker 4: And once I understood that, it just became It became constant, It became an obsession, and I always took it as taking this burden off of my parents because I knew what I wanted to do. But I also knew what my parents were capable of doing or what they weren't capable of doing, and I was always in the mindset of taking that burden off of them, and so basketball became that vehickel for me to achieve everything that I've done to date. I didn't know what it would have been back then at the time, but I knew what I was striving for, and so for me, every time I walked.
00:03:08
Speaker 1: Into that gym, it was focused.
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Speaker 4: But I was also really fortunate to have a phenomenal high school coach who taught me the fundamentals of the game, who taught me about the respect of the game, who taught me how to show up consistently.
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Speaker 1: But more importantly, he.
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Speaker 4: Taught me how to be an all around player, which allowed me to prolong my career for for as long as I did because of that.
00:03:32
Speaker 3: So I know you got a question before you before you start basing.
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Speaker 2: I don't know if you recognize that she was talking and she got to the point she taught me how to show up that that that that dog facial expression almost came out.
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Speaker 3: So you can. You can try to be soft all you want, right down.
00:03:49
Speaker 2: Yeah, but that dog almost came out right there.
00:03:53
Speaker 4: It is one still in me, and I mean, obviously we can get to that like later, but like when you transition to the business side, there's a certain approach that you have to take. But that competitiveness, it will never ever leave me because I think that that's a that's a superpower and it's something that that I carry with me.
00:04:12
Speaker 1: But it's also when i'm stile and my son as well.
00:04:15
Speaker 4: There's a right way to n that's the right way to lose, but never stop being competitive.
00:04:20
Speaker 5: Yes, yes see, I've always wondered how was your transition from high school to college and then that transition to college to pros, Like, how was that was on your mental not physically. I'm I think the mental part of everything because you're being the first and what I hear from you is that you already knew what your why was. So that's what made you go hard. That was what made you say, there's there's no plan B.
00:04:50
Speaker 1: This is it. That's what I so that why? No, it's in your absolutely right that why? Then? Is that why?
00:04:57
Speaker 4: Now? My family is everything for me? But you know, just to touch on that transition from high school to college, and it was Duke University. And I mentioned earlier that I'm from Streetport, Louisiana, and so that environment shift was so so so different and so tough. Right, I leave from Shreveport, Louisiana, which is I was a homebody there. I go to Duke University, which was sixteen hours away. Mommy and Daddy's girl get on campus as entering Duke as the largest African American group of freshmen ever admitted to Duke, right, And so it was that transition of trying to find my space, trying to find my people academically, making sure that I am sort of achieving at the standard that is expected at an institution like Duke University. Come from Streeport, Louisiana. At the time, we were ranking forty eighth in sort of education today, we're still ranked forty eighth, but it was I'm I'm making changes there. I'm pushing to make changes there as well. But you know, so coming from a city or a state where you're wearing forty eighth and achieving at a high level in that in that system, going to do and thinking that you're still that you're ready to achieve at that same level, and realize that you're just a few steps behind us compared to your peers. I think that that was one of the biggest adjustments for me because I was always accustomed to doing things the right way, and Duke made me feel like at times that I just wasn't wasn't ready for Duke. But on the court, speaking of that dog, that was my safe space, right No one could tell me anything, you know what, can question anything, No one could doubt me because I always showed up a certain way because I was confident in what I was presenting us.
00:06:46
Speaker 2: Come on, man, my god, Okay, So I'm gonna take you back to twenty ten. Intent Like we all have adversity hit ourselves, hit our in our lives at times, and you know, you got I tell people all the time, you got three types of people you got the first type.
00:07:05
Speaker 3: When you hit a brick wall here adversity, it's like.
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Speaker 2: Man, I guess the same for me, Quintin, I'm going back the other way where I came from. Then you got the other, the other person that's complete opposite. I'm going through this wall. Nothing you can do about it. Then you got the third person that's kind of.
00:07:18
Speaker 3: In the middle.
00:07:19
Speaker 2: You know, it takes them to get a little bit. Somebody has to motivate them to you know how. I almost direct them. Maybe you shouldn't quit, No, maybe you should, Maybe this is it or whatever. So twenty ten is when your injury happened, right city. What was going through your mind? Did you ever think about quitting? Did you ever think about, Man, I'm never going to be the player that I was before this injury.
00:07:40
Speaker 4: I'm glad that you touch on this because I think a lot of you know, you know, podcasts and media and content only show the success. Are are they end result of it all? And as an athlete its something in rotill you know it?
00:07:55
Speaker 1: Crystal?
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Speaker 3: Did you play sports but not in college grad?
00:07:58
Speaker 1: I didn't make it.
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Speaker 3: You're a hooper.
00:08:00
Speaker 1: That was a track run. I stayed all right, but intendet. I love it. And so that's what people don't understand, right.
00:08:10
Speaker 4: They see that finished product of whatever shows up on the cord are when you to your point, Crystal, You're at that starting line, right, and they see that end, but they don't see sort of adversity and the challenges that exists throughout that. And I love that you guys are highlighting this. So in twenty ten, I consider that my year of just reinvention.
00:08:30
Speaker 1: It was.
00:08:31
Speaker 4: It was a potential career ending injury and I've spoken about it publicly often, but had a ten percent chance of returning to an elite level. I recall the day that I actually ripped my tendon in my ankle. I ripped my posteria to be attended. I was working out. It was an off season, but I was working out, going hard as usual, and I felt that tendon pop, and in my mind, I set up I got to have surgery in it. Anyway, I might as well just finish this workout. So I ended up finishing the workout knowing that when I walked off that that court, I was probably going to be out for like eight to eight to ten months. And I just knew that in my mind. But I was like, I might as well finish.
00:09:10
Speaker 1: So that was that.
00:09:13
Speaker 4: Maybe gives you a sense of how obsessed I was. I lived just being great at like anything that I touched. The t and ten was that year of reinvention. I was wrapped up into the game, My identity was wrapped up into the game. But in the back of my mind I always knew that I wanted to prepare for life afterwards. Twenty ten just fast forwarded all of that, right, my career flash before my eyes. You asked Raptee that I doubt it? Did I question it? Did I Did I ever think that I wouldn't return. The answer is yes, because I would. It would be a lie to say that I didn't question it, because you do hear things, you see things. You know what your body once was and what it's not going to be again, and so you question whether or not you can get back to that level. And so I took that as an opportunity, Yes, to rehab prove people wrong. But the third thing was to just really focus on what life would be. And so my first venture into sort of the business world was working with the CEO in an internship or fellowship at Jamba Juice and it's simply because I had this grand vision of building out this portfolio of franchises. We talk about Magic Johnson all the time as athletes. He was our north star, right because we hadn't really seen anything like that, and so everything that Magic did I wanted to emulate. And that was the start of that, and so became hyper focused in that moment that you're of reinvention. And that led to me just doing everything that I'm doing now because I always said yes.
00:10:40
Speaker 1: If something scared me, I said yes.
00:10:43
Speaker 4: If I didn't know something, I said yes, right because that was the only way that I knew that.
00:10:47
Speaker 1: I would stretch and grow.
00:10:49
Speaker 4: But I also did it with the intent of doing it for others. For some reason, That's all I've always thought about it. If I'm walking into this room, I'm pulling someone else in this room with me. If I'm sitting behind this table and learning kind of whatever it may be, right strategic planning, business development, or what have you, I'm learning it for the benefit of others. Because I know the privilege that I have and having access to these rooms because of the work that I've put in. How do I now aggregate all of that with the goal of sharing it with others.
00:11:20
Speaker 1: It's what I've always thought.
00:11:21
Speaker 5: About that is simply awesome. Do you hear me like, I just want to just clap my hands. Well, I'm going ahead and clap.
00:11:28
Speaker 2: My hands.
00:11:31
Speaker 5: Because I think you're just hearing you go through that adversity right there, and how you change, like your mindset, it's pretty much what he's always been. I think he was just born with it with no excuses, get it done mindset.
00:11:44
Speaker 1: See I wasn't here.
00:11:47
Speaker 5: I'm not even gonna lie I don't feel like working now, I talk my way out of Something's gonna tell me why I shouldn't work at them, be mad because I can't fit in my clothes.
00:11:56
Speaker 1: And when I all have those.
00:11:59
Speaker 5: When I get that now, I'm like, Okay, I'm focused, no excuses, I'm gonna get it done. But it usually takes something happening for me for me to be like all right, no excuses, get it done, until I met him, and then it's like, Okay, now I'm learning that mindset, and I wish I would have known it way back then, and so for you to already have it and wanting to give that to others, I just want to say thank you, because No, A lot of times nobody wants to share that part.
00:12:24
Speaker 4: Come on, no, and again I will man, you hit the nail on the head right, Like we we all get in the space where we just think that we can only be there can only be one. And so I love kind of how you've laid that out. But I also love rock Tea's approach and not having excuses. Rocky, where are you from?
00:12:44
Speaker 3: I'm from Detroit? What up dope you're from?
00:12:47
Speaker 4: And see all of that makes sense. Pelt are you from Detroit as well?
00:12:50
Speaker 1: No, ma'am, I'm from Amerald. No, Texas, Texas.
00:12:54
Speaker 3: The pan had little.
00:12:57
Speaker 1: Right, And again, every everyone's journey different.
00:13:00
Speaker 4: But I credit like kind of my mindset to to just sports and growing up in Treeport, Louisiana, and then my parents just sort of being of the mindset just get it done right right, That's what we've always known.
00:13:11
Speaker 1: Just to get it done.
00:13:12
Speaker 4: If you if you face a challenge, if if someone tells you no, or whatever that may be, they're not defining you. It's you defining kind of your journey and what you want it to be. So it's all a it's all an evolution, And so I commend you, Crystal for one seeing it, accepting it, being aware of it, and then finding a solution to to adjust it.
00:13:34
Speaker 3: I have noe.
00:13:35
Speaker 2: That's real, man, because it's when you finally get a seat at the table and and you don't bring the crew with you, you don't bring you know, someone with you at that table.
00:13:47
Speaker 3: Then you know it's you. You. You. You kind of lessen your power a little bit because you become kind.
00:13:53
Speaker 2: Of a puppet, you know, to the puppets, like you're at the table, but just still kind of like there's they're not giving you any power. And you have a clan or team with you that's aligned with the mission of everybody else that's at the table, then now that's where that's where power happens, and that's where empowerment happens.
00:14:12
Speaker 3: But kudos for you for doing that.
00:14:15
Speaker 4: Well.
00:14:15
Speaker 5: I want to say this too, My daughter had the same She ended up having to doing the same mindset when she tore her ACL her senior year. So she has all these colleges looking at her, and she's at the EUIBL biggest game. She's wow, I mean, she is balling, and then she she tears her ACL. She goes down and it's just like, oh, and so for some reason, right then and there, that's when she just started.
00:14:39
Speaker 1: She decided that I need to know what I would.
00:14:42
Speaker 5: Do after basketball because all she knew was basketball all the way up until then, and she felt like that was just her identity. So now she needs to figure out who is Harmony, Who am I? What can I do? So instead of going to any of the power five schools, she started looking into the IVY who were who was recruiting her? So that's what made her make her decision to go to Harvard because she knew right after that she could do something and make a change. And that is one of her biggest goals is to make a change and she wants to is your daughter?
00:15:17
Speaker 3: Yeah guilty?
00:15:20
Speaker 4: What?
00:15:22
Speaker 2: Oh my god?
00:15:23
Speaker 3: So this is phenomenal.
00:15:26
Speaker 4: It all makes sense now I'm getting here, like E's farising you guys. And then I had an opportunity to work with Harmony when I did the executive leadership with Anita Burst up at Harvard.
00:15:36
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is phenomenal.
00:15:39
Speaker 3: Let me tell you something.
00:15:40
Speaker 1: Oh my god, good job parents think.
00:15:44
Speaker 3: Yeah that makes me feel good.
00:15:46
Speaker 6: Yeah wow, No, this that you know, your your story is resonates, you know, to her a lot because when she when she did injure her knee.
00:15:57
Speaker 3: I remember after her crying and tears.
00:16:00
Speaker 2: Was ever and as a parent, you teach your kids and you hope that some of it is sticking.
00:16:07
Speaker 3: You hope it all of it is sticking, but you hope some of it. And then as she was.
00:16:10
Speaker 2: Recovering, you know, I asked her, I said, Harmony, everybody keep saying that you ain't gonna be as good as you used to be. She says, they're right, I'm gonna be better. And I was like at that point, I said, honey, we did a good job.
00:16:26
Speaker 1: Wow.
00:16:27
Speaker 4: No, I absolutely love it. And she carved her own paths. She did it her own way, and that's the beauty and all of it. Because we think that we have this structured set of rules that we have to follow to achieve a certain level of greatness, and that is not the case. We define our own greatness, yes, And I think that that's the power in Harmony's story. And I've really enjoyed watching her, so this is so cool to make that connection. I remember when it took a coach actually telling me when I was on my journey back. It took me like a year and a half to get to an elite level. I knew I wasn't going to come back the same, and I knew that I had to reinvent myself, not just with what life was going to be after the game, but on the court. Because I could not run as fast as I could, I could not jump with the best of them. Everything was just different and it felt different. My mental was different. And then I just hung my hat on defense because that's easy.
00:17:24
Speaker 1: Defense is easy.
00:17:25
Speaker 4: It's just it takes a ton of hard work and no one wants to do it right. And so all that all goes back to my high school coach, who was phenomenal at teaching the fundamentals right. So days we will walk into the gym and we would never pick up a ball because all he did was teach us the fundamentals of defense. And so that full circle moment came around, and that is what I started to identify towards the end of my career, which allowed me to play an additional seven or eight years. Because of that, I reinvented myself on the court and made myself invaluable just in a locker room because of how I showed up every as a leader.
00:18:01
Speaker 2: Come on, man, let's talk Project B. Because you mentioned Massy Johnson Kill O'Neill. You know, these are guys that changed being an athlete into an entrepreneur and to being an entity. And it's like, yeah, i'll endorse your project. I'll endorse your product, but I also want equity in it. So I don't want just to check that you're gonna pay me to endorse your products. I want equity and steak into the product. And when they guys like that started doing that is when I'm like, hmm, like.
00:18:31
Speaker 3: This, that's brilliant.
00:18:32
Speaker 2: Because even having conversation with people about players in the WNBA, players in the NBA, players the NFL with on the pro level, it's like, how come these agents aren't having these conversations like okay, especially with the superstar players, like Okay, yeah, we can renegotiate this contract, but I want steak in the league.
00:18:54
Speaker 3: And it's like that doesn't happen.
00:18:55
Speaker 2: It's never done that way yet, Like yet, who's to say that it can't.
00:19:00
Speaker 3: So Project B, let's talk about it.
00:19:03
Speaker 2: Explain where this vision came from and why you decided to create this model for it.
00:19:11
Speaker 4: Right before we touch on that you said something very interesting about the agents and sort of the players, and I may get in a ton of trouble for saying that, but you asked the question, why do agents want to focus on that money? I think we both know what that is and not really understanding the power and the value of equity. And it took someone like a Magic Johnson, Dwayne Wade, Lebron James, Chris Paul like all of these guys started to sort of understand their value, right, and without.
00:19:38
Speaker 1: Them, there's no us or there's no business, right.
00:19:44
Speaker 4: And so they started to understand sort of the value of the product that was on the floor, and they in turn, in return, wanted to be compensated for that. And I think that that was the beginning of this new shift into that modern athlete, where athletes are starting to understand that they are the business. I don't work for you, you work for me, and that is something that the system has long tried to avoid.
00:20:12
Speaker 1: These athletes beginning.
00:20:14
Speaker 4: To understand and so everything that's happening within this ecosystem of sports, it's such a beautiful thing to watch. And that is why Project B was such a fascinating concept to me. When I left the game. I transitioned to the venture capital space as a senior associate. So I worked within the venture capital space, worked hand in hand with fund managers, startup companies or what have you. So I understood sort of the journey of of startups. But I also understood the value of equity through through this entire process and investing, and so I was always on my list of goals, right ownership. That was always something I was interested in because I had such a I don't know, attachment and journey. I played fifteen years in a WNBA that just seemed normal for me to try to pursue. So I pulled together a group tried to pursue the expansion rights to a WNBA team, knowing that, you know, the moment that someone else put their name and I had my dreams would be crushed.
00:21:24
Speaker 1: But I also understood that.
00:21:26
Speaker 4: But I couldn't allow that to just influence or dictate my learning journey, and so that entire process sort of happened. It was my start to learning how all of this worked on the business side of sports. And then Grady Burnett, who's one of the co founders for Project Being, reached out to me while I was still in that process, but was really respectful to allow me to finish that process, but at the same time introduced me to this new concept and it just made sense at the time. Everything that I'm striving for right now is everything that I'm being kind of tote no to. Right.
00:22:04
Speaker 1: You played, you.
00:22:05
Speaker 4: Were a part of, you know, the fabric of this building this, but no, you cannot have a part in this, right, And so now you have Project B come into the pitcher and Grady pitches this idea of just players being at the center of the value that they're creating within this ecosystem within sports and being compensated accordingly via the equity side, but also the cash component side on top of everything else we're layering on top of it. Both make complete sense. And so Project B, which is publicly left known, we're a global basketball league, right and it is our intent to play in multiple premier cities around the world, activating each city two weeks at a time, building out a celebration around the game of basketball, the ultimate connector of sports. Obviously, soccer is the number one sport in the world. Basketball is a number two sport. Is our goal to become the number one sport in the world, and I know that that's going to be a challenge, but that is what we're very much after. And so our league will be composed of six men's teams and six women's teams, eleven players per team, competing at the highest level on a global stage.
00:23:16
Speaker 3: And there's.
00:23:19
Speaker 4: There's so much value in kind of what we're building. And I know we're at the very beginning of it and we're slowly rolling things out. But if I could bring you guys behind the scenes and give you a snapshot of what we do on a daily basis, you would you would really understand it.
00:23:38
Speaker 1: And I'll leave it at that.
00:23:40
Speaker 4: You would understand what we're trying to build because it's something ambitious and it is something amazing, and it's sometimes hard for people to wrap their heads around the fact that we're coming in and saying that we're going against the grain and building something that we believe is truly beneficial to creating generational wealth consistently for the athletes we engage with.
00:23:59
Speaker 3: Oh my god, that is man blazing on trail.
00:24:01
Speaker 5: Right.
00:24:03
Speaker 3: Kudos to you. They listen this when.
00:24:05
Speaker 2: I first heard about it, because I'm you know, we're we're those We're those parents like, we're we love sports, we love athletics.
00:24:12
Speaker 3: You know, we didn't force our kids to play. We just introduced sports to them and we're glad that they loved it.
00:24:18
Speaker 2: But we just like, listen, if we get to the point where you don't want to be a part of this, just let us know.
00:24:21
Speaker 3: You're saving us money, you know.
00:24:23
Speaker 2: But if you say yes, you ain't gonna you ain't gonna mediocre nothing. If you're gonna put time in, go be the best version of yourself.
00:24:33
Speaker 3: And then this is how far that takes you.
00:24:35
Speaker 2: So kudos to you for being able to provide, you know, knocking on doors and net telling you no. I usually think my name was Noah because I got told no so many times.
00:24:46
Speaker 4: You know, Well, that is that is the hardest thing, right that, that fear of rejection and being vulnerable in these moments. One thing that I don't have a problem with is saying I don't know, right, because all I want to do is learn, and so that was never an issue for me, I think the biggest issue and you just you just touched on it as an athlete and for many people asking for help, right, Oh yeah, that that was tough. But then when you ask for help and then someone tells you no, you're like setting yourself up for failure. And so it takes a complete mindset set shift when you're transitioning out of the game of basketball. Because nose became gold to me because what it did was informed me in terms of how to move next. And so I never ever helped grudges or get down about a no. I just keep moving. I was like, oh, this is no, I'm going this way. Oh that's a no, it's this way. And so once you get into that mindset of understanding what knows really mean, you're good.
00:25:48
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's called it's called overthinking. AB. You know, me and her used to get into it all the time. I said, you think of this name. Man, it's just keep it simple.
00:25:56
Speaker 2: Okay, it's no, let's keep it moving, like we knocking on they don't want to open them.
00:26:01
Speaker 3: Let's go build her own door like period. Yeah.
00:26:04
Speaker 1: So absolutely, I know.
00:26:06
Speaker 2: I know you were talking about her being a woman, a black woman of course, and now getting some power, getting some attention, and right before we got on this on this interview, AB, she was like, man, I can't wait to ask this question, and you want it had to be about the empowerment people about being a black woman.
00:26:27
Speaker 3: So there you go. Because he was you were saying, should I ask her or not ask her what that is?
00:26:32
Speaker 5: But he pretty much asked, like the empowerment? How does that like?
00:26:37
Speaker 1: Do you? How do you know? How do I want to ask the question?
00:26:42
Speaker 4: Right?
00:26:42
Speaker 5: Well, okay, I feel like you answered part of it already.
00:26:45
Speaker 3: Well, this is, this is, this is. Let me say this.
00:26:47
Speaker 2: Let me say this a b as a black woman in the space that you're in, when you sit down at these tables, are people respecting you?
00:26:57
Speaker 3: Like, are they really respecting you?
00:26:58
Speaker 2: Or they're saying, hey, we want to use her as a token because of what she's been able to do in this sport.
00:27:04
Speaker 3: That makes sense.
00:27:05
Speaker 4: No, I absolutely love it, And the answer is no, right, And the answer may very well be no because I could care less about it because I know how I show it up in the value that I bring to any table. And I also know what my intent is when I do show up to these tables and how I want to present and what I want to give.
00:27:23
Speaker 2: Right.
00:27:23
Speaker 4: I can give you an example of when I first transitioned into the venture capital space and one of my first meetings I walk into this boardroom. Is about twenty or thirty people sitting around this boardroom, and I'm the only black person in that room.
00:27:37
Speaker 1: Wow, check note.
00:27:40
Speaker 4: And then I'm also looking around that room to sort of pinpoint.
00:27:43
Speaker 1: Like, man, who who's who's in this room? Who is in this room?
00:27:47
Speaker 4: That really understand kind of you know, my perspective and what I'm going to Who can I connect to? Who's going to help me navigate this thing? And so we were also discussing a one point two one point three billion dollar fund and closing that out, and so those numbers in itself are mind blowing. But I also knew not very many people that looked like me had an opportunity to step into these rooms.
00:28:07
Speaker 1: And so I had two choices.
00:28:08
Speaker 4: Either I could sit at the table and feel intimidated about this moment, or I could step up to the moment, present myself as vulnerable, which I am. But also all of that is going to lead to how do I get other people in this room?
00:28:23
Speaker 1: And to your point?
00:28:24
Speaker 4: For so I did answer that because that has always been my intent. And so whether what someone thinks of me are why someone believed why I'm in this room does not matter to me because I know what my intents are when I'm in this room. But I also know the value that I bring to any table. And I may not be the loudest in the room. I was never the loudest in the locker room. You can go and ask my teammates. But when I spoke, it meant something. And the way that I spoke was through action. The way that I spoke was through my work, and when I did say something verbally, people listened. And so it's never and I don't want to continue to harp on it, but it's never about what someone thinks of me, because you'll.
00:29:11
Speaker 1: Never define me.
00:29:14
Speaker 4: And that's it's really interesting because when we announce this thing, I have this really unique way of just shutting out the noise and having just a focus on what matters. And so social media, we live in a world of social media where that can just it can consume you. And if I were to wake up every single day and listen to what I can't do or what I want to do, I'll never get the job done.
00:29:44
Speaker 1: Ever, you'll never get the job done.
00:29:46
Speaker 4: And so I encourage, you know, these young athletes, these athletes to don't get caught up in the noise.
00:29:54
Speaker 1: Right, you set your goal, you.
00:29:58
Speaker 4: Apply whatever approach you want to apply to it, and you set out to achieve it.
00:30:04
Speaker 1: Right, and you got to do that.
00:30:06
Speaker 4: But then the small circle of individuals who see you for you and nothing more.
00:30:12
Speaker 3: Man, come on, man, that's back to harmony story.
00:30:16
Speaker 5: Right.
00:30:16
Speaker 2: Everybody thoughts calling her crazy for cool where you can go to any power five school and you going to Harvard, Like, why that's not me?
00:30:24
Speaker 3: For academics great, but for basketball harmony, I don't know, blah blah blah. And you know that was tough for at first.
00:30:31
Speaker 2: That was tougher to deal with that first, and she kept coming back to me and men, Crystal was like, did I make the right choice? I'm like, of course you did, but it's not up to us. It's up to you, Like you have to decide, did you make the right choice? Harvard still a Division one program, Harvard still plays Power five schools. You have a network that nobody else is going to be able to get when you're done with all of this. So ask yourself those kind of questions. When you get those answers, then you come back and tell us how you felt. You know what you would you come back with and when she came back, if she did her homework and research, She's like, oh yeah, and then and then she then that dog came out. He said, oh, so I can take Harvard to the NCAA tournament. I said, yes, whose story is gonna be better? No disrespect for any other players, but whose story is gonna better if Harmony Turner takes Harvard to March Madness.
00:31:19
Speaker 3: And she's like, man, I don't even think of it like that.
00:31:21
Speaker 2: I'm like, come on, man, embrace that grind and brace that that harder role that nobody else is going is going down.
00:31:27
Speaker 3: So I love it exactly.
00:31:29
Speaker 4: And look at Harvard, right, look at Harvard, and it's because of the foundation that Harmony laid and it was just a beautiful journey to just watch. And that reminds me of when I was deciding to go to Duke. Everyone told me, don't go to Dickie Stand in Louisiana. Right, you got Louisiana Tech, who at the time was top five. And then I also wanted to go to Tennessee because of Pats something that everything in me told me. I wanted to be a volunteer, but I had this one coach I was playing my parents, let me go to Mississippi and play with this a you team. And he said, Elena, why do you want to go to Tennessee and following someone else's footeps when you can go to Duke or somewhere.
00:32:07
Speaker 1: Else and create your own.
00:32:09
Speaker 3: Come on?
00:32:10
Speaker 4: That stays with me, right, And it's it's very similar to what you all kind of communicated and encourage Harmony to do. And it's something beautiful when you see that process lead to the outcome that you desire.
00:32:25
Speaker 2: Man, Come on, project beating? When does it start? When does it launch? I notice you've already got players. Let's see, man, let's run down this list of players you already got locked. You got Jewel Lloyd in the building, Sophie Cunningham, Oh Necker's in the bill, Oh my goodness, Alyssa Thomas, John Quell Jones, I mean Cordoa.
00:32:42
Speaker 3: Man, you got some dogs already, like Kelsey Mitchell.
00:32:46
Speaker 2: Kelsey Mitchell. Let me tell y'all someth about Kelsey Mitchell. Top three, top three in the league, like right now? In my opinion, what you think, ab.
00:32:55
Speaker 1: I'm taking her one on one against anybody.
00:32:58
Speaker 4: I mean, she's she's another one She's a quiet leader, yes, and that's that is that is what intrigues me about her. She comes in every day and she just gets the work done. She's a professional when she shows up. And when I when I think about the culture that we want to build within the Project V she's she's that, right. You want you want players who understands, uh, the power of ownership. They understand sort of their responsibility and being an owner and building this model because it it depends on the work that you put in that will drive the success of what what this can actually become. And Kelsey Mitchell to that point, not just from a talent standpoint, but to how she just thinks about life beyond the game is the perfect profile. And so you you just went down that list of players that we have and we have more, but those were the players initially that understood the model from the beginning and they saw the value in what we were building. But more importantly, like you got to you understand the process of a startup, right and you understand that this is constant day by day by day and we got to prove this out. And this is the start of us really proving out what we've built to date. And so rock t to your point, we're launching in Q four of twenty twenty six with both women's and men's on the same platform because we we honestly believe when you when you have a platform where both men and women are seen as equals, that's when you start to elevate the product that exists.
00:34:24
Speaker 1: The perfect example of that is tennis. And then you also have the Olympics.
00:34:29
Speaker 4: I can recall our past Olympics when you know it was the USA against the French team. You know it came down to seconds, and you know Gabby Williams hit this shot after you know the buzzer went off. I think it was a two when it should have been a three. And then you see the guys kind of on the sideline just like cheering them on. Like it just brings so much excitement to the game of basketball when when people see it as just a game and not gender.
00:34:58
Speaker 1: Related.
00:35:00
Speaker 5: That was an awesome game too, It was it really was.
00:35:05
Speaker 1: Were you in the building board or watching it streaming? Yeah, you sign me on TV if I wasn't building. I love the game.
00:35:15
Speaker 3: So what the project be? Will it be streamed? Will it be televised?
00:35:19
Speaker 2: How can people when this thing does launch a Q four, How can people watch.
00:35:22
Speaker 3: It and keep up with it?
00:35:23
Speaker 4: No, as I mean, I mean, I got to take you back to kind of the core of who really, you know, came up with this vision, and it's Jeffred Prentice.
00:35:30
Speaker 1: Jeffrey Prentice is the co founder of Skype.
00:35:33
Speaker 4: You have Grady Burnett, who was the CEO of global sales for Meta for like a thirteen year period. I think he came in with revenue at a hundred million to get to ten billion within a thirteen year period. So you have Jeffrey Prentice who understands sort of the disruption aspect of it. They disrupted that telecommunication space, so they have the playbook and till this date, I probably shouldn't say this out loud, but everything that jeff has told me it's going to happen has happened, right. And so if that doesn't give you, like any confidence in what you're building, one, I don't know what is what would? And then you have Grady Burnett, who's a master at building and scaling teams on a global level. And so I get to sit in this room with a Grady with the jet. And then you have Aaron who's our other co founder who led MGM Asia for eight years, and then it's me. And so we're sitting in this room and you're learning, you're brainstorming, you're growing, and you're being intentional about what you're really building. And I don't think that there is anything better than this. So to your point about how can people watch this, it is our goal to engage a billion users on one plat and so there's a variety of ways that we will do that through Lenny or but mostly through streaming, okay, because we want to get eyeballs on this. We want to get eyeballs on it. And what we do know is that the way that gen Z is consuming right now, it is all be a streaming, it's all via social media, and that is something we want to want to really play into. And so having those individuals who are experts in the tech space and have been really successful in the tech space to really build out this platform gives me a ton of confidence in what we're doing.
00:37:17
Speaker 3: Man, I want to I want to. I want to talk to you about that, you know, off off.
00:37:21
Speaker 2: After the interview, because we would love to assist in that area, you know, just being blessed in this media space for twenty five years and being able to learn from so many amazing people in this in the in the tech space and the media, we've been able to build our own network and we're still kind of debuilding on it right now.
00:37:39
Speaker 3: So we're we're in a position to I don't like talking about it. I'm the same way.
00:37:42
Speaker 2: I don't like talking about stuff until it's done. And once it's done, sabotagey because it's already done. They'll figure it out and they'll see when it happens. But now I would love to have a conversation with you about that and see how we can maybe assist in that in that area as you build your own streaming platform, because it's one thing to partner with the big dogs that are out there, you know, but why not.
00:38:02
Speaker 3: Build your own.
00:38:03
Speaker 2: And now you take it back to the Magic Johnson, back to this is our home platform. And because we have the means to get the eyeballs, that part is easy, you know.
00:38:14
Speaker 1: So absolutely, yes, let's make it happen.
00:38:17
Speaker 4: Let's definitely discuss I mean, basketball is culture and you guys are a picture ivor of that, right and so it's about that connectivity around the globe. How do we how do we take what we're building and immerse ourselves into a community for two weeks at a time, and not just for a one off type event. We want to build sustainability in every city that we play in. And I wish I could give you more details right now, but what what is shaping up to be is going to be something really special. And I do do hope that I get to see you guys in person at one of these events, because it's going to be a show. It's going to be a pretty cool experience.
00:38:52
Speaker 3: Yeah, right there. I love it.
00:38:55
Speaker 5: I love everything about it, and I feel like y'all are giving these people a chance to build generational wealth.
00:39:03
Speaker 1: That's absolutely and that.
00:39:05
Speaker 5: Is mind blowing to me because again, we didn't learn about that till later on, and you're life giving these athletes the opportunity to do just that, and I think that's awesome, right.
00:39:16
Speaker 4: No, And I mean, obviously we're starting with the women because what we're building and project is is really no different from an engagement standpoint than what exists and happens on an international scale. Right I've played in twenty seven countries because of the game, and out of those twenty seven countries. I would say seven or eight of those I immersed myself in at for to six months at a time, because that's the profile of a WNBA athlete. You played six months domestically and then you in the off season, you supplement your income by playing internationally. But the fact that we're now capable of positioning ourselves in the market with unmatched compensation packages which involves equity, which involves cash that I believe players wouldn't necessarily see over the course of their careers, it is something really special to be a part of. I get to wake up every single day, sit behind my computer, have conversations with amazing people all over the world, and assess and assign value to the players we want to engage. And there's there's nothing more special other than being a mom being able to be at the forefront of shifting this landscape that exists today to match the value that's being created by these athletes.
00:40:35
Speaker 2: I love it all right, man, So honey, do if you don't have any more questions.
00:40:41
Speaker 3: You don't, okay? I love it, my little listen, this is your time. You know, how can people find out more about it?
00:40:50
Speaker 2: You know? What do you want people to know about, to look what, to look forward to, anything else you want to promote. This is your time to say, Hey, this is what I want people to know about me. What's going on with projects, be so on and so forth. Go, you got you got to stay.
00:41:03
Speaker 1: I think Rotie, you said it.
00:41:04
Speaker 4: You said it best like I I'm I'm the one that I like to do the work right. I want our work to show what it what it will be. But what I can tell you is that we're building something that is really unique and something that has never been done before, something that centers the athlete at the core of it, not just from sort of a basketball standpoint, but from an equity standpoint, a compensation standpoint, and ecosystem development standpoint. And there's no better time to be a part of tapping into this two trillion plus ecosystem that exists within sports today and figuring out ways to be innovative within this sport. So a lot of fun more to come. But what I always like to leave people with is just staying steady in the process. I spoke to it, you know, during this call. But people are going to say that you can't do this. People are going to say that you can't that. But as long as you know what your end goal is and that you're intentional about how you approach it and that you're building for others, staying studying that process is going to always get you to that next step and the outcome that you want.
00:42:14
Speaker 3: Listen, jump jump in the network here, come on now, yes, yes, go. I appreciate it. Man, and gentlemen.
00:42:23
Speaker 2: Hey, thanks a loud for once again joining another episode of The Perfect Pair podcast. And you know, keep telling the friend to tell a friend. It was an honor for us to be able to.
00:42:32
Speaker 3: Have you on the land. To be a beard a kaad z for cheesy. Keep doing what you're doing.
00:42:37
Speaker 2: Listen, anything that you need from us, just say the word like especially as we get close to that launch.
00:42:43
Speaker 3: Let's make this thing happen. Man, thank you so much.
00:42:47
Speaker 1: Man, I appreciate you. Thank you. I appreciate you both. Thank you for having me on
Speaker 1: Yay media group.
00:00:08
Speaker 2: What's up fellas, ladies, billy goats, cats, squirrels, rabbits. Wherever you are and your part of the world, Welcome to the perfect pair of podcast.
00:00:18
Speaker 3: Rock Teazy is who I be.
00:00:20
Speaker 2: And she showed is Man. We thank you guys for all the five star reviews. Man, go tell a friend to tell a friend.
00:00:27
Speaker 3: Man. We got some an amazing guest on today.
00:00:31
Speaker 2: I've been I've been stalking her for a while, but I never really went up to her because uh, and she just called me out like before we started the podcast.
00:00:40
Speaker 3: But uh, we're gonna get into all that. Let me let me just give you your flowers right now.
00:00:45
Speaker 2: Former Duke University basketball star, two time ACC Player of the Year, w NBA Champion w n B, A Defensive Player of the Year w n B, A stel leader like when when you when you look up the word okay in the dictionary on the basketball court Atlanta Beard akaa be z FORSHEEZI pictures gonna be like, haha, here I am.
00:01:13
Speaker 3: I know a b how you know the podcast?
00:01:16
Speaker 1: That's me?
00:01:17
Speaker 4: Thank you for having me Rock Tan Kristo, I I know no other way I may be adult on the corporate off the court, I'm pretty chilled.
00:01:23
Speaker 3: So I'm gonna leave it at that.
00:01:26
Speaker 1: I'm finding the way.
00:01:28
Speaker 2: Listen, man, we appreciate you for joining from joining the podcast. It's so much that we want to get into. Let's start with you know. You know, I gave you that introduction for a reason because a lot of these young players may not understand who who you are as far as what you did and the type of player and the impact you made not only in the women's game of basketball, but just in sports in general.
00:01:50
Speaker 3: So talk to me.
00:01:51
Speaker 2: Have you always had that drive since you was like five and six or did it kind of come along as you got older as a teenager.
00:01:59
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's thank you for that rock tea. It's something that I've always had. I grew up in Shreveport, Louisiana, in the country right. My parents live on acres of land, horses and cows in the next field. But I grew up just playing the sport of basketball with my brother and his friends. Was always the only girl, and the moment I started kicking their asses, I knew that I had something really special, and so I didn't let them forget that, and so I just started to develop this love for the game. But then at some point I realized that I could make a career out of this. But more importantly, I could be the.
00:02:32
Speaker 1: First person in my family to go to college.
00:02:34
Speaker 4: And once I understood that, it just became It became constant, It became an obsession, and I always took it as taking this burden off of my parents because I knew what I wanted to do. But I also knew what my parents were capable of doing or what they weren't capable of doing, and I was always in the mindset of taking that burden off of them, and so basketball became that vehickel for me to achieve everything that I've done to date. I didn't know what it would have been back then at the time, but I knew what I was striving for, and so for me, every time I walked.
00:03:08
Speaker 1: Into that gym, it was focused.
00:03:10
Speaker 4: But I was also really fortunate to have a phenomenal high school coach who taught me the fundamentals of the game, who taught me about the respect of the game, who taught me how to show up consistently.
00:03:22
Speaker 1: But more importantly, he.
00:03:24
Speaker 4: Taught me how to be an all around player, which allowed me to prolong my career for for as long as I did because of that.
00:03:32
Speaker 3: So I know you got a question before you before you start basing.
00:03:35
Speaker 2: I don't know if you recognize that she was talking and she got to the point she taught me how to show up that that that that dog facial expression almost came out.
00:03:45
Speaker 3: So you can. You can try to be soft all you want, right down.
00:03:49
Speaker 2: Yeah, but that dog almost came out right there.
00:03:53
Speaker 4: It is one still in me, and I mean, obviously we can get to that like later, but like when you transition to the business side, there's a certain approach that you have to take. But that competitiveness, it will never ever leave me because I think that that's a that's a superpower and it's something that that I carry with me.
00:04:12
Speaker 1: But it's also when i'm stile and my son as well.
00:04:15
Speaker 4: There's a right way to n that's the right way to lose, but never stop being competitive.
00:04:20
Speaker 5: Yes, yes see, I've always wondered how was your transition from high school to college and then that transition to college to pros, Like, how was that was on your mental not physically. I'm I think the mental part of everything because you're being the first and what I hear from you is that you already knew what your why was. So that's what made you go hard. That was what made you say, there's there's no plan B.
00:04:50
Speaker 1: This is it. That's what I so that why? No, it's in your absolutely right that why? Then? Is that why?
00:04:57
Speaker 4: Now? My family is everything for me? But you know, just to touch on that transition from high school to college, and it was Duke University. And I mentioned earlier that I'm from Streetport, Louisiana, and so that environment shift was so so so different and so tough. Right, I leave from Shreveport, Louisiana, which is I was a homebody there. I go to Duke University, which was sixteen hours away. Mommy and Daddy's girl get on campus as entering Duke as the largest African American group of freshmen ever admitted to Duke, right, And so it was that transition of trying to find my space, trying to find my people academically, making sure that I am sort of achieving at the standard that is expected at an institution like Duke University. Come from Streeport, Louisiana. At the time, we were ranking forty eighth in sort of education today, we're still ranked forty eighth, but it was I'm I'm making changes there. I'm pushing to make changes there as well. But you know, so coming from a city or a state where you're wearing forty eighth and achieving at a high level in that in that system, going to do and thinking that you're still that you're ready to achieve at that same level, and realize that you're just a few steps behind us compared to your peers. I think that that was one of the biggest adjustments for me because I was always accustomed to doing things the right way, and Duke made me feel like at times that I just wasn't wasn't ready for Duke. But on the court, speaking of that dog, that was my safe space, right No one could tell me anything, you know what, can question anything, No one could doubt me because I always showed up a certain way because I was confident in what I was presenting us.
00:06:46
Speaker 2: Come on, man, my god, Okay, So I'm gonna take you back to twenty ten. Intent Like we all have adversity hit ourselves, hit our in our lives at times, and you know, you got I tell people all the time, you got three types of people you got the first type.
00:07:05
Speaker 3: When you hit a brick wall here adversity, it's like.
00:07:07
Speaker 2: Man, I guess the same for me, Quintin, I'm going back the other way where I came from. Then you got the other, the other person that's complete opposite. I'm going through this wall. Nothing you can do about it. Then you got the third person that's kind of.
00:07:18
Speaker 3: In the middle.
00:07:19
Speaker 2: You know, it takes them to get a little bit. Somebody has to motivate them to you know how. I almost direct them. Maybe you shouldn't quit, No, maybe you should, Maybe this is it or whatever. So twenty ten is when your injury happened, right city. What was going through your mind? Did you ever think about quitting? Did you ever think about, Man, I'm never going to be the player that I was before this injury.
00:07:40
Speaker 4: I'm glad that you touch on this because I think a lot of you know, you know, podcasts and media and content only show the success. Are are they end result of it all? And as an athlete its something in rotill you know it?
00:07:55
Speaker 1: Crystal?
00:07:56
Speaker 3: Did you play sports but not in college grad?
00:07:58
Speaker 1: I didn't make it.
00:07:59
Speaker 3: You're a hooper.
00:08:00
Speaker 1: That was a track run. I stayed all right, but intendet. I love it. And so that's what people don't understand, right.
00:08:10
Speaker 4: They see that finished product of whatever shows up on the cord are when you to your point, Crystal, You're at that starting line, right, and they see that end, but they don't see sort of adversity and the challenges that exists throughout that. And I love that you guys are highlighting this. So in twenty ten, I consider that my year of just reinvention.
00:08:30
Speaker 1: It was.
00:08:31
Speaker 4: It was a potential career ending injury and I've spoken about it publicly often, but had a ten percent chance of returning to an elite level. I recall the day that I actually ripped my tendon in my ankle. I ripped my posteria to be attended. I was working out. It was an off season, but I was working out, going hard as usual, and I felt that tendon pop, and in my mind, I set up I got to have surgery in it. Anyway, I might as well just finish this workout. So I ended up finishing the workout knowing that when I walked off that that court, I was probably going to be out for like eight to eight to ten months. And I just knew that in my mind. But I was like, I might as well finish.
00:09:10
Speaker 1: So that was that.
00:09:13
Speaker 4: Maybe gives you a sense of how obsessed I was. I lived just being great at like anything that I touched. The t and ten was that year of reinvention. I was wrapped up into the game, My identity was wrapped up into the game. But in the back of my mind I always knew that I wanted to prepare for life afterwards. Twenty ten just fast forwarded all of that, right, my career flash before my eyes. You asked Raptee that I doubt it? Did I question it? Did I Did I ever think that I wouldn't return. The answer is yes, because I would. It would be a lie to say that I didn't question it, because you do hear things, you see things. You know what your body once was and what it's not going to be again, and so you question whether or not you can get back to that level. And so I took that as an opportunity, Yes, to rehab prove people wrong. But the third thing was to just really focus on what life would be. And so my first venture into sort of the business world was working with the CEO in an internship or fellowship at Jamba Juice and it's simply because I had this grand vision of building out this portfolio of franchises. We talk about Magic Johnson all the time as athletes. He was our north star, right because we hadn't really seen anything like that, and so everything that Magic did I wanted to emulate. And that was the start of that, and so became hyper focused in that moment that you're of reinvention. And that led to me just doing everything that I'm doing now because I always said yes.
00:10:40
Speaker 1: If something scared me, I said yes.
00:10:43
Speaker 4: If I didn't know something, I said yes, right because that was the only way that I knew that.
00:10:47
Speaker 1: I would stretch and grow.
00:10:49
Speaker 4: But I also did it with the intent of doing it for others. For some reason, That's all I've always thought about it. If I'm walking into this room, I'm pulling someone else in this room with me. If I'm sitting behind this table and learning kind of whatever it may be, right strategic planning, business development, or what have you, I'm learning it for the benefit of others. Because I know the privilege that I have and having access to these rooms because of the work that I've put in. How do I now aggregate all of that with the goal of sharing it with others.
00:11:20
Speaker 1: It's what I've always thought.
00:11:21
Speaker 5: About that is simply awesome. Do you hear me like, I just want to just clap my hands. Well, I'm going ahead and clap.
00:11:28
Speaker 2: My hands.
00:11:31
Speaker 5: Because I think you're just hearing you go through that adversity right there, and how you change, like your mindset, it's pretty much what he's always been. I think he was just born with it with no excuses, get it done mindset.
00:11:44
Speaker 1: See I wasn't here.
00:11:47
Speaker 5: I'm not even gonna lie I don't feel like working now, I talk my way out of Something's gonna tell me why I shouldn't work at them, be mad because I can't fit in my clothes.
00:11:56
Speaker 1: And when I all have those.
00:11:59
Speaker 5: When I get that now, I'm like, Okay, I'm focused, no excuses, I'm gonna get it done. But it usually takes something happening for me for me to be like all right, no excuses, get it done, until I met him, and then it's like, Okay, now I'm learning that mindset, and I wish I would have known it way back then, and so for you to already have it and wanting to give that to others, I just want to say thank you, because No, A lot of times nobody wants to share that part.
00:12:24
Speaker 4: Come on, no, and again I will man, you hit the nail on the head right, Like we we all get in the space where we just think that we can only be there can only be one. And so I love kind of how you've laid that out. But I also love rock Tea's approach and not having excuses. Rocky, where are you from?
00:12:44
Speaker 3: I'm from Detroit? What up dope you're from?
00:12:47
Speaker 4: And see all of that makes sense. Pelt are you from Detroit as well?
00:12:50
Speaker 1: No, ma'am, I'm from Amerald. No, Texas, Texas.
00:12:54
Speaker 3: The pan had little.
00:12:57
Speaker 1: Right, And again, every everyone's journey different.
00:13:00
Speaker 4: But I credit like kind of my mindset to to just sports and growing up in Treeport, Louisiana, and then my parents just sort of being of the mindset just get it done right right, That's what we've always known.
00:13:11
Speaker 1: Just to get it done.
00:13:12
Speaker 4: If you if you face a challenge, if if someone tells you no, or whatever that may be, they're not defining you. It's you defining kind of your journey and what you want it to be. So it's all a it's all an evolution, And so I commend you, Crystal for one seeing it, accepting it, being aware of it, and then finding a solution to to adjust it.
00:13:34
Speaker 3: I have noe.
00:13:35
Speaker 2: That's real, man, because it's when you finally get a seat at the table and and you don't bring the crew with you, you don't bring you know, someone with you at that table.
00:13:47
Speaker 3: Then you know it's you. You. You. You kind of lessen your power a little bit because you become kind.
00:13:53
Speaker 2: Of a puppet, you know, to the puppets, like you're at the table, but just still kind of like there's they're not giving you any power. And you have a clan or team with you that's aligned with the mission of everybody else that's at the table, then now that's where that's where power happens, and that's where empowerment happens.
00:14:12
Speaker 3: But kudos for you for doing that.
00:14:15
Speaker 4: Well.
00:14:15
Speaker 5: I want to say this too, My daughter had the same She ended up having to doing the same mindset when she tore her ACL her senior year. So she has all these colleges looking at her, and she's at the EUIBL biggest game. She's wow, I mean, she is balling, and then she she tears her ACL. She goes down and it's just like, oh, and so for some reason, right then and there, that's when she just started.
00:14:39
Speaker 1: She decided that I need to know what I would.
00:14:42
Speaker 5: Do after basketball because all she knew was basketball all the way up until then, and she felt like that was just her identity. So now she needs to figure out who is Harmony, Who am I? What can I do? So instead of going to any of the power five schools, she started looking into the IVY who were who was recruiting her? So that's what made her make her decision to go to Harvard because she knew right after that she could do something and make a change. And that is one of her biggest goals is to make a change and she wants to is your daughter?
00:15:17
Speaker 3: Yeah guilty?
00:15:20
Speaker 4: What?
00:15:22
Speaker 2: Oh my god?
00:15:23
Speaker 3: So this is phenomenal.
00:15:26
Speaker 4: It all makes sense now I'm getting here, like E's farising you guys. And then I had an opportunity to work with Harmony when I did the executive leadership with Anita Burst up at Harvard.
00:15:36
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is phenomenal.
00:15:39
Speaker 3: Let me tell you something.
00:15:40
Speaker 1: Oh my god, good job parents think.
00:15:44
Speaker 3: Yeah that makes me feel good.
00:15:46
Speaker 6: Yeah wow, No, this that you know, your your story is resonates, you know, to her a lot because when she when she did injure her knee.
00:15:57
Speaker 3: I remember after her crying and tears.
00:16:00
Speaker 2: Was ever and as a parent, you teach your kids and you hope that some of it is sticking.
00:16:07
Speaker 3: You hope it all of it is sticking, but you hope some of it. And then as she was.
00:16:10
Speaker 2: Recovering, you know, I asked her, I said, Harmony, everybody keep saying that you ain't gonna be as good as you used to be. She says, they're right, I'm gonna be better. And I was like at that point, I said, honey, we did a good job.
00:16:26
Speaker 1: Wow.
00:16:27
Speaker 4: No, I absolutely love it. And she carved her own paths. She did it her own way, and that's the beauty and all of it. Because we think that we have this structured set of rules that we have to follow to achieve a certain level of greatness, and that is not the case. We define our own greatness, yes, And I think that that's the power in Harmony's story. And I've really enjoyed watching her, so this is so cool to make that connection. I remember when it took a coach actually telling me when I was on my journey back. It took me like a year and a half to get to an elite level. I knew I wasn't going to come back the same, and I knew that I had to reinvent myself, not just with what life was going to be after the game, but on the court. Because I could not run as fast as I could, I could not jump with the best of them. Everything was just different and it felt different. My mental was different. And then I just hung my hat on defense because that's easy.
00:17:24
Speaker 1: Defense is easy.
00:17:25
Speaker 4: It's just it takes a ton of hard work and no one wants to do it right. And so all that all goes back to my high school coach, who was phenomenal at teaching the fundamentals right. So days we will walk into the gym and we would never pick up a ball because all he did was teach us the fundamentals of defense. And so that full circle moment came around, and that is what I started to identify towards the end of my career, which allowed me to play an additional seven or eight years. Because of that, I reinvented myself on the court and made myself invaluable just in a locker room because of how I showed up every as a leader.
00:18:01
Speaker 2: Come on, man, let's talk Project B. Because you mentioned Massy Johnson Kill O'Neill. You know, these are guys that changed being an athlete into an entrepreneur and to being an entity. And it's like, yeah, i'll endorse your project. I'll endorse your product, but I also want equity in it. So I don't want just to check that you're gonna pay me to endorse your products. I want equity and steak into the product. And when they guys like that started doing that is when I'm like, hmm, like.
00:18:31
Speaker 3: This, that's brilliant.
00:18:32
Speaker 2: Because even having conversation with people about players in the WNBA, players in the NBA, players the NFL with on the pro level, it's like, how come these agents aren't having these conversations like okay, especially with the superstar players, like Okay, yeah, we can renegotiate this contract, but I want steak in the league.
00:18:54
Speaker 3: And it's like that doesn't happen.
00:18:55
Speaker 2: It's never done that way yet, Like yet, who's to say that it can't.
00:19:00
Speaker 3: So Project B, let's talk about it.
00:19:03
Speaker 2: Explain where this vision came from and why you decided to create this model for it.
00:19:11
Speaker 4: Right before we touch on that you said something very interesting about the agents and sort of the players, and I may get in a ton of trouble for saying that, but you asked the question, why do agents want to focus on that money? I think we both know what that is and not really understanding the power and the value of equity. And it took someone like a Magic Johnson, Dwayne Wade, Lebron James, Chris Paul like all of these guys started to sort of understand their value, right, and without.
00:19:38
Speaker 1: Them, there's no us or there's no business, right.
00:19:44
Speaker 4: And so they started to understand sort of the value of the product that was on the floor, and they in turn, in return, wanted to be compensated for that. And I think that that was the beginning of this new shift into that modern athlete, where athletes are starting to understand that they are the business. I don't work for you, you work for me, and that is something that the system has long tried to avoid.
00:20:12
Speaker 1: These athletes beginning.
00:20:14
Speaker 4: To understand and so everything that's happening within this ecosystem of sports, it's such a beautiful thing to watch. And that is why Project B was such a fascinating concept to me. When I left the game. I transitioned to the venture capital space as a senior associate. So I worked within the venture capital space, worked hand in hand with fund managers, startup companies or what have you. So I understood sort of the journey of of startups. But I also understood the value of equity through through this entire process and investing, and so I was always on my list of goals, right ownership. That was always something I was interested in because I had such a I don't know, attachment and journey. I played fifteen years in a WNBA that just seemed normal for me to try to pursue. So I pulled together a group tried to pursue the expansion rights to a WNBA team, knowing that, you know, the moment that someone else put their name and I had my dreams would be crushed.
00:21:24
Speaker 1: But I also understood that.
00:21:26
Speaker 4: But I couldn't allow that to just influence or dictate my learning journey, and so that entire process sort of happened. It was my start to learning how all of this worked on the business side of sports. And then Grady Burnett, who's one of the co founders for Project Being, reached out to me while I was still in that process, but was really respectful to allow me to finish that process, but at the same time introduced me to this new concept and it just made sense at the time. Everything that I'm striving for right now is everything that I'm being kind of tote no to. Right.
00:22:04
Speaker 1: You played, you.
00:22:05
Speaker 4: Were a part of, you know, the fabric of this building this, but no, you cannot have a part in this, right, And so now you have Project B come into the pitcher and Grady pitches this idea of just players being at the center of the value that they're creating within this ecosystem within sports and being compensated accordingly via the equity side, but also the cash component side on top of everything else we're layering on top of it. Both make complete sense. And so Project B, which is publicly left known, we're a global basketball league, right and it is our intent to play in multiple premier cities around the world, activating each city two weeks at a time, building out a celebration around the game of basketball, the ultimate connector of sports. Obviously, soccer is the number one sport in the world. Basketball is a number two sport. Is our goal to become the number one sport in the world, and I know that that's going to be a challenge, but that is what we're very much after. And so our league will be composed of six men's teams and six women's teams, eleven players per team, competing at the highest level on a global stage.
00:23:16
Speaker 3: And there's.
00:23:19
Speaker 4: There's so much value in kind of what we're building. And I know we're at the very beginning of it and we're slowly rolling things out. But if I could bring you guys behind the scenes and give you a snapshot of what we do on a daily basis, you would you would really understand it.
00:23:38
Speaker 1: And I'll leave it at that.
00:23:40
Speaker 4: You would understand what we're trying to build because it's something ambitious and it is something amazing, and it's sometimes hard for people to wrap their heads around the fact that we're coming in and saying that we're going against the grain and building something that we believe is truly beneficial to creating generational wealth consistently for the athletes we engage with.
00:23:59
Speaker 3: Oh my god, that is man blazing on trail.
00:24:01
Speaker 5: Right.
00:24:03
Speaker 3: Kudos to you. They listen this when.
00:24:05
Speaker 2: I first heard about it, because I'm you know, we're we're those We're those parents like, we're we love sports, we love athletics.
00:24:12
Speaker 3: You know, we didn't force our kids to play. We just introduced sports to them and we're glad that they loved it.
00:24:18
Speaker 2: But we just like, listen, if we get to the point where you don't want to be a part of this, just let us know.
00:24:21
Speaker 3: You're saving us money, you know.
00:24:23
Speaker 2: But if you say yes, you ain't gonna you ain't gonna mediocre nothing. If you're gonna put time in, go be the best version of yourself.
00:24:33
Speaker 3: And then this is how far that takes you.
00:24:35
Speaker 2: So kudos to you for being able to provide, you know, knocking on doors and net telling you no. I usually think my name was Noah because I got told no so many times.
00:24:46
Speaker 4: You know, Well, that is that is the hardest thing, right that, that fear of rejection and being vulnerable in these moments. One thing that I don't have a problem with is saying I don't know, right, because all I want to do is learn, and so that was never an issue for me, I think the biggest issue and you just you just touched on it as an athlete and for many people asking for help, right, Oh yeah, that that was tough. But then when you ask for help and then someone tells you no, you're like setting yourself up for failure. And so it takes a complete mindset set shift when you're transitioning out of the game of basketball. Because nose became gold to me because what it did was informed me in terms of how to move next. And so I never ever helped grudges or get down about a no. I just keep moving. I was like, oh, this is no, I'm going this way. Oh that's a no, it's this way. And so once you get into that mindset of understanding what knows really mean, you're good.
00:25:48
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's called it's called overthinking. AB. You know, me and her used to get into it all the time. I said, you think of this name. Man, it's just keep it simple.
00:25:56
Speaker 2: Okay, it's no, let's keep it moving, like we knocking on they don't want to open them.
00:26:01
Speaker 3: Let's go build her own door like period. Yeah.
00:26:04
Speaker 1: So absolutely, I know.
00:26:06
Speaker 2: I know you were talking about her being a woman, a black woman of course, and now getting some power, getting some attention, and right before we got on this on this interview, AB, she was like, man, I can't wait to ask this question, and you want it had to be about the empowerment people about being a black woman.
00:26:27
Speaker 3: So there you go. Because he was you were saying, should I ask her or not ask her what that is?
00:26:32
Speaker 5: But he pretty much asked, like the empowerment? How does that like?
00:26:37
Speaker 1: Do you? How do you know? How do I want to ask the question?
00:26:42
Speaker 4: Right?
00:26:42
Speaker 5: Well, okay, I feel like you answered part of it already.
00:26:45
Speaker 3: Well, this is, this is, this is. Let me say this.
00:26:47
Speaker 2: Let me say this a b as a black woman in the space that you're in, when you sit down at these tables, are people respecting you?
00:26:57
Speaker 3: Like, are they really respecting you?
00:26:58
Speaker 2: Or they're saying, hey, we want to use her as a token because of what she's been able to do in this sport.
00:27:04
Speaker 3: That makes sense.
00:27:05
Speaker 4: No, I absolutely love it, And the answer is no, right, And the answer may very well be no because I could care less about it because I know how I show it up in the value that I bring to any table. And I also know what my intent is when I do show up to these tables and how I want to present and what I want to give.
00:27:23
Speaker 2: Right.
00:27:23
Speaker 4: I can give you an example of when I first transitioned into the venture capital space and one of my first meetings I walk into this boardroom. Is about twenty or thirty people sitting around this boardroom, and I'm the only black person in that room.
00:27:37
Speaker 1: Wow, check note.
00:27:40
Speaker 4: And then I'm also looking around that room to sort of pinpoint.
00:27:43
Speaker 1: Like, man, who who's who's in this room? Who is in this room?
00:27:47
Speaker 4: That really understand kind of you know, my perspective and what I'm going to Who can I connect to? Who's going to help me navigate this thing? And so we were also discussing a one point two one point three billion dollar fund and closing that out, and so those numbers in itself are mind blowing. But I also knew not very many people that looked like me had an opportunity to step into these rooms.
00:28:07
Speaker 1: And so I had two choices.
00:28:08
Speaker 4: Either I could sit at the table and feel intimidated about this moment, or I could step up to the moment, present myself as vulnerable, which I am. But also all of that is going to lead to how do I get other people in this room?
00:28:23
Speaker 1: And to your point?
00:28:24
Speaker 4: For so I did answer that because that has always been my intent. And so whether what someone thinks of me are why someone believed why I'm in this room does not matter to me because I know what my intents are when I'm in this room. But I also know the value that I bring to any table. And I may not be the loudest in the room. I was never the loudest in the locker room. You can go and ask my teammates. But when I spoke, it meant something. And the way that I spoke was through action. The way that I spoke was through my work, and when I did say something verbally, people listened. And so it's never and I don't want to continue to harp on it, but it's never about what someone thinks of me, because you'll.
00:29:11
Speaker 1: Never define me.
00:29:14
Speaker 4: And that's it's really interesting because when we announce this thing, I have this really unique way of just shutting out the noise and having just a focus on what matters. And so social media, we live in a world of social media where that can just it can consume you. And if I were to wake up every single day and listen to what I can't do or what I want to do, I'll never get the job done.
00:29:44
Speaker 1: Ever, you'll never get the job done.
00:29:46
Speaker 4: And so I encourage, you know, these young athletes, these athletes to don't get caught up in the noise.
00:29:54
Speaker 1: Right, you set your goal, you.
00:29:58
Speaker 4: Apply whatever approach you want to apply to it, and you set out to achieve it.
00:30:04
Speaker 1: Right, and you got to do that.
00:30:06
Speaker 4: But then the small circle of individuals who see you for you and nothing more.
00:30:12
Speaker 3: Man, come on, man, that's back to harmony story.
00:30:16
Speaker 5: Right.
00:30:16
Speaker 2: Everybody thoughts calling her crazy for cool where you can go to any power five school and you going to Harvard, Like, why that's not me?
00:30:24
Speaker 3: For academics great, but for basketball harmony, I don't know, blah blah blah. And you know that was tough for at first.
00:30:31
Speaker 2: That was tougher to deal with that first, and she kept coming back to me and men, Crystal was like, did I make the right choice? I'm like, of course you did, but it's not up to us. It's up to you, Like you have to decide, did you make the right choice? Harvard still a Division one program, Harvard still plays Power five schools. You have a network that nobody else is going to be able to get when you're done with all of this. So ask yourself those kind of questions. When you get those answers, then you come back and tell us how you felt. You know what you would you come back with and when she came back, if she did her homework and research, She's like, oh yeah, and then and then she then that dog came out. He said, oh, so I can take Harvard to the NCAA tournament. I said, yes, whose story is gonna be better? No disrespect for any other players, but whose story is gonna better if Harmony Turner takes Harvard to March Madness.
00:31:19
Speaker 3: And she's like, man, I don't even think of it like that.
00:31:21
Speaker 2: I'm like, come on, man, embrace that grind and brace that that harder role that nobody else is going is going down.
00:31:27
Speaker 3: So I love it exactly.
00:31:29
Speaker 4: And look at Harvard, right, look at Harvard, and it's because of the foundation that Harmony laid and it was just a beautiful journey to just watch. And that reminds me of when I was deciding to go to Duke. Everyone told me, don't go to Dickie Stand in Louisiana. Right, you got Louisiana Tech, who at the time was top five. And then I also wanted to go to Tennessee because of Pats something that everything in me told me. I wanted to be a volunteer, but I had this one coach I was playing my parents, let me go to Mississippi and play with this a you team. And he said, Elena, why do you want to go to Tennessee and following someone else's footeps when you can go to Duke or somewhere.
00:32:07
Speaker 1: Else and create your own.
00:32:09
Speaker 3: Come on?
00:32:10
Speaker 4: That stays with me, right, And it's it's very similar to what you all kind of communicated and encourage Harmony to do. And it's something beautiful when you see that process lead to the outcome that you desire.
00:32:25
Speaker 2: Man, Come on, project beating? When does it start? When does it launch? I notice you've already got players. Let's see, man, let's run down this list of players you already got locked. You got Jewel Lloyd in the building, Sophie Cunningham, Oh Necker's in the bill, Oh my goodness, Alyssa Thomas, John Quell Jones, I mean Cordoa.
00:32:42
Speaker 3: Man, you got some dogs already, like Kelsey Mitchell.
00:32:46
Speaker 2: Kelsey Mitchell. Let me tell y'all someth about Kelsey Mitchell. Top three, top three in the league, like right now? In my opinion, what you think, ab.
00:32:55
Speaker 1: I'm taking her one on one against anybody.
00:32:58
Speaker 4: I mean, she's she's another one She's a quiet leader, yes, and that's that is that is what intrigues me about her. She comes in every day and she just gets the work done. She's a professional when she shows up. And when I when I think about the culture that we want to build within the Project V she's she's that, right. You want you want players who understands, uh, the power of ownership. They understand sort of their responsibility and being an owner and building this model because it it depends on the work that you put in that will drive the success of what what this can actually become. And Kelsey Mitchell to that point, not just from a talent standpoint, but to how she just thinks about life beyond the game is the perfect profile. And so you you just went down that list of players that we have and we have more, but those were the players initially that understood the model from the beginning and they saw the value in what we were building. But more importantly, like you got to you understand the process of a startup, right and you understand that this is constant day by day by day and we got to prove this out. And this is the start of us really proving out what we've built to date. And so rock t to your point, we're launching in Q four of twenty twenty six with both women's and men's on the same platform because we we honestly believe when you when you have a platform where both men and women are seen as equals, that's when you start to elevate the product that exists.
00:34:24
Speaker 1: The perfect example of that is tennis. And then you also have the Olympics.
00:34:29
Speaker 4: I can recall our past Olympics when you know it was the USA against the French team. You know it came down to seconds, and you know Gabby Williams hit this shot after you know the buzzer went off. I think it was a two when it should have been a three. And then you see the guys kind of on the sideline just like cheering them on. Like it just brings so much excitement to the game of basketball when when people see it as just a game and not gender.
00:34:58
Speaker 1: Related.
00:35:00
Speaker 5: That was an awesome game too, It was it really was.
00:35:05
Speaker 1: Were you in the building board or watching it streaming? Yeah, you sign me on TV if I wasn't building. I love the game.
00:35:15
Speaker 3: So what the project be? Will it be streamed? Will it be televised?
00:35:19
Speaker 2: How can people when this thing does launch a Q four, How can people watch.
00:35:22
Speaker 3: It and keep up with it?
00:35:23
Speaker 4: No, as I mean, I mean, I got to take you back to kind of the core of who really, you know, came up with this vision, and it's Jeffred Prentice.
00:35:30
Speaker 1: Jeffrey Prentice is the co founder of Skype.
00:35:33
Speaker 4: You have Grady Burnett, who was the CEO of global sales for Meta for like a thirteen year period. I think he came in with revenue at a hundred million to get to ten billion within a thirteen year period. So you have Jeffrey Prentice who understands sort of the disruption aspect of it. They disrupted that telecommunication space, so they have the playbook and till this date, I probably shouldn't say this out loud, but everything that jeff has told me it's going to happen has happened, right. And so if that doesn't give you, like any confidence in what you're building, one, I don't know what is what would? And then you have Grady Burnett, who's a master at building and scaling teams on a global level. And so I get to sit in this room with a Grady with the jet. And then you have Aaron who's our other co founder who led MGM Asia for eight years, and then it's me. And so we're sitting in this room and you're learning, you're brainstorming, you're growing, and you're being intentional about what you're really building. And I don't think that there is anything better than this. So to your point about how can people watch this, it is our goal to engage a billion users on one plat and so there's a variety of ways that we will do that through Lenny or but mostly through streaming, okay, because we want to get eyeballs on this. We want to get eyeballs on it. And what we do know is that the way that gen Z is consuming right now, it is all be a streaming, it's all via social media, and that is something we want to want to really play into. And so having those individuals who are experts in the tech space and have been really successful in the tech space to really build out this platform gives me a ton of confidence in what we're doing.
00:37:17
Speaker 3: Man, I want to I want to. I want to talk to you about that, you know, off off.
00:37:21
Speaker 2: After the interview, because we would love to assist in that area, you know, just being blessed in this media space for twenty five years and being able to learn from so many amazing people in this in the in the tech space and the media, we've been able to build our own network and we're still kind of debuilding on it right now.
00:37:39
Speaker 3: So we're we're in a position to I don't like talking about it. I'm the same way.
00:37:42
Speaker 2: I don't like talking about stuff until it's done. And once it's done, sabotagey because it's already done. They'll figure it out and they'll see when it happens. But now I would love to have a conversation with you about that and see how we can maybe assist in that in that area as you build your own streaming platform, because it's one thing to partner with the big dogs that are out there, you know, but why not.
00:38:02
Speaker 3: Build your own.
00:38:03
Speaker 2: And now you take it back to the Magic Johnson, back to this is our home platform. And because we have the means to get the eyeballs, that part is easy, you know.
00:38:14
Speaker 1: So absolutely, yes, let's make it happen.
00:38:17
Speaker 4: Let's definitely discuss I mean, basketball is culture and you guys are a picture ivor of that, right and so it's about that connectivity around the globe. How do we how do we take what we're building and immerse ourselves into a community for two weeks at a time, and not just for a one off type event. We want to build sustainability in every city that we play in. And I wish I could give you more details right now, but what what is shaping up to be is going to be something really special. And I do do hope that I get to see you guys in person at one of these events, because it's going to be a show. It's going to be a pretty cool experience.
00:38:52
Speaker 3: Yeah, right there. I love it.
00:38:55
Speaker 5: I love everything about it, and I feel like y'all are giving these people a chance to build generational wealth.
00:39:03
Speaker 1: That's absolutely and that.
00:39:05
Speaker 5: Is mind blowing to me because again, we didn't learn about that till later on, and you're life giving these athletes the opportunity to do just that, and I think that's awesome, right.
00:39:16
Speaker 4: No, And I mean, obviously we're starting with the women because what we're building and project is is really no different from an engagement standpoint than what exists and happens on an international scale. Right I've played in twenty seven countries because of the game, and out of those twenty seven countries. I would say seven or eight of those I immersed myself in at for to six months at a time, because that's the profile of a WNBA athlete. You played six months domestically and then you in the off season, you supplement your income by playing internationally. But the fact that we're now capable of positioning ourselves in the market with unmatched compensation packages which involves equity, which involves cash that I believe players wouldn't necessarily see over the course of their careers, it is something really special to be a part of. I get to wake up every single day, sit behind my computer, have conversations with amazing people all over the world, and assess and assign value to the players we want to engage. And there's there's nothing more special other than being a mom being able to be at the forefront of shifting this landscape that exists today to match the value that's being created by these athletes.
00:40:35
Speaker 2: I love it all right, man, So honey, do if you don't have any more questions.
00:40:41
Speaker 3: You don't, okay? I love it, my little listen, this is your time. You know, how can people find out more about it?
00:40:50
Speaker 2: You know? What do you want people to know about, to look what, to look forward to, anything else you want to promote. This is your time to say, Hey, this is what I want people to know about me. What's going on with projects, be so on and so forth. Go, you got you got to stay.
00:41:03
Speaker 1: I think Rotie, you said it.
00:41:04
Speaker 4: You said it best like I I'm I'm the one that I like to do the work right. I want our work to show what it what it will be. But what I can tell you is that we're building something that is really unique and something that has never been done before, something that centers the athlete at the core of it, not just from sort of a basketball standpoint, but from an equity standpoint, a compensation standpoint, and ecosystem development standpoint. And there's no better time to be a part of tapping into this two trillion plus ecosystem that exists within sports today and figuring out ways to be innovative within this sport. So a lot of fun more to come. But what I always like to leave people with is just staying steady in the process. I spoke to it, you know, during this call. But people are going to say that you can't do this. People are going to say that you can't that. But as long as you know what your end goal is and that you're intentional about how you approach it and that you're building for others, staying studying that process is going to always get you to that next step and the outcome that you want.
00:42:14
Speaker 3: Listen, jump jump in the network here, come on now, yes, yes, go. I appreciate it. Man, and gentlemen.
00:42:23
Speaker 2: Hey, thanks a loud for once again joining another episode of The Perfect Pair podcast. And you know, keep telling the friend to tell a friend. It was an honor for us to be able to.
00:42:32
Speaker 3: Have you on the land. To be a beard a kaad z for cheesy. Keep doing what you're doing.
00:42:37
Speaker 2: Listen, anything that you need from us, just say the word like especially as we get close to that launch.
00:42:43
Speaker 3: Let's make this thing happen. Man, thank you so much.
00:42:47
Speaker 1: Man, I appreciate you. Thank you. I appreciate you both. Thank you for having me on
