NBA Legends Talk Succeeding in Business (Ft. John Salley, Shaq, and Matt Barnes) | Midweek Mashup

what is going on my friends welcome to another episode of the Travis makes Friends Podcast today is a midweek mashup episode featuring three athletes that have come on the show recently Shaquille O'Neal John Sally and Matt Barnes all of whom have sported a Laker jersey in their career coincidentally enough um and in this episode we're actually not talking that much about sports we're talking about post uh career moves what are they doing in business how are they continuing to make money how do they think about their career after they're done being the athlete after after they're switching their identity from athlete to retired what do you do during that time you know athletes have this kind of weird perspective in that world because a lot of them are retiring in their 30s which is when most people are starting their career so I talk a lot uh with with Shaq about this talk with John Sally about this Matt Barnes about this all of whom have had very successful post-career careers arguably much more successful than their career careers I mean it's difficult to beat Shaq's actual career but uh somehow he's doing it in his post career so we talk about so many different uh ways that they're continuing to monetize to make money uh how they think about relationships how they think about doing business what businesses they decide to get into all of that jazz you're not going to want going to want to miss a single second of this episode without further Ado here is Shaquille O'Neal John Salley and Matt Barnes talking about how to make a career after their career my third year in the league uh was 1989 and I go to my first All-Star Game I've never been to uh NBA All-Star their mistake but I went because of the parties yeah and it was off the chain it was in Houston I loved Houston when I first visited as a rookie yeah this is going to be the greatest All-Star Game 1989 who's some of the All-Stars Dominique Wilkins yeah Ron Harper uh Michael Jordan Kim Olajuwon Isaiah Thomas I mean this was legendary Adrian this was Legendary Class yeah and walk agua magic uh James Worthy Harry Cummings I mean Larry Bird Kevin McHale this was packed and at the time were these people that you were these are all people that you were kind of like they were senior to you in terms of the in terms of like the league yeah so this is like a holy [ __ ] I can't believe I'm like hanging out with uh well guys I I I I realized they had limited amount of time and I had three days of debauchery no I had three days of enjoying my NBA life yeah um and Don Sterling my man at NBA entertainment put a microphone in my hand and gave me a camera he was like you could just go with it and so you know I see all the media saying I'm not media yeah so I walk when guy goes you can't go in there with the camera man get out the way and I go in the locker room and I'm doing funny bits with Dominique Wilkins I'm doing funny bits with um with Ron Harper Spud Webb and this is the Saturday before and I am I am like loving the fact that one the the car Blanche that I gave the NBA from being an athlete but also I was doing something different than the rest of them I was interviewing them from a player's right perspective and um and and you know was doing everything that I've watched on television and learned to the point where I took the classes on how to speak uh on annunciating my words on literally getting to the question quickly uh I took that on the same way I took on basketball I wanted to know how it was and then I realized I was going to be a Trailblazer and doing this I loved O.J Simpson in front of the camera I loved um watching the football guys do it yeah but I hadn't seen any real basketball guys go in and say I can speak the king's language and yeah have a conversation so I I took to that knowing that that was going to be the next step when I left the NBA yeah already working on what's the next skill set that I have to adopt and making sure NBC knew I would what I could do yeah right because just because you play doesn't mean that you can also broadcast no I found that out by watching a lot of TV it's different skill sets right like it is that everybody I think I think a lot of people get stuck like even in their career their business whatever it is like a lot of people get stuck because they're not willing to either admit that they don't have the necessary skill and then go get it or they don't know what that skill is right you know but it's like usually it's that like if you're stuck somewhere it's usually because you don't know someone or it's because you don't know something you know what I mean you got to go figure out what that thing is or who that person is that can help you figure out what that thing is or you're going to stay there right you know you're not gonna just magically one day wake up and be like all right I'm really good at this now everything takes work everything takes work I I say this to my daughter's uh um one of my friends lost her phone uh the night she was going out and she goes I had to lose it in the house couldn't find it in the house and I watched her scratch like a heroin addict uh that she didn't have a phone she literally took her friends phones it was like feeling it and I said this is the one time you get to disconnect from The Matrix and change or program anything you want to program because without your phone you're feeling helpless yeah I said so what power does your phone have that you don't have you remember names you can't get into your garage you can't use your credit card I said that's too much power yeah and something that can be lost and she sat there and I said to whatever you want to change right now is the time to change it and when I watch The Matrix I talk to them about it when when she tells him she wants to know how to fly a helicopter that's just muscles so if you're learning how to fly you know let's switch over here the switch over here what it feels like when the wind is coming against you what to do when it's not when to take it off once you go through 5 000 hours of learning how to fly you can fly Right without using your arms to slap you that's a muscle and so if you massage the muscle in your brain to do anything right now it's hard for me to learn languages because I haven't focused on it I focused on one how to be in front of a camera I focused on how to make a show how to produce so once you get to that once you get to a point of knowing how to work the muscle it's the easiest thing in the world the skill of building skills yeah learning yeah learning and and retaining it and we're calling it when necessary do you believe that who you know or what you know is more important in life in general and why it depends on what aspect you talk about in business it's about who you know right for example I'm sitting at a table one day and it's just just gentlemen at talking and papers lawyers and one of the gentleman has a kid two kids and they recognize me I'm playing with them they leave their table come sit with me we're eating playing Kitty Games boom boom boom at the end of the night the gentleman comes up and they say brother I met a lot of superstars nobody has treated my kid like you treat my kids thank you very much to my fast blah blah blah I want to tell you about what we were talking about over there I was like okay I said and this is like a 90 something he's like we're gonna be doing something called Google I would like to give you the opportunity to invest and I didn't know what to talk about but you know it's just that search engine in the future type boom boom I said you know I don't really understand but if you call my guy true he'll understand so he called my guy and I invested in Google and I forgot about it and then 10 15 years later there was an article that came out of one of the Google's First Investors and when it comes to business it's who you know when it comes to experience and things that you're good at doing it's what you know like me I could I could tell any NBA player how to get to that level because it's what I know and a lot of times that's our TNT they get mad at me oh you hate them no I'm not hating I've done everything that you getting ready to do I've done everything on that level so I'm just giving you a blueprint on how to get to that level so you know it's it's it's a little bit of both who you know and what you know let's talk a little bit a little bit business a little bit entrepreneurship now um that's what the show's about that's what mostly you know people come here to listen about um hope we can bore you with that first part yeah exactly uh that's that's my selfish interview part yeah oh good um so I know you know we're on a phone call the other day and you just kind of mentioned that something that you're really trying to do with your kids is kind of get them into this this business this entrepreneurship world so um real quick give them a quick shout out for what they're working on and they'll ask you a couple quick questions shout out um Isaiah and Carter Barnes we got the Barnes boy podcast now you can find that on YouTube uh the Barnes boys you can find them on Tick Tock the Barnes boys podcast and then also same handle for Instagram um but I wanted to I was late and you mentioned earlier I didn't step into the business world even really start thinking business until I was about 32 because you think back in the early you know I came in the NBA early 2000s there wasn't that kind of talk now it's cool to talk about business and Investments and all that kind of [ __ ] but back then it's you know and I wasn't really one of these guys back then but this is what was talked about was you know jewelry and cars and houses and I was into the women part but the other like it wasn't it was never business conversations in the locker room and I wish it would have been so I jumped into business late you know 32 31 32 I just turned 41 so I've been in this entrepreneur entrepreneurial space you know maybe a little bit over 10 years so I'm thinking you know if I can get my kids who are 12 now just start thinking about it and obviously I'm just like my parents that I hope my kids are happy and make the NBA make a ton of money but if they don't they want I have to prepare them for life not only how to be good men and leaders but at the same time that business sense because now more than ever you know there's millions of dollars waiting at the palm of your hand you just have to know how to access it so you know being able to put them in this podcast space and you know like you said earlier too off camera there's a ton of famous tick tockers and ton of famous YouTube kids but no one is really in this podcast Basin yeah you know my kids have a unique identical twin Bond where they just play off each other oh it's funny as hell man oh yeah so well I mean the way they talk [ __ ] to each other and we'll wrestle in the middle of the podcast but then also intelligently speak on what they're talking about like they know Sports too you know what I mean so I think it's a great triple threat and I reached out to you obviously because you know we met at that event and then uh your name popped up and then I was at my birthday trip in Tulum at literally on my birthday having breakfast with my girl with my earpod in one ear and I and I had an open ear to her but I'm listening to your podcast seminar and how to build a podcast and how to do this because you know obviously it's as much success I had with all the smoke only 50 of that is mine sure you know what I mean so now with this stuff this is this is going to be my boy so I need to learn to like the back of my hand and you know so to me there's no need to reinvent the will come to listen to someone like yourself who has you know a majority of it under control and and and and teaches it so it was crazy I'm sitting in Tulum at breakfast with my girl and I know she was irritated I'm like this babe I'm over here taking notes but still keeping up with the conversation still eating like you got you got one ear yeah yeah you got this whole left ear so use this [ __ ] up because this right side and this right side of my brain is taking notes um because like I said I'm trying to build my kids podcast so like I said just getting in that business that I'm state of mind and we're also doing something because we have a really good AU team we're you know top 10 in the country so you know we've been filming them the past couple months and hopefully they're going to be able to turn that into like a little show so yeah cool just giving the kids a different opportunities you know what I mean like great if you want to play sports but you can also be a lawyer you can also be in management you can also be a Content crew there's a lot of other stuff yeah um that goes into this world outside of just playing sports so I just want to have them prepared um in that space sure yeah so what do you remember what it was you know being 30 31 32 whatever that time period was where you kind of started diving into that world what was conversation with somebody was it like you know somebody that maybe blew their you know um just kind of I've always been thinking ahead and I kind of felt like I was coming to the end um I was on a rocky relationship with the twins mom and I was just kind of thinking like man I've been in the NBA 11 years now I'm not sure how many more I'm gonna play so what do I want to do next you know I know I got some money in the bank let me start investing in stuff I like you know what I mean so I started making Investments and stuff that I thought was really cool or stuff that is kind of you know that people are going to need and that's where I kind of started making Investments at and you know anything I invest in is something that you know obviously I believe in because you know we've vetted and everything but it's stuff that I kind of feel like is always going to be needed you know so I'm investing everything from flowers to a fresh pressed juice company to a bedding company you know to Tech to cannabis to all kinds of different spaces because I mean there's just so much cool [ __ ] out here you know what I mean and like I said earlier on being able to play as long as I played and being able to have doors opened I've got to meet experts in all these Lanes so it's almost like I get the you know I get the I get the cheat sheet so you know hopefully avoid some of the pitfalls they hit but like I said at the same time just so many opportunities on my plate yeah right uh was it was it ever a part of of your goal to like start your own thing or was it just kind of like I don't want to be one of these people that makes a bunch of money flashing a pan and then afterwards is kind of back to where I started and now I got to figure out something else it wasn't necessarily my own thing and I think because out of the gates I jumped into so many things that I didn't cross my mind to really do my own things to me I invested in stuff that I know is going to work but I was across so many different planes and I was just like man I don't really have any other time because you know I'm Hands-On and all these other Investments so mine was just kind of hopping on and and and increasing value in in companies that are already going and I've been able to do that and now you know since then I've you know been able to invest you know be a first-in investor and be a part of projects where I obviously have more skin in the game but initially it was kind of just investing in things that were already up and going so what's uh what's coming up for you anything um have some great Tech plays I was just telling you before like can't quite announce them but some you know you have to disrupt um you have to disrupt whatever space you're in to really kind of make any money or any noise and we have two disruptive apps um one in the shoe video game space and then one in parenting co-parenting and two spaces I'm very familiar in um so you know these are for better or worse exactly uh you know so those are two disruptive uh we have two disruptive plays with that like I said I'm invested in probably five businesses um but really now in investing you know I've been fortunate enough to do what I do and made money in basketball so anything I invest in first and foremost obviously I have to believe in it but there has to be some sort of give back opponent so whether that means you know if I'm working at all the smoke and there's not that much diversity I want to bring two of my homeboys I played basketball UCLA with you know let's put some color in this room yeah and I've been able to do that or it's you know I'm a senior advisor for ease out their momentum program and that's basically the social Equity play in the Cannabis space so you know how can I provide jobs and opportunities for people who look like me in a space that was created for for us but we're less than five percent representation in that space so I've been able to team up with my big brother Chris Weber who has a 100 million dollar fund and we're doing some really good stuff in Sacramento in the Cannabis space so everything I do is kind of have like you know how can I help people because I've been fortunate enough to make money and what I originally did so now that I'm making money in other spaces I want to be able to help and open doors for people um as well because I've been fortunate enough to make it and that's sometimes that's all you need is you know they let a couple of us in we're supposed to kick the door open and bring our people with us and that's what I'm trying to do you know you mentioned I don't even know how many times throughout the interview different people in your life different relationships that matter to different points and um you know this this podcast is called build your network we talk a lot about how important it is to cultivate the people that are heavily influencing your life on a day-to-day basis what has that what has that meant for you the people that you've kind of surrounded yourself with in terms of putting you on a path that leads to where you are now versus a path that could have been like some of your other friends that you mentioned that you know wasted their careers yeah I mean I think my biggest asset and what I bring to this space is my DOT connecting ability I've got equity in companies from connecting dots I've got large chunks of equity in companies for connecting dots so to me it's and you know once you're in this space it's obviously about what you know but more importantly it's about who you know and my the ability to call on someone like Robert Smith you know the the black billionaire who's a business partner of Dion Taylor who was a buddy of mine I grew up playing basketball with in the park you know it was one of the biggest black directors in the game now or someone like Chris Weber who's episode 77 is out for all the smoke right now we just dropped it yesterday so check that out but you know he's I always knew he was in business and he just secured his own 100 million dollar cannabis fund so now we're teaming up and doing stuff like that I'm actually raising my own um 100 million dollar fund where I reached out to a handful of my friends um to throw some money in and it's rolling so hopefully we're going to be announcing soon either 50 or 100 million dollar fund focused on black creativity black Tech black business and kind of just helping minorities overall so I like I said from the beginning I think my biggest attribute is kind of who I know I mean I know a little bit but it's more about who I know and my ability to connect dots and bring like-minded people together and like-minded energy uh the tech play I was telling you about about the shoe sneaker thing you know we just had a huge call right before you got here with Showtime because we want Showtime to kind of be you know possibly an investor but definitely one of the title sponsors of of the app and that's just you know hitting up Brian Daley who runs on show like Brian I got a dope play they could really help you and help Showtime yeah and he he was blown away he's like he hit me back as soon as I was like man hell up a presentation you know what I mean so it's just like me being able to open up doors um to different people is really the reason why I've been able to grow so fast in this business yeah it just shows you too man like you don't you don't have to be an expert in everything you know what I mean like you don't you don't like you didn't have to go back to school and get an MBA or a doctorate or something like that to make you qualified to be able to start these businesses or do these Investments like like you said like you're trying to learn something new so why not go find the people the best people who've done it already they know all the pitfalls they know how to make it successful talk to them bring it to there and say Hey how do we make this happen it's just like you know I mean be a star in my role and that doesn't just apply to basketball that's in life you know what I mean I think you need always to me I always try to surround myself with people who are smarter than me exactly you know people who are smarter than me that I can learn from I'm not so much for I mean I have a few friends that I come over and we'll smoke weed and watch games and kick it but that's not really the the the the the space in my life and while we're doing that we're talking about business ideas now what can we do what you got going on what can I help him what can I invest in type situations so you know it's just always constantly thinking you know how can I be better how can I help who can I you know who can I connect with to build on and and and who else can we bring into the fold because I to me I feel obligated to know that I was lucky you know granted I played on you know a handful of different teams and but I was lucky to even get the opportunity I think Russell Westbrook said it best the other day when you know Stephen A Smith was was trying to downplay his accomplishments and Russell's like I feel like I'm a champion because I made it yeah you know where I [ __ ] came from right you know and that's I it couldn't fit my life better you know although I was able to run a ring at the end of my career like I made it you know what I mean so like my job now is how how can I help other people how can I open doors how can I educate whether it's in voting whether it's in cannabis whether it's in Social Equity whether whatever this whatever the space is is how can I encourage and help other people um achieve their dreams