Paige Dimakos

My man? How you doing? Ugly? I mean drawing you wasn't reference any son been somewhere else in one of these was definitely not me. We we were really good for but you know, as guys were talking about, we call each other ugly. So for sure, that's just that's our that's our running thing. What's what's been going on? Man? Let me tell you what happened when everyone whenever someone started story. Man, let me tell you what happened. It's gonna be a good one. Oh it's burner right, so

your bird man. So you know, I'm becoming more and more handy as I've gotten older because of my business venture. So I you know, I like doing some stuff around the house. And so with the winter and fall coming or is here, you get a lot of leaves now in my gutters and it was raining. So in the summer it was raining and so so many leaves blew in.

So I literally had the rain going over overflowing and my gutter going into my screening porch but going into where water it was starting, like lot of water was accumulation and just no, no, the water was flowing flowing into my screening porch to like in there, and then it was starting and I'm like, what is all this water? So I figured it out. So yes, I got on top of the roof and I got the no, I

got the leaves out. So I'm like, you know what, I ain't doing this because it's gonna get dangerous, right and it was raining, and um, so I did it, and I was like, you know what, I'm gonna get some some gotta guards. So I went through and went on read some websites and I think I did Angie Less or something, and the guy comes to the house. So I made the appointment totally space. They forgot about the appointment. So I got this, Um, you know, I'm

hood dude. I grew up in that life. So I got this this dude that gets out of a kind of like a a Ford impolo or Caprice like. He gets out of Yeah, he gets out out of the he put up in a box chef he bro. He came out. He basically looked like a narc right. He came out looking like a police officer. Bro, I'm just talking about. Just give me a context. He looked like he was he was a police arm like. And so the guy's like, hey r. So he comes He's like, oh yeah, yeah, I'm here for the you know what,

for your for your gutters too. I was like, oh yeah, okay. So she says, hey, I'm gonna go behind back and I got two signs. I got a dog and it says beware of dogs on another one. Another one says I can get to the fence in two point eight seconds, can you? So I got those up, and he's like, I see your signs, dogs up, and so put the dog up. And so he goes over there and so he does his spill, and here's where it goes wrong. He says, hey, you only have a few of these.

Let me tell you what it is. And here's what we do, and gives a spill on why this company is very good, we have a lifetime blah blah blah, all this stuff, and I said all right. So the dude says all right. I said, well, all right, cool, get to it. Cut to it, cut it right. So he gets to it and he says, well, um, do you have a budget. And I'm like, nah, I don't have a budget because it's just covering the It ain't

gonna be that much. How much you think my man said, uh, should be a simple job with three hundred What kind of house you live? Man? Suck? He just removing that. I don't know. He puts cards on the gutters, on the whole house. Okay, you tell me. So I thought it was probably like Huntred this you just get popped

out of a box shape. He So it didn't seem like he's a hot dollar dude, or listen, you could be a great salesman, just be bad with your finances, right, This dude says sixteen thousand, seven hundred dollars sixteen thousand, six sixteen sixteen thousand, seven hundred. I said, He goes, well, what did you think it was gonna be? I said, not that he says, well, what did you think? He goes,

why are you looking at me like that? I said, well, I'm totally shocked, and then he goes so then he tries to play the game, and this is where where they ran off the rails. Right. He goes, well, I gave you a discount, but that was a discount. He said, I gave you a discount and some of this stuff, and I was like all right, and then he says, well, I got something, and he goes, let me call my boss. Oh,

so he tries the old car salesman move. Now I'm getting pissed and irritated because he I'm sure he shot his shot with he shot he shot. Let me tell you some he shot at the wrong dude with his shot. So he calls his boss and he puts me on speaker. Hey, boss, I gotta I got a customer um in this neighborhood. And um, you know, he's a little bit taken back by the price. And then he goes back and he's like well, and his boss goes, well, I mean it sounds like you've done all that you can do, and

what do you what do you think we should do? Yeah, and he says what do you think we should do? He was like, well, you know, it's just a neighborhood that we've been in before. No, well you think we can, um, you know, put up some signs. You think we'll get some traction if we utilize this. I said, hey, dog, I don't know what y'all doing. Cut this ship up, man, stop and I feel my blood pressure balling. Oh I'm cooking. But then I realized this dude is on my porch.

The realization started setting in. So for whoop his ass? Technically it's all my property. So here is he a trespass? Right? And then a white And I said, you know what, let me go on the house and go get tigues. My my my Belgian malin wild who speaks another language to give her commands. Dog speak another language and Asian nine got a little, got a little, got a little language. Fus right, I mean he's follow and so uh, I gotta take the dog out two poop m Do you

know why? Because they said some ship exactly, So I take her go out. He goes well, I said, listen, bro, all this stuff that you're doing right now, I said, it's uncalled for. I ain't got time for this. I'm about to take my dog to use your bathroom, and when you finish, put your ship right there. And then I got my chip I'm picking up, so gonna take yourself on off my porch because um, this ain't gonna work. So he leaves and he goes, well, you know, um, we were able to work some things out and and

and I got a lower price. Really, He's like, USA, okay, so here's the here's the real price. So then he noticed I didn't pick up the folder, so he comes back to hand me the folder. So I'm growing a little bit, not in height, but just a majority. I take the folder and I look at it. How much do you think he changed the price? And we're gonna bring in our producer, Meredith, Meredith, get on the mic. How much do you think that sixteen thous dollar estimate

is now? After I have taken Tiga to take a poop? Oh, you are incorrect? What is your price? Close prices? Right? My man dropped it down to six thousand dollars? You got robbed? How how bad is that? You go from sixteen to six that's that's ten tho dollars now. When I looked it up and I put my square footage in there. Bro, it's already like did you fear taking

advantage of? Hell? Yeah, I took it. I felt as happened. Man, there's the what do they say, the expensive neighborhood price, and then there's the athlete neighborhood, and I'm talking about Yeah, that's he was about to get that whoop as price. That's what he was about to which is free. That's where I'm from. It's like, no, yeah, you can have that. Go ahead, Mr Smith, you can have it. That's what I thought. Now I'm talking about the alright you and

this is going to be my price. I've I get that all the time to be honest, and people get offitted because I say, you know, I usually get three quotes, give me the cheapest, give me one nbtwin, and get me the best, and nine times out of ten, I'm gonna get the middle, right, that's just me negotiations. Yeah, but he said, I don't even understand. I was like, man, and I went and looked it up and look at my square footage, and it just was crazy to me. How you can how can you drop a price almost

ten to eleven thousand dollars? Someone thought they're gonna get ten stacks out of you. That's why he was gonna get you. Only ten stack he would get. That was a lawsuit ten stacks. He ain't getting no ten stacks like that. Come on, man, just to cover my guttess? Are they gold? I looked man, I was human. I bet you were. I was hot. I know you well enough, I know you were cooking. So trying to take advantage of you and look me at my eyes, that's a

that's just a low down, dirty shame. Yeah, he might be a big old dummy. He went ready for it. Ban you didn't prep that one, all right? Who do we have next for the podcast? Coming up to the Cut to It podcast? Paige Demacos. She's the chief operating officer of the Draft Network. She's co host of the t d in Fantasy podcast, and she makes a mean Greek chicken page. Demarcos gonna cut to a podcast. Thank you guys for having me. I'm I'm excited to be here. I checked out what you guys got going on, so

I'm excited to be here. If you're cool with it, We're just going to introduce our first segment. It's our icebreaker it's called get iced up. There random questions, so you don't know what's going on. Hey, I don't even know what's going on. Smithy is gonna give you these random icebreakers, and let's get to it where it's the strangest place you've ever fallen asleep, probably standing up in the back of a classroom. I can remember this so

vividly too. I was so exhausted, almost like one of those college forty eight hours no sleep, standing in the back of the classroom. I was hosting our election coverage and I was standing in the back as a host, and I straight up fell asleep. It was not good. Well, you were leaning against the wall at least correct, I was leaning against the wall. But the reason that I woke up is because I almost really hurt myself falling over.

So that's that's how I woke up. It was not my most graceful moment, and I definitely was embarrassed because I was hosting the show and definitely should have been way more present in that moment. So it was definitely not my finest moment. What's something you that always makes you laugh? Uh? Does it? Can you be my It's got to be a person so it's my brother. Uh. If you know anything about my brother, he's legitimately the

funniest person that I've ever met. Uh. And he's a big, goofy basketball player and he used to be he played D one basketball, but he was so short and stubby his whole life that he got to be the like,

the funny guy for a long time. And now he's six six, so like he he was the short, dorky guy for a long time, and then he grew up, and he grew up like way late, and like a junior in high school, he finally got tall, but he was the dorky kind of friend that everybody kind of liked because he was shortened and stubby, and and he's always been funny because of that. So it's definitely my brother. If you are a color, what would you be? And why? Uh?

Thirillian blue? This is very easy. The reason that I said Sirillian blue is because I'm Greek. If he didn't couldn't tell. My last name is Demacos. My dad's first name is Plato, So I'm Greek. Greek guys like very Greek. The top of the domes in Santorini are Siillian blue, so if you've ever seen a photo of the beautiful churches in Santorini, those churches are a very specific color and it is Thrillian blue. So that is the blue

I'm talking about. All right, So here in the hood, I only got about the tin in my box of crayons, which right scott blue, royal blue, dark blue. Maybe a hundred's there, but they in the box I got for some reason. I remember periwinkle is that right at? Boxer was in there? Now now mount I'm smooth out of all. I got a green, yellow, red blue. I love it. My wife is her favorite colors. Deal, Okay, bluish green. You guys are having such a such a dude answer.

It's like it's like a midway point, like kind of like a green blue, and you're like, dude, just use your eyes like describe some things. It's just a dude answer, Like that's that's what you guys are giving me back. So you're gonna RaSE me. I'm gonna RaSE you right back. That's cool. I'm just I'm just one of our producers just held up. This is this is the bluesting Yeah, she googled it though, Google you go away for a screen blue. All right, here we go, last one. Are

you ready? I'm ready? All right, what's the hardest class you ever took? The hardest class I ever took, It's gotta be uh Stats two oh three? In college. It was a math class, and since I'm a journalist, I wanted to avoid mathematics and science as much as I possibly could. And it was a bear is. The professor was a lot of words that I'm not going to use on the podcast, but yeah, let's go with the word unique. Um. He was not a very nice person

and the class was absolutely horrible. And it's the only class I've ever almost failed, so it was not not ideal for me. Uh And I hate math. Almost failed as in a D because I got a D in statistics. I'm up front, I got I gotta C minus and that's only because I had to do like all the extra credit to get myself to C minus. Like I was failing all the tests man like it was. It was not good mine with statistics as well. I took

him my senior year. Thank god, I was invited to the Shrine game and I got to drop the class. You got out of it? Out of it? I played in the shrine and then the hula, and they were back to back, So I missed the first two weeks. Not that it would have changed anything, but that was my static. That's a story that I'm going with too calcula see when I got an f in that bad I failed, that was fine, tub on it. Where are you from in a place you call your hometown? I'm

from Chicago, Illinois, Guys. I think everyone's aware of of Chicago. But if you're aware of if you're a Chicago and you're listening to the podcast, you're probably gonna ask where in Chicago. So I lived very close to Greek Town, which is ironic since uh I'm very Greek, and I always joke with my family that we chose that because it was near Greektown. But if you've ever been near the U C near where the Bulls play used to be,

uh not a not a great area. It was a little bit of a tough neighborhood when I was growing up. It's a lot nicer now. But I lived across from the street from a warehouse and now they're like beautiful building. So that's where I grew up. Grew up in Chicago. Uh, greatest city. Love Chicago, our social media manager and my son went to the Paul. Yeah, right there, So how far is that from DePaul? Right there in the city,

So De Paul's more north. So De Paul is close to where Lincoln Park areas, which is a little bit nicer area than than where than where we were, So we were kind of like right off. If you know where the Kennedy is, the ninety the Highway, you're right there, Loop a little bit further south right between basically where the Loop and and the United Center is, so the dumb and Roe Street. What was your experiences like it growing up there? I love growing up in the city.

I think as a kid, it's really it's really cool to be able to be in a city is diverse as Chicago, right, so you had every different kind of person and food, and I just loved being totally immersed in that. My family, as I said, is Greek, so uh first generation here, so we spent a lot of time uh the Greek church downtown, which was awesome for me. Like like being able to grow up there. Chicago's hoops Steen is amazing. So being able to be around that

my whole life was always really cool. Um and just being a city kid, right, Like being able to like take the train and and go down to the beach and do things like we used to. We had see the tickets to Soldier Field, so we would walk, you know, the very long walk a couple of miles every Sunday with my dad, which is good memories. But just growing up being able to spend time in the city, I

guess differentiates you from what I was. The suburb kids that we always kind of joke with when they stay there from Chicago, but they're actually from like Naperville, which is in Chicago. Those are my experiences. I love growing up in the city. Um, and I miss I do miss Chicago a lot, especially just like the area that I grew up in. What were your early experiences around

sports are? What are some of your earliest and fondest memories growing up in Chicago in the nineties of the No one better than growing up around Michael Jordan's right, So we grew up not too far from his palace, got to go watch some of his game as a as a really little kid, and uh, just those memories,

like that's that's what I felt. That's where I fell in love with sports, Like I fell in love with sports because of Michael Jordan's because I grew up in that city and in the nineties, it was all m J all the time. That's all you talked about. That's all you cared about. Every Christmas card we ever took. I have the receipts is us in bold jerseys, like from the time I was born until I was fifteen, Like,

that's what we did as a family. We named our dog Paxson after John Paxson, like we're like, I mean, like all in on the bulls as a family. So we definitely were all wrapped up in that. And that's what made me fall in love with sports, watching MJ, watching his craft and talking smack learning what that meant. Right. I made a sign when I was a kid that said the mailman don't deliver on Sunday, So that was smack talk all of my first smack talk to Karl Malone,

did you take that to the game? Were you just like, yeah, oh yeah. There is an epic photo of me as a kid with the sign, and I'm like seven, right, seven or eight, and I have the sign just straight up and it says the mail man don't deliver on Sunday, and I was like, yeah, I was, I would fit talking at that age. Okay, alright, that makes a lot of sense. Okay, cool when you saw the Last Dance the documentary, what did it? What did it stir up in you? From those memories of of growing up and

then seeing it replay? Oh yeah, so much nostalgia watching uh watching that, and also really cool because being able to now watch it. You know, I don't I don't remember any of the early years because I either wasn't alive obviously when he was first drafted, and then I was really young. I really only remember, and so I remember the you know, the last part of it. So the being able to watch it, knowing the lens and how important and how cool it was as a kid,

and then watching it now was so unbelievable. All the all the cool gear, all the warm ups everything. I was like, I want every bull's warm up, I want every bull's had, I want it. Like the whole time, I'm like, this is unbelievable. The music, the and then thinking about it now as being in sports media and thinking about how insane it would be coverage wise, right, how much coverage Michael got then, but how much more

coverage he would get. Now, Yes, it would be insane, right, and and that that was cool to think about it that way because I think everybody, everybody a little taste of it with the Warriors, and everyone's like, how many, how many championships they're gonna win? How many? And the didn't sniff what the Bulls did, right, and everybody started to hate that team. And so I was thinking about it was like, man, I would be so obnoxious if the Bulls were this team now, like I would be

I would be so stupid on social media. And it's probably a good thing because it would be uh, I'd be dunking on people left and right if Michael Jordan was playing now with so think about but then think about how Polariz would be too. Like you you mentioned you didn't necessarily see m in the early years, But remember m J didn't always deliver, right, It took a

while up until the but like eighties, MJ. But I'm I'm with you now, you right, But also think about how many times he didn't deliver and what we where we criticize Lebron right now, what's his what's his record? What was MJ's record before he got to those six finals, he went undefeated, but there was a long time before he got past the pistons to where how how polarizing would it be then on social media? To your point?

Oh yeah, I mean nuts? Right now, Right, there's no the first and foremost, there is absolutely no chance that we could pull off that version of the NBA now right, no chance. There's just there's no way that the superstars with social media could get treated like they did back then because of I mean, Michael had a whole defense that was set up against him, right, I mean just watching those those old, those old highlights, and you're watching how the how it was covered and all the foul

that are non calls. I mean it's like playing pick up all in the city in Chicago. You're like, yeah, there's no fouls. You're gonna you're gonna break your teeth, you' gonna break your nose, but you're not gonna call a foul. Like That's just how it was, right, So Detroit and Chicago for a long time, that was such a an unbelievable back and forth that I didn't I used to. I mean, you know, I'll watch the tapes with my dad, but I didn't. I didn't never watch it obviously live

and so watching it now was unbelievable to see. But also, as you said, like thinking about it going God, this would be so obnoxious on social seeing the oh, Michael can't do this and Michael can't do that in the same way that it's been obnoxious with whether it's Lebron or now it's gonna be honest and they're gonna talk about what it's gonna take and James Harden and all

these guys. I mean, the storylines are always borderline obnoxious, but uh, it's definitely we It definitely would be really different right now if if Michael was playing we have to take a break and we got some bails h you get checks. I love cut to It, and I love it even more when you download us and subscribe, and you can follow us on social media too, Smithie where where at that's at? Cut to It on Instagram? What about Twitter? At? Cut to It? Facebook? Cut to

It featuring Steve Smith sing your what about online? And you can follow us at cut to It podcast dot com where you can buy merch and you can subscribe to us wherever you listen to podcasts. I got all my answers questions. UM, yeah, I got all my questions answered. That's what I'm here for. A brother cut to a podcast dot com. Were there any particular sports that you fell in love with and also you know, fell in love with that you went out and participated in on

sports rather than just being a UM observer. Yeah. So I played basketball my whole life, and I grew up in a neighborhood with all boys, so we had like a little courtyard. I had a brother obviously my brotherhood mentioned UM, and then I grew up in a neighborhood of all boys, so with this courtyard and in the courtyard, it was kind of like the area that was Our parents were like cool with us going in there because it was safe and it was gated off from the

regular street from one Row Street. So we would go there and we played every sport like I was all time QB, Like I'm still all time QB with my family. Like I I could throw every route like I was jokingly over the weekend was like They're like, what's your favorite route to throw? And I was like a wheel route and they were like, oh, that's awesome and freaking out about that on social media but um, I played every sport growing up because I wanted to play with

the boys. Yeah, you could be what would you what would you throw to Steve Smith running a wheel route? I'm gonna tell you right now. You know why? Why? Why are you not running a wheel out? It's such a lazy and slappy route. Oh my god, here we go. Only if the wide receiver runs it lazy. Come on now, like, what's your favorite route to run? Okay, well i'll break it down generally why she was done, Yeah, that's pretty generally bad running tight ends or yeah, I was gonna

say slow tight ends. Yeah. See that's why. So I'm I'm saying it more in their regards. So if yo go to route as a wire was a wheel route, yeah, I was like, he didn't mind. I'm throwing the ball to a really really slow dad, right, So that's why it's fun for me because I'm like, my dad is the slow tight end. Like that's the dude that I'm throwing the ball too. So exactly right, who's covering slow Dad? Slow uncle? Slow Dad's getting slow. I can't cover my

slow uncle. So that's why this works. Guys like push dad into the good night and I can tell how she gets excited too, because you sound like you will overthrow somebody. But it's not your fault. A quarterback. Oh, you better believe. I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm looking. I'm looking. I'm Tom Brady. I'm looking at you, and I'm going. I've got my hands out. I'm yelling at you. I'm going, that was the catchable ball. You just slow, He's definitely, yeah, that might be. That might be kind. I don't even

know if he's hitting that. So it's that's why he can run the wheel rod. He's not. I'm not throwing him a fade. He's not getting there fast like it's he's he's slow. No, Dan is definitely not running a slant. There is no chance that's happening. Uh. Yeah, I think you're overestimating how athletic my brother. Yes, right, I can. That's I get the whole where the whole wheel, every route's in the tree for my brother, because he's six six and super athletic, But not for not for especially

not for my uncle. He's short and slow. My dad's at least semi tall and not that slow. He's just average, right, he's average. You go from Chicago, Nebraska. That had to be a culture shock to some degree. Yeah, it was a It was a huge culture shock, almost as so much of a culture shock that I transferred. So uh. When I was a freshman, my first weekend at school, I was way overwhelmed. I was like, this is so different.

Everybody's for the most part now Lincoln and Omaha has a lot of this really cool but like a lot of people were from small town. That started to freak me out a little bit. It was totally different. I was like, all right, I'm a city kid. I dressed different than everybody here. I'm walking around in Jordan's. These girls were making fun of me for wearing Jordan's. I was like, this isn't cool. I don't like this, Like this is not things might not be my people, but

I ended up loving it. I had my best friends in my whole life. Uh. Then I had an unbelievable college experience. But my my first quarter of the year of my freshman year almost almost took me out of there. But I ended up kind of my My dad was like, you gotta stick with it, you gotta schol ship, Like, you gotta stay there, do your thing. You'll be fine, and he was right, you know, and and change is different. And I was away from my family for the first time ever, so I got used to it. But uh,

it was definitely a culture shock. Nebraska is not Chicago. So you at the University of Nebraska, You're nineteen years old, you start your first company, seeing an opportunity to cover sports using Twitter. Why decide to do that at at that young age? What what was in you too to want to want to build that up? Yeah, it was. It was very much. I'm sitting in a you know, kind of intro class. It's a journalism one on one and I'm sitting in a class and Joe Starrita is

the one of my favorite professors. He's sitting up at the frontal class and he asked the class. He goes, who is currently on Twitter? And I raised my hand and I'm the only one. You guys are talking. There's at least two d kids, probably more in this class. Nobody raises their hand. And at the time, I was like, I didn't care about Facebook, and that was like, this is two thousand nine, Like everybody he was on Facebook.

It was that was the thing you got you wanted to do, and I was like, no, no, no, I'm on Twitter and like, I think it's a huge opportunity to cover sports. And about half the class kind of started laughing at me, and I was like, all right, alright, cool, Like I'm I'm that person. I like being the underdog. I like being told that I can't do something, So that was kind of the first thing. Was like, oh, you guys think this is a joke, I'll show you right like you'll see. And so I started meeting up

with UM. I had a sorority sister who her boyfriend was a really really good UM was really into web development. So we just started meeting and we would have we have coffee meetings at this place called the Mill and UM that's we just started talking about starting corn Fed Sports. And that's why we started it because there wasn't really any coverage UM that we liked covering Nebraska sports and Nebraska football, so we were like, why don't we just

start our own thing? And I'm sure this doesn't surprise you guys, but like, obviously I wanted to cover football, but I also wanted to cover all the other sports, like Nebraska has a phenomenal volleyball team, like the nineties. Nebraska football is the current Nebraska volleyball team like badass, really really good. So I wanted to cover them. I wanted to cover our basketball team. I wanted to like I wanted to cover every sport, like I literally love

all sports. Enough people kept telling me that I either couldn't do it, or I shouldn't do it, or it

was stupid. And then as that started to happen, it just sparked in me like if this is making people feel uncomfortable, especially older people, Like it was mostly older professors and older journalists that were like, that's not a thing newspapers, like you should go right for the newspaper, and I was like, nobody reads the newspaper that's eighteen or nineteen years old, Like there's an entire generation that's gonna make this obsolete, Like trust me, it's social and

it just they, you know, I think they were afraid of the change, and so I just wanted to kind of embrace it and take the risk because I could. I was in college and I could take the risk, and I did and it and it definitely paid off. But it was it was people telling me that it wasn't a good idea over and over and over again. That inspired me to think, if I'm making people uncomfortable, it's probably for a reason, and I should lean into this and pay attention to this. And that's that's why

I did it. It's already hard to break into sports in general as general. Then you add on top whether you're a minority and whether you're you're a woman. Not only are you breaking into sports media, but you're also on an entrepreneurial journey. What are what's have been some of the challenges you've had to face with with going down both of those paths. Yeah, being a woman in sports and stuff guys like that, it takes a certain level of toughness to just be able to do it

in general, like constantly. And it took toughness in two thousand and two thousand nine of the freshman in college, and it takes toughness now is an executive in sports media in like it's there's a lot of the same bs going on now that there was going on then.

I'm just in a different position now, and I've worked my way into a position where I can call the shots as far as who I'm hiring and who I'm bringing in and who's a part of the conversations, and I think that's that's how it changes, Like, that's how it changes, is you get more diversity from minorities and from women in jobs where they can hire people and they can be focused on that and making sure that there are people that are like me that have a

say in the rooms that matter, because that's what that's what sucks then, and it sucks even now, but it's it's better now for me because of the because of what I've been able to achieve. But you know, having people call the shot for you and not believe in

you and even after you you do. I could have one mistake, right, I could make one mistake and it was so so like prolific the mistake to them, where I could watch my colleague make mistakes and it was like, well he played so like it doesn't matter right, Like he knows the game like and it's like, no, he doesn't like he doesn't study like me, he doesn't talk to the coaches like me, he doesn't talk to the

players like me like I out hustle him NonStop. And I can remember that being so frustrating and just almost not pursuing sports because of that. But then just deciding. One day, I just had this total breakdown and I talked to my dad and my dad was like, listen, like, you love sports, like this is your passion. You're not gonna give up because some jerk calls you sweet cheeks in a locker room, Like you're gonna get over it.

Like you're gonna get over it. You're gonna get tough, and you're gonna realize like next time he said something like that to you, you better have something to say back. And I was like, all right, dad, And that's that's pretty much like what I did from then on, Like I was like, Okay, dudes are gonna say stuff to me, and I'm just gonna say something back. And guess what, every time it happens, they're like totally checked themselves. They're like whoa, because they're not used to getting it back.

They're used to just saying it's saying it's saying it, and nobody checks them. So when you check them and it's like, oh, okay, I want this to you. Pretty most part, well, there's a couple, you know, extreme cases, but that's that's what it's like to be a woman

in sports. Like it's and it's like, as I said, there's still a lot of challenges now that I face, but I'm in a different position, and that's why as an executive, I've I've been very conscientious of who I'm hiring, who I'm bringing in, what the culture is like within the company, to make sure that we have diverse voices and that that can change the game if more people

have that attitude. How do you not fall into the narrative of now being in charge of well, I'm only going to hire women, or I'm only going to hire people who did not play right, where you don't all of a sudden spend it so far so far spirits are to where now you're instead of part of the solution, now you've just created a different narrative that you're part

of the problem too. Listen, it's a really important question, guys, because it's I feel like this is where you can start to have that understanding of Okay, this is how you how you do things. And I'm not by any means the person that's ever not going to make mistakes. But what I can say is I'm always gonna hire

the best person for the job. The difference between what your guys are alluding to and I get it all the time, like you're gonna look for women, you're gonna look for minorities, you're gonna look the I every and I mean that in the nicest way I can possibly say it. Every Tom Dicken Harry white guy applies for a job that they do not deserve, they're not entitled to,

they don't have the qualifications for. But they show up their nineteen years old, they're not in journalism school, and they hit me up and they think they deserve a full time writing job. Straight up. It happened all the time. You know who, I don't hear from women and minorities, but neither one. I have had to seek out every minority that I have hired, and I've had to seek out every female that I have hired. Why do you think that? Because I know for me, I'm I'm that's

exactly right. I'm a black male that worked in sports for for quite some time, and from from my own personal experience, you have to be not even better than average, not even better, way better exceptional, And that's just to get a foot in the door. Right. So to your point, every time Dack and Harry applies, but it is hard to stand out. So do you know why a lot

of the times and Harry's get the job. That's true, But then also how do you how do you make the opportunities not even just available, but just highlighted in awareness to to other people. You can make the opportunities available, you have to be conscientious of making this a part

of what you're doing as you're hiring it. Because I mean this, it's like it is if you sat in a room, I would venture to say that the white guys in the room are more often than not going to think they deserve the opportunity, whereas the girls are gonna talk themselves out of it. They're gonna give you

ten reasons why they don't deserve it. And the black guys don't are going to talk themselves out of it as well, or they're just not going to speak up because it's it's a conditional thing, like we've been conditioned to think that we don't deserve these things because we haven't seen it. Whereas if you're a white guy in this country, you've seen you can think you think you've

walked it. And that's the that is the time. That is you're talking about a lot of learned behavior a lot of watching and seeing and and not thinking that you deserve it, and that that only changes when people that have the ability to hire people are conscientious of that and say, okay, if I have a job opening right at the end of the day. You guys talked about it earlier. Sports is so competitive that if I don't have a reference that I know about you, you're

not going to get the job. Because I know enough people in sports that I can call and say, hey, tell me about this person. Right. So that's the first part, is the networking part and how that plays a part in this, and and reaching out to people and saying, hey, I want to hire somebody, and I'm looking for you know this, these are the qualifications. Do you have anybody that you can send my way? Right? Do you know anybody?

Have you heard from anybody? Because that's what that's what's happening, like, that's what you have to do. Because the guys who send me their resumes all the time. I mean it, If I went through and I probably have four hundred resumes saved in my email, I would venture to say three, if not all four hundred, or all white guys, and and most of them are not qualified, and they all ask for jobs and it's because they've been conditioned to think that they can have it, and and I don't.

There's there's only so much one individual can do, right, Like what can I do for my company? I can make I can make sure that I am present in how I am hiring, who I am hiring, and making sure I'm doing my due diligence to reach out and try and find people, versus just sitting back and saying, well, the best people will find me. Um, that's just I think my attitude. I can't speak to what anybody else is doing, but that's that's how I've approached it. Let's

talk ball, all right. So you've done you're doing Draft Network, You've done fantasy. You do a little bit of fantasy football, correct ye As a former athlete, I hate fantasy football, fantasy man. I hate fantasy football because fantasy football has financially it has been great. But now you for everybody involved in fantasy and football, right, fantasy love it, football, love it. You can buy a fantasy football and it

brings in more revenue downs. But now you have the fan who may not necessarily watch the games, but now they're only watching because fantasy. But sometimes you have people they can look at a guy, let's just say hypothetical, the guy has ten thousand yards, a billion I'm exagger and a billion touchdowns, but if he doesn't perform that week on Fantasy, you trash. You trashy. Never I've never I have never met a guy who's played in the

league that like Fantasy football. I don't because I and I totally understand why you would feel that way, because if I'm Steve or if I'm I've seen it in an interview in a post game right where you've got Travis Kelsey get interviewed post game and he's he didn't have a big game, and somebody's yelling at him from the stands like dude, you're trash, You're terrible today. Or you're tweeting at somebody and you're telling them that you

you know, you've lost me my fantasy matchup. Like I can imagine that as a competitor, especially if you win the foot all game. Like if you go out there and you win the game and then people are tweeting at you about how you didn't win Fantasy, You've gotta be like, who the hell cares? Right, Like I tell I tell people at all the time that play fantasy, like you have what you want to happen in your head,

and then here's what reality is. Because the head coach doesn't care about giving Clyde Edwards Hilaire that's many touches because that's what's good for your fantasy team. Like he's gonna do what's best for the matchup to play that in the game, and that's what he's gonna do. So you might want this to happen, but it ain't gonna happen because that's not the game plan. And if you don't, that's why that's why I can see why you hate it.

So I understand why you hate it. It's not like I woke up today and said, I'm about fantasy football. Gerard Gerard starting me on this fantasy team. I gotta show out screw him, Like that's not what you're doing. You don't get the call your own play. But yes, to the point of where when you hear that, you're like, really and then now and then I play fantasy a little bit. When I was on you don't know the

game plan, right, you really don't. You don't understand or the matchups' not just like this is terrible, right, So I literally hate fancy football. If everybody could just chill and be nice, then we'll be fine, right, because then you wouldn't have fans screaming at you, were tweeting at you, like yo, bro, you suck your garbage because you didn't have three catches for him, and you're like, yeah, okay, cool,

Like if people just didn't. People doing that to athletes in general has always made me upset, like whether it's fantasy related or it's like you have a bad game and the team loses and people feel this sense of ownership where they can come over and tell you like like you guys are saying like you don't walk up to somebody, You don't go outside to the garbage man and you yell at the garbage man because there's one piece of garbage that fell out, and you're like, you

stuck at your job, Like nobody does that, like people do that in sport. I think it's about that time. Just take a little breather. Good good, good, Hey Gerard, why did you get that T shirt? Oh? Yes, I got it from cut to a podcast dot com where we have exclusive merchandise. Shout out to our guys at seven or four shot. But yeah, you can go on, buy you a T shirt, subscribe to us wherever you

listen to podcasts. Alright, Paige, our last segment that we have it's called the Deep three, So it's just basically our way of taking a deeper dive into the next level. Just get to know the guests that we have on. So Smithy's got the first question and we're just gonna be able to take you on this deep three. How do you want to impact the world right now? And also in five years? I want to impact the world.

It talked about it a little earlier, but I want to be a leader of a sports media company that helps change what what it looks like in sports um and that means getting more women and minorities and making sure that there are more opportunities at the ground floor to make sure that we are allowing those people to elevate properly, because unless we change it at the beginning, we're gonna have some of the situations like we talked about, where you're gonna make a higher just to make a

higher and they're not going to be qualified. Our responsibility is to foster people and have internships and create opportunities so we can get more diversity, so that when I go to on a trip to the Combine, it's not ninety eight percent white guys. It's a more honest reflection of what our country looks like. And I think that's I know that that's super ambitious, but I'm an ambitious person.

So that's that's what I want now, and it's what I wanted in five years, because I would hope that in five years I'm gonna be an even better, more prominent, more powerful position to do more of it and quite honestly expect more of it from other people that are also in my position, and I think that will that will be something that will be exceptionally powerful. So then what does success me? To you? Success is every single day?

To me, there is there is something to be said about competing with yourself and I have always done this, and to me, it's a success every day, a competition every day, a challenge every day. Because if you start setting benchmarks of this is success for me, then what's after that? Right? So to me, it's it's every day and there's no there's no endgame here. That's not there's no endgame. It's it is constantly getting better at every aspect of what I do, whether that's in my work

life in my personal life. Quite frankly, one of the things I love competing and having success in most is is as an athlete and and working out every day and setting little micro challenges that make me feel successful every day. Like that, it's success to me. It's every day. It's showing up. It's it's making those competitions that force you to always be the right amount of uncomfortable, so you're constantly getting better. Page today COVID nineteen is here.

Everything's going on. You can go backwards and write a letter to young Page. What would you tell her to be on the lookout for, UH for this year? Specifically, I would tell myself eight months ago, I would tell myself to relax because it's man, it's it's been a journey, UH this this last since I left the Combine, UH, life changed a whole lot the second that I got back from being in a bubble for ten days in Indianapolis.

And if I could talk to myself just getting back to the Combine, I would tell myself just relax, like everything's gonna be okay. Just relax, UM. But if I could talk to my younger self, UM, I would definitely go back to, you know, a much younger AMBI just eighth grader who at that time was like, I want to work in sports and was getting bullied by a

lot of people at school. And would tell that person that those people were going to ask you for fantasy football advice and tickets and and being and having access to your friends who play in the league, and that they don't matter. And so I would tell that eighth grader to not care about other people so much and just know that eventually those people are gonna be asking you for stuff and it's never not going to feel good. And and that's what I would tell younger Page. Well,

I appreciate a page. Thank you, Thank you guys. The thing I liked about Page was ambition. I was, I was. I wrote down greediness. She's gritty. She's gritty, right, So I thought that was cool. I I did think some of the things that she said, it's from our perspective of what she went through, and sometimes people go, I don't think that's that's accurate. It is an act. It is not accurate from your perspective, but from the individual

who has experienced it. Think about how much you had to scrap, right, Yeah, I mean you're like I, like I said during the interview, when you're a woman or your minority trying to break into the sports field, this this this, this role behind the scenes, it's very tough. When you add on, you know, being a woman of money, it's it's so much tougher. You you've got to go

beyond the mile marker and then something. So to your point from her perspective and durrance, you talk about minorities or or or or women sometimes playing the sport and then trying to work in a sport, whether it's be a coach. Sometimes people don't want you involved because they believe as a player, oh, you weren't this or you weren't that. So sometimes playing the sport can be just

as bad for you. Of sometimes you know, as we said, being a new person, right with a new person without a history you have a you're more susceptible to at least get a try out or get get a shot or shoot your shot, versus someone who has been through it and who's played. Sometimes like nah, so I I call it one of the things I walked away with is no was never an acceptable answer to Page. She did not accept no. If you told her no, She's

gonna make a way to prove you wrong. It was fist fighting phone booth right, So I really love that. So Page, thank you appreciation, you know, thank you for listening to another I guess this isn't. We don't have two minutes, you know, we got a few, but thanks for listening to another episode of cup to It. I'm Steve Smith Senior and you are a K A G. And we out cut to It with Steve Smith Singer. That is Me is a production of Cut to It LLC, Baltol Creative Media, The Black Effect and I Heart Radio.

For more podcast from I Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio Apple Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows from Cut to It. Executive producer Steve Smith, Singer, co host Gerard little John, talent in booking manager Joe Fusci, social media manager Peyton Smith from Balto Creative Media. Cut to It is produced by Brian Baltaschevitch and Meredith Carter, with production assistance by Alex Lebrek, Production manager Sarah Pollock.

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