From Sports Stardom to Broadcasting: The Inspiring Journey of Mike Smith

If you've ever wondered about the journey from sports stardom to broadcasting, then this episode is for you. We sit down with the highly accomplished Mike Smith, whose resume spans a multi-sport high school experience, a stint in the NBA, and a successful transition into the broadcasting realm. Mike shares his own compelling story - how his love for football, basketball, and volleyball laid the groundwork for his future career. We jump into the essential role his family played in his journey and his dedication to promoting better healthcare options for all.

Get ready to be captivated as Mike reveals the challenges he faced when transitioning from college sports to the NBA. We explore his invaluable experiences, from playing with legendary teammates like Larry Bird and Kevin McHale to his time in the European leagues. Mike's resilience and adaptability are truly inspiring, shedding light on the perseverance required for such a journey.

And the excitement doesn't stop there. We also dive into Mike's entrepreneurial ventures, from tech investment to building a sales and consulting company. We discuss Cardio Miracle, a groundbreaking product that has had a profound impact on Mike's own health and fitness. Finally, we reflect on the importance of balancing professional life with family commitments, a theme that resonates as we get to know more about Mike's life outside work. Tune in for an episode that is as inspiring as it is informative!

Gene German
Certified Firearms Instructor - Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Florida

graithcare.com
Graith Care Independent Patient Advocate medical advocacy, consultation, advice US and International

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Transcript

Speaker 3: 0:10

Secretly recorded from deep inside the bowels of a decommissioned missile silo. We bring you the man, one single man, who wants to bring light to the darkness and dark to the lightness. Although he's not always right, he is always certain. So now, with security protocols in place, the protesters have been forced back behind the barricades and the blast doors are now sealed. Without further delay, let me introduce you to the host of the podcast, Mr Tim Hudner.

Speaker 2: 0:45

Thank you, sergeant in Arms. You can now take your post. The views and opinions expressed in this program are solely those of the individual and participants. These views and opinions expressed do not represent those of the host or the show. The opinions in this broadcast are not to replace your legal, medical or spiritual professionals. Cardiomiracle does not treat, cure, diagnose or mitigate any disease. We just give the bodies cutting edge nutrient delivery and the body does the rest. Welcome to the podcast. Today. 12, 3, 20, 23, we're going to put Mr Mike Smith. He has got a story that you all need to listen to and he's got some education, and I'll tell you what. We've got some pretty neat stuff going on here and, mike, are you there?

Speaker 1: 1:34

I am. How are you?

Speaker 2: 1:36

I am well. Thanks for joining us on the show. We're going to cut the pre-roll and then we're going to go into a main one here. So stand by for Huttcast, we'll be right back.

Speaker 2: 1:48

The current healthcare system is not meeting the needs of real people. People are demanding better, better care, better options and want results. So Gareth Care has launched and is advocating for those in the US and internationally. As people are realizing, the controlled system has not been there for them. If you want your own independent advocate that is not controlled by big corporations, call or text and enroll today to get your advocate for your needs, serving all ages, for any healthcare needs you might have, you matter.

Speaker 2: 2:20

Here's how you get started wwwgarethcarecom. That is G-R-A-I-T-H-C-A-R-Ecom. Call Gareth Care Direct at 469-864-7149. Call or text the questions to healthcare sucks and get an advocate with Gareth Care. Call 469-864-7149,. Mention Huttcast and you will get an additional 10% discount on your first advocacy bundle. The staff at Gareth Care will take care of you. Remember mention Huttcast and get that extra 10% off your first bundle of time. And this is all brought to you from Gareth Care. All right, as mentioned in pre-roll, mike Smith Got a heck of a resume. I've read through it. I did as much research as I could. I got 15 questions for you. Mike, are you there?

Speaker 1: 3:19

Sure.

Speaker 2: 3:22

It's quite an impressive resume. I'm reading this going okay, why doesn't this guy run for president?

Speaker 1: 3:32

Oh, that's very kind. Well, I don't know, I think I'm too old at this point.

Speaker 2: 3:41

It always adds up, doesn't it? The age.

Speaker 1: 3:44

It catches you. It catches you Well, I'm an athlete, right. It catches you in sports. It catches you in a lot of things, but hopefully today, 58 is the new 48.

Speaker 2: 3:57

We keep telling ourselves that, don't we?

Speaker 1: 4:00

I like to. I'm trying, you don't have to get into this Tim. I have 10 children. Imagine how many grandchildren are going to come from 10 children I have three grandchildren already. I just want to be around and I want to teach them and play with them. I feel like we live in a world where, oh my gosh, common sense and common decency and right and wrong is being thrown out the world and out the window. I should say I want to be that voice to my family and my generations.

Speaker 2: 4:35

Very well said. We have a moniker here that says common sense ain't common enough.

Speaker 1: 4:40

True.

Speaker 2: 4:42

So let's light up question number one here. In the early years in high school sports, Michael, you've achieved an extraordinary level of success multiple sports during your high school years, earnings titles, California player of the year, and football, basketball, volleyball. How do you manage to excel in all these sports simultaneously, and what impact did this diverse athletic background have in your future career?

Speaker 1: 5:10

That's a great question. So I don't come from super athletic parents, but I come from super loving parents and super supportive parents.

Speaker 1: 5:21

I'm the third of five children so, like I have an older brother before me who does play basketball, I have a sister before me who is a concert violinist. I should say my father's an engineer, my mom's an artist and a violinist and my dad came out like really bright, book, smart, super tall and like big. He's a big guy like broad shoulders and heavy footed and heavy boned, if that makes sense. He's built at six foot eight, more like an offensive lineman than he is a basketball player.

Speaker 1: 5:57

My mom is, although five foot eight, you know she's a violinist, she's fine motor skills, she's hyper coordinated and she's creative and left brain than my dad, very right brain and analytical, and I kind of came out the morph of the two and at six foot 10, to what I reached my senior in high school. I was nimble and fleet of foot and hyper coordinated and not alignment. I was more of a gazelle, you know. I could run and jump and throw up on, catch a ball and see angles and and I don't know if that stuff is, you know, born, then you're born with it or you learn it, right, I don't know if it's innate or God given or if just playing sports in my youth, all through those young years I developed those skills but it's probably a combination of the both and I just, I guess, was willing to try everything. So you know body type, I was more built like a basketball player, but athletically I tried everything. So I'm a four sport guy.

Speaker 1: 7:06

In high school. That includes baseball, which I didn't play for the school but I did play for the leagues or the city. And then in high school I played basketball, football and volleyball and like I think I was always good at basketball and worked really hard at that. Football was kind of just something I decided to play in high school and I went to a football powerhouse high school and they put me at the quarterback position and I just think I had the right mindset or brain for it. Like, our coaching schemes were years ahead of everyone else's and so, thanks to them and they relied on me and my brain and, honestly, tim, I would walk up to the line and dissect the defense and what they were going to do before I ever took a snap. And this will sound terrible, but it really was easy and I don't even know how else to explain that. But the coaches said make this, read and read this free safety and you'll know exactly what they're going to do. And, other than a blitz, which you'll also be able to detect, you'll know which guy will be open before you ever drop back.

Speaker 1: 8:17

And it was like I don't know.

Speaker 1: 8:20

I felt like I was playing chess and they were playing checkers and I think we lost one game in four years of high school football and culminated my senior year with winning the you know, let's call it the Southern California state championship, and that and I broke every record in, you know high school football in California but I never considered myself great at football Isn't that funny?

Speaker 1: 8:45

But I will say that that event, that diversity that you mentioned, fueled my confidence, and that football title and what it means to perform a role with, you know, 10 other offensive players and 11 other defenders and your special teams and the role of 50 guys united in one cause To me is my greatest sports memory, if that makes sense and catapulted me to you know all American status in college basketball and then later a first round draft pick in the NBA and, I don't know, it helped me. It made me think. Maybe I was a little bit different than the next guy. I was up against or or had an edge, and whether it was true or not, I believed it, and sometimes belief is everything.

Speaker 2: 9:38

Well, you touched on my next question College experience at BYU. So at Brigham University, brigham Young University, you majored in Spanish with a minor in broadcasting, while also excelling in sports. How did your academic pursuits compliment the athletic career? How did they shape your path into the, into the broadcasting?

Speaker 1: 10:01

Wow, great question. I was destined to be a orthopedic surgeon, wanted to be a doctor, felt like I would be a doctor. My mom was a registered nurse. That was kind of what was ingrained in me, even though my dad was in sales and I don't come from a line of doctors. But it just felt like that's what I would do and should do. And so I'm pre-med for three of those four years.

Speaker 1: 10:27

So let's say, a Spanish major and a zoology minor or a double major, you know, with every intent on going to med school after college, the Spanish because I served an LDS mission after my first year of college. So played one year, went on a mission to Argentina for two and then came back and played three years and that two years away really aided me in my maturity. It aided my body. I was super slender before then and it kind of my body matured. I came back from that two-year mission a 21-year-old sophomore and you know six foot 10 and now 225 pounds and gave me the confidence that I could do hard things and, you know, live in adversity and thrive in adversity and be calm under pressure. You know, here I was living in the most extreme conditions in the south of Argentina.

Speaker 1: 11:30

I came back to college and I was like wow. And it also told me that the guys that I was you know, all American within high school were now seniors in college and about to be drafted into the NBA. And I was like, okay, well, I know, I'm as good as those guys. So I went from, let's say, an average freshman year to coming back as a 21-year-old sophomore, not having played any basketball in Argentina or trained at all. But mentally I was more prepared and I knew I could do it. And so I went from that freshman year to sophomore year, you know, player of the conference and led the conference in scoring and all those things which doesn't usually happen by your sophomore year. So I really felt like that helped me. Now, fast forward senior year. I kind of feel like I'm going to be drafted At least I know that because I'm being contacted by every agent in the world after my junior year.

Speaker 2: 12:34

Well, hold on a second now. You're like way in front of me, so you're transitioned to professional sports, right?

Speaker 1: 12:40

Well, I'm just going to get you to the broadcasting, because now I realize I may not be going to med school, and so senior year I add a minor in broadcasting, just so I could finish my degree. I didn't want to get drafted and, you know, have to come back to school. So that's how I end up a Spanish major and a broadcasting minor, so I could finish in four years and then see what the professional ranks offered me.

Speaker 2: 13:11

Wow that's incredible, Because you were just about to go to my next question and I went. Let me ask you first. So that transition to professional sports being 13th overall pick in the 89 NBA draft by Boston Celtics and the first return missionary to be chosen within the first round, is a remarkable achievement itself. Can you share the experiences and challenges during the transition from college sports to NBA?

Speaker 1: 13:41

Yeah, and they were. They were monumental, they were difficult and I felt like I was good enough. I was a little bit older than most draft picks, right. So now I'm a 23 year old senior, drafted in the summer of 89, just about to turn 24. So that's, that's different in one respect. But and some NBA teams would shy away from that Not that I wasn't one of the top 15 players in the country, but they want young guys, which has evolved today, you know, and now work for the Utah Jazz they have three 19 year old rookies and so the NBA kind of feels like the sooner we get you, the sooner we can untrain the college world and the college game and teach you the pro game.

Speaker 1: 14:25

So I was a little bit different in that respect because of a couple years older, but it was a thrill for me and and you mentioned the missionary part, that's important to me because my religion, my faith, my belief in God, my love of a divine being and creator in respect to them and him is is at the core of all of my belief system. And so when asked to go do that after my freshman year, willingly, I did it, but before me no one had ever done that and made it to the NBA and so I thought that was super cool, that I kind of at that point in my life chose to honor God and go do his work and then let the rest fall where it may, and and I still became a first round pick. There have been a couple since me who have done it. Mark Madsen, who went to Stanford, was a late first round draft pick, and a guy named Sean Bradley was also a BYU player after me, who was seven foot six, believe it or not. He was kind of an anonymally, but he did serve an admission in Australia and then went, went right to the pros, but for me it was.

Speaker 1: 15:39

That was important and some people would say it hindered me or made me a little softer. And you know it's hard to become a disciple of Christ and teach meekness and you know love of everyone and then walk into the NBA world where you're fighting for your life and battling for jobs and playing with the best of the best. I think one thing had nothing to do with the other. I think my mission gave me a core belief system in myself that I could accomplish hard things and the NBA is just the NBA. It's the finest of the. You know the finest and if you think about it, if you're a great high school player, you may have a chance to go play college, but when you get to college, every guy there is was not only the best at this high school, he's probably the best in his conference.

Speaker 2: 16:26

Oh boy.

Speaker 1: 16:26

And then when you get to college, you know if you're going to make it, you better be the best on your team, and then you better be the best two or three in your conference and then you better be. You know, good enough and tough enough and unique enough that your skill set translates to the NBA. And so my NBA career was not great. I honestly feel like I went to the wrong team In a lot of ways. It was so just opening up my mind to play with such great talents like Larry Bird and Kevin McHale and Robert Parrish and Dennis Johnson. Those are my teammates.

Speaker 1: 17:04

Those three big guys I mentioned are all Hall of Famers and they all play in front of me on the front court. What I didn't realize then is you really need to get established in your first one or two years in the NBA to prove you belong not only to yourself but to everyone else, and I joined a veteran team that was at one three championships in the 80s. I think they felt like I was the era parent to McHale or Bird, which was great on one regard, but on the other regard, those guys weren't giving up their spots Right.

Speaker 1: 17:32

And it was an NBA back then in the late 80s where guys played a lot. There was no such thing as load management, there was no such thing as LeBron's care of his body and the ability to manage minutes. And I mean Larry Bird is my position he's the guy in front of me, I'm his replacement and he played 44 of the 48 minutes every single night and bless his heart because fans were treated to one of the greatest players of all time. I loved that he did that. It wasn't great for me because then I got four to five to six minutes a game and not time on the court with him where my skills would have shined, and so I ended up playing like three years with the Celtics, another year with the Clippers, and then I go to Europe and play four years and hacked by eight years professional.

Speaker 1: 18:27

I almost felt like a young family's duties and really the difficulty of living and playing overseas while raising a young family kind of almost necessitated that I choose a new career path and move on. But I cherished my time. I learned from the best how many guys can say and Tim, one year after I played finished, I still tried to play one final year and so that year I spent the summer playing with Magic Johnson and Magic was retired. He was HIV positive but he couldn't get it out of his system. So he took a team of 12 of us that traveled the world and would play any team designed or put together orchestrated to beat us.

Speaker 1: 19:15

And Magic's whole goal was to spend two years and go 100 and zero, and I'm a part of that team for a year. So in essence, I got to play with Bird, play with Magic and play against Michael Jordan so I could look back and say, yeah was never an all star, never want to championship, and I didn't play for fifteen years and retire with Twenty million bucks in the bank. But now that I'm fifty eight, I tell that story when I speak or open up an engagement. They're like holy cow. You know, play with bird magic against michael, that's. It's kind of pretty cool. So I consider myself very blessed.

Speaker 2: 19:59

Well, now your international career. You play professional basketball in europe, particularly spain, and idly. How did this international experience differ from playing in the nba, and what unique challenges did that present?

Speaker 1: 20:13

So over there you have hyper talented guards and forwards. When I played in the nba it's a little bit different than now. When I played in the nba there's twenty six teams with twelve guys, so that's less than three hundred players. Today there's thirty teams with fifteen players, so there's four hundred and fifty players. So when people tell me today, all you couldn't play in today's nba, I'm like you lost your mind. My nba thirty years ago, top to bottom, is way better than your water down nba today. They're like oh yeah, but the athletes today I go yeah, yeah, you, you're you're.

Speaker 1: 21:01

Today's nba is looking for positionless players who are six foot nine and can play garden shooting, run and jump, and not that we didn't have the same, we just had fewer of them and better. The point I'm getting at is that my nba of twelve players had all teams at three point guards and three centers, if you can believe it. And then the rest was mixed in with let's call them shooting guards, small forwards, big forwards, but half of your roster where your point guards, in your centers. Why? The game was designed that way. A guard brought it up. He ran the show. What did you try and do? An offense? You tried to post up your big guys. If you have a center who could post up like a kareem, you know, like a wilt, you know like a patrick ewing, that's how you scored. And so the game was very different. It was less open than it is today. It was more designed for a big player. I was a shooting small forward. I was cut like a bird or a nabitsky. Players today who are a kevinder ran. I was a poor man's kevinder ran because I was a six ten white guy. He's a six eleven, you know slender guard who can shoot from anywhere. Yeah, I think he's the greatest score in our game since michael jordan.

Speaker 1: 22:25

But point being, as I transition from nba to europe, europe did not have superstar big. It just didn't. They had lots of guards and if there were a talented big like an arvitas a bonus from rusher lithuania he was then in the nba, if that makes sense. If you were a talented seven footer, like a lot of devils, nikola youkets, today, you were, you know, gobbled up by the nba and you are not on the roster and almost every team had one. So if I say every nba team at three centers, one of them was a euro center. Like you, they blob or a rick smiths. It's just kind of the way it was to the.

Speaker 1: 23:18

When I go to europe and play, I'm just gonna say there weren't as many six, ten guys like me who is as talented as I was and so where I didn't find great success in the nba, even though I had votes for all rookie team. I just never, ever found the right spot in europe. I immediately found success. I'm the leading american score in italy my first year. I'm the leading american score in the spanish leagues my second, third and fourth years. I lead the league in free throw percentage and you know, scoring twenty eight to thirty points. Again.

Speaker 1: 24:01

The only guy who outscored me at that time when I played in europe Was a guy named oscar schmitt, and some basketball fans will recognize him. He's a hall of famer. He's brazilian, he never played in the nba but came to a claim, like in the eighty four olympics when brazil played the dream team, the first dream team, with jordan, and that oscar schmitt put up forty on team USA. So he goes to italy and spain, the same place as I go, and you know he shoots it every time and he's just a talented six foot seven, the phenomenal player. Probably not fast enough for athletic enough to ever play in the nba back in those days, but my game did translate to the european leagues and it was much more wide open and much more versatile, and so my ability at my height to shoot, pass and score Became an asset to those teams over there and I flourished and thrived and had a blast.

Speaker 2: 25:05

Wow, that's a whole lot going on, isn't?

Speaker 1: 25:10

It's a lot for a kid and I can say kid looking back. But we're talking about my nba run goes from like eight, twenty three to twenty eight and then I go play in europe from twenty eight to thirty three. I'm still a young guy and I'm having children right one year over there. I'm living in madrid, spain. My two young kids are in the american school and speaking fluent spanish and you know I'm trying to raise a family. I didn't have a third kid.

Speaker 1: 25:43

Yeah, there was. You don't think about it when you're in the middle of it, but if I asked a 25 year old today, they'd be like, wow, that's a lot and I certainly didn't plan it that way. Right, it's just a lot going on. I'm chasing a career that is in some ways floundering because I can't get back to the NBA. They'd rather go for somebody younger at that point. And at the same time I'm conflicted. Like do I keep living in Europe and playing? I'm now one of the top players over here, but my family and kids don't really want to be there. They'd rather be home with friends, and you know, because we go home every summer for two, three months and congregate with families and young kids and then, all of a sudden, we'd say goodbye and go do it again. And so there was. There was a lot going on at that time.

Speaker 2: 26:35

Now, now you've jumped forward here to the Broadcasting career highlights. You've had a successful broadcasting career, including a stint with the number one analyst of all NBA teams, Sports Illustrated 2007, 2008. What has been some of the most memorable moments or games that you've commented on?

Speaker 1: 27:00

Broadcasting career or highlights. I realized early on okay, I make the transition and it's almost serendipitous that I do it Because I'm in Utah, my home's in California, but I feel like I can play two more years. So, prior to another basketball season beginning, I go to Utah to train in the altitude.

Speaker 1: 27:25

Okay and live at my sisters for like six weeks and I'm running and lifting and playing basketball with the BYU basketball team as an older guy like 32 or 33, but still have a lot in the tank. I've discovered yoga. At this point I'm super flexible and fit. I feel like I'm in the best shape of my life.

Speaker 1: 27:49

But it's funny year NBA people aren't calling. I can go to Europe and play, but the money's not fantastic. It's, it's enough, you know, and you can put some away, but it's. It's getting to the point where I'm like, how long am I going to chase this? But it's, it's almost at that point, tim, all I know. And so I feel like I'm a little bit stuck as I look back, chasing a dream that is expiring or vanishing, and but there's some fear there too, right, I don't. I don't know that I'm going to be a good player or I don't know better said that I'm going to be a successful businessman or end up being an Emmy award winning broadcaster. I don't know any of those things at that point. So there's a little bit of fear of the unknown.

Speaker 1: 28:42

But the BYU athletic director approaches me and says hey, I see you here playing with the guys. You can clearly still play. If you're not playing with the guys, you can clearly still play if, if something doesn't come about this year, which you consider doing television for our basketball games this year. And I said what does that look like? And he said, well, we'll pay you $1000 a game, probably have 20 games for you. And I said Well, I live in California. They said that's fine, we'll fly you in.

Speaker 1: 29:14

And sure enough, I make that decision. When no real offer presents itself, none from the NBA, I could go back to Europe, but I'm kind of over it and so I make that transition. I do two years of BYU basketball games, which isn't enough to live on, but it's a foot in the door and it teaches me the craft of broadcasting, at maybe not the highest level, although we are working for, like, the NBC affiliate in Salt Lake City, which is not bad level, but it's friendly fire. I'm a known name to the BYU fans. And I turns out I like it, I'm good at it, I work my tail off at it, and the next summer I decide, well, heck, I want to do this at the highest level.

Speaker 1: 30:02

So I called the Clippers. The Clippers are the last team I played for in the NBA and you know, I grew up in LA, and so I call them and I say, hey, I'd like to broadcast your games. They said, well, we have longtime broadcaster A and longtime broadcaster B, who's Bill Walton. He's a Hall of Famer. He says we're going to continue with them. And I said what about radio? They said, well, our radio guy is a, he's a play by play guy. He said You're a former athlete and he's a longtime radio stud. And I'm like crap, I go. Well, I'm fluent in Spanish. I said, let me, let me broadcast your games on the radio in Spanish. Okay, and they're like no, they're like that's ridiculous.

Speaker 1: 30:47

I said, well, the Lakers have a Spanish television broadcast and radio. You're in the same market, you know. I said, let's, let's go create it. And you know they said, well, we don't have the station, we don't have the ads. I said, listen, I'll find the station, I'll go sell the ads. And they're like Can you broadcast in Spanish A and B? Can you do it play by play? And Tim, the answer was no and no. And I said yes and yes, well, but they called me back two weeks later and said no, we've decided not to do it.

Speaker 1: 31:20

And that was probably typical of Clipper management at the time. They weren't risk takers, they were bottom feeders and, you know, just kind of really yielding the fruits of the NBA as a whole, but they weren't really innovative and changing anything. And the odd thing is it's wonderful how God works sometimes because I made that request to them. They then called me back and I don't know what I'm going to do the next year, I guess broadcast another year of college games. But they called me back and they said hey, since you can do play by play, we're not thrilled with our radio guy In English okay do you want to send us a tape and, and you know, put together a real of you doing play by play.

Speaker 1: 32:10

Okay, so here's where it gets crazy. The current TV broadcaster for the Clippers at the time was a great radio broadcaster. Like started in Peoria, illinois. It was fantastic. He reaches out and he says If you want my help, I'll help you. And so for like two weeks we worked together and he taught me how to be a radio play by play guy and I basically at that point watched a game on TV with the volume off and recorded myself into a cassette deck with a microphone and a cord and mailed them the tape and they hired me on the spot, nice. And. And so thus begins my real broadcasting career, but not as an analyst.

Speaker 1: 32:57

So now I do four years of radio play by play for the NBA as a former first round pick. That's only been done in the history of the league by me and by again him, hot rod Hunley, who's a long time now passed on, but great broadcaster. He was the first pick in the draft back in the fifties out of West Virginia and he became a 30 year broadcaster for the New Orleans and Utah Jazz and he was fantastic, but he and I are the only two to do that. Wow. And so now fast forward. Tim and I've won like five Emmys, and I transitioned from radio to TV.

Speaker 1: 33:32

I became an analyst on TV for the Clippers for 20 years and now I work for the Utah Jazz. So I'm still doing it, I still love it. It's always been a passion of mine and it's been a passion of mine, and even though it's not the only thing I do, it's fun, it's exciting, and if I have a game tomorrow, for example, that'll be the Utah Jazz, the Phoenix Suns, and I'll dig into the minutia and the details and create phrases and thoughts and try and bring the best I got to the fan base of Salt Lake City in Utah to, you know, lighten up that game and make it come out. Lighten up that game and make it come alive for them.

Speaker 2: 34:17

Right, wow. Well, we're 31 minutes into the first segment here and I've got to take a break, pay some bills, and I'm going to come back with the tech entrepreneurship and I'm going to have to help you help me pronounce some of these names. So can you stand by for one second?

Speaker 1: 34:35

Yep, I sure can.

Speaker 2: 34:37

Okay, stand by, I'd cast you right back. You got it. Buying a gun is no ordinary purchase. Whether you're a hunter, competitive shooter or self defense is your priority. There are many kinds of guns and many kinds of training programs. You use your brain all the time. You will really need to use your gun before you find yourself in a situation where you need to make a critical decision. Make sure your training is the best you can get. It could be the difference between life and death or freedom or detention. For the best quality training, check out permit2carryus. If you live in Minnesota or Wisconsin or even Florida, give Gene German a call 612-388-2403. That's permit2carryus. Or call Gene German at 612-388-2403. Welcome at the HuttCast. Mike Smith is in the VIA remote studio and I left off in the last segment of tech entrepreneurship With your involvement with tech startups like is it Roboto.

Speaker 1: 35:56

It is.

Speaker 2: 35:57

And Tula Health data mob Data mob Data mobility.

Speaker 1: 36:03

short for data mobility would be data mob.

Speaker 2: 36:05

Okay, what intrigues you about the tech industry and how do you see your software technology shaping the future of sports broadcasting? And then, what are you doing now with it?

Speaker 1: 36:16

Oh, what a great question. So if you remember back a little ways, you know there was a little bit of fear of the unknown right. Like what does a guy who's been an athlete his whole life, although a little bit of an academic scholar, you know what does he do, how does he find himself? And in today's world, I didn't play in an NBA where we made enough money to retire, especially 10 kids and colleges life moving fast and a couple of stock market crashes, right.

Speaker 1: 36:47

You know you name it right. Life moves on. You keep working, you keep reinventing yourself and you know, I think of my father who worked one job for 40 years and retired. It's just not the world that is today and it's not the world I've grown up in. So I just began to and this is going back about six years I began to say yes to things. So I just began to and I think it goes from like my high school football, where I just said yes and it ended up being the thrill of my life. This summer I tried to qualify for the United States senior amateur in golf. I didn't grow up a golfer and I made it. Wow, like I consider that a much more difficult thing to achieve than making the NBA. Believe it or not for a guy six foot 10 who didn't grow up playing golf and I just I just have begun to say yes and go for things.

Speaker 2: 37:56

You're doing the Jim Carrey.

Speaker 1: 37:59

Well yes, man, he never says no yeah yeah, yeah, and he's so I mean, he's so talented but he and I'm not an expert at anything, but I'm good at a few things and so I'm also a quick learner. And so I got approached by these guys who had developed an app and it was called Ghostcast, and I said, yes, I'll be involved. And that journey with Ghostcast, although not fruitful, taught me so much about the investment world, about pitching a new startup, about connecting people, connecting money to a deal, connecting ideas to people, connecting person A to person B, and I realized that I had a value and asset with people I knew my ability to present and my ability to I don't know maybe simplify, maybe hard things in terms of the tech world and explain them in layman's terms. And so I began to modulate and orchestrate my new business career. And so along the way, I meet a guy who's fabulous at all the things I just described and I brought him into one of my deals and we so connected and he's had a distinguished career in Los Angeles and wildly successful. But we found a kinship with one another, with how he presents his full of integrity, his character, the companies he aligned with, and he then tasked me why don't you go find. Since you live in Utah, where tech is booming, why don't you go find a company that's on the rise and I'll help you align with them and we together will help that company boost their sales and we will connect them to some of the biggest CEOs and CFOs in the world, and we'll see if we can do that with one company.

Speaker 1: 40:24

He says I already do it and I do it very successfully. He says but I'm going to tell you this, and here's the one thing he says I will not attach my name to anything that's not best in class. So, a I better like the CEO or the founder. B they better have something really innovative. And C they better be headed up the pipeline like they're. They've got something so unique and whether that's cost savings methodology or or a tech that's so innovative that it's going to change the landscape.

Speaker 1: 40:58

And so I kind of set out to do that and in the midst of doing that, formed an alignment with him and a little company together, and you could call it a consulting company or a hyper sales company, but in essence, what we do is we end up representing companies that are on the rise and we connect them to places they can't get to. But we help them with biz dev, we help them with presentation, we help them with go to market and we help them mostly with storytelling. So he, in a previous life, was making decisions on what movies should be made, and I, in a previous and current life, take large bits of information and, you know, modify them and minimize them into small bits of digestible information that are usable on television. So I'll take a five minute story and get it into a 40 second little piece that is usable on a TV clip, because that's what I do for a living and so we're able to do that together. So the companies you mentioned, whether they're SnagTag or Roboto or Tula or Datamob and others, cardio, miracles and other we align with those companies and then give our best efforts to boost their success and help their growth.

Speaker 1: 42:15

And, lo and behold, tim, I found a new call it money path or career path that still allows me to broadcast and be on TV but at the same time finally build something for my family and my posterity, which, as a broadcaster and as an athlete, I really didn't have the opportunity because in both those fields I was only as good as my last performance, but in this case I could build something.

Speaker 1: 42:45

There's another company called Apollo Streams.

Speaker 1: 42:48

They are a small company here in Utah that is streaming all of high school sports with cell phones and iPads and I aligned with them and I'm building a junior broadcasting program for them with a subscription model where I create video content with all of my broadcasting friends that teaches young junior high kids how to broadcast.

Speaker 1: 43:14

They can just log on and pay a subscription fee and get the best content in the world from Emmy award-winning broadcasters and in the case that their athletic career doesn't pan out, they start creating reels with their phone and high school sports at a very young age and they'll become tomorrow's broadcasters. So I don't know that I'm great at this yet, but it's been about a five-year journey now and I'm having the time of my life and I guess I've just realized that when you say yes to things, you open up your mind to new worlds where you could potentially thrive. They don't all hit it big, but it's just fascinating to me and I'm loving it and it's super cool and I'm in a world now where I've identified what skills I might have that are really starting to be accentuated, so I'm super excited.

Speaker 2: 44:14

Well, when you get to that point, remember to mention Huttcast, so that I can join up on that.

Speaker 1: 44:21

For sure, but with your following you're well ahead of my help, but it's great to be with you.

Speaker 2: 44:30

Now talk to me about cardio-miracle. Is it Miracle Mile or?

Speaker 1: 44:35

Cardio Miracle. No, Cardio Miracle.

Speaker 2: 44:37

Okay, and you've just given us a heck of a description on this whole thing. How does that fit in with the Miracle Mile, or Miracle?

Speaker 1: 44:48

So the founder of Cardio Miracle, john Hewlett, who we could say serendipitously discovered Cardio Miracle because, went in for an appendix and operation like a ruptured appendix and they discovered that his heart wasn't healthy and he was an insurance genius, had built up a fantastic portfolio in the insurance business but they were about to open him up and do quadruple bypass and for whatever reason or another, they didn't because of, I think, the conflicting appendix at the same time, but gave him these strict admonitions you better get your heart in good health. And so he, long story short, gave up his insurance career to then get into the nutritional world and try and solve his heart health. He did that with a company and became a distributor for a company and helped them create a product which facilitated the production of nitric oxide. And through all this he discovered that nitric oxide is like the number one ingredient to arterial strength and capillary cleansing and increased blood flow and these healthy arteries which ended up kind of cleansing his heart health. And thus he never had the so-called needed surgery. And he then evolved from that nutritional company and said I want to use the finest ingredients. And they end up having some sort of a bifurcation because they felt differently about it and he ended up going out on his own, left that million dollar a year business and started Cardio Miracle some 10, 12 years ago and has created a product this product.

Speaker 1: 46:45

While I'm not a doctor, I am an athlete and a health fitness advocate and knowledgeable person in that regard. I'm a yogi and a weightlifter and a swimmer and still a competitor in pickleball and high level amateur golf, even though no more basketball. I began taking this product, met the founder, john. He became aware of my not only relationship to him and health and fitness and we formed an alignment where I'm now happy to represent this product. But it's a product that contains the finest ingredients in the world, meaning organic vegetables and beefs and so on, but also arginine and citrulline, which are substances which get into your blood vessels and your endothelial walls and help produce the gas nitric oxide, and nitric oxide in the walls of the arteries and veins ends up producing and is responsible for vasodilation. The primary function of that is to help smooth muscle tissue in your blood vessels. They widen, they dilate, they contract or relax and nitric oxide becomes this molecule which communicates with blood in its liquid form and it's essential for life and many critical body functions like keeping the arteries young and flexible. And anyway, I sound like I'm preaching, but a man is only as old as his arteries are. If you can keep these arteries flexible, because they're going to become less flexible with age and disease, right, that's caused mostly by depleting levels of nitric oxide production as we get older. Every decade, almost like a woman's eggs, you produce less and less of this nitric oxide and they can decline over 10% per decade. But if you can keep this production up, then your arteries can stay young and flexible and free flowing in the blood.

Speaker 1: 49:04

Now that's not Mike Smith, a doctor, talking. Those are studies that have been proven and those studies can be researched and found. Dr Judy Minkovits is one study which clearly describes any of this, but I can't speak to that because I'm not a doctor. I've read those studies. I might believe in those studies, but what I believe in is this incredibly easily soluble and digestible powder form, one product that I can mix with water every morning and then every evening and in essence, tim, it's replaced my need to I don't know hydrate or eat in the morning right away, and it's also replaced any need I ever had for a sugar fix in the evening before bed. So I would say, combined with me eliminating sugar, just kind of serendipitously, because I like this product, I've gone from, in about six months, 230 pounds and, let's say, 13-14% body fat, which is well below, say, the 20 I should be at my age, to 218 pounds and 7% body fat.

Speaker 1: 50:23

And sleeping great, waking up with renewed energy. Can't wait to get to the gym. First thing, competing in pickleball. I won my first tournament that I competed in with my daughter, a mixed doubles, you know, near pro level, 4.5. Wow, I told you already that I qualified for the United States senior amateur this year, although cardio miracle would have nothing to do with golf and your performance, except that I feel great, I can practice longer, I can swing.

Speaker 1: 50:55

It's helped remove all the inflammation out of my body. That's a major thing for somebody who played basketball forever. So at my age I should have ankle pain and knee pain and back pain. I have none of those, like none of those that could be due to my yoga. It could be due to my swimming and my lifting, but I'm telling you that I feel 10 years younger than I am on the calendar and it's incredible. I feel like now what I haven't done is gotten on a treadmill and done an oxygen test, right when you do a stress test on your heart. I should have done it six months ago, before I started taking the product, and do it now.

Speaker 2: 51:43

So you're going to have an AB reading.

Speaker 1: 51:44

Something I'm going to take. I purposely had my blood tested four months ago and it's now time for me to go back and get the readings again. I cannot wait to see what they are. So you could have me on again, or you could have me on just a little snippet of your program and say, hey, did you ever take those blood tests post cardiomiracle for four months and what were the results? I'll be able to tell you and we'll tell you honestly if there's been any change and what those changes would be. But it's fantastic and I guess I could tell you not unlike my tech business, where I refuse to take on a company, and this would be monthly that I'm saying no to three or four companies now that they realize what I can do.

Speaker 1: 52:34

I'm saying no to companies who I don't think move the needle enough. It's not because I'm a jerk, it's not because I'm arrogant. I just won't waste the time of my contacts if I don't feel like they have something super sine qua non Right Chat and phrase for without equal, if they're not best in class, I'm not doing it. And so it took me a while to come to that conclusion with cardiomiracle. But I'm convinced not only by what I've read, the studies, the doctor reports, but it's more to me than any, the real feeling I have inside, and so I promoted wholeheartedly, I'm introducing it to my world of the NBA and hopefully that gets me to every sports team in America and every sports team across the world, because I want university athletes on this product, I want anybody who is vaccinated on this product. I just think it's really almost godly inspired.

Speaker 1: 53:46

Hold on that sounds crazy, but that's how I feel.

Speaker 2: 53:49

You said anybody who is or isn't vaccinated.

Speaker 1: 53:52

Well, both, both right. Despite proteins of some of the vaccines yeah, they're designed to attack the endothelial walls and cardiomiracle, although let's say, not proven, but from what I know from the arterial strength and the blood flow, this would be counteractive to some of the ill effects we've seen.

Speaker 2: 54:16

So your meters turned all the way up to 11. I get that and you're feeling good, but we're not 20 anymore, I'm 57. And I feel it. I'm not in the sports world, but I'm in the tech world. I'm in the computer car world, I'm in building hot rod worlds and I'm over a hood for a long time. I'm running machines. I feel it in all my joints. What the question I have now is you have 10 kids. Okay, you see where I'm going with this. You have 10 kids. Does the miracle help you staying up with those 10 kids? Cause that's a lot of kids to be chasing after.

Speaker 1: 54:58

I'm not sure I know where you're going with it, but if you're talking about how do you balance that professional? Intimacy and performance, If you are no, no, no, no.

Speaker 2: 55:13

I feel better than.

Speaker 1: 55:14

I ever have in that regard. So if you're not, no, no, no, that's totally fine If you're just talking about energy and chasing these 10 kids.

Speaker 2: 55:23

Yes.

Speaker 1: 55:23

Yes, oh gosh. Yes, I do, and, granted, most of my kids are old, right, I have eight of them that are out of the house.

Speaker 1: 55:31

My final two were sophomores in high school, but only although the older eight are off the payroll, Thank goodness, the only three are married. And so you know there's five older. I say older, but you know anywhere from 24 to 32 who are single, and although all of them embarking on, you know, a successful quest and career, which I'm super proud of, you know we stressed education. They're all doing really well. I almost have one of everything. I got a doctor, I got a pilot, I got a volleyball coach, I got an English teacher, I got a digital marketer.

Speaker 1: 56:17

What else do I have? I got a summer sales guy, an entrepreneur, Nice, I have a lawyer, and so on and so forth, and now we think we're getting an architect and a musician with the last two. So it's. But yes, I'm healthy and I'm chasing those kids and as we open the show, Tim, the most important things to me in life are God and family. And in a world that I think is really conflicted and confused these days and sometimes those conflicting lines, you know, find their way down to right and wrong and I want to be here and I want to be that voice of reason to my children, Not where I'm imposing my will upon them, but that I'm going to advise re-roll.

Speaker 1: 57:17

Yeah, someone. They can turn to Dad. What do you think about this, dad? You know you've been through this. What do you think about this? And you know how do you raise a superstar Right? That's a fantastic question. How do you do that? They all come out Tim. They all come out different. I have 10, and not one of them is exactly like I am, and I don't mean athletically or physically, I mean emotionally and mentally. Like if just one of my 10 were the carbon copy of me, I would know exactly how to raise Right, what motivates them, how to react to discipline, how to intrigue them, how to inspire them, how to chastise them, how to get the best out of them. But they're all some sort of a combo and so they're different.

Speaker 2: 58:09

The compass is spinning right.

Speaker 1: 58:13

I'm a good person, okay, like I don't have bad habits, and I think just by being a good person in life, I think it's pretty easy to be a good father. Sure, I think it's really hard in life to be an outstanding father or an outstanding spouse and husband, like I don't have drug habits and I don't have criminal habits and so those things. They don't enter into my way of thinking, and so I could float through life and be average to good at the husband and father thing and that's fine, right, maybe it's ahead of the norm. I don't even know if it's ahead of the norm, maybe it's average, maybe it's below average. But I think it takes effort and work to be great at those two things and I think those are my two most important callings here on earth. I think those are the two hardest to become great at, but also the ones we should try our best to be great at.

Speaker 2: 59:20

So, after all this information and what a wonderful, wonderful podcast here, I'm glad you came on and I thank you for that. I just you know how do you balance this professional life with the family and commitments and roles? I mean, because that's 10 kids, two grandkids. The only thing we're missing is a partridge in a pear tree.

Speaker 1: 59:41

I'm married to the woman of my dreams and she is the CEO of the home and she's just an amazing person.

Speaker 1: 59:49

She had a career before as an actress and a model.

Speaker 1: 59:54

She had a career as a flight attendant and she was CEO of a medical company at one point, and she's just like the CEO of the home. So that means, you know, finding out the very best that my children that are still in home, and 15 year olds, need. It is the responsible one and the one who's helping the young mothers you know, our children who are just having their first child and helping them through that stage, and she's fantastic and so she takes care of herself, she cooks homemade meals and eats right and she works out. She's a very young, 61 year old phenom and I love her to death and there's no way I could balance it all without what she does, because work is work and there needs to be time for family and there needs to be time for, you know, my jazz broadcasts at the same time, but we try and prioritize, you know, church on the weekends and family events and take care of the rest of it. It's not easy, but she's an alpha and I'm grateful for her.

Speaker 2: 1:01:06

Got to have the alphas right. Yeah, Mike, thank you for your time today. I know you're running around and now.

Speaker 1: 1:01:15

you're most welcome and congrats on all your success. I can't, I can't believe your reach. That's just, that's just amazing. So I'm, I'm, honored that you wanted to have me on and it's fun. It's fun to tell stories and it's fun to have somebody ask you questions and, you know, admire your resume. It's, you know, we live in a world where comparison is everything right and I at times don't feel like I'm I'm much of anything, but I just know I'm. I'm going to keep trying and try hard to be great at whatever I put my sink my teeth into. So it's, it's. It's really, really been fun being on.

Speaker 2: 1:02:02

Well, in the words of Joe Dirt, joe Dirt or Dirtay, you just keep on keeping on right.

Speaker 1: 1:02:08

True, well, thanks again. Well, good luck to you Is this is this your cell number? That was it was texting me before. Yes.

Speaker 2: 1:02:18

Please, please, save it for me and I'll put, I'll put yours on mine.

Speaker 1: 1:02:21

Okay, Tim, thank you.

Speaker 2: 1:02:22

Thank you and have a good rest of your weekend, and I'll and then let's catch up again soon See how that card Cardio, worked for you.

Speaker 1: 1:02:28

You got it. I really appreciate it Okay.

Speaker 2: 1:02:31

Bye, bye.

Speaker 1: 1:02:37

Hello everyone. I'm Mike Smith, former NBA basketball player, current broadcaster for the Utah Jazz, and I've discovered a product that can change your life. It's called Cardio Miracle. That contains the finest of ingredients anywhere Organic vegetables, beets and I try and be a healthy guy, but the thing that it does does contain is arginine and citrulline, which helps promote the production of nitric oxide the Nobel Peace winning nitric oxide from 1998, that our body tends to produce less and less of as we get older. It is replete with that production and our body needs it. They have arterial strength, heart health and capillary cleansing, and I've been taking it for six months and I feel fantastic.

Speaker 2: 1:03:38

And that's a wrap for Hutcast. Hutcast is again a pragmatic approach to seeing things how some people see them. If you like our show, give us a thumbs up on the Facebook site. Again for Hutcast. Thank you again. Have a wonderful evening.