Stephen A. Smith knows what his value is in Bristol. He was on 94.7 The Block on Wednesday morning to promote his new podcast Know Mercy, which is being produced by The Block’s parent company, Audacy.
During the conversation, Block morning host Miss Jones asked Smith about how he sees his on value in the media world. Smith answered that he began to better understand what his place in the business was and what it could be in 2009 when ESPN declined to renew his first contract with the network.
“Popularity wasn’t my name in the streets, somebody saying ‘Stephen A!’ Popularity wasn’t myself on billboards. Popularity was the ratings and the revenue I brought in, and how I was able to get that information and thereby monetize myself, me recognizing how much I was truly worth rather than using popularity to determine that. And once I had that informational muscle to support what I believed about myself, suddenly I sat up there and I changed my attitude, not just because of what I learned about me, but that same knowledge I learned about my bosses.”
Smith went on to say that he changed his approach and focused not on being right, but instead on what he could do to make the network more money. Once the network saw that was his goal, he found it easier to accomplish the goals he had for his career.
Jones asked what that meant for disagreements between he and his bosses at ESPN.
“I’m a businessman,” Stephen A. Smith said. “You come to me and you tell me that something is affecting the bottom line, I’m all ears. Because we’re in this together, and it’s a business relationship and I understand that. That doesn’t mean you own my thinking. That doesn’t mean I’m going to march lock-step with you 100 percent of the time.”
He added that changing his thinking and gaining a true understanding of his value to the network helped him in those situations where he may say something ESPN isn’t fully on board with. Those conversations are not him on the receiving side of a lecture anymore.
“Of course, I have to listen and to some degree capitulate to what they want. But I usually get my way. They usually listen to me. Because they trust me, and they trust that I’m thinking about them as much as I’m thinking about myself when it comes to business. That’s respect that I hope I have with anybody I choose to do business with because I never think about just myself as I’m conducting business.”
Stephen A. Smith will drop the first episode of Know Mercy on Monday, September 26. New episodes will premier every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
