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Jeff Smith

Jeff Smith

CEO of Starboard Value

Nov 4, 2026

PedroHOST
11:40
So who did you started serving and who do you serve now, Jeff?
11:44
Yeah, I would have to say, you know, early on and even today, I still do a lot of networking, you know, so I belong to Chambers.
11:53
I do B&I.
11:55
I belong to B&I.
11:57
So I really developed a network.
12:00
And the network that I tap into is what, obviously you know Dan Creed, he created the Champions Network.
12:07
And the Champions Network is talking to everybody.

13 MINS LATER

PedroHOST
25:21
Type of business advice you would give yourself, you know, past Jeff, when he started, one of the two options I gave you, you know, something like a lesson, something that actually you want to tell past Jeff to do a little bit different, you know, that you now know what that would be.
2:41
Are those on the left? Are they pro or anti flock? And why?
2:47
Yeah, I mean, it depends.
2:49
It depends? That's not an answer.
2:53
Well, that's because it doesn't break down neatly on partisan lines.
2:56
You've got some Democrats from the civil libertarian wing of the party, especially the ACLU and other folks that say, no, this is an invasion of people's privacy, and we're totally against it.
3:11
And then you have others more kind of like the center-center left, I would say the Clinton, you know, Obama wing of the party that would say, hey, all in all, these are a positive thing.
3:23
They're helping find thousands of missing children that are trafficked and they're helping reduce crime.
4:44
Is the left generally pro or anti data center?
4:47
We had the chance to catch up with him to hear how a love of drawing at a very young age changed his life forever.
4:53
Between, like, five and nine was when I really started to understand, to get into comics.
4:58
The art form, the pictures and the word balloons, and how the pacing of, as you went from panel to panel, how it, how it became real, how it c- would come alive.
5:07
I was fascinated by that.
5:08
Of course, the characters had a lot to do with it, too.
5:11
I knew that, uh, Charles Schulz created Snoopy.
5:13
I knew that Mickey Mouse was made up by Walt Disney.
7:49
At points, Jeff seemed ready to call it quits until he received some encouragement from an unlikely place.
39:33
How do you go about erasing kind of that bad plumbing, if you will, that's in our head so that we can get to the good?
39:40
Well, you know, what's interesting is, is that a lot of people ask me, like, "Well, how am I, how am I gonna overcome this? This is in my head." I'm like, "Nah, you're letting it be in your head.
39:50
How about we just start talking to ourselves differently?" Now, I'm not talking rah-rah cheerleader stuff.
39:55
How about we're saying, "Hey, Chris, you're standing on this tee.
39:58
Come on, let's walk over here to this tee box." And I'll, and I'll take them to the golf course on their bugaboo hole.
40:05
And I'll say, "All right.
40:06
Stand here and tell me what you see." And invariably, they point out all the negatives.

10 MINS LATER

50:31
Yeah.
16:05
I mean, just tell us about what do you think Fred's done?
16:08
Well, Fred and staff because Nate Linzer.
16:11
Nate Linzer on the D.
16:12
And the other – Ernie's great and Pat's great too.
16:14
They're a really good team.
16:16
And then you can't go without saying something about Kurt Joseph, the strength coach.
16:21
He also coaches minds, not just physical, but he coaches mental too.

5 MINS LATER

21:31
How does that

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