Doug Melville welcomes Lanny Smith to discuss his pivot from basketball to entrepreneurship as the founder of athleisure brand Actively Black. Lanny recounts playing college basketball and signing as an undrafted free agent with the Sacramento Kings shortly before a knee injury ended his NBA career after 33 days, triggering an identity crisis.
He explains how faith helped him launch his first brand, Active Faith, which Steph Curry later partnered in, and how experiences with racism and the 2020 social climate led him to launch Actively Black.
Lanny discusses the brand's “This Is Not a Fashion Show” New York Fashion Week event, featuring figures such as Ruby Bridges and the daughters of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. As always, Doug closes by asking his guest for the best advice they've received, and Lanny talks about rejecting fear.