Hey, y'all, it's your girl, Dr. Malika with Miles Smith. I'm so happy to be able to share with you his Pivot experience. As you know, we talk to folks who have intentional and unexpected changes in their life, but they still come out on the winning side.
So, Miles Smith, he is the Cincinnati Reds 2024 seventh round draft pick from University of California, Irvine, which is where he played first in college. We're just really excited to have him here today to talk about his Pivot experience and some changes that have brought him to the winning side and doing exactly what it is that he would like to do in life. So, Miles, welcome to Pivot. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you for having me. Thank you. Awesome being here.
I know you are busy, so we wanted to just grab a little bit of your time and just talk with you a little bit. And let's just start with, you know, who is Miles Smith? One of the things I found out about Miles is that sports is not new. It's not new for your family.
You have a brother who plays baseball, assistant who plays volleyball. Your father played professional baseball, right? Yep, for a long time. For a long time, which is exciting.
Like, this is a generational blessing, right? It is, absolutely. Absolutely. And I love that.
I love that. And I see that a lot with kids in sports and parents in sports, how they can just take the skills and abilities and then let's pass that down and just really plant that seed. But also, it seems like it's something that you enjoy. So let's talk to you, Miles, and let's hear about Miles Smith and baseball.
How'd you get started? Yeah. Well, you know, it was like I talked about, my dad played for a long time. So it's always, you know, it's always been a part of the family.
And it was the first sport that I ever got put in when I was three or four in a little tee ball league down the street from our house. And I think I won, like, the MVP of that little, like, month-long league. And after that, you know, it just took off from there. And I never stopped playing.
And I never stopped loving it. So that's how it all started. That's how it all started. And so it's something that you love, which that's, you always appreciate that.
We know plenty of our young people out there who might be playing sports for different reasons. But when you play it because you enjoy it and you love it, then that makes the difference, right? Absolutely. It makes all the difference in the world.
So talk a little bit about your experience. You know, when we see players who are in the major leagues, we're like, wow, look at this. You know, we see them now. We see the uniform and we see them on the field.
But talk a little bit about that pivot, you know, before you even got to this point, because it hasn't always been easy, correct? Absolutely not. Definitely not. Yeah.
So my first two years of college, or actually backtracked to high school. Okay. High school, it was a really good time for me in baseball. I was playing really well and I was getting looked at by major league teams to get drafted out of high school.
I ended up going to college thinking that, or with plans that I would perform really, really well in college. And then my draft stock would raise. And then in three years after my junior, sophomore, junior year, I would, you know, I would get picked higher, make some more money. But that wasn't the case.
My freshman year, I had some physical and some mental health issues that I had to overcome. Okay. And it led to, I didn't play much my freshman year, but that's okay. Freshman year, freshman, it's sometimes it's hard to get on the field as a freshman and, you know, beat out those veteran players.
So I didn't get much playing time then. And then my sophomore year, I played. I earned my spot, but I just was not performing at all. And that became a time for me where I was, you know, thinking to myself, man, and professional baseball was always the goal.
But during that time, it became like, damn, am I really going to be able to do this? You're from Alaska and, you know, you played differently? Played differently. Yes.
So mechanics changed, mindset. I also formed a relationship with Christ. Okay. I formed that as well.
Now, was that in Alaska or was that when you got back? It was in Alaska. It was in Alaska. And that was the story that I heard another player talk about, or the story that the player told.
It was about his relationship with God and how he came to be. And his path to finding him was like, it was almost identical to what I went through my first year of college. Right. And I was just, I was sitting there like, and it was like, I went there because it was before a game.
And they were like, oh, people are going to, some of the players are going to read their testimony. And I was like, okay, like, yeah, listen. And I sat and listened. And I was like, oh my gosh.
Wow. And I came home. I came home. I told my parents about it.
And ever since then, my parents are also Christian as well. Yes. But I didn't really, absolutely love them. But I grew up around it, but I never really, never really took it in.
And now I've taken it in fully. And I feel like that's also been a big, big part of the success and the pivot. Yes. Yes.
Yes. So you established this. It's funny because we've been studying, we've been talking about intimate relationship with God, right? That intimate relationship, not just your mom and dad's God, right?
It's yours. Like he's, you know, and he sent you to Alaska and met you there. Yep. Exactly.
He did. He met you there, brought you back. And now, you know, it seems like things just, it was like a domino. It was.
It really was. Wow. Yeah. I still think about it now.
Wow. Like it's, it's crazy. Wow. Wow.
So how do you feel, you know, so talk a little bit about the, you know, just the new game of the draft pick and how has that been for you? And have you found yourself continuing to draw closer to God even in that time? Because there's so much that's happening around you, a lot of voices, a lot of folks talking, a lot of advice. You know, how do you balance all of that and still continue to keep that, that revelation or that epiphany or that fire that you got from Alaska?
Well, right now it's not as, as busy and a whole lot of this and a whole lot of that as it might get in the future, but it's, I'm still, you know, doing things and, and it has been busy, but before I got here, things were all over the place, you know, meetings and workouts and stuff like that. So there was a lot of, you know, time being consumed, but I just, I make sure that, you know, I always find like some sort of time, even if it's 30 seconds, I pray every day. I pray before games. I pray, I pray about three or four times before every game I play.
Um, and I just, I feel like as long as I'm, you know, and there's always more that I could be doing to get closer to him, of course, but with, with the, you know, what I do every day, I feel like as long as I'm devoting a little teeny bit of time to him every day, I'm doing what I can to, to continue that relationship and to build that relationship with him. So. That's so good. What do you tell folks or younger athletes out there who are finding that this path to success, if you will, um, there's not, it's not a straight path, right?
And what do you tell young athletes that you might talk to who say, well, I admire what you're doing, Miles, how do I get there? What, what, what, what do I need to do to get to this level? Um, the, the first thing I always tell people, and it actually started happening, like people have been, you know, younger kids have been sliding into my Instagram DMs, like, hey, Miles, big fan. And it's never really happened to me.
I always have to think about, you know, what to say. But my, my, my biggest thing is have fun because these are, and if you, if you love the sport, you love it. And these are times that you're never going to get back. So, so I think the main thing you need to do is have fun because again, like I said before, it's a game that's supposed to be fun.
Um, and you know, you just work hard as well, because I mean, if you're not going to get anywhere, if you don't work hard and I, and I, I learned that the, the not so easy way. And the, my first, my first, if I was maybe 15 or 16 years old, maybe even 17 years old, I was playing baseball purely off of my God given talent. Wow. I would, I would hit maybe once a week, maybe, but I wasn't really motivated to go and lift, to go work out.
My parents had to, you know, they had to get on me a little bit. Like you want to like do this seriously, then you need to start taking it seriously and work harder. We shouldn't have to tell you to go, go for a run or go work out. You should be getting up and want to do that on your own.
But we can't, I was 15, 15, 16, 17 years old. It was, and still to this day, sometimes too, my parents are like, like, what are you going to do today? Like, you need to get up and go do something. Even though you did something yesterday, you need to do something.
So that's having fun and work hard. And yeah, I mean, there's so many things that go into it, but those are like the two main things that I preach. Just have fun and work your tail off. Right, right, right.
Because it'll pay off. Go ahead, sorry. No, no, you're fine. What have been some challenges just recently?
Like, what are things that you can find like, oh man, like this is, this has been challenging for me? Um, I feel like here it's, it's challenging to not compare yourself to others. Okay. Um, cause you know, they're, they're round, they're 20 rounds in the draft every year.
Um, and so you see guys that maybe got drafted before you and they do something really, really good. I wish I could do that. I wish, you know, man, like he's playing really well. He's playing better than me.
You know, I wonder what the coaches are thinking of me and you know, this and that. Right. I just, you can't do it. You can't do it because at the end of the day, you're not that person.
You're, you're, you're, you're your own person. Right. And you're there. Like I've been telling myself cause I've been, you know, I've been struggling with that a little bit.
I see someone do something, but I got here and we're in the same place. Right. So, so I'm doing something right. Right.
So that's been the main challenge for me, I think. But, but I found myself snapping out of that really quickly and, and getting back to, you know, that the positive thoughts of, you know, you got here too, you're in the same place as this person and you're just as deserving. And even if you do something that, you know, or even if someone else does something a little bit better than you this day, then it doesn't really matter. Right.
Cause you can go out tomorrow and do something better than that person the day after that. Right. Well, that's a, that's a critical piece. I think, especially in sports is, um, comparison, right?
Because social media mixtapes, you know, um, I have both, I have two sons, football, one plays basketball, it's really focused on basketball, but you see other athletes, your AAU, you know, counterparts who are out there or other folks that you might've played football with in high school. And now you're in college, you're seeing, you know, people in yours, you really do. You can't get caught up in the web of comparison. Absolutely.
It has the ability to stifle growth and it takes you back to the mindset, you know, what you think about yourself. So that, that is interesting and very, very real. The whole idea. It is real.
It's, it's the thief of joy. Ah, yes, it is. Do you have a quote, something that you really continue to say in your mind to help you snap out of things, or I know you said your parents will remind you sometimes, but is there a quote, is there a song, is there a thing that you really use to, um, kind of motivate you and get, get you moving? Yeah.
So actually I have a bunch of tattoos on my body and, um, and I, I love, I love tattoos. I, but I love, you know, when they have meaning to them. Right. Um, so I have two quotes that I, that I sort of live by.
Um, one of them is one who knows fear will never know success. And it was the first tattoo I ever got. And I like, I came up with it when I was like 16 or 17 at the dinner table one night. Yeah.
And it's something that I like, something that I live by just because you can't, you can't do anything if you're scared. One who knows fear will never know success. That's good. And then, and then my other one, it's fall forward.
I don't know if you might've seen it. Denzel Washington, uh, he, he was a keynote speaker at, I think it was the university of Pennsylvania, their graduation a long time ago. Okay. Um, and he said, and part of the speech he was talking about, like when, when you have something that you want to do in your life and someone asks, Oh, so if that doesn't work, what are you going to have to fall back on?
And his whole, his whole speech was like, why fall back when you can fall forward? Ah, that's good. That's good. So, and I watched it.
There was a phase where I watched it like probably three times a week. Right. I got it tattooed and funny story. I got it tattooed and I spelled it wrong.
Um, I know. So, um, it's on my, on my arm. It's fall forward. Okay.
Um, but it's become, I know, and it's become this, this whole thing with my family, with my teammates, where like, they, they all know it. They all love it. I'll be up to bat and be like, Hey, fall forward. So it's become, it's become a whole thing.
I love that. I love that. I spoke on resilience one time, and that was one of the things I read an article about falling forward. Um, get up and fall forward.
That's awesome. I love that. I love that. It's great.
I love that. Super good quote. Because you never fall then. Right.
Exactly. You, you might, you, you, that's what's next. I mean, you're always thinking, what's next then? I'm not going to, you don't stay, you don't stay down.
And I think it's something that a lot of times people struggle with. Um, so I need some time to think about this. And I'm more of a person like, okay, well, let's get moving. Like, I'll deal with my emotions as I'm moving forward.
Right. Not saying I won't cry. Not saying I won't, you know, stop, you know, and think through this and feel sad, but I'm still moving. So I love that.
I love it. And so, you know, I was doing a little homework and I saw one thing we would not know about Miles Smith is that you did some acting. Yeah, I did. I was a, I was a little child actor.
My mom, my mom is an actress. Okay. Um, so when all of my siblings, when we were all young, she would just, she put us in commercials and I got pretty good at it. And so I acted for up until, from like birth or when I was a little baby, there's, there are things that I've acted in that I don't even remember because I was so young.
Right. So like super young all the way up until I was like 12 or 13, seventh grade. And I stopped because I missed a baseball game because I have to go to a callback for a commercial. Wow.
And I was like, I was like, mom, I'm not doing this anymore. I don't want to miss baseball anymore. What did your mom say? I'm curious.
She was, she was fine with it. She still kind of throws, you know, little, little things out there about me, like getting back into it. But you know, she, she always knew that this was, this was the goal. So, so she's, she's living with the decision.
All right. I love it. Yes. You were in House of Lies.
You were in Paris. Anything else? We, you know, you were in a lot of commercials and when I tell people, they're like, oh my gosh, I don't believe you. I'm going to look it up.
And I always show them. There's one, it's the only commercial TV show that I can find online. Okay. And it was, it was like, it was a Kraft Mac and Cheese commercial when I was like probably three years old, three or four.
years old okay it's still out there it's still yeah it's on youtube um and i show people oh my gosh i showed i showed the trainer down here at the complex i showed our trainer the commercial and she's like oh my god there's no way there's a picture of me smiling and she put it next to my face it's so funny i love that i love that and you have uh you have a pet you like pets i have oh we have a little toy poodle her name's pumpkin she's like oh she's like probably two pounds she's oh she's so adorable i miss her so much is that your baby is that she's my baby it's she's like the the family dog okay um she she takes to my mom more than she takes to me but we all love her she's oh she's the best and she's she's like 11 or 12 and she still jumps around like a little puppy oh she's so cute so cute nice so will you be able to get back home to connect with fans yeah yeah so the season is from the spring training in february and march and then april all the way until september or like late august september is when the season ends so then from september all the way up until next spring training i have off wow so i get to go home my dad's coming down on thursday with my car okay and then he's gonna fly back and then on september 30th when our camp is done i'm gonna drive home to california and i'll spend i'll spend i think that's what four and a half months home just hanging out training and stuff back home so i'll get i'll get a good amount of time off to hang out with everybody which i'm so excited about i miss i miss my friends and family so much so and how proud is that of you following oh so proud so proud he i hope he doesn't get mad for saying this he probably won't but um i was excited he was like super super excited um and i came home one day i can't remember i just came home from my friend's house and i was sitting in the living room he always sits in the living room or in the kitchen at our little dining room table and i was like what's up he's like hey so um your draft party is gonna be here and i was like draft party like no one he's like yeah so we decided we're gonna throw it here um on the 15th i was like oh okay fine and he didn't tell me who was invited or he told me a couple people that were invited but like i didn't know the whole list and he pulled some strings and got some people he got my childhood like best friend really at the party yeah and i hadn't seen him we we keep it we keep in touch every once in a while we don't really talk very often but we were in several like we could not be separated when we were like in elementary school and he showed up and i was like like it was it was crazy so he was he was super excited my whole family was super super excited too it was it was great that's awesome i really appreciate that you're here and just having this conversation with you so many um just nuggets just in this conversation um things that you've overcome and i love the experience that you've had and i think it's important for young people to know or just people in life period to know that sometimes life takes us through some zigzags right to get to the goal right always been the professional baseball yeah and so and so but but before you got to this level you had to go through some things and you know it's really important to stay with it um stay with the goal um don't be rattled you know just make sure that you like you said kind of like the whole thing of being resilient um fall forward i love that um so yeah i just feel like something like that just carries you through like carries you through um has carried you through and now you're winning you are winning i'm winning i'm winning and i feel like i feel like once once you realize and accept that it's not going to be a straight easy path yeah and that there's going to be some bumps the easier the path gets and the easier it is to you know when when those bumps and those bruises come along the way it's a lot easier to handle them and get through them once once you are ready to accept that you know this is going to be easy and this isn't going to be handed to me right well that's right there it's not handed and i think a lot of i'll just say today's generation thinks that yeah some some yeah looking for it to be handed over or that it requires minimal work to get to the level that you're talking about or that you're on sometimes it takes it's way more than the more it takes a lot of sweat less sweat and tears you might have to cry about something you might have to you know and and here it is that you have found that god can be the anchor and that he can really see you through some tough times or that time that you went through and i think that is such a precious precious gift you know the knowledge that i've got somebody bigger than me jesus is there and he's going to see me through and that makes the difference yeah it absolutely does it always does yes yes that's awesome that's awesome so you know you know as we kind of kind of nearing the end i wonder you know what is the one thing i know you've said you know you said a lot but what is that one thing that you would say to someone right now who's like in a pivot experience like they're pivoting they're not quite there yet they feel like they haven't gotten to the winning side yet but they're in the middle of the pivot and just um just need to hear something that they can hold on to what would you share keep going keep going and continue to put your head down and work that's that would be that would be my main thing because you know there's when when you're in that pivot yeah there you're gonna find some successes um but you know that it's that like that the work's not done right um like for me it was middle of the season i'm playing fantastic you know front runner for player of the year yada yada all this but i knew that like the season wasn't over i still had you know this amount of games i still had so much to prove so i kept my head down and i just kept working and doing what i do um so that would that would be my my big piece keep keep working and just don't don't stop until even when you do get there don't don't stop don't stop don't stop your parents are still telling you even on this level right oh you're not at college right you're at that level right where athletes aspire to be and you're still getting the hey you gotta keep going yeah and i'm sure you receive that and absolutely get it i absolutely receive it and for a long time i did it my parents tell you too they used to tell me something used to be uh yeah but but now it's like right and i always knew they were right but i wasn't receiving it right and and now now i'm receiving it and it's like yeah like they're they're telling me this because they they want what's best and they know they know what's best they know they know they know what's best and here's the lovely thing you will be able to plant that seed in others right who are coming behind you you will be able to share i love one of my favorite scriptures is let your light so shine right let your light so that they may see your good works and glorify the father in heaven but i like that idea of we all have this light right um and people are drawn to it right and so i'm sure like you said there are folks who are in your dms and talking to hey i'm a fan i i saw um there was a post of you hitting like yesterday maybe it was yeah and and i think i saw where someone said uh miles smith is that guy right it's like he you know people will be drawn to you for whatever reason but we know that there's something special about miles smith that you're not just in the sleeve just to be in the sleeve but there's a work for you there's a light to be you know for you to shine and and you're going to be able to tell someone your story who's feeling or feeling like it's not working like what's happening yeah and i feel like that's something that you know i want to i want to do and i love sharing my story with with people because i i went through the ringer um and and i feel like people knowing that it gives them it gives them so much hope because you know i i went through this and i went through that and i and i had to overcome this and look where i am yes it's like like i did it yes so so people know that i did it and i want that to give them or anybody you know hope that that they can do it too like it's not it's not impossible it's never possible that's right so miles where can we find you on social media are you on yeah um yeah i'm on instagram my username my username is underscore miles smith miles with a y okay um yeah that's i'm that's all i really am on social media but yeah that's that's me miles smith well thank you thank you time out of your busy schedule listen shout out to Tara who uh shout out me to you and we're just so excited to to have you on the show this is let me just tell everybody out there watching listening this is one of many okay miles smith is he's he's gonna be out there i'm just happy to be able to have an interview have you on the show because we know that there are big things that are in store for you so thank you thank you thank you so much and thank you so much to the pivot family for watching if you're watching on youtube listening if you're on apple podcast we want to thank you for tuning into this episode of Dr. Malika um again check out miles smith um on underscore miles smith right underscore miles with a y check him out follow him let's just you know just say prayers and send positive uh love his way and so we're just so delighted for what is about to happen because we understand that when you pivot sometimes it's unexpected or intentional but we know that you come out on the winning side so thank you so much for joining us thank you miles thank you thank you so much for having me you're welcome have a wonderful rest of your day go be great well you're welcome