Two-time Emmy winner and Super Bowl Champion Michael Strahan is the perfect example of an intersection of sports and entertainment. As the co-host of ABC’s “Good Morning America,” analyst for “Fox NFL Sunday,” host of ABC’s primetime “$100,000 Pyramid” game show and headliner for the Thursday Night Football’s Fox pregame show, he explains how he manages being a multi-hyphenate in a recent episode of The AAFCA Podcast.

Strahan retired from his successful 13-year career as a defensive end with the New York Giants in 2007 and transitioned to television as an analyst for FOX NFL Sunday pre-game show in 2008. He began co-hosting the daytime talk show, “Live! with Kelly and Michael” in 2012. Strahan has also hosted the primetime game show, “100,000 Pyramid” since 2016. With so much experience on screen, Strahan admits he still gets butterflies.

“Whenever there’s the camera there, I get butterflies,” he says. “I call myself an extroverted introvert. I can be extroverted when I have to be, but when I’m outside of work and I’m just normal, I don’t like attention. I never have.”

Strahan partnered with his longtime friend Constance Schwartz to start SMAC Entertainment, a talent management, production company, and business incubator. Some of their talents include football greats Deion Sanders, Troy Aikman, and Tony Gonzalez, Snoop Dogg and Wiz Khalifa. The company also manages Strahan’s men’s suits and athleisure clothing lines, and he recently launched his own skincare line, Michael Strahan Skin. As an agency that creates multi-hyphenates, including his own diverse interests, the successful businessman is a master of keeping everything in perspective.

“You have to be able to compartmentalize,” he explains. “When I was a young player, I used to get on the football field and I literally used to think, ‘Oh man, he said something about my mama!’ to get myself fired up. But then after years […] I had to figure out a way to have a switch, to turn things on, turn things off.”

“And that has helped me do so many different jobs because each one required a different switch. ‘Good Morning America’ is a different switch from ‘FOX and NFL Sunday’, which is a different switch from ‘100,000 Pyramid,’ which is a different switch from coming to the office and working on the clothing line and skincare line to going home and being with my family. You have to be very present and I’m not halfway into anything while I’m thinking about something else – that will take care of itself when it’s time.”

In 2015, Strahan released his best-selling book, “Wake Up Happy: The Dream Big, Win Big Guide to Transforming Your Life,” a collection of motivational personal anecdotes to inspiring readers to pursue their own personal goals. With yet another feather in his ever-growing cap, the talented businessman admits he enjoys all the different facets of his ongoing success.

“I love the creative process. I love being a businessman. And again, it’s one of those things that I think I couldn’t see for myself at some point – that a lot of other people probably couldn’t see me doing. So it’s kind of moving the bar. And I love moving the bar.”

Listen to the full interview on The AAFCA Podcast.

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