My experience is what makes me a good banker and build rapport with these athletes. So it's honestly just stories individuals recently that gave up 10 percent of their earnings for their entire career for 250, 000 before they were drafted, like how to avoid some of these issues. Talk about some of the problems and the positives that come from making a large amount of money in the early stages of their career.
From the American Bankers Association. This is the ABA Banking Journal podcast. Welcome back. I'm Evan Sparks, and I'm delighted to today's episode is presented by Alkami and I'm delighted to bring you a conversation with Brandon Ghee.
Brandon is Senior Vice President and Managing Director Of the sports and entertainment vertical at Cogent Bank which which is a very interesting sounding program, honestly, the sports and entertainment and Brandon knows where if he speaks as a former NFL player with the Cincinnati Bengals he brings a real, real world experience as a as a sports star to this to this new vertical for Cogent Bank. So, so Brandon, I really, really glad to be able to speak with you. Welcome to the show.
Yeah. Thank you. I appreciate you having me. I'm just happy to be here.
So can you tell me a little bit more about your background, how you how you, how you got from, from college and professional football into banking and what was that journey like?
No in a blessing, got a full ride to Wake Forest University. And again, drafted third round to Cincinnati Bengals played there for five years, played with the Tennessee Titans one year. I ended up moving to Tampa out of the whim. I was really heavy into real estate, purchased a lot of property after the crash. So I was lucky in 2010 and 2011. And, and honestly, I just have a passion for just a lot of my peers, as far as their just their finances.
A lot of gentlemen just didn't really have the strategy and know how to pursue. When I say pursue, it's really just saving money at the end of the day. Right. A lot of these gentlemen just need that foundation. So what happened was I kind of got into, I met a few individuals at Cogent Bank and Pinellas County branch. And then I started consulting with the bank for about three to four months. And then they offered me a full time position. And now I'm here.
That's fantastic. So, I mean, I obviously, you know, there are unique challenges associated with being a professional athlete and we are, you know, I've talked with Anna Maria Lusardi here, who's here in DC at George Washington University and probably one of the nation's most renowned financial literacy experts. And she runs this, you know, MBA program for, you know, special talent, you know, folks who, you know, in sports and entertainment, just to know how to.
You know, they have so many people coming, bringing offers. They have so many people coming to bring, you know, Hey, we're trying to get a piece of that money. And especially if you are a professional athlete, you've got a limited career in which to earn, you know, your money before your ability to earn money that way goes away. What challenges did you experience coming through the system as a collegiate athlete, then moving into the NFL?
And how did you navigate those and figure out the right way to manage manage your finances and your business opportunities?
Right, I think, first of all, our clients and athletes, you gotta understand just being a professional athlete, just a great head start. But you have a good foundation. It is quite a bit of money upfront when you're in your early twenties. However, it's really about the transition. A lot of these gentlemen don't understand that you're spending a million dollars or $2 million on the house. Even if you pay cash, there's taxes associated with that. There's, this is upkeep.
And then while you're spending, after you transition, you don't have much of a resume When you get into the real world workforce. You, you play football for three to four years. The average lifetime is really three. And then next to know you're 25, 26. You're looking to pursue a career or a job and you go from making 750, 000 a year to 50, 000. Your expenses prior to that are a lot higher.
So honestly, the issue is these guys and girls have a problem with just a transition with their expenses and how they're spending during their careers. So it's really just, again, building that foundation and teaching individuals how to invest and or save.
So can you talk a little bit about how this works at at Cogent Bank and how, you know, you've got this, got this vertical, what's the mix of products, services, education, and advice that you bring together for this, for this segment of, you know, financial services customers?
Yeah, you know, we're obviously a full service, big commercial and consumer. I work with our team with wealth management extremely closely and we build products and different things for these athletes, as far as educational tools even bring in proper CPAs to teach them about taxes. A lot of these individuals don't even know they get taxed in each state they work in, right?
Each state you play in, you, it's obviously income free here, in the state of Florida where I'm at, located, and then when you go to California, it's 13%, right? It's just teaching them the basics of, and the foundations of what they're getting into at their 20 to 22 years old, years of age. Then obviously you get into the investment courses and what they should possibly invest in stocks, bonds real estate, et cetera. So we have courses or tiers. We, I would say in stages for these athletes.
I am curious just what the scale of this segment is. I mean, there's like, there's a limited, there's a fixed number of folks in the NFL, NBA, you know, at that top level. Where else do you, how big is the universe of, of people, of people who you think can benefit from working with this particular vertical within Cogent Bank?
I mean, I think it's a large number. I mean, now you're looking at collegian after he's getting paid. We have a few gentlemen made half a million dollars in the last two years and they're 1099 employees. And again, it goes back to the education on what that is moving forward, especially when it was referring to taxes. Obviously we don't have CPAs on staff. However, We want to educate them and refer out to the proper individuals. So yes, it starts as young as 18 years old.
We're talking about the landscape of collegiate football. We're talking about thousands and thousands of kids. I mean, I call them kids, but young men and women at this point, right? So the landscape is huge. Obviously professional athletes is a small tight knit group. However, a lot of these individuals again, are making quite a bit of money in college. So you just have to really educate them early.
Yeah, I want to come back to that point in just a minute. But first I want to thank our sponsor for this episode. Alkami with marketing for net, marketing for financial institutions. It's made easy. You can accelerate your growth with financial services, marketing, automation, transaction, data cleansing, and artificial intelligence and banking. Learn more by visiting Alkami. com that's a L K a M I. com. And thanks again to Alkami. For sponsoring this episode.
So back to this conversation, you talked about college. This is something banks are on the marketing side are very interested in because it vastly, you know, the, the use, you know, the availability of name, image, and likeness licensing just vastly increases the opportunities for banks to market themselves. So folks are really interested in on that side, but it also seems like that's a vast increase in the number of opportunities.
Young athletes who really could you who, who now really need some help and an opportunity to get plugged in with them even earlier, you know, what, what, you know, how does that, how does what, how does today's landscape for college athletes compare with what it was like when you were at wake forest? You know, what's the difference there and how does a vertical like yours help meet that, fill that gap?
Oh, I'll talk about my old age. I was just happy to be there. Right. I was happy to have a full ride when I was playing. Obviously you had the housing taken care of and the food and et cetera, but now it's really a business. Individuals are hitting the transfer portal, asking for more money and potentially going back to school. So I think now is a lot of these collectives really have to start spending time and effort into educating these athletes. And that's what we're trying to do.
We just partnered with USF University of South Florida. Fowler Avenue is a part of that partnership. We're educating these individuals and the athletes within that collective. So I just think a lot of these collectives really need to build that foundation and Cogent's going to try to be a part of as much as possible. Wake Forest is going to be the next school or next university you partner with.
So how does this vertical fit in with Cogent's broader business model? As a community bank, what can other community banks learn about buildings out something like this and fitting it into their broader, the broader goals that they have as an organization?
I think it goes back into putting real time and resources into it. Obviously. I originally wasn't a banker, right? I've consulted for three to four months. I was educated. I got a crash course in six months on how, how to come on board as far as bringing the client from lending perspective to even a personal checking account, but now I'm excited. Obviously I played the NFL six years. I understand what it takes and how to build a rapport with these athletes.
So to me, again, goes back to that time and effort that coaching put into myself. And a lot of these banks or institutions need to do the same thing.
So I am curious when you go and speak with these athletes you know, what are you, what's the rapport like, what's the dynamic like you know, what are they most interested in hearing about from, from a banker? I mean, obviously you're, you bring a unique expertise as a banker who knows what they've been through as a, as an athlete and who's played at their level. You know, but what is the what are they looking to hear from a banker?
Man, I think it's a combination of both. It's hard to separate it, right? So to me, to obviously be a good banker is to understand where they're coming from, understand their foundation of where they're coming from. Every athlete and every individual is different. I had a great background, great parenting, so I kind of knew what I was stepping into prior. Honestly, athletics was plan B for me, not plan A. Right. So academics was first. You're a student athlete before you're an athlete, right?
Student comes first. So really just talking to those individuals and getting them to understand that. Again, this is just a, a great head start, but what's the plan moving forward for the five to 10 years and ongoing?
I just wanted to mention, in the light of thinking about these kinds of opportunity, this kind of unique opportunity for financial education, you know, we're here on the verge of, on the cusp of financial education month, and for our listeners benefit, we have a lot of programs from the ABA Foundation here at ABA.
On really Teach Children to Save, Get Smart About Credit, all kinds of resources that help help people, you know, not primarily in the, you know, high level athletics area or of a more general audience, but it is you know, can you just speak to a little bit to you know, how, This, how this vertical fits into your mission and your bank's mission around financial education.
It's really, it's scary how some of these individuals just go through money. I'm just going to be honest. It's, it's really setting that foundation is the key with each, each athlete, each individual, I know it's sports entertainment, but as anyone, right. I have construction clients. I have small businesses. I have Upcoming real estate brokers, et cetera. So it was really, everyone needs that foundation. We're not taught this in high school or even in college at a certain point.
So for me my passion is just really helping people. I really don't want to see, especially an athlete make two or 3 million. And then obviously gets a roommate and can't afford their rent in the next two or three months. Right. How do we build that? The key word nowadays is generational wealth, right? That's just the key word, but how do you get there? Like, how do you actually do that? And that's the part of our program that we want to educate each athlete or each individual.
Yeah. You know, how early do you start engaging with them on this? And, and I mean, I know it's like, You've got family influence. You've got school coach influence. Like where do you, where do you, where does a bank kind of make an entry into, into this process, especially when they're starting, when they're starting to get exposure to some of this, these huge paydays as early as 18 years old.
Right. It's really, like I said, I kind of worked through that the collective and see what individuals are getting paid and kind of having that conversation. Who's the decision makers we want the parents involved. The better the foundation, honestly, we want the individual or the athlete to focus on sports. Is it the parents? Is it, do they have a financial advisor potentially in place? These are the individuals we want to speak to early to set the plan for their future income and their future.
So to us, it's really that 18, 19 years old, because usually a typical professional athlete, if you make it, you usually have your team by the time you're 20 years old. So for us, we just want to be a part of that journey as early as possible. And you know, of course, like certain states like Texas are getting high school players, right, or potentially getting paid in the near future. So I don't know if we're going that young.
However, But as of right now, that 18, 19 years old is really the entry.
Yeah. Maybe we will have to add the sports marketing, sports vertical to the Teach Children to Save curriculum here. Holy cannoli. All right. So one final thing, this, you know, Yeah, we've talked a lot about the sports and entertainment vertical at Cogent and your experience with that and with that segment. What else are you excited about in banking right now? And you know, what's kind of, what, you know, what, what's keeping you excited about the, about your role as a, as a community banker?
Well, I'm just hoping these rates come down, right? I think that everybody is. That's number one. But again, it's just, the education. It's just, that's my passion. Everything else will come, right? It's just, if you take care of people early, take care of their families, then it'll all come full circle. So I just really, that's my passion is education because majority of us just don't have it. And so that's just my main push throughout this entire vertical.
Awesome. Brandon, thank you so much for joining us on the show today. Well, thank you. I appreciate your time. All right. And for our listeners, you can find this in previous episodes at aba. com slash banking journal podcast. I'd also invite you to visit aba. com slash fin ed that's F I N E D to get more resources about the ABA Foundation's financial education programs for spring, never too late to to get started on, on, on launching or relaunching one of those at your bank.
Thanks again to Alkami for sponsoring this episode and we'll be back with you again very soon.