Opendorse (w/ Blake Lawrence and Adi Kunalic)

Welcome to another episode of Busting Your Welcome to another episode of Busting with the Boys. I am your host Will Compton. My co host Heayoluwan. He is in training camp right now. He just had a preseason game. He's got a job on this week's episode of Busting with the Boys. I sit down with my guys, Blake, Lawrence and Audi Koalik. They are founders. They are entrepreneurs of their company Open Doors, which we're gonna dive into.

They talk. We talk all things n I L, which is name image likeness.

The reason this is a great episode is because I they're great friends of mine. We banter, we cut back and forth. There are mentors of mine, great friends of mine. Audi Kanalik, he was a kicker. We played on Nebraska together. He played in the league for a short period with the Carolina Panthers. And by short period, I mean you know,

Hey they did.

They not take care of the boys this weekend first class bro, I'm talking hosted the boys. Well, we got to take different, can't. We got to do whatever we wanted. We got to see the bulls. We got to be able close with the bulls. We got to shoot camera angles from the shark cage which is out there in the middle of the field.

We got to shoot when the bulls are taken off.

What do they call that, the shotgun the shotgun cage, I don't know. We got to be here, yeah it sounds that sounds good. We got to be up top the aerial view. But anyway, shout out PBR. Some other house cleaning, not housekeeping, some house cleaning items. New merchandise flags. Get your flags ready to be in the stands, hanging in your dorm rooms, hanging in your.

Main caves, your lady caves.

Because I know we got some Tier one We got some Tier one chicks to watch the boys, dude, But get your new flags, fly them all around the stadiums nationwide. We also have new Hawaiian shirts that you guys have seen a lot of cool stuff new those new row pads.

There's like over one hundred left. Get in there, Get in.

The store store dot barstool sports dot com and click on brands. You'll see bus with the Boys. Click there you'll find all of our merch. But continue to buy our merch. Also, this weekend, Saturday, third preseason game the Boys, we're having our only one and only preseason game, our dress rehearsal.

We are throwing a tailgate and watch party at Acme Feed and Seed.

That is this Saturday, August twenty eighth.

The Boys versus the other Boys.

I don't know if we can Yeah, we can say names. Well, I just know we can't advertise with the logos. Yeah, the Boys versus the Bears. And so we're gonna be at Acme Feed and Seed. The bus will be parked on Broadway. We will be on the corner First and Broadway. The bus will be on Broadway. So if your listen to this right now, you might not even be going to watch the preseason game, but you might be going

So yeah.

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Like you are the biggest athlete investor that could have even landed. There's nobody better than you.

I've truly been trying to invest though since Come on now.

Yeah, I want to hear you say it.

I would say, probably day one, Yeah, hey, let me get in, let me get in.

You would never let me.

No, I didn't want to take like most of your salary. Well that's probably what it is. Yeah, it probably was.

You probably felt bad, like at the beginning, did it always was it always tough, like not allowing.

Like close friends and family.

I don't think it's about not allowing. It's just like the timing has to work out the right way. It's like it's not like as a company, you're not just always taking on money. There's like periods of time when you're taking on money, and then the your major investors they have to like they have to be a part of You have to find a lead investor, and then

Got you, So as we get started, because I'm actually gonna have to enter, do you guys, you know, because you guys are like business guys. You guys aren't like you know, the superstar athletes where everybody knows who's gonna.

Be on the bus.

You know what I'm saying, Like, I'm gonna have to sell my soul to get people to come and listen to this podcast, Like, I know you guys aren't gonna you guys don't understand right now, but if you click the link and listen to the boys, you guys are gonna learn a lot in this episode.

But we have these are the founders, is it? Are you know?

I don't I know you guys have an ego? Are you guys both co founders? Is that what you guys say? The founders of Open Doors Blake Lawrence and Audi Kannowik ADDI you are from Bosnia?

Bosnia? Originally? Yes, Blake is from Kansas City, Missouri or something like.

That, Kansas. And I played with these dudes in college. So we were all at Nebraska together in two thousand and eight when I was getting recruited. Blake was my host on my recruiting trip. And uh so I've known these dudes throughout Nebraska. We've done the GPPs, the workouts, we've ground together, like I'm having bow on, I'm having Coach bow On, like we all played for Coach bo.

PA, NFL PA, MLBPA, NBPA, WNBPA, NHL, PJ Tour, LBCA, Team USA. Yeah, the majority of professional sports organizations use open Doors in some way.

And you guys, your platform has essentially been built to pioneer this NIL movement that is now happening and throughout all the collegiate sports. We're like, I don't know when this episode is dropping, but right now we are two weeks removed from the announcement of this whole NIL, this wild west of athletes being able to you know, get sponsored and make money off the field.

Well, and that's something we always say, and Blake's said this time and time again, like NIL is not new to sports, and IL is new to college sports right as it pertains to student athletes.

So this has been around for a long time.

We've been helping athletes, professional athletes monetize their name imaged likeness since twenty twelve. So like it's it's in our DNA, like foundationally, this is why we built the company. It just happens to be that the market shifted in our favor and now we get to continue to help even more athletes. That what student athletes being involved?

Yeah, explain what open doors is.

Yeah, So open Doors's most innovative and compliant way that athletes can monetize their name. Imagine likeness. So you see an athlete promoting a product on Twitter, you see them showing up and do an appearance like that whole experience. Somebody had to reach out to that athlete, pitch them an idea to promote their product, go through the contract negotiations, pay the athlete the apthe had to do it, send it out, measure it, sign the agreement, get paid, do

A lot of my shit's usually free. Like sometimes I would text you like, yeah, when the fuck is Nebraska gonna pay?

Yeah, yea, yeah yeah yeah you're not no, you're not pushing big dollars, but make it super easy. Like this is you talk about student athletes starting to get paid, you know, the student athlete. Let's say about pro athlete endorsements.

But for allow the rules, Right, when did you guys start to realize that because obviously compliance a lot of legal shit, Like you guys will know being on the business side of everything, But like when when did you start to become aware that, Okay, you do this stuff for all of like professional athletes and you're making the seamless software program where you can go on the app

Well, here's like I'll take you back, like the twenty thirteen we we had Prince and Ukumara. So we all know Prince Prince all around the bus, right, it's one

Yeah, and then we were championing athletes the entire time. I think so, like people like when we look back at especially now that nil is hot, it's trendy, everyone's like, hey, how did you guys know that this was coming?

It's like truth be told, Like we didn't. There wasn't like this magic time.

We were sitting there like, hey, the NCA is going to change their rules one day and we'll stand a benefit from that.

Like that was never the intent.

I think we knew that if the company is around long enough, because at the core we've been always just trying to help every athlete.

That's our vision statement. We've said that for like ten years now.

Yea.

So we're like, if we're around when these rules change, man, holy shit, Like we'll actually be able to help every athlete, not just professional athletes, not just retired athletes, not just alumni athletes, but like every athlete in student athletes. And so we got a letter in the mail it was like twenty nineteen, like that summer ish and Blake walks up to the office and he's like he printed out right, and he puts it on my desk.

And like, what is this?

And I look and there's a blue dot in the top left corner. It was the NCAA And they're like, hey, uh, it's basically like we're we are considering changing the rules or the legislation, and we would love to invite you to be part of the working group because we know your extensive experience helping professional athletes with nam image likeness for the last six years at the time, seven years at a time. So they're inviting us to be sort of the experts to help them navigate what is coming.

Like it was like the most exciting day because.

We just when was this?

When was this like two years ago? Almost of the day. Yeah, it was in July.

Yeah, and you were you were in Lincoln and you you just literally put I'm like wait, wait, wait, wait, what is happening.

You're probably like, yo, do you fucking see it? Yeah, he was.

Excited because like he's you know, I'll give him credit, Blake's a visionary. So literally he he had that and it was later that afternoon he comes in and he's like here, here's the model, dude, here's how this is going to work.

And I'm like, when did you do this?

You know?

And he like canceled all his meetings and he had already like you know, he's he's got a freaking whiteboard and whatnot.

But he's like he had already drawn up this.

Yeah yeah, yeah yeah, and like just like because because it's we have we had all this institutional knowledge of how this should work. And Blake's like, dude, if we just do this, this, this, this, we already have compliant technology, we already know the people in the space. And the thing is, like Blake mentioned all the acronyms all different

Oh bro, while we've done nothing but.

Insult ratio.

So how when all of it finally got announced, Like obviously, you guys are probably still living in the highest probably some lows too. I know you've been in some phone calls as well, like what's it been like since it's

Like, how many athletes have actually started to benefit from this?

Well, I mean there are Right now, there's forty thousand student athletes that use open Doors and they are all one click away from getting an endorsement deal. Like, we have a brand partner, Go Puff. It's like, hey, we will pay every single student afthe in the country. Like because there's so many people, like, oh, only the quarterbacks is going to get a deal, only the you know, the starting port guard is gonna get a deal. But we've got a brand that's like, no, we will offer

So so what is go Puff? They must be like they must have money, right.

It's a snack delivery app, right, Like it's like Postmates, but for a college campus. It's open twenty four to seven. You need snacks the middle of the night, man, Go Puff? Is there no free shoutouts?

Yeah?

Yeah, no free shoutouts of Go Puff. You better spend on open doors pay for this fucking shout out? Oh really, So I'm just behind the time, I'm just not a yeah, okay.

So it's go for like college campuses, the audience because you're like, you're you know, you're playing video games, you're hanging out with the boys, and you're like, I just need like some snacks, and we all had that moment and you go on there app and it's it's right there.

So it's like it's naturally like this one of those things that being in college. You know, you go back to Nebraska, right, everyone knew that there was a Monster Rep or a Red Bull Rep, or like the dude that was working at the bar, you know, and everyone knew that guy. And so these businesses have always tried to find the most influential like fraternity sorority member to be an ambassador. Right, But all these brands, the easiest way to know who the most influential person is on

It's you in an envelope or right. Right, So if your go puff, you'll go into open doors. And if they want to pay every athlete, are they basically going to Hey, the face value that's sitting on the athlete, Like based on what your guys's metrics are that have curated like a price.

You know what I mean.

No, these guys have a flat rate offer for Anybody's the same for everybody, right, So, and they're just like, hey, if you're a student athlete and you turn on deals and boomin, within seconds you get your first endorsement offer, you say yes, and then open Doors automates like they send out the tweet, they send it the payment we had the tax preparation, Like, these kids are getting paid within seconds of signing up.

It's why we have we have a bunch of partners that are comparable to go pups that are lining up for these h We call them like welcome off for programs where what they want to do is they want to be able to help every athlete.

So we're like, well, that aligns with what we want to do.

So, like our idea for Open Doors in the future is that as a student athlete, if you have the app that every week there's a deal sitting there for you from a different brand. Like every week you're like, oh, I just went through the app and I'm able to make fifty bucks. I'm able to make a hundred bucks.

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I know? And in the last couple of weeks.

In the first couple of weeks, there's more than five thousand endorsement deals been just facilitated through open doors. Really, yeah, five thousand in the first two weeks.

And you have so you have forty thousand. You have forty thousand athletes signed up right now.

Yeah, student athletes. And each one of them like they they're just gonna turn like flip the switch and get the deal. So like every as we're sitting here, there's probably one hundred new student athletes that are getting their first deal.

Yeah, that's crazy. That's I mean, what's what's it look like if as.

People continue to sign up, like say you had say every how many student athletes are there?

There's five or thousand student athletes. So if every student athlete in the country made an average of uh, let's say two hundred dollars a month, okay, that would be one hundred million dollars a month in endorsements, right, that is going to flow into this market, and somebody has to manage it, you know, somebody has to make sure that that dude is getting paid for that thing, and it's not a recruiting inducement, is not a pay for play scheme, like he's not getting paid by his coach, right,

That is wild.

I'm sitting here thinking like you, you were bringing up the agent stuff, like what do you see a lot more agents now getting in this strategy getting in this atmosphere of collegiate sports.

The economic model didn't make any sense, right, So you're you're.

Essentially saying you can you can, like brands, why sit there and negotiate with an agent when they're gonna try to hold the leverage of a player, when you can just go on this when you can essentially just go on open door saying's like, we don't you guys are the middle man yourself.

We don't replace agents, right, Yeah.

I'm not saying that. I'm just saying, if you're a brand wanting to spend like.

We we would repair like what an agent would do, or like I just like there's so many of these Okay, the economic model of being an agent. Imagine you're at Nebraska and you're pulling in two hundred dollars a month, Like for you, that's real money, oh, no question, But an agent would what take ten twenty percent of that? So what agent is gonna get out of bed and like, man, I'm gonna workout tail off and make ten bucks this month.

Yeah, we're saying like that, that makes sense because it started. We're it all started was like two is eleven. Like I had my short time in Carolina. I remember being in the locker room and back in Nebraska, Blake and I were helping athletes get deals, like some of our former teammates, right, and I'm in the Panthers' locker room and I know like my agent cared about me, but it didn't make sense for him to go and find a local Charlotte sponsor who would want to work with me.

Yeah? I think we did.

Oh shit, norats Mans, You're now that that next year, right, But it's like, you know, it's like, it's not.

It wasn't.

It wasn't.

It didn't feel fair that all the top athletes were getting all the deals, and the brands really did want to work even with the one hundred k athletes, actually probably even more than that, but they just they had the issue of access. How do I get a hold of them? Do I don't want to negotiate this, like because it's not really a big span, but it would be advantageous for the athlete, And so we're like, we

Yeah fuck man, yeah she yeah she not even only the five hundred thousand student athletes, and also the ones you still work with, like yeah, all the pro guys too, but.

Yeah, yeah, I mean that's the cool part too. It's like to know that, you know, you can log in anytime, like to open to and you just you can see the deal flow, right, and it's like, Okay, the largest car company on the planet just send out five hundred endorsement deals to every Olympic athlete, like every Team USA Olympic athlete. You're like, that's cool, right, And then the next thing you scroll down, it's like, oh, a food truck and Lincoln Nebraska just paid the All American volleyball

This is big.

It's it's it's a living, breathing thing. Now you just got to like kind of guide it, coach, you know. It's crazy.

Yeah, it's like it's hard.

Like everybody would want to sponsor probably you know, a niche of a team or like a group of a team, or a position group or the entire team, but it's hard when you got to work with probably you know, all those different agents, all those different people, and you have no clue of the guys who have like small little followings, but they do some damage and it's not worth it for that agent to be sticking out their neck because like you were saying, your agent would only

That's right.

Well, and think about like the the nuance that exists. Like so most of the time, even early on brands, it's not about just working with one athlete, they want to work with ten athletes, and if they're all represented by different agents, that's ten different marketing reps or agents.

Yeah, so like its just different negotiating.

Yeah, saw real quick, different contracts. So then it becomes a headache. Now you're like, I don't even want to do this because that's too much. Or let's say nine athletes were miraculously easy to work with, but the one agent is just being like it's tough. And again, it's not the agent's fault. They're negotiating on behalf of their athlete, and they may they might feel that the athlete is worse than they should be or vice versa, right, and

Everyone's happy.

Yeah.

So to explain what essentially happens, like us at bus and we use open doors like we use when we get all of our content and gets strapped into open doors.

I get a text.

Once the content all the boys get done making the content, I get a text on my phone. Your folder's ready for all the content we've made from us with the boys. I click on that folder. It takes me to or folder and it's got all the clips, all the photos, anything I might want to post, and I can sit there and click on a photo, or I can click on a clip and I can hit tweet or Instagram and I can make the caption right from there from the app and then it goes right out to the platform.

This is the reach we want to have. I click on Jack, a couple other guys and send out this deal to them.

It goes through. It filters through your guys of software. The only thing that happens for the athlete. They get a vibration in their pocket, just like a text message they get. A text message comes from a Lincoln, it comes from a Nebraska number four h two. You open it up and it says open doors has a deal for you. Go check it out. You click on the link, it takes you. It takes you right to it. It shows you the tweet that you're gonna have. It shows

All of it. It's seamless for both sides.

The athlete benefits and gets the money in their bank account, and then obviously the merchandise gets shipped to them. If they hit the cline, they hit the cline and nothing happens, or you can edit it and make the caption your own.

But did I anything.

I'm is there sitting here trying to think of I'm like, damn, you want a job salesmooth it up?

Yeah, And every year in Nebraska, where the season starts or a spring game happens, they target the alumni to do a spring game post. It comes in as it's for free, so we're always doing a sell it for the boys, shouting the boys, and there's always a graphic with like, you know, spring game is fifty one days away. And I'll be like, oh, that's a corny caption, so I'll edit the caption, hit accept, and then literally the tweet.

It for you, and you know What's Will was like, I love how you say that. And there's a lot of people that listen, they watch this show and they see you Will, they see Taylor, and like, you are the one percent of athletes that understand how to properly market yourself. Like you're active, you're on social media, you're saying the right things, right place, right time, and the majority of athletes aren't natural marketers, you know what I'm saying.

Let's figure it out. We're rich tomorrow's.

Getting a rocket shift, yeah, you know, And that's not how like you got to go through fits and starts and realize like that these athletes are like, hey, why aren't these brands like jumping on these athletes? And then you would go to the athletes feed and they haven't like tweeted or posted on Instagram in a month, you know, And like imagine you work at ESPN, You're trying to say, hey, man, this is the best show. You should advertise in the show,

Yeah, he just hit one hundred k followers and.

He's this guy is the most natural marketer.

Well I remember too, Like you're wanting to make content for the athletes. So also, like in my open Doors folder, I have all my Washington photos, all my Tennessee photos.

I did that for you.

You did all my Oakland Raider photos, all of it, all those different folders, and then obviously all the bust and assets that we have.

But well it is.

But like I'll just the last thing. I'll add on on the common because I think it is important. It is like we we realized that, like not all athletes are marketers. But consistency is the one thing that you you can't like. As long as you're sharing something, you're going to be growing, right, So like the worst thing you can do is not share anything.

And because you're worried about it, Yeah, about something, you just post.

Exactly, just post a photo like I like I'm I would say, I'm like social media introvert. Like I don't share a lot. I know what my brand is. But like, once I figured out, like the things that I like to talk about is I like to champion other people. I like to champion my teammates. I like to talk about when other people are winning. I love that shit, right, If our company is doing something exciting, I love that stuff, right, And so you just double down on those things, and

That's content.

You're not talking about yourself for those for those athletes who are again more on the introvert signs, like, dude, social media is not for me.

It's like gues. It might not be for you, but your fans they do care about what you're doing, and this is the only window of opportunity. Yeah, exactly. You think about this, like, man, I cannot believe that Will Coff is still playing in the NFL. You know what I'm saying That isol day one recruiting trip, I said this, dude, Yeah,

We got to keep them.

Four star, four star, you know. And I'm like, yeah, you came in the dorms me and were roominate. We had that like that super double and then you came in there. Yeah, that's super double and you're like, dude, but mister Ai though, like I might go down to missoo. I'm like, dude, stop o my god, yeah out stop it the hometown state, you know, like will get that raspy voice. Yeah, yeah, yeah you do, dude. He's like, I don't know, man, put them at teeth, Yeah, dude,

And like we were. We were playing at the same time. Bro, we started together and like I haven't been a football player for twelve years, you know what I'm saying. But because the concussions, well yeah, I mean I had some concussion issues, right, you would have been in the league a little oh first. Yeah, it was beasting you in practice. I knows what I'm saying. Like this, guys, how.

Much could you bened one thirty five? How many times I.

Got it like to eleven one time?

Dude?

I was so hey, I was so weak.

Yeah, Blake was like the only dude who had the body were like the tight the tight fit shirt like looked like a T shirt.

Right, That's what's the what's the strength coach that he's at Tampa Bay. Now, uh wait coach wait away coach Wade? Yes, yeah, waye dope. He he told me every day he say, hey, Lawrence, you're skinny fat. I'm like, what is That's brutal, that's pretty dadbod. Like that's like when dad bod was not a thing yet, Like you had a dad bob when you were like when you're like nineteen, I'm trendy and you didn't have children or a wife. I was dad bottom before dad was actually pretty cool.

Yeah.

No, just pounding the gatorade chicks trying to get big.

Yeah yeah, we did. Used to pound some Gatoray chicks. I used to put in my pockets. Uh when you way in dude, if you were underweight, remember we underweight to roll.

Yeah.

That's the most brutal about Dobson saying he's like, yeah, we should have never made you guys do that.

Yeah, yeah he does. He does.

He's like, but you guys are so like he talked about how what the culture was like they got there and they had to just do some extreme as ship.

Yeah.

Oh they did it right though. I Mean I gave him a lot of compliments and like we needed to get her ask kick. That's how you get people to like fall in line and actually do things and commit.

And they met yesterday, did they really?

Man?

Yeah?

Y and dude he yeah, he liked you guys. Fuck. I was a projects like this dude. I was like just so little, but I don't know I did. I would go in to get the chocolate milks. I get him out of the fridge. You know, we had pockets and shorts. I would go down there like mosey down and I'd have two chocolate milks in my pockets and

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About a personalized story. You smoke cigars.

I do smoke cigars, but I'm kind of pissed off about the most recent one because Will was smoking cigars yesterday with a bottle of bourbon.

Didn't get one text.

He was clearly out there by himself, and none of the boys got hit up by Will to go smoke cigars.

I don't smoke cigars with dudes that looked like that. Dude that looked like what a beast look like? A beta? Look at that. That's what smoking cigars will do.

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Boys. Back to the episode, Sure we went off on a tangent.

What were we h you're talking about? You're talking about you know.

You're still playing Oh my yeah, building, Yeah.

You're talking about Like there's a small moment in tip window and you're like, think about this, dude.

You've played over. Man, it's over before you know it. Like so, you know, one day, I'm a starting linebacker in Nebraska. The next day can never play football again, you know, and my career is done in a day. And like from that day to this moment, like I've dedicated my whole professional career. Audio has two to make sure athletes understand this doesn't last forever, Like you have no idea how long your win of opportunity is. So if we can give you a tool of technology, like

They have to.

It's not and it's not like, yeah, like.

Audi, how long did you play? Did you only play a year or two years? Audi was a kicker? Audi, the unbelievable kicker. I mean kind of heard us big to change.

We won't talk about that.

Oh you don't.

The Panthers.

Yeah, and then.

Obviously you transition right away into being a.

Well we had well, so Blake and I had started our first company. It was a social media agency in twenty ten.

That yeah, I heard that. Where did you hear that? I heard that?

Facebook? Yeah?

I don't know why we chose Actually I do know. It's a very That company still exists. Yeah, bro, so we sold the company in twenty fourteen, but it's alive and well right now, Like it has probably like I don't know, twenty employees and they carry on. It's kind of weird to walk by like and see the office, yes and not knowing start of that company.

Yeah, yeah, so you started that.

Yeah, so that that So we started that company. And I had like a dilemma and I was telling you about at this maybe at some point, but like I think as an athlete, the one thing I think every athlete is taught their entire life is to not quit, right, So the transition from wanting to be an athlete and and like making a decision to do something else is very, very difficult because you feel like you're quitting something, and then most people are forced into quitting things.

And I think this is why.

Also, like sometimes people just they hang on for too long, right, Like if you don't make it in that first year in the league, usually it's like, dude, you're probably not going to make it, right or if you.

Haven't played, like it's like if bomb hanging on to the dream and I don't and I don't get a call for another year and it's still July, and I'm like, I gotta be ready.

Yeah, and then you're like you're like doing like you know, we've had teammates former teammates, but I think a lot of athletes go through this where they're like, yeah, man, I'm just like trying to make a team right now, Like I'm staying super busy.

I'm like.

With what And they're like, well, you know, I'll just get I just got to work out in I'm like, and then what do you do the rest of the day, Like, well, nothing, I'm like, dude, what are you doing?

Right?

Like, it's not it's not coming back. And I think that that is a tough part because it's it's the quitting thing, and you're right, right right, and it's a psyche thing, right you like, I don't want to quit.

And you find those rare examples of it working out, like for the majority, for the most part, ninety percent is done. After that happens exam, you have like a you know, your invincible stories, and that's where guys get that.

Opportunity because they only cover the success stories, dude. They only cover like the guys that that you know hung on and they freaking made a team, and it's great. I think that should exist in sports. But for the most part, I think when you're hanging on for that long and it's not like moving forward, you are not starting to transition into reality of life. Like being in

It was in December, and uh going to kick in Buffalo in December?

Yeah, And I was like, I literally I remember I called my my my wife now twenty twelve and I called Shannon my my wife and we're dating that and I'm like, I don't even know if I want to make this team because I'm like, this place would sucked, you know.

It was just like it's just you knowing buffalo and I yeah, yeah, so sorry.

You don't want to get jokes blamed on the table probably.

Yeah yeah, yeah.

Now I'm when I get a bunch of people attacking me, but no, like I so, but I remember I came back and we had our business going at the time, and I had this like moment where I'm like, I'm done with these workouts, man, Like I'm done trying to make a team. It was becoming more and more difficult to try to lead people and a company when you had like a side thing when it was like, Okay, I'm I'm trying to build a business, but also like if I get a call from somebody, then I might

He's like, well, what about Canada? I'm like, I'm not doing Canada, Like it's just not my jam.

And I'm super thankful looking back that I made that transition because one we had something, but two it felt more like I was in control of the situation, the story and I got to I got to kick in the league. Like it was like, first Bosnian player to ever play in the NFL, Like that was. That was a proud moment, right, And did.

You're the first Bosnian player I ever played in the NFL.

It's like a super fun fact, right, Yeah. Yeah, it's a dope thing.

I mean, how many Bossians are can actually even have an opportunity to Ye, if there's ever another BOSSI of plays in the league, it will probably be a kicker.

Yeah yeah, like, yo, what's up? What's going on? First? So first?

But yeah, that was but that was that was a kind of a cool thing looking back at it now. But like, and I was giving you some credit earlier, I think you've had the best. You're like in the middle of this transition from athlete to entrepreneur like business owner like podcast because it's like it is, you're like in it halfway, you're over here, but then you're doing

I appreciate it.

Like I'm trying to get better at accepting compliments and everything, but you know, you guys have I'm having too many, and I'm starting to get like.

You know, a podcast like and it's so funny how you give someone a compliment and that you're just waiting for the next roast, Like.

I know, like we do got to just be.

Better, Like Taylor and I are trying to consciously be better, like when we're you know, we had to think yesterday like all right, let's hurry up.

And stop talking about that. Yeah, yeah, I feel you though.

Man, It's like it's always been tough because a lot of times guys don't like with all of it, everything we're talking about right number one, it fires me up that you're like, it's gone in a day, Like your window of opportunity is so small. It's like athletes are brands too. That book, you guys know the book, Well read that book in.

One day, the only time I've ever read a book in one day.

Lots of colors.

Yeah, let's pop up book.

Gives a pop up book, but phenomenal book, and it just breaks down the moment of time that you actually have as an athlete. It's like like, look, you got your unicorse, you got your you got your quarterbacks, you got your ones that they're always gonna make the big money, like the one percent of the one percent of the one percent, but everybody else, Like you got to find

Not everyone has to do this, right, but if you realize what you have you should consider like using sports as a springboard into whatever you want to do.

Right, Like, if you have interest, you need to understand that this stuff is a tool, and you only have a finite window, the average window, Like it's not even the pro guys. It's like if you play in college or even high school, like you have a very small window to use it as an advance for you.

This is something I like, Like I think LinkedIn is completely like under utilized or misunderstood.

And I think I'm misunderstanding because I'm not I want to fou So imagine this.

When you are at Nebraska, You've got that end on your helmet, on the side of your helmet. You have a lot of leverage, right, So like if you wanted to meet with anybody in town, they're gonna do it because you're a player, Like you have a frickin jersey on.

You're one of one. There's no no one like you.

So if I'm a student athlete, I'm getting a LinkedIn, I'm connecting with everybody in the community. And let's say I care about engineering or I'm big into advertising, I would connect with everybody in the community. Everyone that went to Nebraska who's an advertising and I'd be like, Hey, just want to connect with you. I'm a current student athlete. I would just love to connect with you on here. Maybe sometime I'd love to pick your brain on something.

Oh it's different.

It's different because it's not that I don't know. It's not that like people all of a sudden don't care about you. It's just like it's just different.

We all know that.

Yeah, it just is what it is.

Like you're playing a sport, like if I'm a fan right of the Titans, and I'm a diehard fan, like and you're watching the Titans and celebrate, and then you see one of them where.

You get to have engagement with one of them, like.

It just hypes you up, regardless if they're in an alumni it's just different. It's not that they don't, it's not that it's it's.

Just it's just different. Yeah, I think that's one of the things like to what we're doing. Like a lot of these kids are signing up for open doors and they're like, oh, I'm gonna get money. I'm gonna get money, you know. It's like, yeah, it's right. If they use openers to get an endorsement deal, then that is so so awesome. Like in reality, they're gonna build audience so they can get a job offer, right, Like that's as good.

Yeah?

I was gassed. I was geeked out.

Man.

I was running around screenshot and my dude, Will Compton's talking to somebody cool, you know, and like you're saying you were, I was hyped up for you because you in that moment you had to realize, bro, that you are, but you're talking to him. Why is not talking to you? No, but like that's a and then you at that moment you had to realize, oh, dang, like I can use this platform for this. He was on your bus, on your podcast in your city and it all started on some Twitter exchange.

Yeah.

Like that's the power of an athlete actually leaning into this stuff.

Dude. Yeah, no, no, weird. You're right, that is weird. That's crazy.

And because I always go for like when you say it's just different, Like the thing I always say is you're better looking, your jokes are funnier. You can shake more hands when you're in the league, like or when you have a jersey on, or when you're wrapping something of like quote unquote status, right, and the minute you're out of it. It just it all goes the other way, that's right, whether it comes off as you trying harder, a little more desperate.

All that stuff like, yeah, you don't have that as much, right because like when you're in the league, like, you have leverage. So then whoever has the more more leverage can in the relationship can come off maybe a little bit more desperate or they have they have a motive

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Back to the episode, Andrew Hawkins, like we interviewed him in one thing. One tip he gave.

Everybody was like when he was in the league, he at the end of every year, he'd get about fifty jerseys and any meeting, any conversation he wanted to have, he would whether you had the meeting already or one of one, he would send him a jersey with a written note on it. So that was like a memorable thing. So that way he always had them in their network.

Athlete, whatever, you have that limited time to use it as much as a tool as you can because you're trending this way.

And then when it's over, you hope you've built a network or an audience the way they're explaining athletes or brands suit to where even as it goes down because you're done playing, you're still able to keep it.

You know, the old hockey stick whatever, it's fucking.

Yeah, well it's it's it's scary, dude, like the whenever, like the last graph, the graph, real tough word, real.

Tough rocky stick graph, whatever, graph.

God damn it, Blake, you made me lose my train of thought here. But no, I was because then then when it's done, it it drops. If you have zero, if you have zero, it's like, uh, I think about it this way. It's like, it's scary. So you the last Bowl game happens, and it's it's so interesting whether you win the game or you lose the game. But uh, there is a ton of mixed emotions in the locker room.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, So it's just kind of like that. There is then there's some people who are uncertain. There's some people who are like, man, this was the coolest thing that's ever going to happen in my life. That's a sad thing to say, but there's some people that have that mentality, right because whether you were at Nebraska or freaking Ohio State or Clemson, I don't know, but

Ohough. The whole the whole thought is usual need to get in camp.

Exactly, I just need to get in a camp and but it's just on this like slow, slight, like steady kind of decline and it's crazy. Then if you then run into people in the summer who nothing happened, it's like the leverage is completely gone, and that's when you want to be like, hey, but what else have you been doing to build your brand?

Right? And even that person, you'll feel the energy from them too that nothing's gone.

It's gone.

And when you haven't built blossom and I talk about it, but when you haven't built like a Plan B, it's like that whole mindset. Don't ever have a Plan B because of deters from Plan A, Like i hate personally hate that advice, just because I've always thought about like what's going to come next? So that way, whenever you transition, there's something like you're just not you just don't have that energy about you, that nothing's happening, that you're at the peak.

And yes, it's not going to be there anymore, Yes dude, it's you are sad to say, but like you can be in the nile right, Like you're like, well, if I if I'm planning for a Plan B, then that means I'm not one hundred percent in for plan A. But it's almost scared. You're you're almost too scared to admit to yourself that a plan B is A is a good decision.

I just I guess I think that.

You because you had to make that call.

Well absolutely, I was building a Plan B, Plan C, Plan D. I'm like, yeah, I don't know what's going to happen, but yeah, I gotta be ready.

When I was on.

Dressed and I had my poaz thought. But when I got my first house, I said it. My signing bust was five thousand dollars being drafted. Guy, I remember putting in my account. I'm like to talk with my mom.

She helps. We were like on the Stave Ramsey Kick.

You go by a Bentley what you do?

No, no, no, I'm like, I got to make this last war.

Yeahs, yeah, I got this for three months and I'm like thinking, like what the next that's going to be like thing?

But anyway, go ahead.

No.

I was gonna make fun of Audie for being a kicker. So yeah, the second he's never done that.

He's never.

If we're on if we're on a call together, he's bringing that up, and I'm like, dude, we've already talked to these people.

Yeah, because oh, I played in the NFL. Is like, no, you kicked in the NFL. That's the difference. And then he'll be like, oo, what's the NFL stand for? Not for long? And I'm like, I, dude, already came the joke a joke. I came w on this bus to tell those jokes to the world. Okay, that's just that's you're taking the right jokes are great.

Yeah, yo, I love seeing the authenticity from this too.

I'm just telling you having questions on that, Like, you guys have clearly been like best friends since the Links apartments. When we're at the Links and Blake can't come out and play video games with us because his girlfriend at the times pissed off at.

Him, you know, he's like, yeah, he's like, you know, you know, but my girlfriend likes dude.

I would have beasted you in Halo though. Yeah true, I know, yeah you're a weak but.

But you guys being best friends this long, like navigating your partnership and growing this business together, like what growing pains has or been?

Like what advice would you have? Like make it a two part question too, because I have.

Like questions for any young listeners or athletes listening that have like these inklings of interest on how to start.

But let's start there.

Hey, I would say, like anyone that's listening now obviously knows you and Taylor in your dynamics, right, and I think that sometimes you guys are your goop balls one hundredercent of the time, right, But like it is obvious, and he gases you up every once, and I'll give you a comment like that you balance him out, like you're running the show, right and you get to both get on the mic, but he probably shows up and you're doing a lot of work, you know what I'm saying,

I really don't know.

Literally, I'm a senior in school and they're running heard that the first one they were alluding to earlier, the first business you guys, Wilt and uh. Blake is in my business law class, one of my business classes, and Blake is like the guest speaker, and he's doodling the entire time to explain it throughout his speech.

He like speeches and doodles.

That's like, no, man, we're It's a balance though, Yeah, for sure. I think the early the biggest misconception is that we're actually friends. Like I don't know why, No, it's I think we've had We've had ups and downs. I think we had early in our journey. We had two businesses that we were running when we were two years in the herd that when we started Open Doors

That's weird. You don't know anything about that. So so we would have this this competition took over revenue this quarter, and we were up one hundred and twenty percent of our audise numbers last quarter, so you.

Know, and we know what he's competing. He's comparing those numbers to COVID last year. Dude, of course the numbers were down. Don't handicap me, bro Okay anyways, and you get like you.

Got you got a lot of hype issue too.

It's like being in ticket sales at the Titans, like yeah, dude, ticket sales are up this year. It's like, yeah, no one went there was the game last year. A lot more people in the games, the ticket sale guy, you know.

And so I think, so I think that that to your journey where we were running separate businesses and uh, we we had like we both owned the business. So there was like it was mutually beneficial for us to succeed uh in in both areas. But then like when we came back and got to run openers together, like I got to use my strengths, Blake got to use his strengths, and we also got to see kind of like, hey, you're really good at those things and I'm really good

A good like strength. Not everyone plays quarterback, right, yeah, like you got to have a kicker. Yeah, okay, when the kicker is making all the money. That's what's going on here.

But we've had I mean we've had we've also I would say, I would also say we've had we've had our.

Like give me, give me a.

Give me a moment in time you guys are probably both thinking about and Neil Nog and where it was like rough sledding between your guys' partnership and friendship to where it's like hey, who's doing this? Like I you know, you had to navigate waters and learn about yourself to where it's like, Okay, now we're finding these strengths of each other, not like you were good at this over in your job.

I'm good at this. We both figured it out down our way.

Like I think it was like early on it was just so as I tell the story, it feels clean like it all happened like that, but it didn't. It was like we have to go through the learning pains of understanding that and then you reflect and you kind of look back at it. But like, I don't know if there was like a moment in time where I'm just like me and him, will we definitely do get in arguments right where.

You know we see the bantering. I can see yeah, no.

We do like, yeah, fun this, you know, we'll we'll have that. But I think that's what that's what's good about it. I think I always tell Blake the best times are when he is not in the weeds of the business right because he likes to come in and disrupt and the ideas are good, but like sometimes you need to let things kind of flow and you let need to trust the team. We'll kind of get there. And then same thing like sometimes he can come in and like it can actually help that department or that team,

Dang, dude, I think already liked that idea, and like you can like look over your shoulder and he's just ripping up the paper. You know, He's like okay, because I'll forget about it by the time I walk out the door. That's right. That's that's what it is to like have a balance, you know, because every person how many people since you had your first recording of a

You do this.

Like I'll tell you when our very first company, we were having beers over it. Remember right was it Turtle Creek, you know, all the turtle creaking Lincoln. And I'm over at Audi's and we're having a six pack and we're just you know, about to crush and go down O Street and Audie's like, yo, dude, going into senior year. He's sitting there, He's like, hey, man, I don't want to I don't want to work for anybody. Like what what should we do after I'm done playing ball?

What should we do?

Because we were always idea dudes, you know. And I'm like I don't know, man, I'm doing this like social media thing, like I was getting paid to tweet for a company, you know, like that was my job as an intern. And I was like I don't think I would do so not just for this one company, but for everybody. And like we started bullshit and going back and forth and like we just finished the six go

I am fully convinced that COVID started in the back of the rail like somewhere somewhere in there.

Just not not not a good place.

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I remember because Blake he has he's always been an idea man, and he's always wanted to do the entrepreneur rout and everything, and so I'm always like, I'm around these dudes a lot. So I'm I'm low key with my like young spirit as well, like always asking like hey, like.

What are you doing? And he's talking about I remember when you brought up Twitter diaries.

Yeah, my Twitter diary.

Yeah, you thought it was going to be a hitter too, A dude, You're like, you know, people could look back at their tweets like he's had idea like you do.

You're like aary my Twitter diary dot com. I can't get access to the domain, but basically take your tweets and turn into a hard copy book, put it on your coffee table.

It's pretty good.

He was actually gonna do that fourteen ninety nine, my Twitter diary dot com, Uh just getting no shots. Yeah, don't go there, it's broken. Yeah, but no, that's what you Everyone has ideas. Man, you got to go do it. You gotta go do it. And like right now we're sitting here, like we have sixty nine employees at Openers sixty nine and those are people like that their livelihood depends on like this.

Yeah, it's a good number. We're not hiring any same. Well, no, I'm just I'm just saying what he's saying. It's yeah, yeah, I would say, well, because so the way I think about it is like most like great businesses, like the idea initially sounds dumb at first.

It just always how it is. Right, So, whether it's my Twitter diary or or when we.

Were bussing with the boys, felt dumb as ship.

Yeah, it's like that, but then it becomes really trendy. Like when we first started our company, I don't think we were ever saying, oh, we want to be entrepreneur. I don't think that the word entrepreneur was like a thing back then. It was like we're going to try to solve a problem. Yeah, and we're gonna run, We're gonna build a business exactly. Then you get another one, and then entrepreneurship as a word became trendy. Everybody wants to be an entrepreneur, right, same thing, yeah, exactly.

That that made it made everyone like, oh man, I'm just going to go in there, and you know, mister wonderful isn't give me all this money? Yeah, Like dude, what are you talking about? Right? Same thing with podcasts. I think podcasts are super trendy right now.

Everybody wants to start a podcast, but to actually have an operation to create true like engagement entertainment, the business model behind it, like the licensing the merchandise, like that takes actual skill set and effort and strategy and planning. That's the whole thing that place is talking about. Like you have to go actually do it. But when we were starting, we're like, hey, let's just solve a problem. Yeah, and see how many people have that problem? Is anyone?

Is anyone else doing anything about it already? And like like how can we get it going?

Yeah? What for you guys?

Like getting stuff going and off the floor, Like for people out there that like have ideas and they want to learn about like growing business like me in particular, like you guys have both mentored me Audi more so than like.

For you.

Yeah, you don't, dude, bro, you always give me good ideas. But it is true the way you guys, the way you guys do talk about your dynamic in the office is like I feel like the dynamic of mentoring I get as well, Like we have ideas and if I need to go to like execute and put operating stuff into plays always.

If you want to actually make real money and like scale things, you come to me. If you want to get distracted teachings of Will I turn on television on Sundays and I say, taught him everything.

He knows he does. He tries to ride that all the time.

Well it's true, man, you're on the bench most of the time.

Do you have that one photo? Mean on the bench?

Hyeah, give that one photo? Man, I was really good at standing on the sidelines too. Taught you everything you know with.

With uh starting getting all this stuff off the ground, like outside of schooling and education. Like me, a lot of my stuff that I get is through books or through like mentoring, like you guys, like asking people who are doing things that I would like to do or pick their brain? Like what types of uh tips or advice do you have for people like that? Like where did you figure out a lot of this operating stuff? Is it always through school or is there books? Is

Well?

I think first you need to figure out whatever, what's your like learning vehicle?

How do you learn? And what I mean by that is like do you learn by reading books? Do you learn by talking to people? Do you learn by doing? Do you learn by watching?

Like?

So once you figure that out, because some people are like, oh, well, I'm just gonna go read a bunch of books, I'm like, well, what do you do with that information?

Are you able to actually apply it or whatnot?

Like I my most exciting times and still to this day, is when we set very ambitious, aggressive goals for a quarter where I'm asked to do something that we've literally never done before, because I get to go through my learning process, which is I'll go dive in on a let's say we want to build a certain strategy that we've literally never done before. I like to go and read a bunch of material on that thing, and I

Like I just enjoy that experience.

And it's been like that, like even in the early days when we're like, hey, we don't have a we don't have an HR process, when we get like five employees, or hey we need to we need to go fire somebody. And for me, I'm like, Okay, well I want to do it the right way. I want to be prepared so I can execute this the right way, so then I'll go through that process.

But yeah, I mean no, I'm just saying, like, like today we're flying in Nashville and I asked all you a question, like and he pulls out a book that like looks like an old tattered like Bible, you know, and he's got writing in the columns, he's got highlighted, he's got posted notes in it, and like this dude ingests information, stores it and can pull it up like a like a you know, encyclopedia, like a Wikipedia page like and but he learns from reading and applying and then applying, you know.

And yeah, you were talking about pattern matching. What do you mean by pattern matching.

It's it's like you're not supposed to For example, like if you want to become really good at investing, you're not going to go read a bunch of investment books because they're just going to have like principles. It's like

He loves that.

He said we shouldn't hire anybody for a while, so we have sixty nine employees. I'm like, are you five years old or what? But anyways, so then I'm like, okay, I'll look at like where do we want to be, right, I'll look at where where do we want to be as a company? And then I will go and find and and talk sometimes to certain people who have literally

Like you're basically like a quote that you've actually told me two success leaves clues.

Yeah, it's you're just finding a blue that's right, and then you just have matching the.

Pattern absolutely, and you have your own spin to it and whatnot.

But like, imagine every choice that you make, the more confident that you can be in it, that you have the self assurance, you're like way more decisive. That's speed, dude, because then you don't you're not hesitating like, oh, I don't know if we should do this. It's like it's all about speed, dude, And especially for us, like right now, it's like you should choose speed over efficiency in the face of uncertainty. And that's literally what we're going through,

To town for a perspective. Well, the first two months of July, we have tripled the amount of business in one of our products than all of last year in the first two weeks of this month. Like I'm telling like that's insane, right, Like I'm into Like a year ago, there was fifteen thousand athletes that use Now there's fifty thousand. Were you go, dude, I love that? Man ya well god damn yeah, you know.

Me too, Well, yeah, you will just retaining the information And that's his reaction, mouth open fuck dude.

Yeah, but like that's that's the real deal. Hey, you know me, Like we hired twenty seven Audi hired fifteen people in the last like sixty days, fifteen people. We got to hire eight more in the next thirty, right, and and like that that is all. That's a lot, right,

Yes?

Absolutely?

Yeah?

Yeah, okay, yeah, cool. Nod's talking about he's a philosopher. It's like a LinkedIn advertisement.

Man, Yeah he is alier. Dude, I love that that's a philosophier. Let's go geb Is. I don't know how you learn, Blake, Well, once you walk. I went through that because I know I'm.

Maybe he would benefit audio benefit.

I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna start talking and then I'll find my way to how I learned. Yeah. Yeah, I would say, like, will.

Do you have a book?

Like have you written a book?

I read a book?

You have not written a book?

Written a book?

No, but you know you've learned a thing or two, right, and so like one of the things is if you think about your favorite people that have taught you so much, like have they written a book?

Yes?

They have the favorite people who've taught me stuff like the thing about has has It's like I'm sitting here read Compton the second written a book.

Oh no, no, no, but you've learned a lot from that man, right, Like what I'm trying to say here, yeah, right, And that would be the top seller.

Yeh, bous on the process.

Compete every day, dude, That's that's the myma.

Nos.

You open it up and it's focused on the process.

And like a hundred slides of the same thing, same thing. No, But I like, so what I'm trying to say is that there's there's a lot of things that I learned

No solid, you should just stood on it.

Actually yeah, but I'll take it. But there are there's those things that a lot of building a business or building anything is it's deeply emotional, right, like it is you're invested in this thing. It's a part of you. So you can go talk to people that can tell you how they felt when they went through something similar. Then you can extract like that too, because a lot of it is like just reassurance like am I doing like? Am I doing this right?

Like?

Am I am I think in the right way? Like are we treating people the right way? And like at least you can learn from other people's experience, which maybe you just can't extract that from a book, right, So you.

Do a good job of navigating finding the right people have probably been through a similar.

Exp I love talking about you, look up to you. Yeah, I love about man, and I audio knows that dude. I'll get on a call with somebody like and they're just just like one little tidbit saying oh, man, did you know what this dude did, Like he sold his company for twenty million, you know, and and here's what he did when they were in this situation. And like, dang, that's crazy because that dude's never going to write a

That's right, that's good.

Yeah, I learned it is.

I mean, I feel like also like the things that we really care about. Like so for me, for example, we talked about hiring. So I think that building a team is more of an art than a science.

Right.

But somebody who doesn't really care about hiring or recruiting, which is a very difficult thing to do, right, Like you building a team, this is a very hard thing to do. These guys have to they have to give a shit. They have to have ownership mentality. They have to show up when you're not here, They have to set things up, they have to care about what you guys are trying to build for it to look and feel and turn out great, that has to be the

I'm like no, like because to me, it's more of an art.

I'm literally interpreting everything that's going on, how they're answering certain questions, how they showed up, like what they said their background was. And that's because it's something that I care about.

Now.

There might be some other things that are a little bit more of a science where it is more about the principles or sort of the rules around and whatnot, But like, you are definitely more of a anybody.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's like hell yeah, there's a five star you know. It's like that guy, he's a walk on you, but you wanted to work here, you know, Like the vision like he sees it like higher him. He's like he wants to wear that in on his Yeah yeah yeah, that's like yeah, you know for sure like that is. But to me, I that's what that's the balance though, you know, because for me, anybody that believes in a second, like in the Vision, I'm like, get on board, do let's go. You know, I want to win the game.

Yeah, for you, what's winning the game?

Uh well, so I think about building a team, and for him, like what's winning the game? Yeah that's a cool question.

Yeah, well he said that. I'm just saying I was.

I was more talking about in context of like building a team. But if you asked me what went in, that's that is a deep question.

I know. We we'll say, we'll sit back and talk about this ship all the time. All of us will just kind of sit around because you just have different angles.

Like what's the game for you the most?

Yeah? Yeah, I don't know. I don't know fully yet.

Like for me, it's all in like it's broken up, right, it's just broken up into different priorities. I feel like winning the game for me right now career wise, like I'm currently getting to do that. And I guess seeing this through and I guess what's seeing it through means to me is I don't know, Because every every year, probably every six months, we might see another level of potential. We're starting to get into our tap into that we had no idea, that we had really no idea that

It's a great question because it's hard to answer because I think if you are way too set in what your answer is, I don't know if you're trying hard enough.

Right right, right right, because you feel like, oh, I won't know.

You want it to be fluid, Like you know any entrepreneur that's or let's say you're running a business and you're like, oh, the end game is, don't want to sell this company. I'm like, dude, you're not going to succeed. I'm sorry, right, because you're already thinking about an exit, right, and there might be a time where you should think about that, but like you'll know when it's the right

Hey?

But here's right thing, hey yeah.

Hey.

One of my favorite things is all advice is autobiographical. You're just talking to yourself in the past, because like somebody's listening.

Like no, I started to slow down.

Autobiographic, Like all advice is autobiographicals and like you're just talking to yourself in the past, Like, if you ask me for advice, I'm all I can do is reflect on my life, right, And it's as if I'm looking at myself in the past and myself asked me the same question, Like I'm just talking to myself. Anyone you ever ask for advice in the life, they're just talking to themselves, right, and they're just trying to find something familiar.

You know?

Like what we get to talk about and our our journeys is we're in the middle of it, you know, and we'll be able to say what success is are the way to success will be in our eyes what we did right, But there's never the same path to the same outcome. And I just I just think about that sometimes because like I know that you and I just you set a big hairy, audacious goal. Right, you say you want to help every athlete, And I was like, so,

Yeah, I think too, like the identity you build like in it, like all the principles and stuff you've talked about, Like even if that goal doesn't hit. So say my goal is you know, ten years in the NFL, and I don't get ten years in the NFL, it's like, well you lost the game.

It's like, well, I mean I'm still in the game. Like that's just the game has changed for me.

That's right, that's right, you know.

What I mean. I feel like whatever you build from the inside, like going and working inside out, like all the why stuff, all the cliche why stuff that we talk about, like who you are I guess as a person, like you just filtered to a different game every time.

I don't know what the fucking end game is.

Yeah, And I don't think I don't think you need to have one. Man.

I think life should be more fluid, it should be just kind of you should enjoy it. You should strive for big things. You should surround yourself with great people and actually like and with family and enjoy life and enjoy the journey. I don't think you need to have an end goal. And maybe one day you wake up or you have one, and that's great, good for you.

You know.

Sometimes people will have convictions or whether it's like a political view or religion or I don't know, whatever it is, and I'm like, damn, you're that's set on that.

Give us examples.

What are you.

That's craziest religious thought? Some clips really hurt you. No, that's could you say some things we could blackmail you? Yeah yeah, yeah, so that's that is.

I think that's a We should all have a disclaimer under everything we say or recommend, and it I mean that.

Yeah, yeah, no, yeah. You said, like, I'm just trying to win the game.

Obviously you were talking about it from the art standpoint of hiring somebody in the process that you're seeing through because it's team building.

What is what is winning the game mean to you? And yeah, then you threw it at me and I had no fucking clue.

Yeah, I'm like, oh, yeah, got him, hey, let me Yeah, there you go. It's realistic.

A way.

Yeah it man, that's that's your book you've been trying to get me on. Yeah, that's the book. We've been giving him some love.

Tim Grover winning the book winning because it's like when we're twenty three, Like when I'm twenty three, to.

Me, winning is like playing in the NFL.

Yeah, and if I knew I wasn't going to be like a high rounder, it's like, oh, let me just get a couple of years in the NFL.

That's right, that's right, and that's like winning the game.

But like you no, it's not.

I think that like the.

Pursuit of some of those things, like you know, you're the same, like how much is enough? And the answers are just a little bit more, you know what I'm saying, Like the answer like when you have that next thing, you want that next thing, and so like it's a you spend so much time chasing something you don't realize like when you have it because you keep going. Right, Like again, we've raised twenty million dollars for this company, right, and I remember when we first raised our first like

Hmm.

Shout out Showtime pay per View?

Is that right? Yeah?

Or do I even say that?

No?

No, You're right, keep going, You got it?

But it says Showtime pay per View and most Value Promotion, right.

You gotta say both? Okay?

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The main event will feature renowned is that right?

Yep?

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I'm stoked to finally be an investor now.

Yes, dude, Yeah, welcome aboard.

Thank you.

Yeah, we're thinking about names.

I said that with a little friction. Oh Rea, I've always I've always tried getting in.

I know you you've the time deserved to get in and said, I've.

Been a guinea pig, Like you've tried making content for me. Hey, let's do this, okay, Like when do I get to get in?

Like you know you don't want to get in this.

Guzzy Yeah no, no, no, Hey, hey, here's the deal.

You know you don't want to get in this dang doggy And I'm just like, all right, I guess we can't have a serious coming Doggy Yeah, that's the way to handle like this. It just starts getting Yeah, Doggy, you don't want to get in this thang bag. Really, you know the an emoji thing on iPhone. Will would only send me videos him as the Dinosaur and like, Doggy.

Can I put money in? I'm like, dude, yeah, this is the type of investor. Yea the Dinosaur man, No, I do. So you're in. You're an angel investor like William Earle Compton, the third and angel in my life. You know what I'm saying.

It sounds nice.

It is, dude, it is nice, But like the reality is, like, hey, when you went to the league, you you said, hey, that five thousand dollars got a stretch? Like I have never ever wanted to take money out of your pocket, you know what I'm saying, Like, I always want to put it in right and and like that's the thing is that.

You never did.

But I know, I know you're here.

Are these guys are gonna start paying me for the tweets?

Yeah?

We are now, Yeah I get some money.

No, But the truth is that you know, these athletes they go through and they get to that next level, they get that first paycheck and like oh man, you should open up a subway franchise all clothing line time, Like everyone's trying to get in their pockets and like hey, yeah, let's do that, let's do that, let's do that, and like none that stuff pans out right, So like I never felt comfortable saying like, hey, yeah, we should take in like money from athletes that we know that our

Let's fucking go, let's code.

Let's go there, especially once you get that little intro video of you explaining how to how open doorse works.

Yeah, we do need to meet make like a piece of cool content like how it works, like if there's a way to like walk through and all you got to do, We'll just saying but I'm saying visually too, like you like you go something, Hey, We'll make something cool, something cool.

If you don't, I mean, hey, like real quick, how are we doing on time? Like I know that that's not my job to do any of this ship, but are we good?

Like you guys, I mean we're he's just talking about time like on this podcast.

Yeah, I don't want to make sure like if you want to get stories out, like we've we've talked like super hypothetical stuff, right, There's not been many tangible stories about anything in this podcast. Yeah, I mean I'm sorry, Like I'm just like, yeah, I just know what people listen to, Like I would listen to us talk about hypotheticals of this and I don't know. I just know that there's stories to be told too. All right, Cool, that's the blood flowing down. I'll get it, dude, I

You know.

So I'm on my front like, sorry, show, but it's obvious that be.

Like, hey, what do you know? It's the boy. Somebody said something? Uh Alex said urgent? Something urgent.

Okay, we'll respond after Yeah, yeah we got flag for that bullshit.

I'll telling about it earlier.

What I don't want to yeah yeah, yeah, on he explain. Please let's add more content to that.

Yeah, do you guys have anything like you you guys, I mean, if you guys have any questions, whether it's a story or just anything that we've all talked about or they've all talked about.

Deal you've seen for an athlete so far, Like what's the most amount of money a college kid has made?

Or do you think what do you think?

Are you allowed to say that?

Yeah, we can't talk about like specifics.

Can you we just say player X?

Yeah?

Are we allowed to just bag what is a college player made? And you just say, like like something that's been crazy?

We can talk in aggregates, We can talk about.

You guys been doing a lot of Bullshiti word.

You should just have a dictionary right next to you. And just like we can talk about aggregates. Hey, fuck you man, don't talk about aggreg Yeah, this is Tennessee. Man, we don't say that, you.

Racist motherfucker.

Jesus. But so, so what is here's the thing, Like most people, I'm we're knee deep in athlete endorsements to this sort of thing. You give us something, all right, all right, there's Hey, there's a gymnast. There's a gymnast for L s U. Her name's Olivia Dunn. She's got seven figures lined up already in endorsement deals. A gymnast at L s U. Right, So, like everyone listens like, oh, it's got to be Spencer Rattler bringing home the cash, right,

Be curious about like the big like who's going to be making like the seven figures of six figures of you know, shit like that. Yeah, but people don't understand, like you were saying it earlier, like I mean, two hundred bucks a month goes a long way, which imagine getting there, like, yes, we are on full right scholarships and people make that argument, oh, you get a full ride, you get the you know, you get college paid for.

It was around what when I was a senior, is around eight hundred.

Yeah, seven and eighty dollars, And that was to pay rent, pay for rent as like after I pay for rent, utilities, phone, rent, car insurance. I remember I would have like one hundred maybe one hundred, one hundred, twenty bucks left a month, so I needed twenty bucks to go downtown because you know, you knew everybody, right, so so like that was that's that was what you did. But like I think that the Schollie checks now are like sixteen hundred or even more.

But it's like but the secret thing though, like that again, I swear if you weren't a student athlete like this stuff won't you'd be like, okay, I never thought about that, but remember that subway over by home depot, like where that you could go and like everyone knew like if you said the right word, like you know, you might be able to get that five dollars foot long for a little bit less right, and this is a hypothetical, Like Taylor the Wan was telling me a story of Michigan.

You talking about how much right now?

Yes?

Easy, man, No, let's talk about how many how what?

Hey? Decision like this takes time?

No, it's doesn't. It takes right now, not money. Let's talk about what describe the perfect ambassador for Busting with the Boys. You go out and build out the team, the squad, You're like, yeah, those are all busting athletes. What do they tell me? What they look like?

The obviously somebody for the boys?

Oh yeah yeah, grid grit, the grid buddy, Yeah, lunch pale, guys like wolves, people who are about like being for the boys, that embodies being for the boys. It's not like you want people who are going to post, who are going to be afraid to get in an interview, say we're all in a group at right, or say we're talking back and forth and say hey, this week, if you win, very barring that you win the game and you feel good about it. Just shout out the boys and say, hey, subscribe to the boys and ray

In a way to where they're not nervous about being for the boys. Yeah?

Absolutely, you know what I mean, that makes sense. You want a lot you're trying.

To have I don't know where we're trying to figure that out.

You trying to get like ten boys, see like yeah.

There's there's there's thoughts where you get like a small group or you think, like Taylor being at the the level he's at playing football, being a pro bowler, being at the high peak of being an offensive lineman. A lot of these young kids, especially in college, you know who Taylor want is so they want to be for the boys somehow, Like.

Hey, how can you be it?

So you don't know, like you know, you create this hogs like you create anything, the big boy, any of.

That's the big nasties whatever it is. Yeah, and you think about that avenue.

You think about, okay, if I worked with a certain amount of linebackers, whether it be in a mentoring avenue. Like, there's so many different options that have gone through my head. I don't necessarily know what that is yet, but I know like a lot of the athletes have already reached out to us, like how do we be for the boys, And so those are obviously the types of guys who want people who are taking initiative that know what's gonna come with, like they already know about how we go.

About things, you know what I mean?

Yeah, of course, of course, So you said one hundred grand that's what you said. Did I think I heard that too hard too?

Yeah?

I think that So Busting with the Boys is gonna commit two hundred g's to building out the busting with the boys. And this is from Wills like personal cat. Wow, your personal cat. You guys heard, See how that looks?

Yeah, we'll see here.

First, it does fire me up, like part of you guys visiting was we're gonna be talking about those thing.

Yeah, so we should do that for sure tonight.

Man. It fires me up though, But that's a good question.

I think it's not about the money. I'm not talking.

About the money part.

I'm talking about how you go about doing something like that with a brand that we have, Like do you want to be selective and exclusive in things or do you want to be like you know, Dave puts out the video and every athlete period you know, wants to put barsel athlete as long as they get some merch which is incredible branding, which.

Is a great interesting Yeah, but there's a lot of compliance issues with that too.

Yeah, big stuff like what you know about we won't get into because we you know, it's been an hour and a half.

Yeah, I just thought you would skip over some of the stuff already was talking about and we just keep going. I thought I had a friend at the start of this podcast. I clearly don't. So you friends in my life.

That's cool. Okay, what complaint compliance issues do you run into with all that?

I like teaching kids that if you didn't you bum that. Yeah, let's have a foot that's.

Just making a huge fucking body moving back there.

And then yeah, let's talk about the history of Uh.

Yeah, do you want to hire and fire our people? Sure? Get rid of Garrett. Yeah, okay, sorry to cut you off.

No you no, it's good dude.

But open doors dot com here's your drop your look.

This is like anyone listening. Like you can log into open or stuck comcreene account. You could find whatever athlete you want and ask them to do whatever you want for whatever amount of money and it will will go straight to their phone. Like you want them to tweet about your your your small business. You want them to give you a shout out like it's it's like Cameo meets five plus. Just asking an athlete directly, Hey do you want to support my business or say happy birthdays

You can just do your thing. Don't bring don't bring this back to me. Open doors dot com. Follow at open doors your Twitter handle.

Blake Underscore Lawrence, Yeah your Twitter U n A L.

I see follow the boys. We love you, We appreciate you. Big hugs, Sidy kisses.

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