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Good morning, afternoon everyone. Every one is having a start to their day. My name is Isaiah Jones. I work at UTA and our New York office side and then our comedy and live touring group. I have the pleasure today to introduce to Nicole Linda, one of our colleagues here at UTA. I think some of you probably are
probably very familiar with her amazing success. But for those of you who are not going to run through a couple of things and then click kick it over to Cliff to introduce the eyl Nicole is a PRIG graduate of the University of Oklahoma with a bachelor's degree in Business management and Doctor of Law with honors. She has tackled Wall Street as a financial analyst and obtain both
our Series seven and Series sixty three certifications. In fifty Nicole made one of the biggest touchdowns of her career, thus far becoming the first female agent to represent top NFL agency Players REP. Twenty seventeen, Players Rep was acquired by Young Money APAA Sports Agency, owned by world renow rapper Lil Wayne. I'm sure we all no. In twenty twenty one, Nicole elevated her career and joined the team that Clutch Sports Group as their new President of Football Operations.
Nicole's incredible business avvy and strong will to succeed as letter to become one of the youngest female sports agents in the industry, signing her first client at only twenty six. Her extensive client list includes NFL players with the Denver Broncos, Oakland Raiders, Washington Commanders, and that's being nominated soft ball star and a ballerina from the famous American Ballet Theater. We are extremely excited to have her here with us and I'm gonna pick it over to Cliff.
Hello, Hello, Hello, everyone. Happy Tuesday to everybody. So I'm more than honored to introduce these these two illustrious gentlemen, the hosts of the the Infamous and the Illustrious Earned Your Leisure podcast. These fellas have two of the top ten finance and business podcasts out with Earn Your Leisure and Market Mondays. They also have like their new show Assets of Reliabilities that came out, Please go check that out. They're also proud members of the Beer Gang as you all see.
Okay, okay. They are probably.
One of the most exciting clients that we have to date on the bleeding edge of culture, finance, business and sports. So we're extremely excited to introduce the men, the myth and the Legends, Troy Millings and Rashad Balah.
Thank you for having us yl, Cliff.
We appreciate that, appreciate that much.
Love, So from here I'm gonna go ahead and let you guys take it over and allow you all to have the conversation. After this, We'll also have some have Q and a's that I'll be able to feed to you guys.
Appreciate it for sure. I appreciate it, Isaiah Man.
I appreciate you getting the Washington team right man, that's my team.
So appreciate you.
Nicole. First and foremost is honor.
Thank you. I'm excited to be here. How's it going?
Good? Good? You know, it's so crazy.
We have posted you on our platform at the beginning, like three years ago, like when we first started Instagram. You were one of the first stories that we posted about the young Money thing and we actually tried to get you on the podcast then like three years ago, it be tough.
Now look we're here, we're here.
Yeah, three years later that before, it's yeah, but you know, big fans of what you got going on. So first and foremost, thank you for joining us, and congratulations all your success.
Thank you. I'm excited to be here.
Yeah, for sure.
So I guess we could just jump right into it, so people might not be fully aware of your journey, and it just kind of gave some background. But it's interesting because you come from a finance background from Wall Street talking about Servy seven and different things like that. That's like in our world. So how did you transition from working on Wall Street being in finance to you know, being an NFL agent and now being you know, the head of the football division at clubch Yeah.
So I, you know, I always knew that I wanted to work with athletes. I didn't exactly know that it was called a sports agent, but I knew the capacity that I wanted to work with them, and so I thought that it was a financial advisor. And so I moved to New York City. I worked at this big company called Morgan Stanley. I was actually doing investment banking at the time, but wanted to flip to the financial
advisor side. And so I met with the financial advisor, kind of told him what I was interested in, and he's like, you want to be an agent. He's like, you don't want to be a financial advisor. So I was like, really, what does an agent do? And so he's explaining to me exactly what that is is. And once I realized I was in kind of the wrong field, I went and applied to take the lsat probably within like a week, and then applied to law school like
it was, you know, really quick. In order to be an NFL agent, you have to have a postgraduate degree, so either a law degree or a master's degree. So that's why I ended up going to law school and went to law school graduate, waited there in two and a half years. Spent about six about eight months at the NFL Players Association before I got certified. Got certified, and then I started this dual career as an attorney
and a sports agent. So I worked at the number three ranked a law firm in the world's huge international law firm, and then I also worked at Players Rep which became Young Money Sports kind of at the same time. So I was moonlighting as an agent for about six to seven years before I joined Clutge doctor Lynn.
Okay, So I meant most people, I mean, especially for my generation, when we thought agents, you know, people we watched Jeri McGuire like sounds all.
Right, But what is the actual role of an agent? All right?
Because like most people think like that's the person that gets to meet the athlete and hang out on the sideline and what it's time to do a deal like, oh, they'll come around, but what is it the actual role of the agent.
So the actual role my job description is that I negotiate the contract for the player on behalf of the player with the team. Like that is the box. That is really all my job is now from a day to day. It doesn't look just like that. That may be what the job description reads, but it's really me wearing a bunch of hats. So I'm a personal assistant,
I'm a travel agent, I'm a friend, a mentor. You know, it could be anything from planning a vacation for an athlete, negotiating an endorsement deal, to being a therapist and talking about mental health. Like really, you're kind of the glue for the player. So it's an everyday thing. So when I'm repping a player, I'm talking to them at least once a day about it, any and everything.
So we interview Bobby Wagner.
Yes, great guy, and we know a few are a few other players in the league. We know a lot of players in the league actually, So what's interesting about him is that he does not have an agent. He represents himself and that's something that's kind of become a little bit more popular nowadays, especially what contracts kind of being set already is not really a lot of negotiation.
Correct me if I'm wrong.
So how do you feel about that players representing themselves and you do you think that that is a trend that will continue?
So kind of to your point about contracts being lockstep, that's only in the rookie deal. So veteran deals are not lockstep. You very much have to negotiate everything from the money to the language to the payout. It takes a skill set. There are a few players that represent themselves, but I would say it's not a trend yet. I mean I could name maybe four out of two thousand players, so we hear the big name, so it makes us think that it's pretty common, but it's still not very
common for me. If a player is able to right and they've got the knowledge and the expends to negotiate their own deal, totally do it. You know, I want you to feel empowered. I personally, if I need surgery, I'm not doing my own surgery. I'm going to a doctor. But that's just me. You know, some people like people google their symptoms. I like to go to the doctor, so I think it's similar to that. You know, there's Bobby did a great job with his deal, phenomenal job,
but that is not always the case unfortunately. You know, we've seen some deals that have been negotiated by non agents, not attorneys, and they just you know, are not up to par with the market. So if you can do it, great, you know, I just what we're paid is such a fraction, and you know, I pay people what they're worth, and there are any expertise I think is worth it.
With the commission got cut recently, it's like two percent now like that, No, it's three. Yeah, but it was higher than that previously, right, It's.
It's always been three, but they're able to negotiate it down.
Yeah.
So so we're in a Black History month, and when we talk about history, obviously black future, Black Future month as well, because we shout out to yeah, that's right, Black Future Month, and that's about the future, especially for females and sports. Right, we don't really see females as agents, and we're starting to see it now and in the training and coaching, but I haven't seen many female agents. It's specifically black female agents.
So what has that.
Journey been like for you some you know, trials and tribulations that you've had to face as a black female indos industry.
Yeah, I mean it's not easy. It's definitely gotten to a point now where people are used to seeing me in the rooms and there's not that well factor. But early on it was really tough. You know. I think the first half that made it difficult was recruiting. Right, I go into a player's room and I'm talking to dad, and Dad is quizzing me on the game of football, you know, charging me up. The other aspect of it.
I signed my first client at twenty six. The first player I ever signed was a veteran player who was twenty five. And so these are my peers. You know. I'm finally aging out of the locker room, praise God. But my age was bigger of an issue than my gender and my race, you know. I think being young
was such a trial and tribulation for me. So there's that half of it, and then the second half is dealing with the NFL and being taken serious by the general managers and the scouts and salary cap people, and that took a while. You know. I tell women all the time that excellence is your greatest currency, right, so if you are excellent everything you do, there will be no one that can question. And so for me, I always work harder than my peers. You know, I'm trying
to show up excellent every single day. I want to make it tough for them to say anything about nicolon.
So let me ask you this because I think there's a lot of college students on this. Of course, So let's get into like the education. What are the steps to become an NFL agent? Can you just kind of walk like step by step process.
So graduating from college is a requirement, so NBA is different. This is just NFL graduating from college getting some type of postgraduate degree. So that can be a master's degree. You know, you can go get an online one year master's degree, or you can go to law school. You do not have to go to law school to be an agent. Get that question all the time. Do I
think it was valuable? Yes? What I've done it again? Yes, but it's not necessary passing whatever masters or a JD program you're in, and then you've got to sit for the NFLPA exam. That exam is offered only once a year in July for two days and you have to apply for that exam in January. So you apply in January. You spend like three thousand dollars to apply. They do this big background check on you, all these references. They're going to do a credit check to make sure you
don't have too much debt. I mean, it's a whole thing. And then you sit for the exam in July. The test results come out around October. This year, only thirty five percent of people that took the exam past, so it's a very low pass rate. And then you're registered. And then every year that you are an agent, you have to pay NFLPA dues, which are around twenty five hundred. You have to pay NFLPA insurance, which is another fifteen hundreds. It's five grand, five grand, no players, just to say
you're an agent. You have to pay a fee in every single state you recruit in. So in Tech says it's five hundred in Alabama. I think it's a thousand. You have to get a surety bond in every single state you recruit in, so that's another thousand bucks per state. So if I recruit in five ten states, I mean easily we're talking twenty five thousand dollars a year to be an agent and not have a client. So when people ask me what's the big biggest barrier to entry,
it's money. People that are agents have money, you know, or they had an investor, which is why I worked this law job for seven years because I didn't have no money. But that's kind of the steps.
Now, that's good information. But then so also to follow up from that.
Okay, so say somebody wants to they they can do that financially, they passed, they passed it, but they still don't have any clients. So the next step I would assume would be to try to work with an agent to try to get hired by an agency or do you see people doing it independently and just trying to just get clients on their own.
Most young agents are on their own, so I know that we see the big clutch cias of the world, those are few far in between. There's nine hundred certified agent. I'd say eight hundred of them are on their own or in small little agents with a couple groups, like small little groups of agents. Most are not at big agencies, so most are going to be on their own.
Yeah, So what led you to the process of choosing players rep. Because I mean at that point, I mean, I'm a huge I'm a huge wings fand by the way, but at that point, were you trying to find agency that says, you know what they're going to value me or what was that process like for you?
Oh?
I mean they were the only ones that answered the phone. I probably called one hundred agents, tried to get a job with everyone in the business. No one returned my call. The guy that ended up giving my giving me my shot was named Kenzarnoff. He worked a players rep. He rapped a bunch of players from OU and I went to OU and I was friends with a lot of these guys, and so I kind of leveraged it and was like, hey, I know all your clients. Can you
give me ten minutes? And we got on a call and he just told me, Hey, this is a very terrible business. It's so hard to get in, and you're a woman, and you're a black woman. Like he basically was trying to talk me out of it. I get it now that I'm on the side, I totally get it. And he said, I get this call twice a week. Why are you different? He's like, what makes you stand out. Why would I give you a shot? I got one
hundred kids that call me every day. And he's like, if you could get me a meeting with let's say the Raven Clark And this is a kid at the time that was like this top offensive lineman. He's like, okay, sure, I hear you out, like he just named a person. And so I end up actually getting him that meeting the next day and then he hired me. So it was one of those weird just god moments.
You know who you never know who you know.
It's actually, you know, you bring up a very valid point, and especially for all of the college students that are listening, because a lot of people like ask for internships or mentorships, but they go about it the wrong way. They go about it more so like you can help me, but that's more of a charity thing, and you can only do so much charity.
But if you can actually add value to a person, and.
It's like like how you introduced him to somebody that he was looking. Now, that's the actual value add You don't even have to have money to have some level of value that you can bring. So talk about that, because you guys said I know that. You know a lot of people probably hit you up all the time, like can I intern for you? Can I work for under you? Can I introduce me to this person that person? Like talk about how it's important to add value first when looking to be a part of something.
I one hundred percent agree. I wrote a book and I have a whole chapter on this as being a value add when it comes to this mentor question. You know, I do have guys and women reach out to me all the time and say can you mentor me? And, like you said, that's charity. And although I do find in my heart to help as many as I can, it's tough to filter through who do you choose? And so when you're looking to find a mentor, you definitely want to see if there's something you can do for them.
You know, like you said, it doesn't have to be money, but maybe it's a relationship, maybe it's a connection, Maybe it's just taking stuff off their plate. You know, Hey, can I be your assistant for free for a month? Let me organize your emails. You know, I noticed that when you post a screenshot on your phone, you had a lot of messages that run read let me go through messages, let me organize something for you. Whatever that
may be, something that sets you apart. You know, it's got to be a mutually beneficial relationship unless you know the person.
Yeah, you said that when you made the phone call. You know the general is trying to discourage you from taking it, and you understood it. Now being on this side, my gosh, So can we dive into it a little bit? Like what are the things that you that you were seeing it? You know, like, oh, I get it. Maybe he was trying to protect me. But I'm going to go with my intuition and my gut and this is my passion. So what were the things were you seeing?
I mean, I think the biggest thing for me is that there are a lot of ways to work with athletes and a lot of ways to change the lives of athletes without being an agent. And so when I meet with people and they say they want to be an agent, I want to know that you can't sleep at night unless you're an agent. If not, you can work for a team and do some of the similar things that I do without the risk, right and without the work that is involved. We talked about the money part.
It cost a ton of money. You know, we didn't even get into how much it costs to sign a player. You know, it could cost twenty five thousand to one hundred thousand dollars to sign a player, and god forbid, he goes undrafted. You don't get your money back. So it's almost like gambling, or you know you're in. You're investing. Just like investments, it can hit or or it may not, and so the amount of money you have to put in and the level of risk that it takes is
not always worth it. You're never off. I'm always on right. I never have a day off. My phone is always buzzing. If somebody calls me at two in the morning, I take the call. I don't get to take planned vacations. There's never a day I can just go out the country and plan it in advance, Like that's not the case. So I just I want to make sure that people know there's other jobs where you can work with athletes.
You don't have to have all the bad stuff. You know, you can be a publicist, you can work for a team, you can work for the Players Association, all of those impact athletes every single day in a similar way that I get.
To do that.
People didn't see that that side of it. So I mean that that's good to know. Now you said that it's hit or miss, and so a lot of times people will focus on getting that first round pick, getting in that first round pick, I'm assuming because of the guaranteed contract that comes with it. What was that process like for you, because I know you cured a top three picks, So what was that process like?
Yeah, I mean, of course we all want first round picks, but there's only thirty two of them, and there's nine hundred certified agents, and you're competing against Tom Brady's agent and Aaron Rodgers agent, you know, and so it's I would love to have millions of first round picks, but they're very, very hard to get. And so when I started off in my career, I had to go after the guys that I knew would go undrafted but they
could maybe make a team. So it's like finding the gyms, the guys that were like great players but went under
the radar, and I could get them a shot. As far as getting like a top five, top ten pick, I've had three top ten picks now, and you know, it's been nothing but favor you know, I would love to say that I worked harder than everybody else or smarter than everybody else, But there's an ounce of like favor or luck or God or whatever you want to call it, that goes into some of these moments, and people don't like to talk about it. They want to look like they just worked their butt off and that
was it, and I'm like, nah, it was God. My situation with getting my top three pick was the kids saw something different in me and wanted to make history. I want to design a woman so that he could help change the trajectory for women. He did not say, Nicole, you were the smartest person I've ever met. You work harder than everybody else. I can't take that credit. Like a lot of it was just favor. Yes, I work very hard and I think I'm smart, but there's that
aspect and so that's tough. I can't teach that part, you know, absolutely.
You said so you said something about one hundred thousand just to even sign an athlete.
Can you talk about that? Can you go into like what you actually mean by that?
Of course, so you sign a player in January, that's when their season is over and they can eligible, you know, legally sign with you. From January to March. First, they trained for the Combine. The combine is a place where they go and they test, see who runs the fastest, who jumps the highest, all of that. During those eight weeks before the combine, they've got to prepare, and so you send your guy to a training facility to prepare to run fast and jump high. And those training facilities,
you got to pay for the facility. You got to pay for their rental car for eight weeks, you got to pay for their food, chef nutrition, and you got to give them some spending money to live on. Depending on the player, you're not spending less than i'd say now probably thirty five k, like seventh round pick, still around thirty five K. And then the stipend is bigger
depending on the higher rank of the player. So you could end up spending one hundred thousand dollars on a client and if they don't make it or they go lower in the draft. You know, this is not alone. This is you just saying I'm investing in you and then hopefully you make it back.
You may.
I used to go to IMG Academy.
So when I was at IMG, I was I was in high school, but all of the NFL guys is coming to actually train, So like Byron left Ridge and Eli Manning and all of these guys were down there, and it was just it was cool to see, like, you know, the NFL they were training going to the combine at that point in time, so I got to see firsthand what you're actually explaining. But then also talk about what if somebody decides to go with somebody else?
Yeah, I mean, how how's that?
Like they can there's nothing to stop them from erners?
What's up?
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Changing your mind the last minute right m happens all the time, or changing their mind when they get into their career after you spend all this money. Three hundred nfl agents per year switch agents three hundred. That's just a statistic. There's not a lot of littlety in our business. That's the other part makes it really difficult. So every
year three hundred are changing their agents. And I've gotten the benefit of that because I've have a lot of veteran guys that have switched over to me that maybe went to bigger agents and didn't get the individual attention. But you know, you put all the money and you put all the time, like you said, and then you could lose out on the player at any point in their career, right before they're up for their big second contract that you work so hard for, right before they're
getting drafted, right after the draft. Yeah, I mean it's emotionally taxing, and your life, your mortgage getting paid, your car note getting paid, is contingent on how a twenty two year old feels about you that day when they wake up. Do you know the level of anxiety that you have. But women out there, if you've ever been ghosted, geez, that is nothing compared to you.
Oh no, not after Valencie, as they know, I know, let me, let me, let me.
Ghost fruits all the time. It's like you're recruiting kid for two years and then all Suddens have takes them back and it's like what happened? You know? So the story of my life is getting ghosted.
Yeah, so you said you get players in January. Obviously that's after the college season ends. But I'm wondering now, with the NIL rules that are in place, like how that affects your business, right? Because now, I mean, you got kids, and we spend some time this weekend with some of the guys that you know play for some of the southern California teams that are making six figures, and it's like, all right, well this is different now, so what's that? What has NIL done for your profession?
The hard part with NIL is that you know, players can sign as freshmen, and so I think for us it's it's as agents generally. I think we're all trying to decide do we want to get heavy in the business. Do we want to stand back? You know, the benefit of getting in is that maybe you build this relationship with this kid and then you get them for the draft.
But the likelihood of that happening is slim. It's already hard to keep clients as it is, you know, hearing that statistic of three hundred guys switch in a ear, Signing a guy at eighteen as a freshman and making sure you've kept him happy for four years before the draft. It's it's dangerous. You know, I recruit a kid for six months and I'm in too long. You know, I came in too early. Now the new shiny toy comes
and I lose four years. I mean that's tough. So but but there are some guys that are loyal and if you get in early and then they become the number one pick, you're happy you did. So it's really this tough decision. There's also, you know a lot of guys that won't get as much in I own money as they think, like our alignment defensive players, and then you sign them and they blame it on you. Oh, I mean I didn't get any marketing. My agent's not
doing nothing. It's like, no, you're an offensive lineman.
They don't make SI offense alignment.
Yeah, so it can be a little bit difficult, and you don't want to take the blame. You don't want to lose a client and it be on you that you lost them.
Well, how do you feel about the rule in general? As far as the uh, there's been something that's been you know, talked about for a long period of time for athletes. This still not actually getting paid from the universities, but at least that being they getting some endorsement deals. So how do you how do you feel about it, and how do you feel it will impact college sports.
I think it was an easy way out for the NCUBA. This is, like you said, it's not pay for play. I think that's the bigger issues that they're literally playing for free when they should be being paid by the nc DOUBLEA. So that's a separate issue that still needs to be tackled. I'm excited that guys are able to
benefit off their likeness. There's so many question marks though, Like you know, I have to remind players, you got to pay taxes on that money, right, and they don't know they get this one hundred thousand dollars check and they don't take taxes out like W two income it's ten ninety nine. They've got to pay it. They need to have LLCs, they maybe have lawyers. I've seen guys getting caught up in contracts with exclusivity provisions and now they can't sign anything else the rest of their college
career because of this contract they signed. So it needs to be policed in a way that protects the players and it's just not not yet.
So right now, the president of Football Operations at CLUTCH, what is that? What is your role at CLUTCH? And you know on a day to day what does that look like?
Right?
Are you still hand to hand with the clients or do you have a team under you now that works and they do with some of the heavy work that you use it do.
Yeah, so I you know, I represent about twenty one NFL players personally, we have I think seventy five or so at CLUTCH, and so I still am day to day with my guys. We do have a team of people like client services, reps, marketing people that work with our players too. That takes a little bit of the burden off of me. But as president of Football oppos, it's more of just a big picture, right. It's more of me saying not just my twenty one players, but
seventy five guys. You know, how are we operating as a group, whether that's going to the Senior Bowl or going to the Combine or making sure that they're set up for their off season training. It's more of that logistics for everyone and just kind of helping lead the division with my partner Bobo.
So I forget what the exact number is.
What is something like seventy percent of NFL players file for bankruptcy five years after they get finished playing something like that. Okay, so now that you are in a position to you know, influence and affect a lot of people, how do you change that statistic? Because you would assume that, you know, it would decrease as people make more money, but it really hasn't changed. Even though in salaries increase, it's still kind of the same rate of people mismanaging
their money. So what a what is what is the core reasons for this? And what are some ways you think that you could possibly change that?
Yeah, so I will say one of the biggest lessons I learned getting into this business because part of why I got in was guys gone broke. Me watching guys go from rags to riches to rags. That was why I wanted to get in, and that's why I went to finance, thinking, Okay, I'm gonna be their financial advisor. And so when I got in, I'm like, no, guys going broke under my watch, Like I'm going to be on it. And I learned that you can only protect
a player so much. I had a player literally go broke me Nicole Lon who is so hands on, And the only reason why I got in this business was for that. And I watched this player go broke, and there is only so much I could do. These are grown men with their own money, and it was such a hard peel pill to swallow to know that no matter what you do or what you say, there's certain
guys that will slip through the cracks, you know. So my goal is just if I can help majority as long as they have the resources, I mean, they've still got to take it. I say. The main reason why they caught some of the guys go broke is family members. You know, they're paying for everybody and the mama. And then it's little things like living up to certain standards
of the NFL has, like away games. The guys wear these suits, right, they all get these suits for eight games a week, and they spend sixty grand on suits that they only can wear once because that's the rule. Little stupid stuff like that. You know, statistics show that some of those little things are part of the reason why guys go broke. It's like stuff that just it's literally throwing away money.
So we shouldn't wait to cardia glasses.
That's an investment. That's an investment.
So I'm wondering now because obviously, you know, crypto is, you know, an asset class, a new one for this generation, and a lot of the high profile athletes have been taking portions of their salary in crypto. So you know what happens when you know one of your clients says, hey, I want to explore this route. What do you advise at this point? Right, we saw Odell caught a lot of flashback and people didn't really understand the terms of it.
But like, what do you say to a client that says, hey, I want to explore this route too, You.
Know, I think that's really for their financial advisor. I try to make sure that there's boundaries, you know. I don't manage a person's money. All My goal is to educate them on big picture like the thought process of money. You know, similar to me, a lot of the guys I've worked with grew up broke and so our thought process and the way we view money is really skewed.
So I'm there for that part. But I want to make sure that they have the right people and the experts around them, So I asked them to go to their financial advisor, make sure that they know what they're into before they do it. Can't just go with what the trend is. You got to be able to explain to me, Hey, this is what crypto is, Nicole, and here's why it's important, and here's why I want to do it. If you can't talk it back to me,
then you don't get it. And if you don't get it, your money shouldn't be in it.
Have any Have any of clutch athletes taken salary and bitcoin or acts or side?
No? Not on the football side. Okay, there's not a lot of guys in football generally that I've seen, like three or four. It's the same. It's just like getting paid and then you can put your money. I think it's more of a pr moment. If I'm keeping it real, it's like you could just go get your check and buy your own bitcoin.
I think that's what when I was referring to people don't really understand the terms of the deal. So like when you see Odell do it, or we saw Aaron Rodgers take portion of it, there must be a part of that deal where they're like, hey, if you say this, then.
Well it was ponsible by cash app exactly.
So it's room with that cash up actually paid a million more money than they actually received, so.
You know, some more of a marketing deal involved.
Exactly.
Yeah, you recently wrote a book, right I did?
I did?
Can you talk about that?
Absolutely? So you know, the book is really a self help book. It's not a memoir. There's pieces of my life, whether it's like growing up or kind of working in the industry. Like, there's definitely some stories in there, but it's mostly about how to become your own agent. It's not about how to get into sports. You know. I feel like if you're not walking in your purpose, you're
just working and living to die. And so I want the younger generation to really figure out what their purpose is, how to be successful in that purpose, you know, and how to really just navigate life. And so that's what what agent you use about. So it's everything from like how to take the jump to chase your dream to self care back.
Like we never left, right we were here exactly, let's talk about that.
I went and got the book agent you So, yeah, you can buy this book anywhere bart and Nobles, Amazon. Believe that it will change your life. Like I said, it's not a memoir, it is a self help book, and I and there's action items in it, and I've been working on it. I worked on it for years, So I believe it. I believe it'll change your life.
And it's not necessarily for somebody that wants to get into the field of being an agent. You said, it's more for and for people to advocate for themselves. Right, So when you were coming up with the idea for the book and the concept for the book, what you're thinking about the young men and women that were, you know, trying to trailblaze in different areas of business and finance, So entrepreneurs, Yeah, I.
Mean it's all I can think about is, you know, people getting a seat at the table whatever in their respective industries. How to get a seat at the table. People that look like us don't always have that opportunity. So what is it? What was the X factor for me that can apply to anybody in sports and finance? You know if you're an entrepreneur that that's the same thing that I did that others can do. And I really wanted to give the blueprint because people ask me
all the time how'd you do it? And it's not about in the sports, but how did you reach your dream job? And I'm like, you can do it too, like, so I just want to give away the secret sauce. So get your get your dream job, get your book.
There you have it.
I think we have a few more minutes before we wrap, so I just wanted to ask you some questions. You know, being around what is what is a common denominate? Because, like I said, there's a lot of young people, So what are the common denominates that you see, whether it's high level performing athletes or being around Rich Paul or being around you know, anybody, Like, I'm sure that there's common themes that you see and that you can give advice for people to actually apply and to become successful.
One obviously is work ethic. You know, I feel like that's super cliche, but the best of the best work harder than their peers, you know, point blank period. People think they're working hard until you're sitting next to Rich Paul and then you're like, oh am I working hard And it's similar to me. You think you're working hards you've really met me, and it's like it makes you
want to level up. I think the second we talked about is excellence dooing and trying to be excellent everything you do, whether it's a small meeting, making sure you're on time, making sure you have the notes you know, or making sure that you have more information than everyone else. So like when I'm going in to meet a player, I'm going to know every stat I'm going to know the kid's birthday. I'm gonna know what elementary school he went to. I am going to be excellent everything I do.
And then I think third is people that have really reached this caliber and success are comfortable with losing. And I talk about that in my book. It's like someone that is okay with getting to know, you know, they don't fall down and you know, slump and get depressed and say, hey this I'm giving up. It's like, no, they're comfortable with losing. They're comfortable with the know it motivates them to keep going.
Probably, so I know you represent obviously NFL players and just other areas of talent that you represent. Did you ever think of any other professional leagues? You know, I'm just football is my thing, kind of been my dream job. I want to stay here, dominate this or all we think about expanding NHL, NBA, MLB.
So I'm actually certified in the NBA as well, you know, I you know, I hate I'm not trying y'all spiritual, but you know, I felt like God told me to get certified. I don't recruit in the NBA. I just feel like I'm supposed to have it for a reason. I don't know what that reason is. So maybe on the next podcast in a year or two, it'll it'll all reveal itself. But I am certified in the NBA,
and then I represent some pro softball players. So I've had three number one overall picks on the softball realm, which yes, there is a pro softball league, and I actually represent them for free. And so really for me, my way to get back to women's sports and really find that, you know, try to find that way to have parity in men and women's sports is by making sure that they have an advocate, they have an agent.
A lot of them don't and most of the reason is because they can't afford it, and so I do that for them for no charge.
Being so being certified in the NBA doesn't also quale for you for the w n B A as well.
I think technically I don't think there's a certification for the w NBA. Okay, yeah, I don't think that there is.
So what's next for you? You started off as in there Gohos, Cliff had, I had.
I had a couple of questions to have to read out some of the q and as that we had come in.
I mean, we're done, yeah, Cliff ispen in now Yeah?
Yeah.
So the Jalen had a question h and was asking what would you tell your what was it that you were telling yourself while you were working in undergrad you know, in what that process looked like.
Like to motivate myself.
Yeah?
Uh, you know, I don't My upbringing was a little rough, and so I think I was very much driven by not going back. You know. It was always like you are not about to be broken again. So I think there was a little bit of fear, like driven by fear, which is not something I'm proud to say, but you know, I just I didn't have a plan B. It was either I was going to be successful or I was
going to be screwed. You know, I had to take care of family, and so I think it was more just me motivating myself that you don't ever want to go back to where you started. And you know, people will ask me the question, oh, could you have ever imagined this being your life fifteen years ago? I'm like, yeah, I could. I mean, I just always and I hope that you feel the same way about yourself and have that level of confidence. But I always knew it was never a question. It's like, oh, yeah, I'm a I'm
a work for athletic. It's like I said it so confident, like probably jay Z did thirty years ago saying he's going to be a rapper. Like it was the same way. You know, It's like, yeah, I'm gonna be a rapper?
What else?
So so yeah, perfect, And I'm this question is for all of you, all for Nicole overshad Android, and it's I think it's very important because I think as any of like the students are starting to work their way up and understanding like the pressures that that is going to take in and learn how to live with that uncomfortability is also so important to you know, mental health and self care.
So for for you know, for.
All of you, what is it that they were asking what you did to make sure that you're you know, working on self care. So if there's anything that you all could offers, like nuggets uh for for how you you know, maintain that equilibrium, I think they'd be useful for everyone.
Yeah, I mean for me personally, balance is a tough word, especially in our space, just because of a level of commitment and sacrifice that you have to make.
But I guess set.
In limits and so like for me personally, like even having people having access to me, I cut off at a certain point during my day just because I know that there's a family that's counting on me first and foremost. Right, I'm still a husband, I'm still a father, still a son, and a brother and an uncle to to a family, and so I have limits.
Unto what I'll allow access.
So trying to create those type of things in my life helps with I guess the imbalance that persists.
So that would be one thing just to keep saying it.
And they keep you grounded too, right, Like I never get they always like you guys are so humble when we meet you.
It's like I'm like, yeah, I.
Got like seven people that live around me that could care less what I'm doing. Right, They're like, yo, change, like did you take out the garbage? Like can you help me on my iPad? Like they could care less about somebody's portfolio that you're helping. Like these people keep you grounded and so that that helps with the you know, I guess kind of the the imbalance of life that we kind of live right now.
What about you, Werisha? And then we talked about yoga and pilates this past week.
Yeah, I haven't done either a very long time. But you know, it's difficult. I think, you know, Shannon Sharp had a great post, but I mean, of course we can kind of romanticize it and say.
Like, you know, yeah, you can have it all.
You could be balance, and I'm sure some people can, but it's definitely not a balanced life that we we're living right now, Like we.
Travel all the time.
Like's not it's not a normal they we're not living a normal life. But that's the sacrifice that you have to make if you want to be great, and the people around you have to accept that. And you know, I wish I could say something a little bit more gentle like how he just said it. But you know, right now, I feel like, you know, you could either be great or you could be normal, and there's nothing
wrong with either one. But if you choose to be great, there's gonna be certain sacrifices that's gonna be made and certain people are going to suffer from that.
But while you have time, you should make the time.
So like whenever I'm in town, I always make the time, you know, go to my son's basketball games and be around my family because that's important to me.
But there's a lot of games that I can't make, you know, it's just it is what it is.
Like if we're traveling, if we're in a different country, I can't make that game, and you know other parents can make that game.
So that's a sacrifice.
That he's going to be in a different financial space than I was at his age, and he's going to be able to do different things. So what's more important? And I think for everybody that's in college that's listening, like you know, you have to make that decision too early, whether that's you know, it's going to affect your relationship, it's going to affect you know, the people that you're around. These are things that it is not really pretty to
talk about, but it's a reality. So just know that when you're trying to, you know, reach the level of success that you think that you want to achieve.
There's always a trade off for everything in life. Yeah.
For me, it's just letting go of busy, being busy as a status symbol, even for myself, you know. And I'm not great with self care at all, So it's something that I struggle with.
You know.
My goal is just to work smart and not hard, you know, doing things that are efficient, and I don't always do that. I'm a check, check the box type person, do all the things type person when a lot of it's wasting time. So I really want to get better at being like, let's work smart and not hard. But I have nothing else on self care. I'm the worst giving advice on that.
Loties.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, very And so I think we're we're wrapping up one time here. So I wanted to just thank you guys a ton for for coming out here. I personally appreciate it. This is this is surreal for me, just personally, and I think that everyone's taking like a bunch of you know, excellent nuggets. Nicole, thank you so much,
Rashad and Troy. We really appreciate you guys. Everyone each one of you, myself all had like a different path for us to even get, you know, onto this type of zoom and you know, get into this type of like environment, and for other people that look like us to see us here. You know, it's kind of it's a great moment to timestamp. So I just want to say, I appreciate you all.
Appreciate it.
I appreciate you too, man having us Cole, it was a pleasure, doctor, doctor Lynn.
It was a pleasure.
Thank you for having me.
It took three years, but we got it done.
It's worth the way, no time like now, exactly exactly. Thank you, sire.
You guys have a great one.
All right, all right, I'll go with yall.
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