Agent Nicole Lynn Joins The Lights Out Podcast To Discuss Her New Book "Agent You" Which Chronicles Her Journey From Childhood Poverty To Becoming a Wall Street A Top Agent To Elite Athletes And Entertainers.

and we talked about financial literacy. Today. We have a great agent, Nicole land Um what happens to have a book coming out and you know she is a is

an agent and a great agent at that. But one of the one of the things that she's been talking about over this this period of time, and one thing if I've heard her talk personally about, is uh financial literacy and helping these guys out, especially when they get drafted, putting a plan for them in place, because I feel that there's not a plan full lot of guys, especially when you come out of school early, where you come from a background like I came from, where a lot

of these things aren't taught. So we got a great guest coming up, Nicole ln How are you? Hey? Thank you for having me. Which which part of the country you and I am in Houston, Texas? Okay. You know I've been meaning to um kind of cross paths for some time. You got a couple of guys I know do you represent? And uh, I just thought it was

it was It was great to hear. And I've heard you speak a few times, especially on the financial literacy part um that I think that a lot of guys, Uh, I need to hear, right, and I'm talking about my ten year old self of mine too, um, because I think we all go through that where um, you know, you just come into your money, You just come into

successful the first time. Your head's kind of spending and you don't have any experience in you know, a lot of guys, especially the younger guys, you know, depending where you come from, make a lot of mistakes. Um. And you know, just to hear you talk about that has just been unreal And you know I appreciate you for that. Can you talk a little bit about your book? The book is called Agent. You show up, do the work

and succeed on your own terms. You know, this book is really me pulling back the curtain on how I got to where I am. It's it's you know, my raw, unfiltered story. But it also is a blueprint. You know, the number one question I get all the time is how did you do it? And so this is the blueprint for anybody that's chasing their dreams, anybody that's you know,

chasing after a goal. I want to teach the reader how to be their own agent, how to advocate for themselves, how to negotiate their own deal, how to get a seat at the table, how to find their life's purpose. So this is the this is that you know, where the checklist of how did it get there? Absolutely And you know one thing that you know kind of read about you, Nicole, is, uh, you know your upbringing and

some of the things you went through. And I relate a lot to that because you know, a few times growing up I was homeless and I lived in shelters and back of the cars and things like that. And I always say this, um, those things, even though I was a terrible time in my life, has shaped a lot of what's going on now my life and the reason why I'm able to you know, always push forward,

always keep things positive no matter what's going on. How much that has helped you and some of your upbringing, the things you dealt with um to you know, kind of your success now, you know, I think it. It gave me the It made me an impact. So it gave me the empathy for people that grew up like me,

you know, grew up like you. I've had the same stories homeless, living in cars, not knowing what I'm gonna eat the next day as a child, and so when I'm working with people that have similar stories to me, or athletes, I can just relate on a different level, right, And it also gave me a different level of grit. You know, there was no Plan B for me. There's no trust fund, there's nobody to fall on. And so it was either I made it or I didn't. And so I always had that you know, that drive that

maybe others didn't. No, absolutely, I I say this, it put something in you that most people don't have, right, I mean, until you really struggle and you know what you don't you know, you know what it's like to um to kind of wake up and not knowing what's gonna happen the next day. I remember coming home from practice and seeing um if viction notices on the door, or the sheriff's coming in, you know, to um to

kick us out. And you know, so when when people say they're having a hard day, right, my my hard days were a lot different. So I look at everything on a grand scheme of things, and I'm able to put a lot of things in perspective. Now, how however, you passed this because you know, obviously these guys are coming out of college, um, you know, young and sometimes earlier I came out as a junior, and you know, you've got all these people just coming at you, pulling

at you left and right. How how do you separate yourself when you're going to you know, being able to talk to new guys, right because you got these agents here. Some of them are walking up on the college campuses. Some of them, you know, just they're always around. And a lot of these guys there aren't good guys right there, just they're in there for the wrong reason. So how do you kind of separate yourself when um, you know, maybe discussion a new guy coming to sign with you. You

You know, I think my work speaks for itself. You know, a lot of my guys have friends in the league or in college and they talk and so, you know, you get to kind of see that I do it differently. When I'm meeting with recruits. You know, we're talking about the contracts and the negotiation. All that's great, but that's a bare minimum. You know. My conversations are always also about what are we going to do when the game

is over? What does that look like? And how am I going to be there right beside you when the NFL, which I think stands for not for long and that ends right, no, no, And you talked to talk about what are you doing after the game. And so I own a mm A league called Lights Out Extreme Fight, and I have a bunch of former guys from NFL rugby, former at pro athletes that are kind of transitioning into

the next phase and they want to fight. I mean, I know it sounds like more of a brute kind of thing to do, but there's a lot of guys that are just strictly competitive to get done early. You know, I got I got injured. I blew my knee out of cane back from that, and I blew my Achilles out right after that. So I had to back to back major injuries. And I got done when I was going twenty nine years old. Um, and so you still have a lot of a lot of time left with

another career. For me, I got into this in May space. How are you helping guys, because that's the hardest part, that's transitioning. UM. I remember sitting on set, I had to deal with NFL network, uh, And I was doing a commentated thing when I got done, And when I got out set, I was like, damn, this, this isn't enough. Like I was still going through it for a year or two trying to figure things out, even though I had plenty of things lined up. How are you helping

guys transition? After the game? I start talking about it on day one. It's a lot easier to talk about Plan B when Plan A is still intact. It's a lot harder to talk about Plan B. But we have nothing else going. And so I find that let's figure that out while you're at the pinicle or the height of your career, not when you're on the way up. You know you're in a better headspace to have those conversations. And then I also you know, really encouraged and pushed

all my guys to finish their degree. Those are things that you you know, you're forty and you don't want to go back and do that. You want to have that over with. And so we do that in the off season with all my players, and we do externships and you know, if they want to start a business, we make sure they have advisors. All of that is early on conversations, and I find that that's a lot easier for their transition. Fox Sports Radio has the best

sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows at Fox Sports Radio dot com and within the I Heart Radio app search f s R to listen live. I say that all the time. And you know, you have a lot of guys that want to pick up and start doing someone they get done, and you know what, I what I tell them the co I said, look, I'm not saying that's a hunted per safety case, but when you're done, there's a lot of people that don't

don't give a damn right. I mean, you're not in the same light as you were when you were playing and you on top of the world, and you on top of your game. Um, and so you have to build these relationships early on. You know, don't go to these people when you get done and you're trying to figure things out. Um, you know, get get into your local towns, getting get into whatever it is, charity or whatever you whatever you plan on doing when you're done,

start doing it early on. I agree, absolutely, you know. And also while your name is still hot. Unfortunately, you know, when you're an athlete, that doesn't always your name does not continue to stay, you know, with the buzz, and so use your brand and your hype while you have it.

I think that's the most important thing. And I said this, um, and I see it all the time about building a brand, and a lot of guys have to understand what that is, right because it's that's not necessarily that you you have to be a star at NFL. UM. You know, you're gonna have you a couple of big name guys per team, but you know, the rest kind of on the rest of the roster, you're gonna have a lot of guys that people don't know, especially when they get done playing.

But you still have a brand, and so just talk talk talk a little bit about helping guys build their brand, whether it's through you know, intellectual property, whether it's through copyright, just something something that you kind of help don't put together. Um, so they had that longevity. Yeah, you know, I actually talked about this in my book. And it's not just for athletes. You know, every single human is a brand. Lawyers, engineers, accountants,

whoever you are. You should be building your brand professionally and personally. And so I encourage my guys to come up with pillars, you know, three or four pillars that are basically the basis for your brand. What is what are those pillars of the faith? Is a family, is a comedy, And every single thing that you do should

fall within those pillars, you know. And then like you mentioned, finding if you have a logo, making sure legally that you you own that by getting a trademark, or you know, if you're doing any of merchandise business, making sure you have the right business entities so that your taxes are done correctly. And so building a brand is twofold. But that second part of the actual physical merge brand we we help with all of the business formation and making

sure everything set. That's extremely helpful because I was fortunate enough, you know, I had lights Out and I bought Lights Out from another company in Irvine, California, back in two thousand six. You know, but I had the kind of the mindset to already start getting those things set. But when you start talking about intellectual property or guys owning their brand or building their brand or showing them with

their brand worth. Um, you know a lot of guys that come in, they just don't they don't understand right, They've never heard of it. So, um, that's that's big up to you for kind of putting these guys up on it early on, because time just changing. Like when I when I play, guys are getting paid, but like now they're really getting paid, like they're the contracts are are just astronomical and out of this world. And so how do you how do you um what? He's one

of the things. But it's a personal question for me too, what are some of the biggest downfalls you see what guys? Early on? For me, it was, you know, kind of separating the whole family thing, Like family was my hardest thing to deal with when I first got into the NFL and I first got my own. Um, are you still seeing this anything? You know, family or close friends and kind of all the people that were around growing up. Oh yeah, I mean that is still a day to

day issue. Um, But it's because most of my guys have big hearts. They want to help everybody, you know, they want to everybody along the journey with them. And it's tough. I deal with this personally myself, but it's it's saying, hey, I've got to protect me first, and that's hard for us. Like we're taught, we grow up of saving the hood, saving our parents, saving bloody and so I have to help my guys say hey, it's okay to think about you. Okay, Well, Nicole, I appreciate

your time. I appreciate you for jumping on and uh, you know, getting these guys um together right, because especially when a lot of us come from we don't have it. And so I appreciate you for um, you know, keeping these guys on track and more success and good luck on that book, hope hopefully list number one. Thank you. Thanks guys. Listening to another lightstot podcast me Shawn Marimon. Um, and that was really cool, um that Nicole jumped on

and just talked about won her book. Um. I think it's gonna be a great book if if it's anything like I've heard her talk about over the last couple of years, UM and helping guys out, being a great agent in the industry, being a woman agent in the industry, and just doing her parts. So thank you guys for listening to another lightsole podcast me Sean Ram and keep leaving those reviews, those great reviews. I try to read

as many of the messages as possible. UM. And when you hear the podcast, makes your repoke and tell tell your friends, cousins, uncle's brother and sisters, brother and all that to uh subscribe and uh well always I appreciate your support. Thank you