November 24, 2025 • 43 mins
This week, AJ is joined by the athlete's go-to brand builder and owner of AthleteCon, Sam Green. Sam shares her journey from competitive dancer to leader in athlete branding and NIL (Name, Image, Likeness). She highlights the importance of personal growth, affirmations, and the life lessons sports provide. Sam explains how athletes can build strong personal brands, use social media effectively, and overcome the fear of putting themselves out there online. She also offers practical strategies, success stories, and actionable steps for athletes looking to maximize their NIL opportunities.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Dropping Diamonds with aj Andrews is an iheartwomen's sports production
in partnership with Athletes Unlimited Softball League and Deep Blue
Sports and Entertainment. Well, welcome to Dropping Diamonds with Me
aj Angi's where we dive headfirst.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Into the world of softball.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
And today we are joined by someone that is going
to is her mission and she's going to continue to propel,
whether it's softball in all sports beyond, to be the
best it possibly kid and get that pay pu. She
is an NIL brand builder, the owner of athlete Kahn.
She has been a former dancer and just a current
badass and is the one that.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Is the only Sam Grad. Welcome to the show.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Thanks for having me. I'm so so excited for this, yay.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
I know we met Sam and I met at LSU
about two years ago where we were sitting down talking
to all the kids. I start telling a little bit
what I'm doing on social media and then she comes
out with literally every nugget you could possibly think of
on how to excel when it comes to NIL social
media and what it is you can do for yourself.
(01:13):
I said, oh, let me, I need to sit in
one of these classes. Like, Sam, let me know when
you have a little seminar and that lot Behold, we
have athlete Con outisode.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
I'm coming this.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Year and I am or twenty twenty six and I'm
mint it. So, but before we dive into all things
athlete Con and all things Sam's got going on that's
going to help softball players around the world be the
best they possibly can and get the most of what
they got. I want to always start off my podcast
with a quote and like a nice affirmation, and so
a quote that I thought was really befitting and talking
(01:46):
with Sam today was just I'm not giving up.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
I'm just starting over.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
And I think that if we were to bring out
like an affirmation from that, where do you think we
could go to like have a good afforcat for the
day from that quote.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
I can relate to that personally. What a great, great quote.
I've started over so many times, AJ, but I've never
given up on my bigger mission. I tell people all
the time, I you know, I danced in the NBA,
I you know, left, I was an editor at ESPN.
I you know I left. I started a YouTube channel,
I started interviewing athletes, left life, but I never quit
I always had a bigger mission to help athletes. Never
(02:24):
gave up. Maybe you know, pivoted, but man, I can
relate with that one.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
I love a lot. I love that never gave up,
I just pivoted. I like that.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
When do you think of like an affirmation? If we
were to start our day with it.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Today, what would the affirmation be? We put one together?
Speaker 3 (02:39):
Everybody starts from nothing, so be bold, be fearless, and
be you. Is really something that I tell myself kind
of daily, Be bol be fearless, be you, because everybody
has to, you know, start from ground zero, and so
you know, you can either go for it or you
can kind of live with regret. So mine would be
be bold, be fearless. View. I like that.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Yes, on the theme of also like starting restart, maybe
like today I will start restart and restart again. Nothing's
out the blue. I'm gonna be bold, be fearless, well,
and be you.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
I like it.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Fos be you.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Period love that today it will start restart and restart again,
nothing's out of the blue.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
I'll be bold, be fearless, be you.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
Boom.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
I love, Yes, that is our affirmation. That's when I
be singing all my way to athletic co on in
twenty twenty six. But to jump back a little bit
to where it all began, because you started off as
a competitive dancer or her career within the sports world
that has only just continued to elevate and grow bigger
and bigger. Sports just brings so many lessons in day
(03:49):
to day life. I tell people all the time in softball,
I use it just takes one in my everyday life.
You say that all the time as athletes. I say
it all the time in soft while there's so many
things that we bring in where I say it just
takes one, And it could be that one moment, it
could be that one conversation, that one meeting that could
inevitably change your life. What do you feel like is
(04:11):
maybe the saying or something that you've really stuck with
as a dancer that you feel like you still implement
today as you continue to build these brands and continue
to elevate your own.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Yeah, my experience dancing was unique. I was the youngest
to have ever made the team. I was surrounded by,
you know, women that had been on the team for
years or just a lot of wisdom and a lot
of experience, and I guess the moment that really stuck
out to me was being interviewed like the flip side
of it, AJ I was you know, they were asking about,
(04:41):
you know, my story and my journey, and you know,
it just felt like there was like a bigger picture
and a bigger mission there for me, even kind of
beyond dancing. But the sports reporter like kind of pulled
me aside afterwards and was like, you know, like this
platform is like for something bigger, like you ca use
(05:01):
you know, your platform to then you know, give back
to younger girls, or to tell your story or to
kind of like you know, build something bigger even beyond
just dance. And that really stuck out to me, and
I really try and give that back to all the
athletes that I work with, Like you've been given this
beautiful platform that you can choose what to do with it,
and just like you're saying, you know, you learned so
(05:21):
many lessons from softball, AJ, and you know there's bigger
life lessons that's kind of comes through you know, sport.
So that definitely stuck out to me when I was,
you know, nineteen and you know, in a world that
I had no idea what I was doing.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
What would you say is maybe like one of the
bigger life lessons you've learned thus far that has continuously
suck with you.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
One of the biggest life lessons that I've learned is
that you can pave your own way. When I grew up,
I feel like, you know, it was like I could
go into marketing, I could go into you know, just
a cookie cutter kind of role, and that was it.
And I started really you know, traveling the world and
seeing these other opportunities, and I really wanted to build
my life off of a bigger mission and a bigger purpose.
(06:05):
And so I felt like everybody always told me like
stick to you know, being an editor at ESPN, Like
that's your trajectory, that's your path, Like you don't leave,
like that's your job and it, you know. I just
was like that's fine. But like I just kept like
driving and driving and finding new ways and finding kind
of new avenues and ended up overnight like not even
intentionally building my own lane and building my own business,
(06:26):
all because I had the purpose to serve and to
give back to more athletes. And so I think that's
really the most unique life lesson. I could sit here
and throw out a lot of cliche, you know, in
terms of you know, just keep going or you know,
things that you hear over and over again. But one
thing that I wish, I guess I was told earlier
on in my life, is like this is your life,
(06:46):
Like you can choose what you want to do with it,
Like you don't have to just do what you think
you're supposed to. You know, I thought maybe I would
have to be in back end data analytics within marketing.
I didn't know that, you know, content creation would be
a thing. I didn't know that I could genuinely become
a public speaker. I didn't know I could really run
my own convention like out of the blue, Like my
(07:07):
mind just never really went there. I just thought you
kind of had to follow the status quote. So I
guess one thing if I could, you know, sit anybody
down earlier on in their career, would be like think bigger,
like go there, Like what is that dream? Like you
can lit to really do it now. It's gonna be
hard to sell, Like, don't get me wrong, Like it's
not gonna be just like rainbows and butterflies, because you're
(07:29):
chasing your dreams every day. I mean, there's gonna be
you know, times where you want to give up, but
if you can really like find a bigger mission, like
what wakes you up? Like what are you passionate about?
And I watch, you know, these media moguls like Mel
Robbins or Gary Bee and Hermosy, and they're very extreme,
don't get me wrong, but they say this stuff, you know,
like it's hard, but like go for it, Like you
(07:52):
have one life, and I'm really big on I think
your life, you know a lot of it should be
to serve and to give back. And so long winded
answer a J I think, you know, one of the
biggest life lessons that I've learned is you really can,
you know, build a life that you want or at
least freaking try.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
And you talked about your you fell into this path
or you like accidentally created this lane for yourself. How
did you accidentally make that happen? Because oftentimes, you know,
we discussed these things a lot of when I hear
people that are very successful, that happens. Often you were
saying that it just takes one maybe it was at
(08:31):
one moment what have you. But when you talk about
you accidentally got into you found your lane, how did
that accidental purpose come about.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
It was like an accidental purpose came about.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
As it was. So I was a video editor at ESPN.
Obviously I had left, and I started actually being like
this was well, this was when like Instagram hear me
out was like more so like still just photos. So
I've been in this for a while, like Jay.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
And Crush Mondays and then when my Crush Wednesdays back
then it.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
May seem like an accident, but it's been like a
decade of an accident almost. So I took what I
had learned at ESPN as an editor, and I learned
how to do it all for my phone. This was
pre cap cut, This was pre any video editing apps.
This was I was taking different things and layering them
and just figuring out away because I had seen a
major gap between brand deal opportunities and athletes and their platforms.
(09:22):
And back then it was only you know, Tim Tebow
getting paid a million dollars to be on a commercial.
There wasn't like the local social media you know, micro
influencer deals. So I started actually diving into being director
of social media of like gyms that had you know,
were exclusive to one percent of athletes, and I started
teaching a lot of the professional athletes on the side
just how to subsidize their income through brand deals and
(09:45):
teaching them how to make content all from their phone,
and so that just kind of picked up and it
really worked. I started, you know, really helping people, especially
female Olympic athletes, a lot of minor league baseball players
and a lot of softball players that were at the
gym land these deals. And so then NIL passed. I
made the jump immediately over into the collegiate space. I
started this AJ as a brand. I just wanted to help.
(10:09):
I put out free social media content on Instagram, not viral,
nothing crazy, no intention other than to help give away
free education to help more athletes build what I saw
was possible from you know, my experience, and then people
just started calling. In all honesty, I had schools, universities
calling me. I had brands calling me as big as
(10:31):
Nike and Meta. You know, I've had thousands of athletes
call me, and so it just literally ended up forming
because I just had the goal of helping and really
solving a solution, which was making content creation and brand
building easier and more accessible for athletes. Because athletes grew
up athletes. They grew up perfecting their you know, their sport.
(10:53):
They didn't grow up content creators. But now you know,
with everything that's going on with media, social media and
brand building, like it's just blown up overnight, that I
just wanted to help more athletes be able to take
advantage of it. So definitely an accident.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Have you seen from working with so many different athletes
that one method helps one.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Sport more than the other, or even women.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Versus men when it comes to contracreation and being able
to build your brand. Is there a better way to
go about it if you are in this sport, or
say if you are a woman here, or maybe if
your sport isn't as big or is put on TV
as much, right because like WNBA or women's basketball in
comparison to maybe lacrosse right where you're able to it's
(11:40):
just a little bit of difference in the media attention.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Is there a way to go about that differently?
Speaker 3 (11:45):
In all honesty, the different strategies at work depending upon
your sport really comes down to the media attention. If
you're a football player, it's a little bit more handed
to you. Aj we already know this. You don't have
to do as much work. Right, So for our softball players,
for my track athletes, it's not one thing that it's like,
this is the piece of content that's gonna get you there,
that's gonna make you the million dollars in comparison to
(12:06):
a football player, it's honestly the work level. You're gonna
have to just work a little bit harder. You're going
to have to put yourself out there a lot more
and be more bold and be in front of people's
faces and you know, know that you belong in that
room more so, you know than just sitting back and
sitting on your hands and you know, basically having a
check just written out to you.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Let's take a quick break to hear a word from
our sponsor.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
What have you seen really works for softball? I know
you've worked with some softball players. What really propels softball
to be in the forefront of media attention, especially on
social and beyond.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
I like to use Mikayla Edenfield actually as a prime example.
I met Mikayla back when Nile first passed, and immediately
that girl just fricking god, she really had confidence and
was willing to put herself out there. And that's step
number one. As a softball player, you cannot be scared.
I know, the locker room culture, it's a little bit
(13:11):
old school. It's a little bit of like looking around
and you know, a little bit scared to step out
there and to put yourself in front of the camera,
just because that's how it's been for so many years.
But Mikayla was not shy. She went for it, and
she What I really liked that I've seen success in
is softball players buying into their fan base and what
the fans also like and enjoy and know them for.
(13:34):
Area fifty one was what Mikayla was really known for.
This girl take took it and ran with it from
the eye makeup to you know, all her posts kind
of diving into it. And now she built a full
blown brand based on her fan base and her community
and has this organic engagement and now we see her
doing videos with brands like you know Elf and Cover Girl.
I remember her sitting you down back in the day
(13:55):
and saying, my dream brand deal would be you know
with Elf, so that I could do, you know, make
tutorials for young girls that it's you know, makeup that's
more accessible and affordable and So I think it's really
identifying you know who you are? What do you want
to be known for? Right? I came out, I just
self proclaimed I'm athletes go to brand builder. And I
started then kind of having a strategy that I could
(14:16):
map out around that. Mikayla knew this. She knew she
wanted to be a role model for younger girls. She
knew she wanted to dive into Area fifty one and
her makeup and her tutorials, and she did that, and
she's done it so successfully from the collegiate level to
the pro level, and everybody knows her, everybody loves her,
everybody's writing posters for her around that brand. So it's
sitting down and having an honest conversation with yourself as
(14:37):
a softball player of like, what is my bigger picture,
what's my bigger why? What do I want to be
known for? And going all the way in and really
not turning back and building content strategy and landing brand
deals around that bigger picture.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
So then the first thing would be to pinpoint what
it is. Like Let's say you know someone gave you
the name of Area fifty one, right, that wasn't given
to you. You're now trying to come up with maybe what
it is that you're going to be known for. How
do you advise people to softball players to figure out
what it is that they want to be known for.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
I use that example, and that's very strategic and easy
for me to say, right, like, that's a tangible example
to almost the extreme, you don't have to you know,
be known absolutely for this one thing. You can be
known for you. So I think it's more so of
setting a goal of where you want to go one
day your name is not on that roster anymore, point blank.
You could be the best player in the world, and
(15:33):
there's still going to be a day that that's over.
And so it's you know, do you end up wanting
to run a nonprofit and giving back through camps and clinics?
Do you want to be like you a freaking badass
innovating this entire space and you know, being a social
media creator and on air reporter and talent and goes.
I could you know, have a CBS receipt of all
(15:53):
that you do? But well, it's more so defining like
what you want out of this at the end of
the day, Like when your name's not on that ross
or what do you want to do and then crafting
around that. So again the area fifty one, the you
know nil or athletes, brand builders an extreme example, you
don't have to go you know that niche or that specific.
It definitely helps because it just gives you focus. So
I think more than anything, the goal is to define
(16:16):
what you want to focus on, so then you can
every day wake up and know what you're actually building towards.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
How often would you say someone it should post once
they figure out what it is that they want to
dive into what they want to be known for, and
now they're building the content around it.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
How what is a strategy to then be able to
gain traction? And I guess followers.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
I think a lot of athletes really really worry about
strategy and being specific, and they're very scared to put
themselves out there, especially on Instagram. It's like pulling teeth.
They're a little bit more willing to put themselves out
there on TikTok. The more you post, the more you're
going to get out there. It takes people seven times
to see the same video or see the message to
(17:01):
actually even process it. So I have athletes that send
me down and they're like I had a softball player
at UVA. I'm fucking to name names, send me down
last week and be like, but wouldn't it just be
so weird for me to just like randomly start posting,
Like what would I even start with? Like what do
I post with? Like shouldn't I just start with a photo?
And it's like no, Like people aren't like literally watching you,
(17:24):
like you think right, and everybody's scared and everybody has
to start and so the more you post, the better.
But I also really like to remind athletes, like burnout
is real. When I danced in the NBA, I posted
a lot, but I felt like I was posting what
other people wanted me to post and I wasn't posting
what was like true to me. And I got sobernt out.
(17:45):
I deleted my whole account, lost my entire fan base,
and had to start all the way over. And I
finally realized, Oh, I didn't hate social media. I was
so burnt out. I was doing too much. So be
honest with yourself and what do you want to build?
Are you more worried about out a business? Okay, then
be more strategic and align more your content with that
goal do you want to be a viral, you know,
(18:06):
social media influencer, then you should tap into all the
trends and be posting twenty four to seven as much
as you possibly can. Maybe you're somewhere in between, and
that's okay too. So it comes back to defining that
goal and not being scared at the end of the
day and literally hit record and just click post.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
Yeah, sometimes it can literally feel and know people get
like anxiety now trying to post, and it just becomes
this entire thing that maybe it just shouldn't be or
it definitely wasn't before it became so monetary, like when
it was just fun, you're just posting, it was whatever,
and now because you can make money, people begin to
really overthink it. When someone, I mean, you go out
(18:47):
and you talk you talked about going to UVA. When
you go out and talk to all these different athletes
and individuals at all these different universities, what's something that
really surprised you, especially in the NIL space, after having
common versations with these athletes that maybe they're worried about
or that you've seen become a problem.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
The thing that shocks me the most with athletes is
that they're willing to fail publicly physically in front of thousands. Right,
we all know in sport with softball, you can't control everything,
like you can't throw strike every single time and guarantee it,
you can't hit a home run every single time you
know you're at the plate. And so it blows my
mind that athletes are willing to put themselves out there
(19:26):
and fail that way in a way bigger limelight. But
yet they're so scared of a digital audience and being
cringe and putting themselves out there. And I also have
noticed that they're willing to do a little bit more
of the trendy fun content, you know, talking on camera
a day in the life, get ready with me, like,
you know, getting to know their audience a little bit more.
They're way more hesitant, which also shocked me because you
(19:47):
guys are used to, you know, being interviewed and in
the limelight and you know at all these like public
events where you're shaking donors' hands and stuff. But yet
you know that that fear of a digital audience really
blows my mind.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
It really does not, because well, maybe when performing on
the field, you could just go before maybe hear little whoops, whoops, whatever,
people are gonna stay on the field. But after that
it's it's done and gone. But on the internet, you
can go back to it and reread it, revisit it
over and over, and people don't want to be judged.
I guess what was the advice you've given to the
(20:22):
athletes you've worked with to get over that? To be like, listen,
this is what you want to do. You have to
get over this fear or whatever this is that's holding
you back.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
What do you tell them?
Speaker 3 (20:30):
Everybody starts a zero, Like a lot of athletes will
come up to me. I've been working closely with this
company called Character First Athletics, and they really help develop
athletes be on their sport. And so I've gone to
all these schools really helping them develop strategic plans. And
my biggest piece of advice is like do you want
(20:51):
like seriously, like do you want to do this? Like
do you care? Because on every athlete will a lot
of athletes does just want to play their sport and
that is okay to you, but if you really really
want this, like you're only hurting yourself because of your
fear of somebody else's opinion. And when I've been working
in this development program, we get deep with them, like
(21:12):
we really get to know these athletes on a personal,
personal level. And a lot of them have the huge
dreams and huge visions that are like hostly, like beautiful
that they want to develop, They want to write books,
they want to you know, be public speakers. And yet
it's just this fear of other people's judgment. And it's
just sad to me that we're gonna almost waste talent
(21:34):
because of the fear of a hypothetical thought or piece
of judgment. And a lot of times, the crazy part
aj is they're actually more concerned about their inner circle
judging them than the general public. And you got you
just you know, you've got to get over it, point blank,
Like nobody got anywhere by being scared and holding themselves back.
Do it scared, do it anyway?
Speaker 2 (21:56):
So do it scared?
Speaker 3 (21:58):
Do it anyway? And what's the this saying.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
It's like someone a multi millionaire is never going to
make fun of you for your business, you know, first
flopping so and athlete's ever going to make fun of
you for getting in the gym for the first time.
A singer is ever going to make fun of you
for going to your first singing lesson. You know, these
things that feel embarrassing around other people that aren't doing it,
but the ones that are actually succeeding in it are
(22:20):
the ones that are like, no, no, no, this is
what you have to do, keep going, keep going. Who
out of all the athletes that she've worked with, do
you feel like has really honed into things that you're
saying and is really seeing a lot of success from it.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
Yeah, Mikayla obviously is number one. Outside of softball. Would
be one of my favorite girls is Mia Rogan. She's
a track runner at Michigan State. I was there probably
three years ago in front of hundreds of athletes, and
I just I saw her personality and you know, her
interacting with you know, hundreds of other athletes and pulled
her aside and I'm like, are you building anything? Like
(22:55):
are you really going to you know, do this like
you have it? Like you have something here, And you know,
we took her from two thousand followers to over one
hundred thousand no brand deals to twenty five plus in
a year and she literally just signed a car deal
as a non revenue generating sport. And so it's the
stories like that that you know, or what wakes me
up in the morning. Another one would be a track
runner out of Memphis, Riley Simmons. She came to me
(23:17):
she wanted to be a motivational speaker and her strategy,
you know, on social media. I took a deep dive
on the account and there wasn't much content that you know,
led to that goal, and so we mapped it all out,
and you know, years later, she just ran her own
full blown revival night in Memphis, gathering the local community
a huge stage, digital screens, baptizing people, praying over that.
(23:39):
I mean, like just really made an impact on the community.
And so the athletes that actually take this sit down
realize that they can utilize their platform to build something
bigger are the ones that you know, are just a
true testament to what you can build, you know, diving
into nil and brand building.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
I mean, I'm can we book an appointment?
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Like, I'm my girl, what's the rest of your week
look like? What's the next week look like? For you
to meet with me? But when you talk about the
different steps that I want you to give everything away
because I obviously want people to come to you, and
but yeah, help me out and help me. What would
you say is maybe the first two or first things
you tell them when you're working on, you know, getting
(24:21):
them to a place where they can build that community,
build that following and the ultimately reachar goals and that
sit down.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
So step number one is cliche, but you got to
define the goal again, like is it a business? What
kind of business? Riley sat me down, she said, you
wanted to be a motivational speaker. Fabulous. That was step one.
Now we can move on to step two to build
that out. So then step number two is curating content
ideas even about what it is that you want to build.
And so I say, instead of looking at social media
(24:48):
and doom scrolling at night at ten o'clock, you know,
in the bed, like I know that you are, which
we all do.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
Yeah, yeah, Like.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
At least scroll with intention and start saving types of
content that you watch the you consume that you like,
follow people that are building brands that you know are
monetizing off of it, that you want to be like
or you know aspire you know, are inspired by. So
step two is really like consuming with intention, and then
step three is picking like five types of content that
(25:16):
you can stick to consistently for at least a month
and a half. And by consistently, I had an athlete
called me yesterday and said, I've been so consistent, I
haven't seen any growth. How many times are you posting?
Been posting once a week? Okay for how long? For
three weeks? Like that's three pieces of content. Like so
you got to lock in, Like you got to like
know that you're in this for the long run and
that it's going to take some time. You're not gonna
(25:37):
go viral overnight, but you're never gonna go viral if
you don't start. So step one to find the goal.
Step two like consume with intent, save content. Step three,
sit down, write out five types of content that you
can stick to consistently post for at least a month
and a half. Look at your back end analytics would
be step forward. See what's working, See what's performing, See
you know what your fans are actually engaging with, and
(26:00):
you can kind of tweak that strategy. And then if
you're actually ready to monetize your brand, you want to
work with you know some you know, local companies or
you know, maybe it's a protein powder or supplement company.
Sit down and step five would be actually write out
some content or some brand categories, so supplements in protein, athleisure,
you know, whatever it may be. Then brain dump under there,
(26:23):
just write all the brands that you can think of
in each of those pillars. And so we have five pillars.
Now we're going to circle one brand in each of
those pillars. You're going to go make content even with
the brand that you just have in your house, of
the brand that you circled, So maybe it's Lululemon that
you have and you love and that's your dream brand,
you got to go make the content now to be
able to have a content example to then go show Lululemon, hey,
(26:47):
this is what I could do for you. And so
I think that's a really important piece that athletes missed.
They're like, well, I've been posting and now I want
to work with a brand deal. But you've never promoted
a product, So you've got to ensure to you know,
really be able to anotize that you're incorporating that. So
those would be my five first steps if you're looking
to build something that could actually convert into revenue boom.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
But and like it's like, you know, you hear things
like this, you're like okay, yes, perfect, and then you
get started and then it comes time to post and
it's like, oh, okay, beer.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
Now I need to do this once. I mean, U
once a week is that good? Or do you recommend
like twice a week, three times a week.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
You have to start somewhere, like you literally do. So
if once a week is what you can handle, that's
what you can handle. But then maybe extend the period
of time before you reevaluate your whole life and get
mad about not making money off of it. Right, Like,
the more you post, the more you're going to figure
out and the quicker that you can actually monetize. So
once a week is fine. I'm not super super consistent,
(27:45):
aj I don't have this all mapped out six times
a week. Like a lot of times I'm you know,
busy in on the road and I make an excuse
to not post. I would say a good starting place
would be focusing on two trends a week. So by trends,
I mean, you know, maybe you're bold and you do
the lip sync video that's going viral. Maybe you look
like a bomb and then your hands on the camera
(28:07):
and now you're in your uniform. That's a trend. Maybe
it's you know, a seven second clip of you squatting
and you're tweaking the text on the screen. Pob life
is a Division one softball player, whatever it may be,
that's a trend. It's things that are hitting the algorithm
that are going viral very quickly. You can follow a
million athletes that are popping off in the algorithm, save
their video, tweak it to be relatable to your life.
(28:29):
And it's not reinventing the wheel. It's not broken, don't
fix it. You know, it's tapping into the algorithm so
that you can grow your followers and grow your views.
Is step number one with the trends. It's also important
to do trends because it's going to prevent that burnout.
Trends don't take long. It probably takes you five minutes
to record a five second clipper seven second clip of
(28:50):
you squatting and putting text on the screen. So that's
going to allow you to be consistent without being overwhelmed.
So two trends a week, and then I would say
one what I like to call like a brand building
piece of content A day in the life. Get ready
with me. Maybe it's mini mic, you know, funny interviews
with your teammates, something where your audience is able to
actually understand you or get to know you better. This
(29:13):
is also the type of content that brands are actually
going to invest in. Think about get Ready with me.
It's you using your favorite Good Molecules face wash in
the morning. Good Molecules could pay you for that video
moving forward, So it's trends and then it's kind of
brand building content. I would do one of those a
week because they take a little bit more time. I'd say,
(29:34):
if you start there, and then if you you know,
want to go there, you can add on a fourth post,
which would be just a carousel where it's multiple slides
of photos on Instagram. Athletes don't mind doing that. You
get to kind of have fun and showcase a little
bit of both sides of your life life as an athlete,
like your media day pick or you know you at
practice and then you know you behind the scenes. A
(29:55):
selfie of you and your teammate at you know your
as i e. Bowl place after practice. Cute pick of
you know your nail holding your coffee. You know, so
kind of showcasing you know you as an athlete and
your life outside of it. I'd say, if you can
stick to that and you're posting four times a week,
I think you'd be surprised. It doesn't have to be
three times a day to really see growth. Athletes have
(30:17):
an extreme competitive advantage. Athletes do not even have to
be as consistent as a NARP, right, is what I say.
I think because you guys already have a built in
fan base, so just getting started and posting anything consistently
is already going to help you grow. So but four
times a week, I think that'd be my formula.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
I love how the word NARP is global, no matter
where you went, where you played, what sport it was.
We all know what a narpist if you're an athlete,
and it's it's like a secret society because if you're
you're if you are an arp, you probably don't.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
Know what nart means.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
Right, That's so true.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
If you're a hook, we don't even know. Yeah. I
used to call them muggles. You're wearing a Potter fan,
you know, you get it, you get it. There's more
to cover, but first, let's take a quick break.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
When you come to those different brands, do you advise
reaching out to those bands like taggy men or allow
the brands to come to you.
Speaker 3 (31:22):
You have to start somewhere again, Like you can't just
like build your brand and never have promoted a brand
and then expect brands to want to work with you.
And so I had a softball player at Providence actually
originally had a tiny following and wanted to land Quest Nutrition,
who has a million followers. And so you got to
kind of think strategically, if it's a massive brand and
you don't have a massive following, you need to be
(31:43):
put on their radar. So maybe creating a piece of content,
sending an actual collaboration invite with that brand at first
is going to actually put you on their radar. And
so that's what this player, this softball player did. I said,
go post the content, now invite Quest Nutrition as a collaborator.
They accepted. She tapped into their millions of followers, and
then it converted into a deal. A lot of agents
(32:05):
and people are like no, no, no, like do not
post for free? And I get it. So if you're
like completely against that, then start going on these platforms
that are they're called like market places where they connect
athletes directly with brands and landed sometimes they're twenty five bucks,
they're fifty bucks, and you know, they're just casting a
wide net. And even if you have never worked with
(32:26):
a brand deal, it's an easy way to get kind
of your first one to kind of claim a brand
deal so that then you can go leverage it to
other brands. So I'm big on like just strategy of thinking,
like all right, like how do I get a hold
of this brand? And if it's unrealistic, show that you're
a fan first. Maybe it's not posting content, Maybe it's
commenting on their feed, maybe it's sharing one of their
(32:49):
you know, their posts to your Instagram stories and tagging them.
But just showing value up front to a brand of
what you could do or what you could provide for
the brand is you know, the only way that you're
going to really make some serious money off it.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
Well, making some serious money is the opportunity that college
athletes have. Now. I did not have that back in
the day or else, Trust me, I would have been
on it the way that I was.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
Posted on YouTube back.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
In the day, right when the nil legislation passed, and
you immediately saw this opportunity, and I mean you saw
it in ways I feel like other people didn't, and
you really were able to capitalize on that to help
so many collegiate athletes really reach their full potential. And
then you develop athlete con to further that to continue
(33:38):
to help them build and see their potential.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
Why did you what made.
Speaker 1 (33:42):
You realize in a NIL was going to be as
powerful as it is today that then let you just say,
you know, I'm going to start my own convention because
it's that big, it's that powerful, and I can have
that much of an impact on these collegiate kids.
Speaker 3 (33:55):
I'd been doing it for a decade and I'd seen
it work. I was literally helping professional athletes that maybe
didn't have the biggest name or maybe didn't even have
that many you know, minutes played, and the analytics just
weren't there to be able to leverage you know, the
big media kind of commercials. But social media started actually
coming around and there was a lot of value. I
mean even back then, I was helping softball players land
(34:17):
Lulu Lemon deals just by making advertisements. So I just
had already seen it work that then once an il passed,
I was like, it's cringey, but I say, it's an
industry that I felt like was like born or made
for me because I'd already been doing it, you know,
and all these random skills that I had kind of
accumulated through numerous you know, different roles popped up into
a brand new industry overnight. And so I built athlete
(34:39):
con not just as in an IL conference that you know,
I didn't name it NIL specific anything, because I had
seen what hands on curriculum has done for these athletes
at the softball level, you know, all the way down
to you know, even high schoolers now, and what this
can do. So whether it's collegiate, pros Olympic, any athlete
can really take advantage of this. NIL stands for name,
(35:00):
image and likeness. It doesn't stand for a collegiate something specific.
And so you know, I'd been to thirty plus universities, schools,
fly me in, I'll partner with brands like JBL or Marriott,
and I started teaching athletes at the collegiate level, at
the scale level, really how to shoot atit, create content,
go live with advertisements throughout the workshops. And you know,
again just had seen this work that brought me to
(35:22):
a lot of conferences within you know, the industry sports
media and il specific, you name it, whether it be
you know, I'm seeing it on a panel or just
attending it. And I just realized like everything was about
whatever sponsor paid the most money to get up on
stage shove their agenda down the athlete's throats, and nobody
was really resourcing these athletes. And simultaneously, these brands were
(35:45):
paying thousands of dollars to slap their logo onto something
and walk away with nothing other than the hopes that
an athlete cared to hear their presentation of their twenty
page PowerPoint or them speaking next to twelve other people
on a stage and want to work with them. And
the athletes would call me and say, I got a
cute picture, but that's all I got out of this,
and so it bothered me. I building a convention was
(36:07):
not on my BNGO cards a jail. I'll tell you
that I just saw a problem and wanted to create
the solution. And so I created Athlete con two years ago,
and it was the first convention to ever facilitate brand
deals in person. So I bring in hundreds of athletes
Snapchat coms, Instagram coms, TikTok coms, they teach hands on
brand monetization workshops, how to actually make money off of
(36:29):
their platforms, how to build this into something bigger. So
all the tools and the resources that you really need.
And then there's thirty five plus brands in the room.
There's a content competition where athletes go take that product,
the brand's actual product in their hands, and they get
to go make advertisements, publish them live, and they're competing
for cash, brand deals, paid internships, and job opportunities. And
(36:49):
then I've seen it convert into you know, full time
job positions. I've seen it convert into year long partnerships
with brands. Just seen a lot of success on both
the brand athletes and even heyj I'll tell you I've
had women in sports attend and it's taken you know,
their digital career, you know, in demonetization through social media.
So it's yes, it's athlete based, but just like you said,
(37:11):
you use softball and sport to teach more life lessons
out that comes the same exact thing. I think truly
anybody can value being you know, benefit from being in
the room. But yeah, truly created it out of just
trying to help more athletes and help brands get you know,
more money, out of the money that they're spending.
Speaker 1 (37:28):
This sounds like the perfect place to go to not
only learn about what is you can do, but continue
to get better at it. Like it's a very rarely
you go to a conference or a convention where it's
extremely hands on and you're actually you know, there's I
mean most athletes were very like, we have to do
it to actually for to Ingraindor system, versus they're sitting
(37:49):
there listening to someone talks like, yes, that's motivational, love it,
but I need to actually do this for it to click.
And so you are literally taking out all of the
middle scenarios that we don't necessarily get at the conferences.
Is what would you say for the third edition of
athlete Con that is coming up?
Speaker 2 (38:05):
What can we all expect?
Speaker 1 (38:07):
I mean, I could talk to you for ages about
all of this, but I'm excited to go see it firsthand.
What can myself and all those hopefully that are listening
softball players that want to go to athlete Con what
can we expect for the third edition?
Speaker 3 (38:19):
Oh? I am so excited. We are bringing it to Vegas.
So it's the big stage, it's the bright lights. We're
taking over the Sahara, Las Vegas, so just a way
bigger scale and way more resources. So I mean we
have a big ballroom. We have you know, thirty five
plus brands and booths there. We have all the interactive workshops.
But on top of it, the pink turf suits and
(38:40):
Sneakers Awards night is where you get awarded the brand
deals and the internships. We have a whole separate, big
stage that CNN produced the presidential debate on and you
wear your cute dress and your sneakers walk the pink turf. Honestly,
aj I just keep getting the feedback that it's just
the energy in the room is unlike anything you know,
they felt even at O their conferences. And that's really
my goal is to make it tangible and you know,
(39:02):
to make it an experience that you don't forget. And
I've seen it firsthand. I've had athletes show up at
athlete Con that have zero videos ever posted on their feed,
posted for the very first time that athlete Con not
just once, but probably ten times throughout the weekend walk
away and you know, scaling over the last month, you know,
a month away from athlete Con, texting me that you
know their accounts reached you know, two point six million
(39:24):
followers after just a month of being motivated, inspired and
having all the right resources, the tools, the tips, the
tricks to walk away and to really really truly do
this thing and to do it the right way.
Speaker 1 (39:36):
I always ask everybody on here athletes, what is their
favorite failure that led them ultimately to their biggest successes,
because we know as athletes you have to fail to
first succeed and within building athlete con being able to
I mean, starting something is hard in general, and then
you're trying to get people to buy in athletes the brands,
what would you say is probably your favorite failure within
(39:56):
building this conference that has now led you to going
into your third year and making it big success.
Speaker 3 (40:02):
Honestly, aj year one, I got like scammed, Like I
had somebody literally like take money from me and leave
and had no back end like help, like and the
conference still went on, and you know, it just proved
to me that like, if you start something for the
right reason and with the bigger mission, you'll always find
(40:23):
a way to make it happen. So I'd say my
biggest failure was maybe like trusting too many people to
help me build my own mission early on, instead of
having the confidence and myself to do something scary that
scared the crap out of me and learning how to
really just trust my own gut still know how to
ask for help. But you gotta wake up every day
knowing you know that you got this. And so I
(40:46):
think that was definitely my biggest lesson, very very early on.
Speaker 1 (40:50):
I can't waste Somebody scammed you girl, Yeah yeah girl.
Speaker 2 (40:56):
But you still had you still had a lot of success.
A lot of people still came.
Speaker 3 (41:00):
Oh yeah, ton, but just like money wise was stolen
from So that was that was scary.
Speaker 1 (41:05):
Yeah, that's insane. And you were able like when you
reached out. You just reach out to the different brands
and different athletes to tell them about Athlete Con.
Speaker 3 (41:12):
For the very first time, I plan the whole thing,
like in like two months, Like I had no staff,
I had zero employees. I fundraised the whole thing on
my own. I flew in every single athlete, I booked
every hotel, I booked every single flight, I made every
single banner, I made every single social media put. I
mean I am talking. I did the whole and I
(41:32):
amc the whole thing. I set the r Tenerary. I
mean I'm talking every role. I did, every single thing,
and so I guess hard work pays off.
Speaker 1 (41:42):
Heag Yeah, going back to everything, doing yourself, trust yourself,
because nobody knows what you want.
Speaker 2 (41:49):
Better than you.
Speaker 1 (41:49):
No one could perfect what you want in your career
more than you can. And that just dives it back
into our affirmation of today. I will start, please start
and restart again, and we're gonna keep going. Be bold,
be fearless, be you. We gotta keep doing it and
make it happen, just like Sam, Sam, thank you so much.
(42:10):
I am so excited for all the things, the diamonds
that you dropped today, for so many softball players all
around the world at every level.
Speaker 2 (42:17):
Whether you're in high school, college, or pro.
Speaker 1 (42:21):
And I'm so excited for athlete con to get to
see this allfer's hand.
Speaker 3 (42:25):
Can't wait to have you. Thank you for having me today.
Speaker 2 (42:27):
Thank you. Remember guys, start, restart, start again. Nothing is
out of the blue. Be bold, be fearless, be you. Sam.
Thank you again for joining us today.
Speaker 1 (42:39):
Join my listeners. Thank you so much for listening to
this episode. Continue the conversation on Instagram at Dropping Diamonds
pod and I will see you here next week back at.
Speaker 2 (42:48):
The Diamond Bye.
Speaker 3 (42:49):
Now.
Speaker 1 (42:57):
Dropping Diamonds with Aj Andrews is an iHeart our women's
sports production and partnership with Athletes Unlimited Softball League and
Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment.
Speaker 3 (43:06):
I'm your host, Aj Andrews.
Speaker 1 (43:08):
Our executive producer is Jesse Katz. Tari Harrison is our
supervising producer, and this episode was mixed and mastered by
Mary Do. Listen to Dropping Diamonds with Aj Andrews on
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your
podcasts
Dropping Diamonds with aj Andrews is an iheartwomen's sports production
in partnership with Athletes Unlimited Softball League and Deep Blue
Sports and Entertainment. Well, welcome to Dropping Diamonds with Me
aj Angi's where we dive headfirst.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Into the world of softball.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
And today we are joined by someone that is going
to is her mission and she's going to continue to propel,
whether it's softball in all sports beyond, to be the
best it possibly kid and get that pay pu. She
is an NIL brand builder, the owner of athlete Kahn.
She has been a former dancer and just a current
badass and is the one that.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Is the only Sam Grad. Welcome to the show.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Thanks for having me. I'm so so excited for this, yay.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
I know we met Sam and I met at LSU
about two years ago where we were sitting down talking
to all the kids. I start telling a little bit
what I'm doing on social media and then she comes
out with literally every nugget you could possibly think of
on how to excel when it comes to NIL social
media and what it is you can do for yourself.
(01:13):
I said, oh, let me, I need to sit in
one of these classes. Like, Sam, let me know when
you have a little seminar and that lot Behold, we
have athlete Con outisode.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
I'm coming this.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Year and I am or twenty twenty six and I'm
mint it. So, but before we dive into all things
athlete Con and all things Sam's got going on that's
going to help softball players around the world be the
best they possibly can and get the most of what
they got. I want to always start off my podcast
with a quote and like a nice affirmation, and so
a quote that I thought was really befitting and talking
(01:46):
with Sam today was just I'm not giving up.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
I'm just starting over.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
And I think that if we were to bring out
like an affirmation from that, where do you think we
could go to like have a good afforcat for the
day from that quote.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
I can relate to that personally. What a great, great quote.
I've started over so many times, AJ, but I've never
given up on my bigger mission. I tell people all
the time, I you know, I danced in the NBA,
I you know, left, I was an editor at ESPN.
I you know I left. I started a YouTube channel,
I started interviewing athletes, left life, but I never quit
I always had a bigger mission to help athletes. Never
(02:24):
gave up. Maybe you know, pivoted, but man, I can
relate with that one.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
I love a lot. I love that never gave up,
I just pivoted. I like that.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
When do you think of like an affirmation? If we
were to start our day with it.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Today, what would the affirmation be? We put one together?
Speaker 3 (02:39):
Everybody starts from nothing, so be bold, be fearless, and
be you. Is really something that I tell myself kind
of daily, Be bol be fearless, be you, because everybody
has to, you know, start from ground zero, and so
you know, you can either go for it or you
can kind of live with regret. So mine would be
be bold, be fearless. View. I like that.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Yes, on the theme of also like starting restart, maybe
like today I will start restart and restart again. Nothing's
out the blue. I'm gonna be bold, be fearless, well,
and be you.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
I like it.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Fos be you.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Period love that today it will start restart and restart again,
nothing's out of the blue.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
I'll be bold, be fearless, be you.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
Boom.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
I love, Yes, that is our affirmation. That's when I
be singing all my way to athletic co on in
twenty twenty six. But to jump back a little bit
to where it all began, because you started off as
a competitive dancer or her career within the sports world
that has only just continued to elevate and grow bigger
and bigger. Sports just brings so many lessons in day
(03:49):
to day life. I tell people all the time in softball,
I use it just takes one in my everyday life.
You say that all the time as athletes. I say
it all the time in soft while there's so many
things that we bring in where I say it just
takes one, And it could be that one moment, it
could be that one conversation, that one meeting that could
inevitably change your life. What do you feel like is
(04:11):
maybe the saying or something that you've really stuck with
as a dancer that you feel like you still implement
today as you continue to build these brands and continue
to elevate your own.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Yeah, my experience dancing was unique. I was the youngest
to have ever made the team. I was surrounded by,
you know, women that had been on the team for
years or just a lot of wisdom and a lot
of experience, and I guess the moment that really stuck
out to me was being interviewed like the flip side
of it, AJ I was you know, they were asking about,
(04:41):
you know, my story and my journey, and you know,
it just felt like there was like a bigger picture
and a bigger mission there for me, even kind of
beyond dancing. But the sports reporter like kind of pulled
me aside afterwards and was like, you know, like this
platform is like for something bigger, like you ca use
(05:01):
you know, your platform to then you know, give back
to younger girls, or to tell your story or to
kind of like you know, build something bigger even beyond
just dance. And that really stuck out to me, and
I really try and give that back to all the
athletes that I work with, Like you've been given this
beautiful platform that you can choose what to do with it,
and just like you're saying, you know, you learned so
(05:21):
many lessons from softball, AJ, and you know there's bigger
life lessons that's kind of comes through you know, sport.
So that definitely stuck out to me when I was,
you know, nineteen and you know, in a world that
I had no idea what I was doing.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
What would you say is maybe like one of the
bigger life lessons you've learned thus far that has continuously
suck with you.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
One of the biggest life lessons that I've learned is
that you can pave your own way. When I grew up,
I feel like, you know, it was like I could
go into marketing, I could go into you know, just
a cookie cutter kind of role, and that was it.
And I started really you know, traveling the world and
seeing these other opportunities, and I really wanted to build
my life off of a bigger mission and a bigger purpose.
(06:05):
And so I felt like everybody always told me like
stick to you know, being an editor at ESPN, Like
that's your trajectory, that's your path, Like you don't leave,
like that's your job and it, you know. I just
was like that's fine. But like I just kept like
driving and driving and finding new ways and finding kind
of new avenues and ended up overnight like not even
intentionally building my own lane and building my own business,
(06:26):
all because I had the purpose to serve and to
give back to more athletes. And so I think that's
really the most unique life lesson. I could sit here
and throw out a lot of cliche, you know, in
terms of you know, just keep going or you know,
things that you hear over and over again. But one
thing that I wish, I guess I was told earlier
on in my life, is like this is your life,
(06:46):
Like you can choose what you want to do with it,
Like you don't have to just do what you think
you're supposed to. You know, I thought maybe I would
have to be in back end data analytics within marketing.
I didn't know that, you know, content creation would be
a thing. I didn't know that I could genuinely become
a public speaker. I didn't know I could really run
my own convention like out of the blue, Like my
(07:07):
mind just never really went there. I just thought you
kind of had to follow the status quote. So I
guess one thing if I could, you know, sit anybody
down earlier on in their career, would be like think bigger,
like go there, Like what is that dream? Like you
can lit to really do it now. It's gonna be
hard to sell, Like, don't get me wrong, Like it's
not gonna be just like rainbows and butterflies, because you're
(07:29):
chasing your dreams every day. I mean, there's gonna be
you know, times where you want to give up, but
if you can really like find a bigger mission, like
what wakes you up? Like what are you passionate about?
And I watch, you know, these media moguls like Mel
Robbins or Gary Bee and Hermosy, and they're very extreme,
don't get me wrong, but they say this stuff, you know,
like it's hard, but like go for it, Like you
(07:52):
have one life, and I'm really big on I think
your life, you know a lot of it should be
to serve and to give back. And so long winded
answer a J I think, you know, one of the
biggest life lessons that I've learned is you really can,
you know, build a life that you want or at
least freaking try.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
And you talked about your you fell into this path
or you like accidentally created this lane for yourself. How
did you accidentally make that happen? Because oftentimes, you know,
we discussed these things a lot of when I hear
people that are very successful, that happens. Often you were
saying that it just takes one maybe it was at
(08:31):
one moment what have you. But when you talk about
you accidentally got into you found your lane, how did
that accidental purpose come about.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
It was like an accidental purpose came about.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
As it was. So I was a video editor at ESPN.
Obviously I had left, and I started actually being like
this was well, this was when like Instagram hear me
out was like more so like still just photos. So
I've been in this for a while, like Jay.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
And Crush Mondays and then when my Crush Wednesdays back
then it.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
May seem like an accident, but it's been like a
decade of an accident almost. So I took what I
had learned at ESPN as an editor, and I learned
how to do it all for my phone. This was
pre cap cut, This was pre any video editing apps.
This was I was taking different things and layering them
and just figuring out away because I had seen a
major gap between brand deal opportunities and athletes and their platforms.
(09:22):
And back then it was only you know, Tim Tebow
getting paid a million dollars to be on a commercial.
There wasn't like the local social media you know, micro
influencer deals. So I started actually diving into being director
of social media of like gyms that had you know,
were exclusive to one percent of athletes, and I started
teaching a lot of the professional athletes on the side
just how to subsidize their income through brand deals and
(09:45):
teaching them how to make content all from their phone,
and so that just kind of picked up and it
really worked. I started, you know, really helping people, especially
female Olympic athletes, a lot of minor league baseball players
and a lot of softball players that were at the
gym land these deals. And so then NIL passed. I
made the jump immediately over into the collegiate space. I
started this AJ as a brand. I just wanted to help.
(10:09):
I put out free social media content on Instagram, not viral,
nothing crazy, no intention other than to help give away
free education to help more athletes build what I saw
was possible from you know, my experience, and then people
just started calling. In all honesty, I had schools, universities
calling me. I had brands calling me as big as
(10:31):
Nike and Meta. You know, I've had thousands of athletes
call me, and so it just literally ended up forming
because I just had the goal of helping and really
solving a solution, which was making content creation and brand
building easier and more accessible for athletes. Because athletes grew
up athletes. They grew up perfecting their you know, their sport.
(10:53):
They didn't grow up content creators. But now you know,
with everything that's going on with media, social media and
brand building, like it's just blown up overnight, that I
just wanted to help more athletes be able to take
advantage of it. So definitely an accident.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Have you seen from working with so many different athletes
that one method helps one.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Sport more than the other, or even women.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Versus men when it comes to contracreation and being able
to build your brand. Is there a better way to
go about it if you are in this sport, or
say if you are a woman here, or maybe if
your sport isn't as big or is put on TV
as much, right because like WNBA or women's basketball in
comparison to maybe lacrosse right where you're able to it's
(11:40):
just a little bit of difference in the media attention.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Is there a way to go about that differently?
Speaker 3 (11:45):
In all honesty, the different strategies at work depending upon
your sport really comes down to the media attention. If
you're a football player, it's a little bit more handed
to you. Aj we already know this. You don't have
to do as much work. Right, So for our softball players,
for my track athletes, it's not one thing that it's like,
this is the piece of content that's gonna get you there,
that's gonna make you the million dollars in comparison to
(12:06):
a football player, it's honestly the work level. You're gonna
have to just work a little bit harder. You're going
to have to put yourself out there a lot more
and be more bold and be in front of people's
faces and you know, know that you belong in that
room more so, you know than just sitting back and
sitting on your hands and you know, basically having a
check just written out to you.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Let's take a quick break to hear a word from
our sponsor.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
What have you seen really works for softball? I know
you've worked with some softball players. What really propels softball
to be in the forefront of media attention, especially on
social and beyond.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
I like to use Mikayla Edenfield actually as a prime example.
I met Mikayla back when Nile first passed, and immediately
that girl just fricking god, she really had confidence and
was willing to put herself out there. And that's step
number one. As a softball player, you cannot be scared.
I know, the locker room culture, it's a little bit
(13:11):
old school. It's a little bit of like looking around
and you know, a little bit scared to step out
there and to put yourself in front of the camera,
just because that's how it's been for so many years.
But Mikayla was not shy. She went for it, and
she What I really liked that I've seen success in
is softball players buying into their fan base and what
the fans also like and enjoy and know them for.
(13:34):
Area fifty one was what Mikayla was really known for.
This girl take took it and ran with it from
the eye makeup to you know, all her posts kind
of diving into it. And now she built a full
blown brand based on her fan base and her community
and has this organic engagement and now we see her
doing videos with brands like you know Elf and Cover Girl.
I remember her sitting you down back in the day
(13:55):
and saying, my dream brand deal would be you know
with Elf, so that I could do, you know, make
tutorials for young girls that it's you know, makeup that's
more accessible and affordable and So I think it's really
identifying you know who you are? What do you want
to be known for? Right? I came out, I just
self proclaimed I'm athletes go to brand builder. And I
started then kind of having a strategy that I could
(14:16):
map out around that. Mikayla knew this. She knew she
wanted to be a role model for younger girls. She
knew she wanted to dive into Area fifty one and
her makeup and her tutorials, and she did that, and
she's done it so successfully from the collegiate level to
the pro level, and everybody knows her, everybody loves her,
everybody's writing posters for her around that brand. So it's
sitting down and having an honest conversation with yourself as
(14:37):
a softball player of like, what is my bigger picture,
what's my bigger why? What do I want to be
known for? And going all the way in and really
not turning back and building content strategy and landing brand
deals around that bigger picture.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
So then the first thing would be to pinpoint what
it is. Like Let's say you know someone gave you
the name of Area fifty one, right, that wasn't given
to you. You're now trying to come up with maybe what
it is that you're going to be known for. How
do you advise people to softball players to figure out
what it is that they want to be known for.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
I use that example, and that's very strategic and easy
for me to say, right, like, that's a tangible example
to almost the extreme, you don't have to you know,
be known absolutely for this one thing. You can be
known for you. So I think it's more so of
setting a goal of where you want to go one
day your name is not on that roster anymore, point blank.
You could be the best player in the world, and
(15:33):
there's still going to be a day that that's over.
And so it's you know, do you end up wanting
to run a nonprofit and giving back through camps and clinics?
Do you want to be like you a freaking badass
innovating this entire space and you know, being a social
media creator and on air reporter and talent and goes.
I could you know, have a CBS receipt of all
(15:53):
that you do? But well, it's more so defining like
what you want out of this at the end of
the day, Like when your name's not on that ross
or what do you want to do and then crafting
around that. So again the area fifty one, the you
know nil or athletes, brand builders an extreme example, you
don't have to go you know that niche or that specific.
It definitely helps because it just gives you focus. So
I think more than anything, the goal is to define
(16:16):
what you want to focus on, so then you can
every day wake up and know what you're actually building towards.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
How often would you say someone it should post once
they figure out what it is that they want to
dive into what they want to be known for, and
now they're building the content around it.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
How what is a strategy to then be able to
gain traction? And I guess followers.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
I think a lot of athletes really really worry about
strategy and being specific, and they're very scared to put
themselves out there, especially on Instagram. It's like pulling teeth.
They're a little bit more willing to put themselves out
there on TikTok. The more you post, the more you're
going to get out there. It takes people seven times
to see the same video or see the message to
(17:01):
actually even process it. So I have athletes that send
me down and they're like I had a softball player
at UVA. I'm fucking to name names, send me down
last week and be like, but wouldn't it just be
so weird for me to just like randomly start posting,
Like what would I even start with? Like what do
I post with? Like shouldn't I just start with a photo?
And it's like no, Like people aren't like literally watching you,
(17:24):
like you think right, and everybody's scared and everybody has
to start and so the more you post, the better.
But I also really like to remind athletes, like burnout
is real. When I danced in the NBA, I posted
a lot, but I felt like I was posting what
other people wanted me to post and I wasn't posting
what was like true to me. And I got sobernt out.
(17:45):
I deleted my whole account, lost my entire fan base,
and had to start all the way over. And I
finally realized, Oh, I didn't hate social media. I was
so burnt out. I was doing too much. So be
honest with yourself and what do you want to build?
Are you more worried about out a business? Okay, then
be more strategic and align more your content with that
goal do you want to be a viral, you know,
(18:06):
social media influencer, then you should tap into all the
trends and be posting twenty four to seven as much
as you possibly can. Maybe you're somewhere in between, and
that's okay too. So it comes back to defining that
goal and not being scared at the end of the
day and literally hit record and just click post.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
Yeah, sometimes it can literally feel and know people get
like anxiety now trying to post, and it just becomes
this entire thing that maybe it just shouldn't be or
it definitely wasn't before it became so monetary, like when
it was just fun, you're just posting, it was whatever,
and now because you can make money, people begin to
really overthink it. When someone, I mean, you go out
(18:47):
and you talk you talked about going to UVA. When
you go out and talk to all these different athletes
and individuals at all these different universities, what's something that
really surprised you, especially in the NIL space, after having
common versations with these athletes that maybe they're worried about
or that you've seen become a problem.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
The thing that shocks me the most with athletes is
that they're willing to fail publicly physically in front of thousands. Right,
we all know in sport with softball, you can't control everything,
like you can't throw strike every single time and guarantee it,
you can't hit a home run every single time you
know you're at the plate. And so it blows my
mind that athletes are willing to put themselves out there
(19:26):
and fail that way in a way bigger limelight. But
yet they're so scared of a digital audience and being
cringe and putting themselves out there. And I also have
noticed that they're willing to do a little bit more
of the trendy fun content, you know, talking on camera
a day in the life, get ready with me, like,
you know, getting to know their audience a little bit more.
They're way more hesitant, which also shocked me because you
(19:47):
guys are used to, you know, being interviewed and in
the limelight and you know at all these like public
events where you're shaking donors' hands and stuff. But yet
you know that that fear of a digital audience really
blows my mind.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
It really does not, because well, maybe when performing on
the field, you could just go before maybe hear little whoops, whoops, whatever,
people are gonna stay on the field. But after that
it's it's done and gone. But on the internet, you
can go back to it and reread it, revisit it
over and over, and people don't want to be judged.
I guess what was the advice you've given to the
(20:22):
athletes you've worked with to get over that? To be like, listen,
this is what you want to do. You have to
get over this fear or whatever this is that's holding
you back.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
What do you tell them?
Speaker 3 (20:30):
Everybody starts a zero, Like a lot of athletes will
come up to me. I've been working closely with this
company called Character First Athletics, and they really help develop
athletes be on their sport. And so I've gone to
all these schools really helping them develop strategic plans. And
my biggest piece of advice is like do you want
(20:51):
like seriously, like do you want to do this? Like
do you care? Because on every athlete will a lot
of athletes does just want to play their sport and
that is okay to you, but if you really really
want this, like you're only hurting yourself because of your
fear of somebody else's opinion. And when I've been working
in this development program, we get deep with them, like
(21:12):
we really get to know these athletes on a personal,
personal level. And a lot of them have the huge
dreams and huge visions that are like hostly, like beautiful
that they want to develop, They want to write books,
they want to you know, be public speakers. And yet
it's just this fear of other people's judgment. And it's
just sad to me that we're gonna almost waste talent
(21:34):
because of the fear of a hypothetical thought or piece
of judgment. And a lot of times, the crazy part
aj is they're actually more concerned about their inner circle
judging them than the general public. And you got you
just you know, you've got to get over it, point blank,
Like nobody got anywhere by being scared and holding themselves back.
Do it scared, do it anyway?
Speaker 2 (21:56):
So do it scared?
Speaker 3 (21:58):
Do it anyway? And what's the this saying.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
It's like someone a multi millionaire is never going to
make fun of you for your business, you know, first
flopping so and athlete's ever going to make fun of
you for getting in the gym for the first time.
A singer is ever going to make fun of you
for going to your first singing lesson. You know, these
things that feel embarrassing around other people that aren't doing it,
but the ones that are actually succeeding in it are
(22:20):
the ones that are like, no, no, no, this is
what you have to do, keep going, keep going. Who
out of all the athletes that she've worked with, do
you feel like has really honed into things that you're
saying and is really seeing a lot of success from it.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
Yeah, Mikayla obviously is number one. Outside of softball. Would
be one of my favorite girls is Mia Rogan. She's
a track runner at Michigan State. I was there probably
three years ago in front of hundreds of athletes, and
I just I saw her personality and you know, her
interacting with you know, hundreds of other athletes and pulled
her aside and I'm like, are you building anything? Like
(22:55):
are you really going to you know, do this like
you have it? Like you have something here, And you know,
we took her from two thousand followers to over one
hundred thousand no brand deals to twenty five plus in
a year and she literally just signed a car deal
as a non revenue generating sport. And so it's the
stories like that that you know, or what wakes me
up in the morning. Another one would be a track
runner out of Memphis, Riley Simmons. She came to me
(23:17):
she wanted to be a motivational speaker and her strategy,
you know, on social media. I took a deep dive
on the account and there wasn't much content that you know,
led to that goal, and so we mapped it all out,
and you know, years later, she just ran her own
full blown revival night in Memphis, gathering the local community
a huge stage, digital screens, baptizing people, praying over that.
(23:39):
I mean, like just really made an impact on the community.
And so the athletes that actually take this sit down
realize that they can utilize their platform to build something
bigger are the ones that you know, are just a
true testament to what you can build, you know, diving
into nil and brand building.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
I mean, I'm can we book an appointment?
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Like, I'm my girl, what's the rest of your week
look like? What's the next week look like? For you
to meet with me? But when you talk about the
different steps that I want you to give everything away
because I obviously want people to come to you, and
but yeah, help me out and help me. What would
you say is maybe the first two or first things
you tell them when you're working on, you know, getting
(24:21):
them to a place where they can build that community,
build that following and the ultimately reachar goals and that
sit down.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
So step number one is cliche, but you got to
define the goal again, like is it a business? What
kind of business? Riley sat me down, she said, you
wanted to be a motivational speaker. Fabulous. That was step one.
Now we can move on to step two to build
that out. So then step number two is curating content
ideas even about what it is that you want to build.
And so I say, instead of looking at social media
(24:48):
and doom scrolling at night at ten o'clock, you know,
in the bed, like I know that you are, which
we all do.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
Yeah, yeah, Like.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
At least scroll with intention and start saving types of
content that you watch the you consume that you like,
follow people that are building brands that you know are
monetizing off of it, that you want to be like
or you know aspire you know, are inspired by. So
step two is really like consuming with intention, and then
step three is picking like five types of content that
(25:16):
you can stick to consistently for at least a month
and a half. And by consistently, I had an athlete
called me yesterday and said, I've been so consistent, I
haven't seen any growth. How many times are you posting?
Been posting once a week? Okay for how long? For
three weeks? Like that's three pieces of content. Like so
you got to lock in, Like you got to like
know that you're in this for the long run and
that it's going to take some time. You're not gonna
(25:37):
go viral overnight, but you're never gonna go viral if
you don't start. So step one to find the goal.
Step two like consume with intent, save content. Step three,
sit down, write out five types of content that you
can stick to consistently post for at least a month
and a half. Look at your back end analytics would
be step forward. See what's working, See what's performing, See
you know what your fans are actually engaging with, and
(26:00):
you can kind of tweak that strategy. And then if
you're actually ready to monetize your brand, you want to
work with you know some you know, local companies or
you know, maybe it's a protein powder or supplement company.
Sit down and step five would be actually write out
some content or some brand categories, so supplements in protein, athleisure,
you know, whatever it may be. Then brain dump under there,
(26:23):
just write all the brands that you can think of
in each of those pillars. And so we have five pillars.
Now we're going to circle one brand in each of
those pillars. You're going to go make content even with
the brand that you just have in your house, of
the brand that you circled, So maybe it's Lululemon that
you have and you love and that's your dream brand,
you got to go make the content now to be
able to have a content example to then go show Lululemon, hey,
(26:47):
this is what I could do for you. And so
I think that's a really important piece that athletes missed.
They're like, well, I've been posting and now I want
to work with a brand deal. But you've never promoted
a product, So you've got to ensure to you know,
really be able to anotize that you're incorporating that. So
those would be my five first steps if you're looking
to build something that could actually convert into revenue boom.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
But and like it's like, you know, you hear things
like this, you're like okay, yes, perfect, and then you
get started and then it comes time to post and
it's like, oh, okay, beer.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
Now I need to do this once. I mean, U
once a week is that good? Or do you recommend
like twice a week, three times a week.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
You have to start somewhere, like you literally do. So
if once a week is what you can handle, that's
what you can handle. But then maybe extend the period
of time before you reevaluate your whole life and get
mad about not making money off of it. Right, Like,
the more you post, the more you're going to figure
out and the quicker that you can actually monetize. So
once a week is fine. I'm not super super consistent,
(27:45):
aj I don't have this all mapped out six times
a week. Like a lot of times I'm you know,
busy in on the road and I make an excuse
to not post. I would say a good starting place
would be focusing on two trends a week. So by trends,
I mean, you know, maybe you're bold and you do
the lip sync video that's going viral. Maybe you look
like a bomb and then your hands on the camera
(28:07):
and now you're in your uniform. That's a trend. Maybe
it's you know, a seven second clip of you squatting
and you're tweaking the text on the screen. Pob life
is a Division one softball player, whatever it may be,
that's a trend. It's things that are hitting the algorithm
that are going viral very quickly. You can follow a
million athletes that are popping off in the algorithm, save
their video, tweak it to be relatable to your life.
(28:29):
And it's not reinventing the wheel. It's not broken, don't
fix it. You know, it's tapping into the algorithm so
that you can grow your followers and grow your views.
Is step number one with the trends. It's also important
to do trends because it's going to prevent that burnout.
Trends don't take long. It probably takes you five minutes
to record a five second clipper seven second clip of
(28:50):
you squatting and putting text on the screen. So that's
going to allow you to be consistent without being overwhelmed.
So two trends a week, and then I would say
one what I like to call like a brand building
piece of content A day in the life. Get ready
with me. Maybe it's mini mic, you know, funny interviews
with your teammates, something where your audience is able to
actually understand you or get to know you better. This
(29:13):
is also the type of content that brands are actually
going to invest in. Think about get Ready with me.
It's you using your favorite Good Molecules face wash in
the morning. Good Molecules could pay you for that video
moving forward, So it's trends and then it's kind of
brand building content. I would do one of those a
week because they take a little bit more time. I'd say,
(29:34):
if you start there, and then if you you know,
want to go there, you can add on a fourth post,
which would be just a carousel where it's multiple slides
of photos on Instagram. Athletes don't mind doing that. You
get to kind of have fun and showcase a little
bit of both sides of your life life as an athlete,
like your media day pick or you know you at
practice and then you know you behind the scenes. A
(29:55):
selfie of you and your teammate at you know your
as i e. Bowl place after practice. Cute pick of
you know your nail holding your coffee. You know, so
kind of showcasing you know you as an athlete and
your life outside of it. I'd say, if you can
stick to that and you're posting four times a week,
I think you'd be surprised. It doesn't have to be
three times a day to really see growth. Athletes have
(30:17):
an extreme competitive advantage. Athletes do not even have to
be as consistent as a NARP, right, is what I say.
I think because you guys already have a built in
fan base, so just getting started and posting anything consistently
is already going to help you grow. So but four
times a week, I think that'd be my formula.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
I love how the word NARP is global, no matter
where you went, where you played, what sport it was.
We all know what a narpist if you're an athlete,
and it's it's like a secret society because if you're
you're if you are an arp, you probably don't.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
Know what nart means.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
Right, That's so true.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
If you're a hook, we don't even know. Yeah. I
used to call them muggles. You're wearing a Potter fan,
you know, you get it, you get it. There's more
to cover, but first, let's take a quick break.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
When you come to those different brands, do you advise
reaching out to those bands like taggy men or allow
the brands to come to you.
Speaker 3 (31:22):
You have to start somewhere again, Like you can't just
like build your brand and never have promoted a brand
and then expect brands to want to work with you.
And so I had a softball player at Providence actually
originally had a tiny following and wanted to land Quest Nutrition,
who has a million followers. And so you got to
kind of think strategically, if it's a massive brand and
you don't have a massive following, you need to be
(31:43):
put on their radar. So maybe creating a piece of content,
sending an actual collaboration invite with that brand at first
is going to actually put you on their radar. And
so that's what this player, this softball player did. I said,
go post the content, now invite Quest Nutrition as a collaborator.
They accepted. She tapped into their millions of followers, and
then it converted into a deal. A lot of agents
(32:05):
and people are like no, no, no, like do not
post for free? And I get it. So if you're
like completely against that, then start going on these platforms
that are they're called like market places where they connect
athletes directly with brands and landed sometimes they're twenty five bucks,
they're fifty bucks, and you know, they're just casting a
wide net. And even if you have never worked with
(32:26):
a brand deal, it's an easy way to get kind
of your first one to kind of claim a brand
deal so that then you can go leverage it to
other brands. So I'm big on like just strategy of thinking,
like all right, like how do I get a hold
of this brand? And if it's unrealistic, show that you're
a fan first. Maybe it's not posting content, Maybe it's
commenting on their feed, maybe it's sharing one of their
(32:49):
you know, their posts to your Instagram stories and tagging them.
But just showing value up front to a brand of
what you could do or what you could provide for
the brand is you know, the only way that you're
going to really make some serious money off it.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
Well, making some serious money is the opportunity that college
athletes have. Now. I did not have that back in
the day or else, Trust me, I would have been
on it the way that I was.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
Posted on YouTube back.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
In the day, right when the nil legislation passed, and
you immediately saw this opportunity, and I mean you saw
it in ways I feel like other people didn't, and
you really were able to capitalize on that to help
so many collegiate athletes really reach their full potential. And
then you develop athlete con to further that to continue
(33:38):
to help them build and see their potential.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
Why did you what made.
Speaker 1 (33:42):
You realize in a NIL was going to be as
powerful as it is today that then let you just say,
you know, I'm going to start my own convention because
it's that big, it's that powerful, and I can have
that much of an impact on these collegiate kids.
Speaker 3 (33:55):
I'd been doing it for a decade and I'd seen
it work. I was literally helping professional athletes that maybe
didn't have the biggest name or maybe didn't even have
that many you know, minutes played, and the analytics just
weren't there to be able to leverage you know, the
big media kind of commercials. But social media started actually
coming around and there was a lot of value. I
mean even back then, I was helping softball players land
(34:17):
Lulu Lemon deals just by making advertisements. So I just
had already seen it work that then once an il passed,
I was like, it's cringey, but I say, it's an
industry that I felt like was like born or made
for me because I'd already been doing it, you know,
and all these random skills that I had kind of
accumulated through numerous you know, different roles popped up into
a brand new industry overnight. And so I built athlete
(34:39):
con not just as in an IL conference that you know,
I didn't name it NIL specific anything, because I had
seen what hands on curriculum has done for these athletes
at the softball level, you know, all the way down
to you know, even high schoolers now, and what this
can do. So whether it's collegiate, pros Olympic, any athlete
can really take advantage of this. NIL stands for name,
(35:00):
image and likeness. It doesn't stand for a collegiate something specific.
And so you know, I'd been to thirty plus universities, schools,
fly me in, I'll partner with brands like JBL or Marriott,
and I started teaching athletes at the collegiate level, at
the scale level, really how to shoot atit, create content,
go live with advertisements throughout the workshops. And you know,
again just had seen this work that brought me to
(35:22):
a lot of conferences within you know, the industry sports
media and il specific, you name it, whether it be
you know, I'm seeing it on a panel or just
attending it. And I just realized like everything was about
whatever sponsor paid the most money to get up on
stage shove their agenda down the athlete's throats, and nobody
was really resourcing these athletes. And simultaneously, these brands were
(35:45):
paying thousands of dollars to slap their logo onto something
and walk away with nothing other than the hopes that
an athlete cared to hear their presentation of their twenty
page PowerPoint or them speaking next to twelve other people
on a stage and want to work with them. And
the athletes would call me and say, I got a
cute picture, but that's all I got out of this,
and so it bothered me. I building a convention was
(36:07):
not on my BNGO cards a jail. I'll tell you
that I just saw a problem and wanted to create
the solution. And so I created Athlete con two years ago,
and it was the first convention to ever facilitate brand
deals in person. So I bring in hundreds of athletes
Snapchat coms, Instagram coms, TikTok coms, they teach hands on
brand monetization workshops, how to actually make money off of
(36:29):
their platforms, how to build this into something bigger. So
all the tools and the resources that you really need.
And then there's thirty five plus brands in the room.
There's a content competition where athletes go take that product,
the brand's actual product in their hands, and they get
to go make advertisements, publish them live, and they're competing
for cash, brand deals, paid internships, and job opportunities. And
(36:49):
then I've seen it convert into you know, full time
job positions. I've seen it convert into year long partnerships
with brands. Just seen a lot of success on both
the brand athletes and even heyj I'll tell you I've
had women in sports attend and it's taken you know,
their digital career, you know, in demonetization through social media.
So it's yes, it's athlete based, but just like you said,
(37:11):
you use softball and sport to teach more life lessons
out that comes the same exact thing. I think truly
anybody can value being you know, benefit from being in
the room. But yeah, truly created it out of just
trying to help more athletes and help brands get you know,
more money, out of the money that they're spending.
Speaker 1 (37:28):
This sounds like the perfect place to go to not
only learn about what is you can do, but continue
to get better at it. Like it's a very rarely
you go to a conference or a convention where it's
extremely hands on and you're actually you know, there's I
mean most athletes were very like, we have to do
it to actually for to Ingraindor system, versus they're sitting
(37:49):
there listening to someone talks like, yes, that's motivational, love it,
but I need to actually do this for it to click.
And so you are literally taking out all of the
middle scenarios that we don't necessarily get at the conferences.
Is what would you say for the third edition of
athlete Con that is coming up?
Speaker 2 (38:05):
What can we all expect?
Speaker 1 (38:07):
I mean, I could talk to you for ages about
all of this, but I'm excited to go see it firsthand.
What can myself and all those hopefully that are listening
softball players that want to go to athlete Con what
can we expect for the third edition?
Speaker 3 (38:19):
Oh? I am so excited. We are bringing it to Vegas.
So it's the big stage, it's the bright lights. We're
taking over the Sahara, Las Vegas, so just a way
bigger scale and way more resources. So I mean we
have a big ballroom. We have you know, thirty five
plus brands and booths there. We have all the interactive workshops.
But on top of it, the pink turf suits and
(38:40):
Sneakers Awards night is where you get awarded the brand
deals and the internships. We have a whole separate, big
stage that CNN produced the presidential debate on and you
wear your cute dress and your sneakers walk the pink turf. Honestly,
aj I just keep getting the feedback that it's just
the energy in the room is unlike anything you know,
they felt even at O their conferences. And that's really
my goal is to make it tangible and you know,
(39:02):
to make it an experience that you don't forget. And
I've seen it firsthand. I've had athletes show up at
athlete Con that have zero videos ever posted on their feed,
posted for the very first time that athlete Con not
just once, but probably ten times throughout the weekend walk
away and you know, scaling over the last month, you know,
a month away from athlete Con, texting me that you
know their accounts reached you know, two point six million
(39:24):
followers after just a month of being motivated, inspired and
having all the right resources, the tools, the tips, the
tricks to walk away and to really really truly do
this thing and to do it the right way.
Speaker 1 (39:36):
I always ask everybody on here athletes, what is their
favorite failure that led them ultimately to their biggest successes,
because we know as athletes you have to fail to
first succeed and within building athlete con being able to
I mean, starting something is hard in general, and then
you're trying to get people to buy in athletes the brands,
what would you say is probably your favorite failure within
(39:56):
building this conference that has now led you to going
into your third year and making it big success.
Speaker 3 (40:02):
Honestly, aj year one, I got like scammed, Like I
had somebody literally like take money from me and leave
and had no back end like help, like and the
conference still went on, and you know, it just proved
to me that like, if you start something for the
right reason and with the bigger mission, you'll always find
(40:23):
a way to make it happen. So I'd say my
biggest failure was maybe like trusting too many people to
help me build my own mission early on, instead of
having the confidence and myself to do something scary that
scared the crap out of me and learning how to
really just trust my own gut still know how to
ask for help. But you gotta wake up every day
knowing you know that you got this. And so I
(40:46):
think that was definitely my biggest lesson, very very early on.
Speaker 1 (40:50):
I can't waste Somebody scammed you girl, Yeah yeah girl.
Speaker 2 (40:56):
But you still had you still had a lot of success.
A lot of people still came.
Speaker 3 (41:00):
Oh yeah, ton, but just like money wise was stolen
from So that was that was scary.
Speaker 1 (41:05):
Yeah, that's insane. And you were able like when you
reached out. You just reach out to the different brands
and different athletes to tell them about Athlete Con.
Speaker 3 (41:12):
For the very first time, I plan the whole thing,
like in like two months, Like I had no staff,
I had zero employees. I fundraised the whole thing on
my own. I flew in every single athlete, I booked
every hotel, I booked every single flight, I made every
single banner, I made every single social media put. I
mean I am talking. I did the whole and I
(41:32):
amc the whole thing. I set the r Tenerary. I
mean I'm talking every role. I did, every single thing,
and so I guess hard work pays off.
Speaker 1 (41:42):
Heag Yeah, going back to everything, doing yourself, trust yourself,
because nobody knows what you want.
Speaker 2 (41:49):
Better than you.
Speaker 1 (41:49):
No one could perfect what you want in your career
more than you can. And that just dives it back
into our affirmation of today. I will start, please start
and restart again, and we're gonna keep going. Be bold,
be fearless, be you. We gotta keep doing it and
make it happen, just like Sam, Sam, thank you so much.
(42:10):
I am so excited for all the things, the diamonds
that you dropped today, for so many softball players all
around the world at every level.
Speaker 2 (42:17):
Whether you're in high school, college, or pro.
Speaker 1 (42:21):
And I'm so excited for athlete con to get to
see this allfer's hand.
Speaker 3 (42:25):
Can't wait to have you. Thank you for having me today.
Speaker 2 (42:27):
Thank you. Remember guys, start, restart, start again. Nothing is
out of the blue. Be bold, be fearless, be you. Sam.
Thank you again for joining us today.
Speaker 1 (42:39):
Join my listeners. Thank you so much for listening to
this episode. Continue the conversation on Instagram at Dropping Diamonds
pod and I will see you here next week back at.
Speaker 2 (42:48):
The Diamond Bye.
Speaker 3 (42:49):
Now.
Speaker 1 (42:57):
Dropping Diamonds with Aj Andrews is an iHeart our women's
sports production and partnership with Athletes Unlimited Softball League and
Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment.
Speaker 3 (43:06):
I'm your host, Aj Andrews.
Speaker 1 (43:08):
Our executive producer is Jesse Katz. Tari Harrison is our
supervising producer, and this episode was mixed and mastered by
Mary Do. Listen to Dropping Diamonds with Aj Andrews on
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your
podcasts
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