July 15, 2022 • 18 mins
Oren Burks is an NFL linebacker for the 49ers. He shares his experience in NFL and how he has avoided financial pitfalls early in athletes' careers. Furthermore, he talks about his philanthropic efforts in Ghana.
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Guest IG: @bangtimeburks
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, money Movers, I'm your host Tanya Sam and welcome
back to the Money Moves podcast powered by Green Moves,
the daily podcast determined to give you the keys to
the Kingdom of financial stability, wealth and abundance. Our next
(00:22):
guest is an American Football League linebacker for the Green
Bay Packers of the NFL. Oh wait correction, he was
with the Green Bay Packers because he recently signed a
two year, five million dollar deal to be a linebacker
for the forty Niners. Say what or in thank you
so much for being here Money Movers, please welcome to
(00:43):
the podcast or in Burke's are you doing? I'm excited
to be here. Thank you guys for having me on. Well,
thank you for being here. In congratulations, I hear you
just ink this new deal that's a big deal. Yeah
it is. It's been a whirlwind of a week. But
they're excited to break some moves down for you as
and and share a little bit of my story. Well incredible,
(01:03):
So Orange, Um, thank you again for being here. I
know it's a big week for you, so we appreciate
you taking the time out. Um, I want to go
back and I want to give our money move yours
audience a sense of like how you got to where
you are. You know, you're known for being, um, you know,
a fantastic NFL linebacker, but you're also involved in a
lot of different philanthropy movements. Um, you're really into the
(01:25):
web three and crypto space. But let's start with football
and how you sort of got your start in that
in the league. Yeah, so kind of going back to
high school, I actually was a basketball player kind of
growing up, and one of my friends debby to come
out for the football team and it ended up kind
of working out obviously in the NFL. What the school
(01:47):
at Vanderbolte went there for four years, and for me,
the transition from high school to college athletic athletics was important,
but academics was even more important than the opportunities that
came through that. Uh. And I knew that Nashville was
gonna be a great city for me, and I knew
the network that Vanderbilt alumni had would be really important
to careers that I was going to pursue in the future.
(02:09):
So kind of transition from college to the pros. It
was extremely blessed to be drafted about in the third
round by the Greenbay Packers a eighth pick, and it
was it was life changing. A lot of hard work
and dedication that led to that moment and was able
to kind of, uh, just be financially conversated for a
(02:30):
lot of the work that went into the college process.
But as I got my foot my feet wet in
the league, knew I wanted to pursue other passions at
the same time. And um, it's it's been a blessing.
I'm excited to get to that second contract because it's
there's not too many people that can say they've gotten
to a second contract in the league. So yeah, it's
a big deal. Yeah, a lot of gratitude. Um. So
(02:53):
what's interesting is, you know something We've had a lot
of different athletes on the podcast as well, but you know,
from a very early age, as you just said, you
knew that the academics had to be as important as
your performance on the field. Who was it that really
instilled that into you? And you know, I think oftentimes
when people are gifted with that athletic ability and they're like, Okay,
I'm on track to get to the league, how did
(03:13):
you stay focused on knowing that you had to pay
attention to the academics and even you know, you said, hey,
I was really keen to recognize that if I went
into this university system it would afford me the opportunity
to network and beyond. Like where did you learn those
sort of lessons at such a young age? Yeah, definitely,
My parents are still that very early on for me
(03:34):
and my sister. She plays soft while Stanford and as
you can tell, kind of athletic family and very smart.
She's an engineer and lives out in Colorso, uh yeah,
from from the job, Like we weren't able to go
to practice or play until we had all a home.
We've done. So it's kind of those early discipline moments
from our parents that were instilled that we kind of
carried over to college and pursuing other things that we're
(03:55):
passionate about. So definitely started early. Yeah, that's great. I
love that, and I think you know, telling those stories
that it's two sides for you know, our young and
aspiring athletes like the academics, and on top of it,
you know they're they're athletic performances. All right. So now
you've drafted, you've spent years in the league, Um, how
did you go about and You've got this huge contract,
(04:15):
so you've got all this money. Now, you had fame, notoriety,
you know, how did you miss the black holes that
oftentimes athletes fall into in terms of like, listen, I
spent all my money, I gave it to the wrong person.
How did you enter into the league? Um, and really
know what you had to do to become the business
man you are today. I would definitely say just surrounded
(04:37):
myself with great mentors. There's a number of mentors that
I've kind of linked onto here in Nashville and during
my time in high school even that have kind of
helped me escape some of those pitfalls that you see
early on in your career as an NFL act because
it's there's no other case where you're throwing this money
at a young age and you have to be able
to kind of just just figure it out. And I've
(04:58):
definitely made some mistakes and definitely made some some big
moves that have paid off for me. But just it's
the learning process. You just have to be a continual learner,
Like I always try to learn different things from different
people in different experiences. So, um, It's it's definitely not
a one once you fits all the type of deal
you kind of have to learn as you go. Yeah, absolutely,
(05:19):
all right, So let's go to your philanthropy side, because
one of the beautiful blessings of being thrown, as you say,
into this arena with all this money is you can
choose how to spend it. And you've been very intentional in,
you know, becoming a philanthropist in and of your own right.
You've traveled to some of my favorite places in the world,
such as Ghana and done football camps there. It is
called the Orange Berks Football Gona Football School. Tell us
(05:42):
a little bit more about it. Yeah, it kind of
started even from high school. One of my best friends
he's from Ghana, and from that time he was like,
you gotta go to God, you gotta go Gna experience
for yourself. On this past year were able to make
that happen. I was just really blown away by how
beautiful the culture is there. The country is just phenomenal.
Like I feel like the American reception of Africa it's
(06:03):
completely different from what it actually is. So everybody, I
encourage you to go to either West Africa. So you
gotta go to your you gotta go to the roots
and experience that pret yourself and I was. I was
just blown away. I'm actually going back here in a
couple of weeks in April, and good build on the
football camp that we started last year. And uh, we
have some cool things I had. I can't share everything,
(06:24):
but we have some cool things that had for that.
So were you guys in a car? Where were you
based seven? Yeah, we're in a cross went to all over,
We went to Cape Coast, we went up to a
sue travel all over. We spent a lot of time
in the car, but at the same time, everywhere you
went there was just beauty. So I'm excited to get
back out there and kind of have a more laid
(06:45):
back visit because last time we were going, going, going,
and oh, don't worry, it doesn't matter what you're doing there.
There's no such thing as glaid back and how the party.
They don't have to work hard. They know how to
train hard. So yeah, you don't get laid back, but
you will have a great time. Absolutely, they don't sleep
there at all. They definitely do not. But let's talk
about starting a football camp because I think you know
(07:06):
people and what I'm seeing more and more is people
actually really do want to give back, but everyone thinks
it's so hard. You need to have a nonprofit in this,
and yes those are steps that you need to have,
but talk about like formulating this football camp and just
like from the grassroots, this is an idea where you
were like I had an idea, I dreamed it up
and here we are. You got to go to Ghana
and create a football camp. Yeah, so it really just
(07:30):
started with anytime I travel, I'd like to like engage
with the culture as much as possible. So like for me,
I'm like football has given so much for me. I
would love to be able to give that back to
some of the people there in a kraw and I
was blown away by the talent that they have there.
There's so many guys are athletic and they're hungry, uh
and they just need an opportunity. So that's where we're
(07:51):
kind of working on now, is the back piece of
like how to bridge the gap between athletes and a
kral and Gone and great Greater West Africa and the States,
because there's something oportweenity, some scholarships and things like that,
but really just takes kind of building your team. My
best friend comedy Comina Van Dyke. He's been kind of
spearheading everything. Um, and we have a lot of people
on the ground that are working really hard to organize
(08:14):
relations and things like that. And I just have to
have a team that you really trust and works hard
to have those same values that kind of aligned with you.
So I'm blessed to have the guys that I do
because I know I couldn't do it all with my schedule.
There's no way. I'm just kind of like the face
of it all, like theres so many people behind the
scenes that are working to make this happen. Okay, now
I have to ask like, did you show up with
(08:34):
a football camp? And did everyone come with a soccer
ball or a football? Like what were they expecting? I
was actually kind of blown away. So we we partnered
with with the organization that actually works with kids like
they do football drills. One was a weekly basis, so
UH gat have to do a great job with the kids,
and we kind of stepped in. It was like, all right,
this is my experience as an NFL athlete and share
(08:56):
some drills and tips to kind of help them improve.
So UH already had something in place that they had
an idea of what American football is. But now the
goal is to kind of take it from this nucleus
here in across to the greater Ghanta area. Oh, great, fantastic,
that would be great. All right. So you are also
a very diverse entrepreneur. You're starting to get really excited
(09:17):
about blockchain and cryptocurrencies. How did you sort of make
in for a into that ecosystem and industry? Yeah, started
lateen early. One of my mentors here in Nashville, he
was telling me about big coin, Diarium, and light coin,
and I thought he was saying big corn the whole time.
(09:37):
But I ended up researching a little bit later obviously
saw that I was taking some stipends that we got
in college and throwing those at bigcoin and just letting
the ride and its face all greatly. Obviously, the price
of big coin was around five thousand or something early. Yeah,
I got in pretty early, and I just kind of
broke out as as I've done more research, I've just
(09:59):
just blown away by the technology of blockchain, how it's
going to change the way that we do business, the
way we do life. Um, So that's that's kind of
I'm a long term bitcoin guy. I dollar cost average
every month and let it ride and and don't really
look at the price of time because like in the
long run, I know, I'm a long term investor, so
I know, like in a long term it's gonna pay
off great dividends from me in my family. But um,
(10:21):
it's fun to watch it goes up and down pretty quickly,
but I gotta be along for the ride. Yeah, No,
I love it. I I definitely hold some pitcoin and
some other more stable coins and some alt coins like
depends on the day, but I love it. And you know,
I really am passionate about getting more black people and
people of color to really recognize what the blockchain is
going to do for technology and the greater world. You know,
(10:44):
especially as someone who's spent a lot of time in
the developing countries just understanding what having these decentralized currencies
that I mean give access to folks who might not
have had a bank account, might not have had places
to store money your wealth. So it's it's a big
deal and I'm glad. You know, when people like yourself
that are prominent football players, they're standing up going like
(11:04):
block blockchain and owning bitcoin, holding it is going to
you know, greatly impact, you know, the financial wealth of
my family. Like people pay attention to that. People pay attention,
and you're gonna look at what's happening in Ukraine, And
there's been hundreds of millions of dollars that have been
raised through cryptical these to help aid people directly in Ukraine.
(11:24):
So I think the technology is just phenomenal in terms
that just happened. No government orders that runs, there's no
sec like there, there's nothing that really controls the technology
but itself. So it's it's pretty it's pretty interesting to
see how it's gonna, in fact, like impact the way
that we do our daily lives. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely, all right.
(11:46):
A couple more questions for you or in talk about
you know, what happens after football? I feel like you're
a man who's got a lot of past pass in
front of him and you know a lot of determination
to get to every point in your life what happens
after or football? Are you planning that far? What's next
for you? Yes? And no, I would definitely say I'm
(12:06):
taking the steps necessary to be able to transition smoothly.
For me, it's all about generational wealth for me and
my family, and I want to have passive income that
is going to support us to the lifestyle that we're
living right now, regardless if I'm playing ball or not.
So all my investments and all the different things that
I'm looking into researching are kind of geared towards that theory.
And I don't know, I'm just I feel like I'm young.
(12:28):
I'm kind of doing a lot of different things, a
little bit of VC, doing a little bit of real estate,
doing obviously the camp in Ghana. So I'm kind of
just like seeing what I enjoyed doing, seeing what kind
of aligns, uh, and from there I'll be able to
kind of make a decision where I want to like
focus in on after you know. And I love that
because I feel like oftentimes, you know, we asked these
(12:50):
questions and we expect like a perfect box answer. After
really after football, I'm going to do X. And I
think like times are changing so much now that it's
actually acceptable, encouraged try different things. You don't have to
have this very linear career path that you do for
eight years. Like I think about our parents generation, where
they were like you're going to go to school, you're
gonna get a job, and you're gonna work in that
(13:10):
job for the next five six decades. Like people are
changing and iterating their dreams the realities like all the time,
and I think that's such a wonderful thing. We get
to try on different codes. Yeah, absolutely, with new information,
you've got to make new decisions, something that our generation
is definitely learning as we go. Like it's like, all right,
(13:30):
I don't have to be pitche and hold into this
role in my entire life, but yeah, I'm enjoying the
freedom of it all because, like I know, this is
like the passions off the field aren't the main money
maker for me. Right now, there's something that I can
I can dabble in this, I can dabble in that
and see what works out in the long r you know.
And I think it's you know about building a lot
of experience, like it's world experience. You know, you're traveling globally,
(13:53):
but just also knowing that those things pay off and
you know, yeah, this is the money maker for the family.
But you're learning all these things. So you know, ten
years from now, fifteen years, god knows how, God willing,
your football career will be very long. But you know,
you have a lot of choices because you've built a
lot of experience, So do you have any advice for
aspiring athletes? Like a lot has changed with the league
(14:14):
these days. You know we have new um there's new
laws for you know, high school athletes. Like what how
do you advise up and coming athletes on getting a
career in with longevity in the sports world these days? Yeah,
I definitely say the biggest impact I think for me
it has been kind of mentors people that have already
(14:36):
been where I want to go. So I have a
number of them in different fields, so one in real
estate when and kind of best thing, and I picked
their brain a lot about like different ideas that I
have that come up um, And that has been like
a guiding life for me honestly because it just provides
me a little bit of direction without following into those
pitfalls that you normally see. So I would definitely encourage
(14:57):
you to really reach out, Like honestly, the accessibility that
we have as athletes is so rare, Like at any
point I can like DM anybody on Instagram or Twitter
and like hey, I'm I played for the forty niners
or whatever it is. I want to learn about this,
and you'd be open for a conversation a lot of times,
and they're going to answer that. So you have to
use the platform that you have and make connections that
(15:20):
are gonna pay great dividends later on in life. And
the more people that you know, I feel like everybody
knows everybody in some kind of sense, like the world
becomes kind of a little bit smaller as you continue
to network and uh and put yourself out there as well.
Absolutely absolutely all right or and that's all the time
we apportate. Thank you so much for your time. And
before we leave, I just want to say, do you
(15:40):
have anything to say to your new forty niners fans
to the faith little I'm excited to get started being
silicon valid in the San Francisco area. There's there's so
many opportunities there for impact on and off the field,
and I'm excited to be here. So thank you for
welcome me in. And can you also share with our
money this audience where they can follow you on social media? Yeah,
(16:03):
I'm on social media at being Tom Burke's on Twitter, Instagram,
every every social uh. And also I have a website
or burst dot com. That's another thing for the young athletes.
Get your website domain as soon as possible, get something up.
You should be able to tell your story the way
you want to without your Instagram pages and everything else.
And they should know who you are based on your website.
Oh that is great advice. I think people think, like,
(16:27):
you know, it's just about your Instagram or this, but like,
get your own website from the jump, and they're so
easy and cheap to create nowadays, you can do it
yourself absolutely, and you have a TikTok. You can make
your own website, web, web design and graphic design. And
she had to buy my website demand in college. It's
like I was like a junior. She put everything up.
That was an amazing thing, even for the draft. She
(16:48):
we had a website in place, and there was like
tons and tons of hits to my direct website because
I put on my Instagram bios. People are telling hearing
my story from me. I love that. That is really
great advice. Well, Uren, thank you so much. You are
a wealth of great advice and such an inspiring story
(17:08):
for so many of us. Thank you so much for
your time. All Right, thank you guys. All right, money movers,
that's all the time we have for today. But make
sure to follow or on on all his social media
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(17:30):
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(17:54):
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Hey, money Movers, I'm your host Tanya Sam and welcome
back to the Money Moves podcast powered by Green Moves,
the daily podcast determined to give you the keys to
the Kingdom of financial stability, wealth and abundance. Our next
(00:22):
guest is an American Football League linebacker for the Green
Bay Packers of the NFL. Oh wait correction, he was
with the Green Bay Packers because he recently signed a
two year, five million dollar deal to be a linebacker
for the forty Niners. Say what or in thank you
so much for being here Money Movers, please welcome to
(00:43):
the podcast or in Burke's are you doing? I'm excited
to be here. Thank you guys for having me on. Well,
thank you for being here. In congratulations, I hear you
just ink this new deal that's a big deal. Yeah
it is. It's been a whirlwind of a week. But
they're excited to break some moves down for you as
and and share a little bit of my story. Well incredible,
(01:03):
So Orange, Um, thank you again for being here. I
know it's a big week for you, so we appreciate
you taking the time out. Um, I want to go
back and I want to give our money move yours
audience a sense of like how you got to where
you are. You know, you're known for being, um, you know,
a fantastic NFL linebacker, but you're also involved in a
lot of different philanthropy movements. Um, you're really into the
(01:25):
web three and crypto space. But let's start with football
and how you sort of got your start in that
in the league. Yeah, so kind of going back to
high school, I actually was a basketball player kind of
growing up, and one of my friends debby to come
out for the football team and it ended up kind
of working out obviously in the NFL. What the school
(01:47):
at Vanderbolte went there for four years, and for me,
the transition from high school to college athletic athletics was important,
but academics was even more important than the opportunities that
came through that. Uh. And I knew that Nashville was
gonna be a great city for me, and I knew
the network that Vanderbilt alumni had would be really important
to careers that I was going to pursue in the future.
(02:09):
So kind of transition from college to the pros. It
was extremely blessed to be drafted about in the third
round by the Greenbay Packers a eighth pick, and it
was it was life changing. A lot of hard work
and dedication that led to that moment and was able
to kind of, uh, just be financially conversated for a
(02:30):
lot of the work that went into the college process.
But as I got my foot my feet wet in
the league, knew I wanted to pursue other passions at
the same time. And um, it's it's been a blessing.
I'm excited to get to that second contract because it's
there's not too many people that can say they've gotten
to a second contract in the league. So yeah, it's
a big deal. Yeah, a lot of gratitude. Um. So
(02:53):
what's interesting is, you know something We've had a lot
of different athletes on the podcast as well, but you know,
from a very early age, as you just said, you
knew that the academics had to be as important as
your performance on the field. Who was it that really
instilled that into you? And you know, I think oftentimes
when people are gifted with that athletic ability and they're like, Okay,
I'm on track to get to the league, how did
(03:13):
you stay focused on knowing that you had to pay
attention to the academics and even you know, you said, hey,
I was really keen to recognize that if I went
into this university system it would afford me the opportunity
to network and beyond. Like where did you learn those
sort of lessons at such a young age? Yeah, definitely,
My parents are still that very early on for me
(03:34):
and my sister. She plays soft while Stanford and as
you can tell, kind of athletic family and very smart.
She's an engineer and lives out in Colorso, uh yeah,
from from the job, Like we weren't able to go
to practice or play until we had all a home.
We've done. So it's kind of those early discipline moments
from our parents that were instilled that we kind of
carried over to college and pursuing other things that we're
(03:55):
passionate about. So definitely started early. Yeah, that's great. I
love that, and I think you know, telling those stories
that it's two sides for you know, our young and
aspiring athletes like the academics, and on top of it,
you know they're they're athletic performances. All right. So now
you've drafted, you've spent years in the league, Um, how
did you go about and You've got this huge contract,
(04:15):
so you've got all this money. Now, you had fame, notoriety,
you know, how did you miss the black holes that
oftentimes athletes fall into in terms of like, listen, I
spent all my money, I gave it to the wrong person.
How did you enter into the league? Um, and really
know what you had to do to become the business
man you are today. I would definitely say just surrounded
(04:37):
myself with great mentors. There's a number of mentors that
I've kind of linked onto here in Nashville and during
my time in high school even that have kind of
helped me escape some of those pitfalls that you see
early on in your career as an NFL act because
it's there's no other case where you're throwing this money
at a young age and you have to be able
to kind of just just figure it out. And I've
(04:58):
definitely made some mistakes and definitely made some some big
moves that have paid off for me. But just it's
the learning process. You just have to be a continual learner,
Like I always try to learn different things from different
people in different experiences. So, um, It's it's definitely not
a one once you fits all the type of deal
you kind of have to learn as you go. Yeah, absolutely,
(05:19):
all right, So let's go to your philanthropy side, because
one of the beautiful blessings of being thrown, as you say,
into this arena with all this money is you can
choose how to spend it. And you've been very intentional in,
you know, becoming a philanthropist in and of your own right.
You've traveled to some of my favorite places in the world,
such as Ghana and done football camps there. It is
called the Orange Berks Football Gona Football School. Tell us
(05:42):
a little bit more about it. Yeah, it kind of
started even from high school. One of my best friends
he's from Ghana, and from that time he was like,
you gotta go to God, you gotta go Gna experience
for yourself. On this past year were able to make
that happen. I was just really blown away by how
beautiful the culture is there. The country is just phenomenal.
Like I feel like the American reception of Africa it's
(06:03):
completely different from what it actually is. So everybody, I
encourage you to go to either West Africa. So you
gotta go to your you gotta go to the roots
and experience that pret yourself and I was. I was
just blown away. I'm actually going back here in a
couple of weeks in April, and good build on the
football camp that we started last year. And uh, we
have some cool things I had. I can't share everything,
(06:24):
but we have some cool things that had for that.
So were you guys in a car? Where were you
based seven? Yeah, we're in a cross went to all over,
We went to Cape Coast, we went up to a
sue travel all over. We spent a lot of time
in the car, but at the same time, everywhere you
went there was just beauty. So I'm excited to get
back out there and kind of have a more laid
(06:45):
back visit because last time we were going, going, going,
and oh, don't worry, it doesn't matter what you're doing there.
There's no such thing as glaid back and how the party.
They don't have to work hard. They know how to
train hard. So yeah, you don't get laid back, but
you will have a great time. Absolutely, they don't sleep
there at all. They definitely do not. But let's talk
about starting a football camp because I think you know
(07:06):
people and what I'm seeing more and more is people
actually really do want to give back, but everyone thinks
it's so hard. You need to have a nonprofit in this,
and yes those are steps that you need to have,
but talk about like formulating this football camp and just
like from the grassroots, this is an idea where you
were like I had an idea, I dreamed it up
and here we are. You got to go to Ghana
and create a football camp. Yeah, so it really just
(07:30):
started with anytime I travel, I'd like to like engage
with the culture as much as possible. So like for me,
I'm like football has given so much for me. I
would love to be able to give that back to
some of the people there in a kraw and I
was blown away by the talent that they have there.
There's so many guys are athletic and they're hungry, uh
and they just need an opportunity. So that's where we're
(07:51):
kind of working on now, is the back piece of
like how to bridge the gap between athletes and a
kral and Gone and great Greater West Africa and the States,
because there's something oportweenity, some scholarships and things like that,
but really just takes kind of building your team. My
best friend comedy Comina Van Dyke. He's been kind of
spearheading everything. Um, and we have a lot of people
on the ground that are working really hard to organize
(08:14):
relations and things like that. And I just have to
have a team that you really trust and works hard
to have those same values that kind of aligned with you.
So I'm blessed to have the guys that I do
because I know I couldn't do it all with my schedule.
There's no way. I'm just kind of like the face
of it all, like theres so many people behind the
scenes that are working to make this happen. Okay, now
I have to ask like, did you show up with
(08:34):
a football camp? And did everyone come with a soccer
ball or a football? Like what were they expecting? I
was actually kind of blown away. So we we partnered
with with the organization that actually works with kids like
they do football drills. One was a weekly basis, so
UH gat have to do a great job with the kids,
and we kind of stepped in. It was like, all right,
this is my experience as an NFL athlete and share
(08:56):
some drills and tips to kind of help them improve.
So UH already had something in place that they had
an idea of what American football is. But now the
goal is to kind of take it from this nucleus
here in across to the greater Ghanta area. Oh, great, fantastic,
that would be great. All right. So you are also
a very diverse entrepreneur. You're starting to get really excited
(09:17):
about blockchain and cryptocurrencies. How did you sort of make
in for a into that ecosystem and industry? Yeah, started
lateen early. One of my mentors here in Nashville, he
was telling me about big coin, Diarium, and light coin,
and I thought he was saying big corn the whole time.
(09:37):
But I ended up researching a little bit later obviously
saw that I was taking some stipends that we got
in college and throwing those at bigcoin and just letting
the ride and its face all greatly. Obviously, the price
of big coin was around five thousand or something early. Yeah,
I got in pretty early, and I just kind of
broke out as as I've done more research, I've just
(09:59):
just blown away by the technology of blockchain, how it's
going to change the way that we do business, the
way we do life. Um, So that's that's kind of
I'm a long term bitcoin guy. I dollar cost average
every month and let it ride and and don't really
look at the price of time because like in the
long run, I know, I'm a long term investor, so
I know, like in a long term it's gonna pay
off great dividends from me in my family. But um,
(10:21):
it's fun to watch it goes up and down pretty quickly,
but I gotta be along for the ride. Yeah, No,
I love it. I I definitely hold some pitcoin and
some other more stable coins and some alt coins like
depends on the day, but I love it. And you know,
I really am passionate about getting more black people and
people of color to really recognize what the blockchain is
going to do for technology and the greater world. You know,
(10:44):
especially as someone who's spent a lot of time in
the developing countries just understanding what having these decentralized currencies
that I mean give access to folks who might not
have had a bank account, might not have had places
to store money your wealth. So it's it's a big
deal and I'm glad. You know, when people like yourself
that are prominent football players, they're standing up going like
(11:04):
block blockchain and owning bitcoin, holding it is going to
you know, greatly impact, you know, the financial wealth of
my family. Like people pay attention to that. People pay attention,
and you're gonna look at what's happening in Ukraine, And
there's been hundreds of millions of dollars that have been
raised through cryptical these to help aid people directly in Ukraine.
(11:24):
So I think the technology is just phenomenal in terms
that just happened. No government orders that runs, there's no
sec like there, there's nothing that really controls the technology
but itself. So it's it's pretty it's pretty interesting to
see how it's gonna, in fact, like impact the way
that we do our daily lives. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely, all right.
(11:46):
A couple more questions for you or in talk about
you know, what happens after football? I feel like you're
a man who's got a lot of past pass in
front of him and you know a lot of determination
to get to every point in your life what happens
after or football? Are you planning that far? What's next
for you? Yes? And no, I would definitely say I'm
(12:06):
taking the steps necessary to be able to transition smoothly.
For me, it's all about generational wealth for me and
my family, and I want to have passive income that
is going to support us to the lifestyle that we're
living right now, regardless if I'm playing ball or not.
So all my investments and all the different things that
I'm looking into researching are kind of geared towards that theory.
And I don't know, I'm just I feel like I'm young.
(12:28):
I'm kind of doing a lot of different things, a
little bit of VC, doing a little bit of real estate,
doing obviously the camp in Ghana. So I'm kind of
just like seeing what I enjoyed doing, seeing what kind
of aligns, uh, and from there I'll be able to
kind of make a decision where I want to like
focus in on after you know. And I love that
because I feel like oftentimes, you know, we asked these
(12:50):
questions and we expect like a perfect box answer. After
really after football, I'm going to do X. And I
think like times are changing so much now that it's
actually acceptable, encouraged try different things. You don't have to
have this very linear career path that you do for
eight years. Like I think about our parents generation, where
they were like you're going to go to school, you're
gonna get a job, and you're gonna work in that
(13:10):
job for the next five six decades. Like people are
changing and iterating their dreams the realities like all the time,
and I think that's such a wonderful thing. We get
to try on different codes. Yeah, absolutely, with new information,
you've got to make new decisions, something that our generation
is definitely learning as we go. Like it's like, all right,
(13:30):
I don't have to be pitche and hold into this
role in my entire life, but yeah, I'm enjoying the
freedom of it all because, like I know, this is
like the passions off the field aren't the main money
maker for me. Right now, there's something that I can
I can dabble in this, I can dabble in that
and see what works out in the long r you know.
And I think it's you know about building a lot
of experience, like it's world experience. You know, you're traveling globally,
(13:53):
but just also knowing that those things pay off and
you know, yeah, this is the money maker for the family.
But you're learning all these things. So you know, ten
years from now, fifteen years, god knows how, God willing,
your football career will be very long. But you know,
you have a lot of choices because you've built a
lot of experience, So do you have any advice for
aspiring athletes? Like a lot has changed with the league
(14:14):
these days. You know we have new um there's new
laws for you know, high school athletes. Like what how
do you advise up and coming athletes on getting a
career in with longevity in the sports world these days? Yeah,
I definitely say the biggest impact I think for me
it has been kind of mentors people that have already
(14:36):
been where I want to go. So I have a
number of them in different fields, so one in real
estate when and kind of best thing, and I picked
their brain a lot about like different ideas that I
have that come up um, And that has been like
a guiding life for me honestly because it just provides
me a little bit of direction without following into those
pitfalls that you normally see. So I would definitely encourage
(14:57):
you to really reach out, Like honestly, the accessibility that
we have as athletes is so rare, Like at any
point I can like DM anybody on Instagram or Twitter
and like hey, I'm I played for the forty niners
or whatever it is. I want to learn about this,
and you'd be open for a conversation a lot of times,
and they're going to answer that. So you have to
use the platform that you have and make connections that
(15:20):
are gonna pay great dividends later on in life. And
the more people that you know, I feel like everybody
knows everybody in some kind of sense, like the world
becomes kind of a little bit smaller as you continue
to network and uh and put yourself out there as well.
Absolutely absolutely all right or and that's all the time
we apportate. Thank you so much for your time. And
before we leave, I just want to say, do you
(15:40):
have anything to say to your new forty niners fans
to the faith little I'm excited to get started being
silicon valid in the San Francisco area. There's there's so
many opportunities there for impact on and off the field,
and I'm excited to be here. So thank you for
welcome me in. And can you also share with our
money this audience where they can follow you on social media? Yeah,
(16:03):
I'm on social media at being Tom Burke's on Twitter, Instagram,
every every social uh. And also I have a website
or burst dot com. That's another thing for the young athletes.
Get your website domain as soon as possible, get something up.
You should be able to tell your story the way
you want to without your Instagram pages and everything else.
And they should know who you are based on your website.
Oh that is great advice. I think people think, like,
(16:27):
you know, it's just about your Instagram or this, but like,
get your own website from the jump, and they're so
easy and cheap to create nowadays, you can do it
yourself absolutely, and you have a TikTok. You can make
your own website, web, web design and graphic design. And
she had to buy my website demand in college. It's
like I was like a junior. She put everything up.
That was an amazing thing, even for the draft. She
(16:48):
we had a website in place, and there was like
tons and tons of hits to my direct website because
I put on my Instagram bios. People are telling hearing
my story from me. I love that. That is really
great advice. Well, Uren, thank you so much. You are
a wealth of great advice and such an inspiring story
(17:08):
for so many of us. Thank you so much for
your time. All Right, thank you guys. All right, money movers,
that's all the time we have for today. But make
sure to follow or on on all his social media
handles and go forty niners. If we have helped you
make your money move, please make sure to let us
know by sending us alike, sharing the knowledge on your
social and or leave us a review on Apple podcast.
(17:30):
Make sure to tune in Monday through Friday and subscribe
to the Money Moves podcast powered by Greenwood, so that
you too can have the keys to financial freedom you
so rightly deserve. Thank you so much for tuning in
Money Moves audience. If you want more or a recap
of this episode, please go to the bank Greenwood dot
com and check out the Money Moves podcast blog. Money
(17:54):
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