July 7, 2022 • 21 mins
In this episode of the PlayBooked Podcast, Chloe V. Mitchell brings on a very special guest, the CEO and co-founder of PlayBooked, who also happens to be her dad! They touch on Keith Mitchell’s own experience as a collegiate athlete at the University of Michigan and his new-found expertise in the NIL space. Keith gives the listeners the inside scoop on what brands are really looking for in athletes and how to best grab their attention. It’s a must-listen episode for college, and even high school, athletes!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Playbooked is a production of I Heart Radio and the
College Athletes Network. Hey everybody, this is the Playbook podcast
and you are listening to Chlobe v Mitchell on the
College Athletes Network. Please subscribe to this podcast so you
(00:22):
never miss an episode. This can easily be done via
the I Heart Radio app. Today, I have a very
special guest with me. Not only is this guest the
CEO of the playbook company that specializes in getting college
athletes paid, but he is also my father. So everybody,
we are here with my father Dad. Will you please
(00:44):
introduce yourself to the listeners talk to them about how
you are a former collegiate athlete and why you are
such a pro in the NIL space. Well, Hi, Chloe,
I'm here mostly because I created you and that is
the the best startup I've ever had. Um. Yeah, so yeah,
(01:06):
I'm a former college athlete University of Michigan. And back
when I was playing wrestling with name image, likeness was
not really an issue because the universities weren't making the
fortunes that they are making now. Inasmuch as back when
I was a junior in college, I want a car
on the price is right, and when I got this car.
(01:30):
Our head coach was kind of laughing at Mitchell, you
now have the best car in the parking lot right now,
as may coming knock on our doors. He was only joking.
Then if that would have happened ten fifteen years ago,
I'm a lot older than that. As you can tell um,
I probably wouldn't be able to keep this car. Somebody
(01:51):
would have stepped in and said, Nope, you can't receive
any compensation outside of your scholarship, so cut you. Thirty
years later, I have two kids who are embarking on
their college athletic careers, and we came up with this
idea after you became an influencer of how to to
(02:14):
create a platform for athletes to legally and more importantly,
simply make a little revenue. Right, I had just signed
my first deal on TikTok and I was going into
it was like the month before I started my summer
training for volleyball, and I looked at my dad and
I was like, Dad, this is a very similar situation
(02:35):
to you, but mine is a little bit more pressing
because n I L is such an issue with eligibility nowadays.
I was like, you were worried about accepting this car
because you thought you'd become ineligible. And I was worried
about posting anything on social media and making revenue off
of my name, image and likeness because I was going
to college. So we sat down and we came up
with this idea for playbooks and what you know, let
(02:59):
me interrupt your yeah, because I want to share this
in I was a writer for twenty years. This is
really interesting. Our listeners are going to find this fascinating.
And I've written a bunch of sports movies. Well, the
last thing I got paid the right, wait, name of
your name, A few sports movies, brag on yourself. I
wrote Mr. Three thousand with Bernie mack Eddie, with Whippy Goldberg,
(03:20):
the Last stand Lot Movie, the Last sand Lot guys,
are you kidding? The sand Lot Heading Home? That sam
Lot too. Just a bunch of family and sports movies.
But the last thing I got paid the right was
a thing called five Star Kings. And during that process,
I did a deep dive into how the n c
A worked and the premise behind it was. And this was,
(03:43):
you know, probably one of the last things I wrote
before I embarked on my tech entrepreneurialism. UH I discovered.
I got to I got to discover how the sausage
was made in the through the lens of n A
before the new legislation was passed, way before the legislation,
and it was interesting what I discovered. And what I
(04:04):
discovered was how UM van c A was positioned as
a nonprofit yet they're paying seven guys almost like three
to five million dollars a year, stuff like that, all
kinds of crazy stuff, and how they really wanted to
be in control over UH soup the nuts of every
college institution. And that in the premise of the movie
(04:28):
was it opened up at the Tostitos National Championship game
and the athletes, right before kickoff take their helmets off
in unison and walk off the field with the number
with the number one up in the air, and that
meant something later on the movie. But that opened my
eyes up to sort of the malfeasance that has been
(04:49):
going on for years. That don't get me wrong, I
I get I got a full scholarship and I was
taken care of by the university and I had a
great experience. But at the end of the day, I
left college simply with not a penny in the bank,
no work experience, no resume. No. I mean I and
(05:11):
I wasn't going to go play in the nfl um,
which is a very similar. That's probably the most common
way that athletes have come out of college for the
last you know, forty forever forever, honestly before in your legislation.
So not only have you experienced it, but you have
also become an expert on it because you had to
(05:32):
write a film about it, and now both of your
children are experiencing it. So I I personally believe not
not only because you're my dad and that's incredible and
I love you, but even just as a business partner,
like there's no better qualified human being to be in
the seat that you're in at our company. And that's
why I believe we have been so successful because you
were on the front lines, became an expert, and now
(05:54):
again you're just putting athletes, you're putting money in the
athletes pockets. I mean, I'm dragging on you, but you
agree with me and that you know what you're talking about,
and that's very important in such a wild, wild West
unnavigated space. Well, I think the most important thing that
we are as were mission hol meaning that our mission
isn't to make kids rich. Our mission is to connect
(06:16):
these young athletes with brands and fans. And when they're done,
they can you know, they have fifteen minutes they can
look back upon. And we're doing all kinds of stuff
over here, from financial wellness to mental health to all
kinds of all kinds of real cool things. Yeah, and
it's not so money driven as many um spaces are
right now. And that's something is that That's why I
(06:38):
think our athletes keep coming back. That's why our retention
rate is so high because at the end of the day,
like we're made by the athlete, and we are completely
for the athlete, and that's awesome. So we're gonna head
into our first break because I have a really fun
story that my dad's going to tell and I know
it's going to take a little bit of time. So
the podcast, I'm Clovie Mitchell and this is the College
(06:59):
Athletes Network play book podcast on the College Athletes Network.
(07:24):
This is Cold Mitchell and I'm here with Keith Mitchell.
Yest I'm related to him, and subscribe to my podcast
so you don't miss a show. So Keith Mitchell, I
would love if you could tell me about what it
was like playing in the big House for the first time.
Let's go down memory lane for a little bit. Wow.
I didn't see that question, neither did I. It just
(07:45):
came out. Well, it was unbelievable. I was born and
raised outside of Detroit, and I had committed the Unversity
of Colorado, and I decommitted afterwards when I realized a
I was raised to Wolverine fan and the opportunity to
run out and hit that go Blue banner just was
(08:05):
you know, too high. Incredible? Yeah, hard to pass up.
And in the friendships I made in the the you know,
the people I met there were priceless. Right, would you
have described yourself as a kind of athlete that would
be an athlete preneur nowadays? Like, if you are in
this space, do you think you would be successful? And why?
(08:28):
That's not a great question. Probably I like people and
I like money, and if given the opportunity to marry
those two likes, yeah, I would have definitely taken advantage
of it. But it wouldn't have been something that just
(08:48):
I right, it's that nil is so new. These athletes
don't know what they don't know, and it would have
to be not another job because as a college athlete,
clearly at a school like Michigan, you're hours of freedom
are limited. You have class, you have film practice, so
(09:10):
you don't have a lot of time to do things.
But that's the beauty behind a lot of these these
opportunities for these kids, especially these platforms. We're making it easy.
We're coming to you and you can do make money
right in your dorm room. Again, it's just hammering that
point at home, like you created what you wish you
had when you were an elite college athlete. And obviously
(09:31):
so for those of you that don't know what a
clientus is, I played the n ai levels, So my
dad was a D one Big ten athlete UM at
University of Michigan, like we've been chatting about, So we
obviously played at very different levels, but the time constrictions
are quite synonymous. Like we both we get it. And
I am going to kind of take a hard left
(09:52):
because I really want to ask you this question. I
want to ask you what are the cmos looking for?
What are they telling you on the phone, Hey, Keith,
I want athletes that look like this, that have this following,
that have this kind of feed, give me the intel,
the inside scoop. Well, I mean they want access to
the college demographic. That's their goal. Most of these brands,
(10:12):
they want to be able to dip their toes into
a demographic of college uh campuses with these kids who
are going to go off and spend money when they graduate.
Got it. They want to create that fan base starting
off for another, there are certain brands that it's specific
to like, look at we have an energy drink that
(10:33):
we really want to get to the athlete base. And
do you have to be do you have to be
the Trevor Lawrences. No, in fact, we we we encourage
them to go with the nano and micro influencer. Explain
on those terms, and what that means is you're more
than most likely gonna listen to your next door neighbor
two who tells you about a great pizza place, then
(10:56):
you will. Kim Kardashian, They your engagement rate is a
lot higher, Chloe. You have a huge following, and unfortunately
your engagement rate probably isn't as high as high as
somebody with and I completely agree with that, and that's
really that's really normal and known by influencers that have
(11:20):
been in the space for a while. But for people
with a smaller following, I hear time and time again,
and I know you hear it too, because we are
surrounded by college athletes. Hey, how do I get my
following up? How do I get my engagement up? It's
like your following is actually like prime size because you
have such high engagement. Yeah right, So we tell these
these brands that instead of paying one athlete, pay a
(11:42):
hundred of them right, spread them. We did a campaign
with four hundred athletes all posted at the same time. Um.
So that's what we tell these brands and they they
like to see, you know, engagement, and they we also
encourage our hands to turn your client into your customers.
(12:02):
To me that you're going to turn these athletes. We
did a clothing brand. These people love the clothing. Now
they're recurrent, they're that now they're buying the stuff that
they're being paid to promote. We did a shoe company, Um,
you can drop, you can name. We did shoe station
out of the South. They had like eight stores down there.
We paid Alabama Auburn athletes to walk into the store.
(12:23):
They got paid fifty dollars cash and then they got
a fifty dollar coupon to walk in the store and
take an Instagram shot in the store. Well, what those
athletes did was they now have a hundred bucks to
spend then of spending it in the store on shoes
instead of pocketing the money, which I would have done
the exact same thing. I mean, obviously someone at the
fifty dollars needed it for rent or you know whatever.
(12:46):
But that that business model not only makes the brands happy.
If brands are listening, like look for that when you're
about to sign a contract, but also if athletes are listening,
look for the platforms that are looking out for you
as well, because a lot of people don't do that,
like at the end of the day. At the end
of the day. Again, that's why it makes Playbook different,
But there are a lot of platforms that are incredible
(13:06):
as well. Okay, we're gonna head into our next break.
You're listening to the Playbook podcast. I employe Bee Mitchell
and this is the College Athletes Network. Welcome back to
(13:36):
the Playbook podcast on the College Athletes Network. This is
Cloebe Mitchell and subscribe my podcast you don't miss a show.
So we've been talking to Keith Mitchell here, the CEO
of playbook, former collegiate athlete at you of them on
a full ride scholarship, turned into screenplay writer who had
Hollywood Boulevard closed down for him at one point. Guys,
(13:56):
are you kidding? So you've had a lot of different lives.
You know, you know a lot about the world, you
know a lot about people, and this is a podcast
about NNL as you know, and being that you have
such wisdom and discernment when it comes to people, What
do you look for in athletes? What do you look for?
He was also a former college coach, I mean high
(14:17):
school coach and college professor, so so he's literally done
at all. What do you look for in athletes that
make them stand out? Because if people take out to you,
they'll stand up to brands. So when I worked in
entertainment business, it was called show business, and I remember
my agent telling me you have to show and then
you have business. You have to show up and then
(14:40):
you have to do business. For college athletes out there,
the best advice I can give to these, to your
listeners who are athletes is don't flake on opportunities. Say
what you mean, mean what you say, don't compromise, but
most of all, start collecting contact information from any brand
(15:05):
who reaches out to you. Because when you graduate and
you do this, say promo for we're doing Dope Fuel.
It's an energy drink and they're actually really cool guys.
Company Jerry Rice sounds it and um and you want
a job, Hey you could you have an access point
(15:25):
to Hey, I did a campaign for you. Here's my resume.
Collect information that is number one, and don't flake on brands.
Right we have done campaigns or we'll have like twenty
kids that we send geared to promote and they just, oh,
I forget I forgot about it. Well guess what. And
(15:49):
it's that's just the way the world works. I've talked
to athletes. I even have friends who like friends like
first name basis friends who have you know, not being
able to get the post up and flaked and like
they understand, Hey, like you fell through. You didn't communicate.
If you did that to your coach, you would not
be in a good position and therefore you're going to
have to earn your trust back with us. And like
(16:09):
bringing those bridges early on is something you don't want
to do. So just I completely agree with that and
going off of getting the contact information. I saw the
most interesting hack at this NIL Summit Awards show that
I just went to. Athletes were starting to put on
their screen savers a picture of their QR code. So
anybody in the marketing world, or even any athletes that
(16:30):
met them, all they had to do with scan the
QR code and your contact goes directly into their phone.
Isn't that genius? Such a great networking tool. I just
thought i'd dropped that piece in My next question to
you is, well, you dumbed down what a collective is
to our listeners, because a lot of people don't know
what that is. Yeah, that's a That's a great question, Claude,
because this is another piece of advice for the athletes
(16:51):
out there. Collectives are um organizations started on college campuses
by boosters to raise money and create a fund, and
that money is specifically earmarked to be spent on that
university's college campuses. Playbook is now getting licensed by collectives
all across the country. Then we're offering up them the
(17:14):
ability to spin up a cool platform, robust, vibrant platform
that makes it easier for them to spend that money.
So I would encourage all you athletes to find out
who your collective is in a create a profile on
that collective platform and introduce yourself and say I'm open
(17:34):
to do personal appearances, camps, um, social media, all kinds
of stuff. And because they are they some of these
collectives are raising serious money, real big cash that they
have to spend on their athletes. They're required by law.
They can't just give it to them. They have to
(17:54):
do something for it to burn. Ye, So that's a
number one. Go go find out who your collective is,
and if your school doesn't have one, go to your
a D and say we need a collective. And then
the a D is allowed, he's legally allowed to call
some boosters and say, hey, we need a collective, can
you start one? How fantastic? What good advice? I mean?
And like all of these things that have to do
(18:18):
with collectives and the money that they have to spend
on even if they are just mentors to having those
connections at your school, incredible. H These collectives that we're
working with are already planning on these tailgate parties, these
these special events were where a fan could become a
member and get invited to it. So what they're gonna
do like, for example, we're gonna do one at Michigan.
(18:40):
When do you want to Notre Dame? We do one
a colt. We're gonna do one at several schools where
if you're they're gonna invite all the athletes at the
school to the tailgate party. So if you're a fan,
you and you donate X amount of dollars, you get
invited to this tailgate party. And then some of them
are going to vite certain brands to put up tents
(19:02):
so every athlete at that school can show up at
the tailgate party. Hey, stand in front of the Gatorade tent.
So cool, instant, take a picture and get paid. Wow.
So that's really cool. That is really cool, And I
like the no spaces going in that direction. My final
question to you, and we don't talk about this enough
on this podcast, and I'd be really interesting, I mean,
(19:25):
I would be really interested to hear your headspace on this.
Being that you were a former high school coach as well,
what would you tell the high school or up and
coming committed young athlete how to prep for this no space,
Just focus on your sport and let everything fall in place.
Don't prep for, don't let anybody tell you how to
(19:46):
build your brand. I hate that term building your brand
means implies you're just a product. You're not that, you're
more than the product. Build your legacy, and the way
you build your legacy has become the best athlete you
can be. Yeah, everything else will fall in place. Don't
fall prey to everybody telling you what your nil value is.
(20:06):
Don't fall prey to how I'm gonna go to this
college because they're they're promised me this amount of money.
A lot of this is bs out there. There's so
a lot, so many lies being told, and I can't
go into specifics because I don't enough time, but I
promise you. Even in the media, guys like numbers are
(20:27):
so inflated. There's they're they're so inflated. There's a journalists
are writing articles without confirming them. Kid gets eight million
dollars from unconfirmed school, unconfirmed athlete, unconfirmed brand. Well it
didn't happen. Somebody put a rumor out there and a
reporter writes about it. All kinds of craziness just become
a great perform in the classroom and student athlete. It's
(20:51):
a compound word. Yeah. For sure no, and and I
would love to chat about that more. And if you
guys want to hear more from Keith Mitchell, he is
just a wealth of insight, the most fantastic businessman and
he going to my blog on our website. That's exactly
what I was gonna say. Go to playbook dot com
and check out his blog. And I can also um
(21:12):
if you any of you guys want to deem me
and here more, I can also start doing video interviews
with him and posting them on Instagram TV. Well, I
appreciate you being here, Keith Mitchell. I also love you
as my father. You were fantastic and as always, thanks
for listening to the Playbook podcast on the College Athletes Network.
Please subscribe so you don't miss an episode. I'm Clayvie
(21:33):
Mitchell and we'll talk soon. Thank you bye. Playbooked is
a production of I Heart Radio and the College Athletes Network.
For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the I
Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Playbooked is a production of I Heart Radio and the
College Athletes Network. Hey everybody, this is the Playbook podcast
and you are listening to Chlobe v Mitchell on the
College Athletes Network. Please subscribe to this podcast so you
(00:22):
never miss an episode. This can easily be done via
the I Heart Radio app. Today, I have a very
special guest with me. Not only is this guest the
CEO of the playbook company that specializes in getting college
athletes paid, but he is also my father. So everybody,
we are here with my father Dad. Will you please
(00:44):
introduce yourself to the listeners talk to them about how
you are a former collegiate athlete and why you are
such a pro in the NIL space. Well, Hi, Chloe,
I'm here mostly because I created you and that is
the the best startup I've ever had. Um. Yeah, so yeah,
(01:06):
I'm a former college athlete University of Michigan. And back
when I was playing wrestling with name image, likeness was
not really an issue because the universities weren't making the
fortunes that they are making now. Inasmuch as back when
I was a junior in college, I want a car
on the price is right, and when I got this car.
(01:30):
Our head coach was kind of laughing at Mitchell, you
now have the best car in the parking lot right now,
as may coming knock on our doors. He was only joking.
Then if that would have happened ten fifteen years ago,
I'm a lot older than that. As you can tell um,
I probably wouldn't be able to keep this car. Somebody
(01:51):
would have stepped in and said, Nope, you can't receive
any compensation outside of your scholarship, so cut you. Thirty
years later, I have two kids who are embarking on
their college athletic careers, and we came up with this
idea after you became an influencer of how to to
(02:14):
create a platform for athletes to legally and more importantly,
simply make a little revenue. Right, I had just signed
my first deal on TikTok and I was going into
it was like the month before I started my summer
training for volleyball, and I looked at my dad and
I was like, Dad, this is a very similar situation
(02:35):
to you, but mine is a little bit more pressing
because n I L is such an issue with eligibility nowadays.
I was like, you were worried about accepting this car
because you thought you'd become ineligible. And I was worried
about posting anything on social media and making revenue off
of my name, image and likeness because I was going
to college. So we sat down and we came up
with this idea for playbooks and what you know, let
(02:59):
me interrupt your yeah, because I want to share this
in I was a writer for twenty years. This is
really interesting. Our listeners are going to find this fascinating.
And I've written a bunch of sports movies. Well, the
last thing I got paid the right, wait, name of
your name, A few sports movies, brag on yourself. I
wrote Mr. Three thousand with Bernie mack Eddie, with Whippy Goldberg,
(03:20):
the Last stand Lot Movie, the Last sand Lot guys,
are you kidding? The sand Lot Heading Home? That sam
Lot too. Just a bunch of family and sports movies.
But the last thing I got paid the right was
a thing called five Star Kings. And during that process,
I did a deep dive into how the n c
A worked and the premise behind it was. And this was,
(03:43):
you know, probably one of the last things I wrote
before I embarked on my tech entrepreneurialism. UH I discovered.
I got to I got to discover how the sausage
was made in the through the lens of n A
before the new legislation was passed, way before the legislation,
and it was interesting what I discovered. And what I
(04:04):
discovered was how UM van c A was positioned as
a nonprofit yet they're paying seven guys almost like three
to five million dollars a year, stuff like that, all
kinds of crazy stuff, and how they really wanted to
be in control over UH soup the nuts of every
college institution. And that in the premise of the movie
(04:28):
was it opened up at the Tostitos National Championship game
and the athletes, right before kickoff take their helmets off
in unison and walk off the field with the number
with the number one up in the air, and that
meant something later on the movie. But that opened my
eyes up to sort of the malfeasance that has been
(04:49):
going on for years. That don't get me wrong, I
I get I got a full scholarship and I was
taken care of by the university and I had a
great experience. But at the end of the day, I
left college simply with not a penny in the bank,
no work experience, no resume. No. I mean I and
(05:11):
I wasn't going to go play in the nfl um,
which is a very similar. That's probably the most common
way that athletes have come out of college for the
last you know, forty forever forever, honestly before in your legislation.
So not only have you experienced it, but you have
also become an expert on it because you had to
(05:32):
write a film about it, and now both of your
children are experiencing it. So I I personally believe not
not only because you're my dad and that's incredible and
I love you, but even just as a business partner,
like there's no better qualified human being to be in
the seat that you're in at our company. And that's
why I believe we have been so successful because you
were on the front lines, became an expert, and now
(05:54):
again you're just putting athletes, you're putting money in the
athletes pockets. I mean, I'm dragging on you, but you
agree with me and that you know what you're talking about,
and that's very important in such a wild, wild West
unnavigated space. Well, I think the most important thing that
we are as were mission hol meaning that our mission
isn't to make kids rich. Our mission is to connect
(06:16):
these young athletes with brands and fans. And when they're done,
they can you know, they have fifteen minutes they can
look back upon. And we're doing all kinds of stuff
over here, from financial wellness to mental health to all
kinds of all kinds of real cool things. Yeah, and
it's not so money driven as many um spaces are
right now. And that's something is that That's why I
(06:38):
think our athletes keep coming back. That's why our retention
rate is so high because at the end of the day,
like we're made by the athlete, and we are completely
for the athlete, and that's awesome. So we're gonna head
into our first break because I have a really fun
story that my dad's going to tell and I know
it's going to take a little bit of time. So
the podcast, I'm Clovie Mitchell and this is the College
(06:59):
Athletes Network play book podcast on the College Athletes Network.
(07:24):
This is Cold Mitchell and I'm here with Keith Mitchell.
Yest I'm related to him, and subscribe to my podcast
so you don't miss a show. So Keith Mitchell, I
would love if you could tell me about what it
was like playing in the big House for the first time.
Let's go down memory lane for a little bit. Wow.
I didn't see that question, neither did I. It just
(07:45):
came out. Well, it was unbelievable. I was born and
raised outside of Detroit, and I had committed the Unversity
of Colorado, and I decommitted afterwards when I realized a
I was raised to Wolverine fan and the opportunity to
run out and hit that go Blue banner just was
(08:05):
you know, too high. Incredible? Yeah, hard to pass up.
And in the friendships I made in the the you know,
the people I met there were priceless. Right, would you
have described yourself as a kind of athlete that would
be an athlete preneur nowadays? Like, if you are in
this space, do you think you would be successful? And why?
(08:28):
That's not a great question. Probably I like people and
I like money, and if given the opportunity to marry
those two likes, yeah, I would have definitely taken advantage
of it. But it wouldn't have been something that just
(08:48):
I right, it's that nil is so new. These athletes
don't know what they don't know, and it would have
to be not another job because as a college athlete,
clearly at a school like Michigan, you're hours of freedom
are limited. You have class, you have film practice, so
(09:10):
you don't have a lot of time to do things.
But that's the beauty behind a lot of these these
opportunities for these kids, especially these platforms. We're making it easy.
We're coming to you and you can do make money
right in your dorm room. Again, it's just hammering that
point at home, like you created what you wish you
had when you were an elite college athlete. And obviously
(09:31):
so for those of you that don't know what a
clientus is, I played the n ai levels, So my
dad was a D one Big ten athlete UM at
University of Michigan, like we've been chatting about, So we
obviously played at very different levels, but the time constrictions
are quite synonymous. Like we both we get it. And
I am going to kind of take a hard left
(09:52):
because I really want to ask you this question. I
want to ask you what are the cmos looking for?
What are they telling you on the phone, Hey, Keith,
I want athletes that look like this, that have this following,
that have this kind of feed, give me the intel,
the inside scoop. Well, I mean they want access to
the college demographic. That's their goal. Most of these brands,
(10:12):
they want to be able to dip their toes into
a demographic of college uh campuses with these kids who
are going to go off and spend money when they graduate.
Got it. They want to create that fan base starting
off for another, there are certain brands that it's specific
to like, look at we have an energy drink that
(10:33):
we really want to get to the athlete base. And
do you have to be do you have to be
the Trevor Lawrences. No, in fact, we we we encourage
them to go with the nano and micro influencer. Explain
on those terms, and what that means is you're more
than most likely gonna listen to your next door neighbor
two who tells you about a great pizza place, then
(10:56):
you will. Kim Kardashian, They your engagement rate is a
lot higher, Chloe. You have a huge following, and unfortunately
your engagement rate probably isn't as high as high as
somebody with and I completely agree with that, and that's
really that's really normal and known by influencers that have
(11:20):
been in the space for a while. But for people
with a smaller following, I hear time and time again,
and I know you hear it too, because we are
surrounded by college athletes. Hey, how do I get my
following up? How do I get my engagement up? It's
like your following is actually like prime size because you
have such high engagement. Yeah right, So we tell these
these brands that instead of paying one athlete, pay a
(11:42):
hundred of them right, spread them. We did a campaign
with four hundred athletes all posted at the same time. Um.
So that's what we tell these brands and they they
like to see, you know, engagement, and they we also
encourage our hands to turn your client into your customers.
(12:02):
To me that you're going to turn these athletes. We
did a clothing brand. These people love the clothing. Now
they're recurrent, they're that now they're buying the stuff that
they're being paid to promote. We did a shoe company, Um,
you can drop, you can name. We did shoe station
out of the South. They had like eight stores down there.
We paid Alabama Auburn athletes to walk into the store.
(12:23):
They got paid fifty dollars cash and then they got
a fifty dollar coupon to walk in the store and
take an Instagram shot in the store. Well, what those
athletes did was they now have a hundred bucks to
spend then of spending it in the store on shoes
instead of pocketing the money, which I would have done
the exact same thing. I mean, obviously someone at the
fifty dollars needed it for rent or you know whatever.
(12:46):
But that that business model not only makes the brands happy.
If brands are listening, like look for that when you're
about to sign a contract, but also if athletes are listening,
look for the platforms that are looking out for you
as well, because a lot of people don't do that,
like at the end of the day. At the end
of the day. Again, that's why it makes Playbook different,
But there are a lot of platforms that are incredible
(13:06):
as well. Okay, we're gonna head into our next break.
You're listening to the Playbook podcast. I employe Bee Mitchell
and this is the College Athletes Network. Welcome back to
(13:36):
the Playbook podcast on the College Athletes Network. This is
Cloebe Mitchell and subscribe my podcast you don't miss a show.
So we've been talking to Keith Mitchell here, the CEO
of playbook, former collegiate athlete at you of them on
a full ride scholarship, turned into screenplay writer who had
Hollywood Boulevard closed down for him at one point. Guys,
(13:56):
are you kidding? So you've had a lot of different lives.
You know, you know a lot about the world, you
know a lot about people, and this is a podcast
about NNL as you know, and being that you have
such wisdom and discernment when it comes to people, What
do you look for in athletes? What do you look for?
He was also a former college coach, I mean high
(14:17):
school coach and college professor, so so he's literally done
at all. What do you look for in athletes that
make them stand out? Because if people take out to you,
they'll stand up to brands. So when I worked in
entertainment business, it was called show business, and I remember
my agent telling me you have to show and then
you have business. You have to show up and then
(14:40):
you have to do business. For college athletes out there,
the best advice I can give to these, to your
listeners who are athletes is don't flake on opportunities. Say
what you mean, mean what you say, don't compromise, but
most of all, start collecting contact information from any brand
(15:05):
who reaches out to you. Because when you graduate and
you do this, say promo for we're doing Dope Fuel.
It's an energy drink and they're actually really cool guys.
Company Jerry Rice sounds it and um and you want
a job, Hey you could you have an access point
(15:25):
to Hey, I did a campaign for you. Here's my resume.
Collect information that is number one, and don't flake on brands.
Right we have done campaigns or we'll have like twenty
kids that we send geared to promote and they just, oh,
I forget I forgot about it. Well guess what. And
(15:49):
it's that's just the way the world works. I've talked
to athletes. I even have friends who like friends like
first name basis friends who have you know, not being
able to get the post up and flaked and like
they understand, Hey, like you fell through. You didn't communicate.
If you did that to your coach, you would not
be in a good position and therefore you're going to
have to earn your trust back with us. And like
(16:09):
bringing those bridges early on is something you don't want
to do. So just I completely agree with that and
going off of getting the contact information. I saw the
most interesting hack at this NIL Summit Awards show that
I just went to. Athletes were starting to put on
their screen savers a picture of their QR code. So
anybody in the marketing world, or even any athletes that
(16:30):
met them, all they had to do with scan the
QR code and your contact goes directly into their phone.
Isn't that genius? Such a great networking tool. I just
thought i'd dropped that piece in My next question to
you is, well, you dumbed down what a collective is
to our listeners, because a lot of people don't know
what that is. Yeah, that's a That's a great question, Claude,
because this is another piece of advice for the athletes
(16:51):
out there. Collectives are um organizations started on college campuses
by boosters to raise money and create a fund, and
that money is specifically earmarked to be spent on that
university's college campuses. Playbook is now getting licensed by collectives
all across the country. Then we're offering up them the
(17:14):
ability to spin up a cool platform, robust, vibrant platform
that makes it easier for them to spend that money.
So I would encourage all you athletes to find out
who your collective is in a create a profile on
that collective platform and introduce yourself and say I'm open
(17:34):
to do personal appearances, camps, um, social media, all kinds
of stuff. And because they are they some of these
collectives are raising serious money, real big cash that they
have to spend on their athletes. They're required by law.
They can't just give it to them. They have to
(17:54):
do something for it to burn. Ye, So that's a
number one. Go go find out who your collective is,
and if your school doesn't have one, go to your
a D and say we need a collective. And then
the a D is allowed, he's legally allowed to call
some boosters and say, hey, we need a collective, can
you start one? How fantastic? What good advice? I mean?
And like all of these things that have to do
(18:18):
with collectives and the money that they have to spend
on even if they are just mentors to having those
connections at your school, incredible. H These collectives that we're
working with are already planning on these tailgate parties, these
these special events were where a fan could become a
member and get invited to it. So what they're gonna
do like, for example, we're gonna do one at Michigan.
(18:40):
When do you want to Notre Dame? We do one
a colt. We're gonna do one at several schools where
if you're they're gonna invite all the athletes at the
school to the tailgate party. So if you're a fan,
you and you donate X amount of dollars, you get
invited to this tailgate party. And then some of them
are going to vite certain brands to put up tents
(19:02):
so every athlete at that school can show up at
the tailgate party. Hey, stand in front of the Gatorade tent.
So cool, instant, take a picture and get paid. Wow.
So that's really cool. That is really cool, And I
like the no spaces going in that direction. My final
question to you, and we don't talk about this enough
on this podcast, and I'd be really interesting, I mean,
(19:25):
I would be really interested to hear your headspace on this.
Being that you were a former high school coach as well,
what would you tell the high school or up and
coming committed young athlete how to prep for this no space,
Just focus on your sport and let everything fall in place.
Don't prep for, don't let anybody tell you how to
(19:46):
build your brand. I hate that term building your brand
means implies you're just a product. You're not that, you're
more than the product. Build your legacy, and the way
you build your legacy has become the best athlete you
can be. Yeah, everything else will fall in place. Don't
fall prey to everybody telling you what your nil value is.
(20:06):
Don't fall prey to how I'm gonna go to this
college because they're they're promised me this amount of money.
A lot of this is bs out there. There's so
a lot, so many lies being told, and I can't
go into specifics because I don't enough time, but I
promise you. Even in the media, guys like numbers are
(20:27):
so inflated. There's they're they're so inflated. There's a journalists
are writing articles without confirming them. Kid gets eight million
dollars from unconfirmed school, unconfirmed athlete, unconfirmed brand. Well it
didn't happen. Somebody put a rumor out there and a
reporter writes about it. All kinds of craziness just become
a great perform in the classroom and student athlete. It's
(20:51):
a compound word. Yeah. For sure no, and and I
would love to chat about that more. And if you
guys want to hear more from Keith Mitchell, he is
just a wealth of insight, the most fantastic businessman and
he going to my blog on our website. That's exactly
what I was gonna say. Go to playbook dot com
and check out his blog. And I can also um
(21:12):
if you any of you guys want to deem me
and here more, I can also start doing video interviews
with him and posting them on Instagram TV. Well, I
appreciate you being here, Keith Mitchell. I also love you
as my father. You were fantastic and as always, thanks
for listening to the Playbook podcast on the College Athletes Network.
Please subscribe so you don't miss an episode. I'm Clayvie
(21:33):
Mitchell and we'll talk soon. Thank you bye. Playbooked is
a production of I Heart Radio and the College Athletes Network.
For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the I
Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Host
Chloe V. Mitchell
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