3 Critical Rules That Will Save Your Business From Financial Disaster

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What could possibly connect a disappointing NFL draft day to your business success? Everything, as it turns out.

Coach Martin dives deep into a cautionary tale from the sports world that holds powerful lessons for every entrepreneur. When Shedeur Sanders fell from a projected top-five NFL draft pick to the fifth round, he didn't just lose position—he potentially lost $36 million in guaranteed money. Behind this dramatic slide were three critical mistakes that business owners make every day.

The first mistake? Skipping exposure opportunities. Just as Sanders limited his participation in key scouting events, many entrepreneurs hide their light under a bushel, missing countless chances to showcase their offerings to potential customers. Coach Martin emphasizes that consistent visibility isn't optional—it's essential for business growth.

Next comes the importance of meeting customers where they are. Sanders reportedly refused visits with certain NFL teams, essentially rejecting potential "employers" before they could evaluate him. Similarly, business owners who fail to identify and establish presence in spaces where their target audience congregates are setting themselves up for failure. The podcast offers practical strategies for mapping customer locations and planning your strategic presence.

Perhaps most crucial is surrounding yourself with wise counsel. Sanders opted for family representation instead of an experienced agent—a well-intentioned choice that may have contributed to his draft day disappointment. Coach Martin delivers a powerful reminder that business success demands intentional relationship-building with mentors and advisors who possess expertise beyond your own. "If you're the smartest person in the room," he warns, "there's a problem with that room."

Whether you're building a sports empire or growing any business, these three principles form the foundation of sustainable success. Subscribe to Building the Sports Biz Podcast for weekly insights that will help you avoid costly mistakes and position your venture for championship-level results.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Building the Sports Biz podcast,
the go-to show for sportsentrepreneurs allergic to
playing small.
So whether you're building thenext big brand, managing elite
athletes or just thinking ofstarting a sports biz, this is
your front row seat to buildingyour sports empire.
Each week, we break downwinning strategies, share tips

(00:23):
from industry leaders and giveyou the insider edge to take
your hustle to the next level.
So lace up, level up and let'sget to work.
This is Building the Sports BizPodcast, where sports meets
business and buildinggenerational wealth is the prize
.
Now.
Here's your host, coach Martinis the prize.

(00:45):
Now.
Here's your host, coach Martin.
This podcast will start in 3, 2, 1.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
Hey everybody, I'm your host, coach Martin, super
excited about today's podcast.
Today, the topic is going to bethree rules to keep you from
losing money.
So this is a special one, and Ikind of want to start with a
disclaimer.
So if you are a big collegefootball fan, or if you are a
Colorado football fan, or if youare a Shutter Sanders fan

(01:13):
listen, this isn't about gettingoffended.
There's a great lesson to belearned.
I believe there's lessons to belearned in almost anything that
we do, but there's a greatlesson to be learned in this
story and, ultimately, if welearn these lessons, it's going
to keep us from losing money inthree specific areas.
Right, so let's just jump intoit.
So myself, I'm a huge footballfan.

(01:35):
I think my sports go like thisit's football, then it's hockey,
but there's a big gap.
I love football.
One of the things I lookforward to every single day, not
only like the you know thepreseason and then you know the
first game but I look forward tothe draft.
I'm a big draft guy.
I love to.
You know, I do the same routine.
I order a couple of big pizzas.
I know, for a couple of daysI'm having pizza.

(01:56):
I'm sitting on my lazy boy andI'm watching the draft and I'm
hoping that we pick some greatplayers for my team.
Now, in this particularsituation, like you know
everyone that likes football forthe most part they pretty much,
you know they go on theInternet, you know, weeks before
, months, before they go in andthey start looking at projected

(02:17):
picks.
So we go and we take a look atwhat the experts say who's going
to go in round one, round two,round three, who's going to go
in round one, round two, roundthree?
Now, regarding Sanders, it wasanywhere from him being number
one, number two pick in thedraft, all the way to like five,
six or seven Roughly.
For months it was about rightthere.
Now, right before the draft,there was a couple of places

(02:39):
where people were saying, well,maybe number 20, 21, maybe to
Pittsburgh, but for the mostpart it was like number two pick
, the number five pick.
Now what happened was, if youlook at how the actual draft
works and I did the numbersNormally if you're drafted in
like those first five picks,you're going to end up making

(03:01):
about $40 million guaranteed.
Now it could be a little bitmore, a little bit less.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
This podcast is brought to you by Sportsbox, the
planet's number one instantsports biz.
Learn more at sportsboxxcom.

Speaker 2 (03:16):
But pretty much you're going to be guaranteed
you're going to make $40 million.
We know that in this draft hegot drafted in the fifth round
where typically you'reguaranteed you're going to make
about $4 million.
So, instead of his projectioncoming true and him making a
guaranteed $40 million, he's nowgoing to make $4 million and
he's got to make the team.
Now maybe you're thinking well,Coach, I don't even understand

(03:38):
that, because everyone has tomake the team.
Yes, but there's like fivequarterbacks ahead of him.
It's going to be a hard roadNow.
Yes, but there's like fivequarterbacks ahead of him.
It's going to be a hard road.
Now, there's some good learninglessons in this and I want you
to pay attention because this isgoing to help us with our
business the mistakes that hemade.
In my opinion, we want to makesure that we don't make these in
our business.
Now a couple things I want tobring up.
I wrote them down.

(04:00):
One he either skipped or waslimited in a couple areas, like
the All-Star game and theCombine.
So he skipped those or he waslimited in those, and I'm going
to just kind of give you asecond piece real quick before I
jump into it.
He refused to visit certainteams, potential customers.
So I just want you to kind ofput those on the shelf right now

(04:22):
, as these are very, veryimportant pieces.
Now maybe you're thinking.
Well, coach, you said you'regoing to give me three things.
I am going to give you threethings.
Okay, I'm going to start withnumber one, right?
Number one you cannot skipexposure.
So, as a business owner, youcan't skip an opportunity to be
exposed yourself to a potentialclient.

(04:43):
You can't say well, I don'twant to fill in the blank Now.
In football, how it works isevery team is allowed to have
in-person visits with only 30people.
So an owner is going to have totake a look at our needs and
who are the 30 people we'regoing to bring in the interview.
In his case, there were someteams where he didn't go visit.

(05:05):
That's mistake.
Number one you cannot skipexposure.
You've got to make sure thatyour brand, your business, your
product, service or idea isgetting put out there to the
world.
There's a lot of ways you cando that, but you've got to make
sure that you do that.
You should be doing that dayafter day after day after day.
Do not skip exposure, Okay.

(05:27):
Number two you must visitplaces where your customers are.
So, wherever your customers are, you need to be there.
I would even encourage you tolike green light, a session
where you get a board and youjust start writing down Don't
even like overly think it everyplace that your customers at.
So, let's say, if you have aproduct, if you have a service,

(05:49):
whatever the case is, where arethose customers at that would
purchase your product or serviceand just write it down, right?
One, we know that they'reprobably on social media.
Write it down.
One maybe they're on, you know,maybe they're in specific
groups, maybe they meet here,maybe they go here every year.
Write all those places down andfigure out how can you make
sure that you're in those spacesas well, right?

(06:11):
So make sure that you'revisiting the places where your
customers are very, very, veryimportant.
Now number three.
Now my opinion.
If you don't do three right oneor two ain't going to matter
you have to surround yourself bywise counsel.
In my opinion, going back onthis side, you know, instead of
instead of Sanders hiring anagent, a professional who does

(06:35):
this every year for a living, heskipped and bypassed that and
he hired his dad, or his dadrepresented them.
Now, I get it.
I get it.
I don't want to hear the phonecalls and the emails and the
complaints.
I get it.
Our parents love us, it's theirjob, it's what they're supposed
to do, but in this particularcase, it didn't serve him.
So you want to make sure thatyou always have wise counsel

(06:58):
around you, always, especiallyas a business owner right, Take
advice and listen and ask foradvice from people that are
business owners that are doingwhat you're trying to accomplish
, and I would even encourage youto surround yourself with
people that know more than youknow.
So if you're in a room andyou're the smartest one in the
room, there's a problem withthat room.
You want to make sure that youhave people that are smarter

(07:20):
than you in the room so you canlearn from Now.
There may be people that don'tknow what you.
You know what you know, ormaybe they're not at a level yet
, business wise, where you are,and that's great, because we
should be pouring in the peopleand helping them, but should be
pouring in the people andhelping them.
But if you're only pouring inthe people and you're not being
poured into right, you're goingto grow stagnant.

(07:41):
It's kind of like I always thinkof the visual.
When you get on an airplane andyou're you know, you're getting
ready to take off and theflight attendant goes through
the whole deal, what do they say?
In case of you know, decreasingcabin pressure, you the mask
going to drop.
But first, before you helpsomebody else, put the mask on
yourself.
It's the same way in business,right?
You got to make sure thatyou're helping yourself, because

(08:04):
if you don't, if you don't, ifyou're not being poured into and
you're not learning, how canyou teach somebody else?
So, surround yourself with wisecounsel.
And I'm going to even throw oneother thing on this, because I
believe in this so much personaldevelopment.
I want to encourage you, if youhaven't done this already, find
a mastermind group in your areathat you can be part of.

(08:27):
So I promise you, wherever youlive, there's going to be
mastermind groups in your area.
So, at the very least, find amastermind group in your area
and become a part of it.
Now maybe you're thinking well,Coach, I already tried that and
it was filled with an airconditioning guy and maybe a
coaching guy, and they're not inmy sector.

(08:47):
Well, maybe they're not in yoursector, but if the air
conditioning guy has a $40million a year business.
You don't think there's nuggetsthat you can learn from that
person, Of course.
So find a mastermind group thatyou can be part of.
Secondly, I would evenencourage you to find a group, a
convention, somewhere you cango to this year Get it up on

(09:09):
your calendar where you can goto with like-minded individuals,
where you can learn from them.
But ultimately, for us to growright, it's got to be
intentional, and you want tomake sure that you surround
yourself with wise counsel,because if you don't have wise
counsel around you giving yousound advice, trust me when I
tell you number one and numbertwo, they are not going to

(09:30):
matter.
So, number one again, you can'tskip exposure.
Number two, make sure you arein your business.
Your product and your serviceare in places where your
customers are.
And number three, we're goingto wrap it up with the gold
you've got to surround yourselfwith wise counsel.
Hope that helps you.

(09:50):
Make sure you visit us on theweb, share and until next time
I'm Coach Martin.
I'm out.

Speaker 1 (09:57):
That's a wrap for this episode of Building the
Sports Biz Podcast.
If you got value from today'sconvo, make sure to subscribe,
leave a review and share it withsomebody who's ready to level
up their sports business.
We're here every week breakingdown sports business success and
we'd love to have you on thisjourney with us.
Until next time, keep learning,keep grinding and keep building

(10:21):
that empire you.