October 1, 2025 • 44 mins
Who do you want to become? What kind of impact do you want to make—at work, in your community, in the world at large? What is the legacy you want to leave? These are the questions sports agent Kellie Masters asks each one of her players before their professional sports career begins. Being the first woman ever to represent a Top 5 pick in the NFL Draft, career success is a priority for her. But even more, her agency was founded on helping her clients discover who God really called them to be, finding their true purpose in life beyond the field. Join us to hear her fascinating story.
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Episode Transcript
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S1 (00:00):
Hi friends, thanks so much for downloading this podcast and
I certainly hope what you hear will encourage, edify, equip,
enlighten and then will gently but consistently push you out
there into the marketplace of ideas. Wait. But before you
start to listen, may I take one minute and tell
you about this month's truth tool? It's written by Doctor
Ronnie Floyd and it's called The Supernatural Power of Prayer
and Fasting. You know, prayer and fasting are something that
(00:21):
we're invited to do. In fact, the Bible talks about
it a lot. And Jesus put fasting on the same
level as prayer. But most people don't understand it and
aren't quite sure how it works. Well, in this wonderful
book that Doctor Floyd has written, he wants us to
fix our eyes upon Jesus and fill our lives with
his strength. He reminds us that through prayer and fasting,
we can experience a profound transformation. He wants us to
(00:43):
learn how to listen to God's voice, to transform pride
into humility, to walk in obedience, to surrender our lives
to his will, and to experience his miracles. If you'd
like to give a financial gift of any kind to
support in the market with Janet Parshall, I want to
give you this book as my way of saying thank you.
Just call 877 58. That's 877. Janet 58. And ask
(01:04):
for the supernatural power of prayer and fasting. Or go
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Click on make Your Donation and I'll be happy to
send it off to you. So that's 877 Janet 58
or online at In the Market with Janet Parshall. The
book again is called The Supernatural Power of Prayer and Fasting. Also,
(01:25):
you might want to consider becoming a partial partner. Those
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There are more and more people becoming partial partners, so
either way 877 Janet 58877 Janet five eight or online
(01:50):
at in the market with Janet. And again this month's
truth tool the supernatural power of prayer and fasting. Prayerfully
consider it, won't you? And now please enjoy the broadcast.
S2 (02:01):
Here are some of the news headlines we're watching.
S3 (02:03):
The conference was over. The president won a pledge.
S4 (02:05):
Americans worshipping government over God.
S5 (02:08):
Extremely rare safety move by a major 17 years.
S4 (02:11):
The Palestinians and Israelis negotiated.
S5 (02:14):
This is not over.
S1 (02:29):
Hi, friends. Welcome to In the Market with Janet Parshall.
You are going to be so glad you chose to
spend this hour with me. I just want to thank
the Lord this wonderful job that he has given me,
to be able to proclaim his truth to the whole
world all the time is such a wonderful blessing. But
I'll tell you what one of the sidebar stories is.
I get introduced to so many fabulous people that I probably,
(02:52):
at least this side of glory, would not have had
the opportunity to meet them. And you're going to meet
one of those people this hour. I know that she's
been told this a thousand times. People think, at least
at first blush, this must be the quintessential dream job.
The other thing they think are two words Jerry and Maguire.
If you know the movie, you know where I'm going
because we're going to talk to a woman who is.
(03:14):
She wears multiple hats. All of them quite well. I'd
like to point out she's represented more professional athletes than
any woman in the industry, having served as an agent
contract advisor to players in every NFL draft since 2006,
as well as numerous athletes in the MLB draft and
the Olympics. In 2010, she made history as the first
(03:34):
woman to represent a first round pick in the NFL draft.
Just let that sink in for a minute. She is
a former national and world champion baton twirler. She was
also Miss Oklahoma. About the hats. If the words Forrest
Gump come to mind, whatever she does, she's a champion.
And also, by the way, winning awards for her talent
and community service at the Miss America pageant that year.
(03:57):
She currently serves as an adjunct professor at Oklahoma City
University and Oklahoma Christian University. She teaches sports law, which
would be a fascinating area of law. She is a
sought after writer and speaker on topics of sports and
nonprofits such as leadership, diversity, and discovering purpose in life,
and it is her very first book that brings us
together High Impact Life A Sports Agent Secrets to Finding
(04:21):
and Fulfilling a Purpose You Can't Lose. I've told you
this was going to be a great hour. Kelly. The
warmest of welcomes. I just said all the things you do.
I can't imagine how you found an hour to join me,
but I want to thank you for that.
S6 (04:32):
Thank you so much. It is such an honor to
be with you today. And I, first of all, can
I just say I absolutely love talking to people who
are excited about proclaiming Jesus in everything that they do.
That is, there's nothing better. And so, yeah, I'm thrilled
to be here with you today.
S1 (04:48):
Thank you so much. And I'm so excited that not
just my listeners today, but all kinds of people through
your new book are going to discover who you are
and that high impact life that you and I talk
about this hour. I want to start from your beginning
because you're an athlete in your own right. I mean,
anybody who's tried to twirl a baton, good luck with
that one. Okay, so tell me what drew you to
that in the first place?
S6 (05:09):
Oh my goodness. I think I was 3 or 4
years old when I first saw a baton twirler, and
it was just mesmerizing. First of all, I was at
my very first football game. I was at an Oklahoma
Sooners football game, which of course OU has been in
the news recently with the news, the SEC.
S1 (05:23):
Yes.
S6 (05:24):
And so my, my my dad took me to a
game and I loved the I loved the game, but
I loved the pageantry so much that I wanted to
be out there. And I saw the twirler at halftime
and I said, that's it. That's from that time, I
would not stop talking about being a twirler. So I
grew up wanting and dreaming to be the the feature
twirler for OU. And I have a twin sister, and
(05:47):
we trained our entire lives, and we were the twin
twirlers for OU in the early 90s.
S7 (05:52):
And it was such.
S6 (05:53):
A dream come true. And it it was a sport
that took me all over the world. And to be
quite honest, maybe that's another book, but the things that
I learned from baton twirling have made me a great
football agent. So yeah, absolutely.
S1 (06:07):
That's all right. I'm going to ask some really sophomoric questions,
but I don't think I could spin it if my
life depended on it. Where does one go to learn
to twirl?
S6 (06:18):
Uh, you know, we started off at this little baton
twirling camp, which there is such a thing and started
taking baton twirling lessons from the OU twirler at that time.
So that was a dream come true, and I started
training full time. By the age of seven. I was
competing nationally by the time I was 11 and won
my first world title at 14. And uh, yeah, I
(06:38):
my entire childhood and young adult life was was committed to,
of all things, baton twirling. Wow. But it opened so
many doors and gave me such, uh, an understanding of
now what I do with the players that commit themselves
to discipline and having a platform and all of those things.
So I'm thankful for my crazy baton twirling days.
S1 (06:59):
In fact, you just anticipated what I was going to
ask you. I just see that as part of God's
classroom that what you learned, the traveling, the competition, the discipline,
as you said before, the practice, the desire to be
the best in your particular area of endeavor. I mean,
all of that. So now suddenly you're looking at a
ballplayer and you're thinking, this is your dream, this is
what you want to achieve. And I'm aware of everything
(07:20):
that you had to do and that I've never seen
that got you to this place today. So how how
merciful God is in the way he prepares us. That's cool. So, okay,
so you're not going to twirl a baton your whole life? Obviously,
God blesses you not just with brains, but with beauty.
Ta da! You don't just love. Oh, you. I think
I'll represent the Sooners aid. So tell me about entering
a contest.
S6 (07:40):
So I was not the girl that grew up wanting
to do the Miss America pageant. We would watch it
on TV. You know, everyone used to watch it. It
was a big deal. When I was little, we would
all watch the Miss America pageant and watch them walk
the runway, and. But I never in a million years
thought I would be one of those girls. I was
such a tomboy growing up. And then in law school, uh,
I went to Oklahoma City University for my first two
(08:02):
years of law school. And OCU is known for one
big thing throughout the country. Besides producing fabulous Broadway stars
like Kristin Chenoweth, they've also produced the most Miss America
contestants of any school in the country. And so I
got talked into trying a pageant just because I knew
I could win some scholarship money. And and I was
paying out of pocket for law school. So I entered
(08:24):
a pageant not expecting to win. I won and suddenly
found myself on that famous runway in Atlantic City at
the Miss America pageant. But it paid for law school.
If anyone gives me a hard time, it paid for
law school.
S7 (08:35):
Absolutely.
S1 (08:36):
Now, this is a wild guess. I don't know, maybe
I'm far afield here, but I'm. I'm just guessing that
the talent competition. I'm guessing you twirled. Am I right
or wrong?
S6 (08:44):
That's a pretty good, pretty good guess.
S7 (08:46):
Yes. And I almost.
S6 (08:48):
Didn't. I almost talked myself out of it because I
thought it was just to Miss Congeniality, you know, baton
twirling cliche. And so I, I had a choreographer do
a dance for me, and I got together all my
friends and I did the dance for them that I
was going to perform at Miss Oklahoma. And they all
glared at me like, Kelly, you've been twirling your entire life.
Why would you try to do something different?
S1 (09:08):
Exactly.
S7 (09:09):
So I guess I twirled.
S1 (09:10):
Wow. Amazing. All right. That's just the first segment of
our hour together. There is so much more to this
woman's life. I can't wait for you to hear about.
But I will tell you that Kelly Masters is not
only superb in her field of endeavor, male dominated. Let
the record reflect, but she's got a brand new book
out called High Impact Life A Sports Agent Secrets to
Finding and Fulfilling a Purpose You Can't Lose. We've got
(09:33):
a lot more coming your way, so stick around, friends.
More of in the market with Janet Parshall right after this.
(09:58):
Lamentations tells us that the steadfast love of the Lord
never ceases, but sometimes it just doesn't feel like that.
That's why I've chosen the steadfast love of the Lord
as this month's truth tool. Doctor Sam Storms will teach
you that what the Bible says about God's love is true.
As for your copy of The Steadfast Love of the Lord,
when you give a gift of any amount to in
the market, call 877 Janet 58. That's 877 Janet 58
(10:21):
or go to in the market with Janet Parshall. What
a fun conversation to find someone whom God has just
gifted in so many marvelous and unique ways, and let
her be a standout in her field, and she turns
around and gives all the glory to God. Kelly Masters
is with us, an attorney, a certified sports agent, the
(10:43):
founder of CMX sports, which is a full service sports
management company that's based in Oklahoma City. Her book is
called High Impact Life of Sports Agents Secrets to Finding
and Fulfilling a purpose. You can't lose. All right, so
you get Miss Oklahoma. You go to Atlantic City, you
compete in Miss America. Again, I'm seeing how God prepares. Kelly.
(11:03):
This is so interesting because it is a competition. Absolutely. Uh,
you have to have brains. You have to have beauty.
You have to have some talent that you can show
off to the world as well. Again, all that prep
to step into a world where competition defines the very
world that you're being called to. But there's a chasm
here that I want to fill. How does one go
from twirling a baton and in between twirling the baton
(11:25):
and being a beauty queen? Is law school. What pulled
you to law school?
S6 (11:30):
I was finishing my journalism degree. I was working for
the CBS affiliate in Oklahoma City, and I covered two cases, two,
two big cases. First, the OJ Simpson trial and then
the Oklahoma City bombing happened while I was working in
news in Oklahoma City and talk about just a life
changing event for Oklahomans and really for the country and
(11:52):
for television. So the O.J. Simpson trial and the bombing
are both really pivotal moments in television, but also really
opened my eyes to the power that I could have
to fight for justice if I had a law degree.
So I decided to go to law school, and in
the middle of law school, I became a Christian and
thought I was going to be a missionary. But God
(12:13):
kept me on the right path. And, uh, here I
am today.
S1 (12:17):
Well, you are a missionary. Just a different kind of missionary. So.
S6 (12:20):
Absolutely, absolutely. My my mission field is just a little
different than I thought it was going to be.
S1 (12:25):
So. So the story just gets more interesting all the time. So, Kelly,
tell me about your background. Before you went into law school,
were you raised in a Christian home? Did you have
Christian friends? What drew you to him when you were
in law school?
S6 (12:37):
Yeah. Here's the interesting thing. I think growing up in Oklahoma, Everyone.
It's the Bible Belt. At least when I grew up,
everybody called themselves a Christian. You were either a methodist
or a Baptist, and that was it. Everybody went to church.
It was just the thing that everybody did. And I
would hear people talk about having a relationship with Jesus
(12:58):
or relationship with God, and it sounded nice, but for
some reason, I always felt like it was this unattainable
thing for me. I didn't quite understand it, and it
took me until I was in law school, and I
had lived this life of constant, you know, going after
my goals and being excellent. And there's nothing wrong with that.
But looking back, I lived this life where I achieved
(13:20):
sort of out of this fear of not achieving this
fear of failure, fear of not being good enough, being
not impressing people. And I just lived in this constant
state of fear. And I also thought I was doing everything,
you know, I would go to church on Christmas and
Easter and sometimes more. I would say I was a
good person. I had a Bible, All, but I didn't
(13:42):
have a relationship and I honestly, because I was so
performance minded, I thought, well, I'm just never going to
be good enough to to really have that, to earn
that relationship with Jesus. And I remember being in law
school and, you know, on my late nights off after,
I'd be, you know, finished studying, I would be walking
back to my apartment. And I remember looking at the
sky and saying, God, is there more? Yeah. Are you
(14:05):
are you really real? And I had questions like, you know,
when I read the Bible or when I hear Bible stories,
God spoke to people. Why did he do that then?
But he doesn't do that now. Or or healing or miracles,
you know, why do I not see that in my
own life? And I my question very legitimately to God was,
is there more? Is there? You know, I don't see
it in my life, but is there more? And that question,
(14:28):
he answered very, very succinctly when I really hit my
lowest point and ended up in a really sad, like, really,
really dark place of depression when I just cried out
and said, God, I can't. I'm tired of trying to
be perfect. I, I believe there's more and I don't
know if I'm eligible for it, but I need you.
And I cried out to him, and he became so real.
(14:50):
And I remember it was on March 2nd of 1997.
I'll never forget it on my just on my floor.
And it's in the book, but on my floor in
my little apartment saying, God, I can't be perfect anymore.
I can't keep living in fear anymore. I just want
to serve you. I just want I, I want to
know I'm loved. And he became real in that moment.
S1 (15:08):
Wow. Wow. 1997 was a huge year for you. So
you become Miss Oklahoma and your name gets written in
the Lamb's Book of Life. In that same year. That
is unbelievable. Wow, what a story. So you're in law school,
and as anybody who knows law school, you can say, okay,
I want to be a prosecutor. I wanted to be
a defense attorney. I'm going to work in civil rights.
I'm going to I'm going to do public policy. Did you,
(15:30):
when you were going through law school, think, ah, I
want to be a sports agent. I want to go
into sports.
S6 (15:34):
Gosh, no. And it's funny that you mentioned Jerry Maguire
because that movie came out when I was, I think,
my first year of law school and most of my, well,
male classmates watched the movie and said, that's what I'm
going to be. I'm going to show me the money.
I'm going to be an agent. And I don't remember
thinking that. I don't remember identifying that, oh, this is
what I want to do with my life. Quite honestly,
(15:57):
I was trying to figure out where I was supposed
to be. And that was when when I came to
know Jesus personally. That's when I stopped living in fear
and started living. Waking up every day and just saying, okay, God,
why did you put me on this earth? What is
your purpose for my life? What does that look like?
And I just started pursuing that, and it really was
about not me, not chasing the dream and chasing the
(16:19):
limelight anymore, like I had for so long. It was God.
How do I serve? How do I serve? And that
led me to learning nonprofit law. And then nonprofit law
led me five years into my law practice to working
with my very first NFL player who had a foundation
and needed a lawyer. And that opened the door. So
isn't it funny how God uses everything? And if we
(16:43):
just pursue him, he leads us to where we're supposed
to be.
S1 (16:46):
That is. You know, I shouldn't say that. Because he
is God and we are not. He is awesome and
holy and powerful. But. But you intersect with the human
being who's involved in a nonprofit, who is connected to
the sports world. And God goes, follow me this way. Kelly. Amazing.
Kelly's new book is called High Impact Life. A Sports
Agent Secrets to finding and fulfilling a Purpose You can't lose. Oh,
(17:09):
there's so much more still to the story. I told
you that this was such an unbelievable story. But we
serve an unbelievable God. Back after this. What a fascinating story.
(17:34):
And by the way, what a life that's exemplary of saying, yes, Lord,
you know, he leads you one step at a time.
I've always said I thought I would be such a
more obedient child of the Most High King if I
simply got the blueprint ahead of time. Here it is.
Just lay it out. Just follow the steps. Your God,
I'm not. Absolutely no questions, but that's not what his
love letter say. He says that we walk by faith
(17:55):
and not by sight. I put my hand in his.
He leads. I follows where he's going. I don't know,
but I love him enough to go wherever he leads.
And Kelly's life is an absolutely beautiful example of that.
And in the process of being obedient and following, you
discover that you can have exactly her words, a high
impact life. It's an amazing story, and God is using
(18:17):
her as the living epistle to tell this story, which
is so cool. She is an attorney, a certified sports agent,
and the founder of sports, which is a full service
sports management company based in Oklahoma City. So I want
to go back to this connectedness again. There's just and remember,
just as you're skimming over the top of your life.
There's so many other layers that I know that are there.
So I think it's just wonderful that I get to
(18:39):
move forward. But I just know there's even more. So
you're a nonprofit law, which is fascinating, by the way.
I'm coming to you from the nation's capital, where a
town filled with non-profits. So that's always an interesting kind
of law. So then you meet someone who's got a
nonprofit but happens to be connected with sports now. So
you're out in the nonprofit world. But when you were
this is you said in your practice of five years,
so did you. You didn't did you take any classes
(19:01):
in sports law when you were in law school?
S6 (19:03):
Not at all. In fact, when I graduated from O.u.
Undergrad from University of Oklahoma, there was no sports business
sports management degree. I never even thought of that as
a career and then went to law school. And quite honestly,
initially thought I would go back into into radio or television.
And then I decided I got into law school, and
(19:25):
I really felt like I needed to practice law and
be a trial attorney, like my dad had been, just
to learn the ropes before I did anything else. And then,
of course, I meet Jesus and initially think I'm supposed
to move to Africa and work in orphanages and then
had several amazing mentors in my life that said, Kelly,
why don't you actually ask God what you're supposed to
(19:46):
do with this rather than just assume? And so as
I sought God on, do I stay in law school?
Do I serve? Do I go serve? It became very
clear to me that that God had his hand on
my life, and I was in law school for a reason.
And so I initially started my law practice as a litigator,
doing civil litigation for five years, which is very tough
(20:09):
and very draining. But on the side, I told my
law firm that hired me initially that look, I also
have this interest in helping missions and ministries and and
charities around the world. I want to have a nonprofit practice.
So I did both for five years. Wow. And then
became a lawyer. I became a partner in my law firm,
which was also unheard of for women. I think I
(20:29):
was the third woman since the 60s, to begin to
become a partner in this firm. I actually won a
case at the Supreme, the U.S. Supreme Court, as a
litigator in the 10th Circuit. And so I had had
my experience as a lawyer, and it was wonderful. But
I always had this sense that God was preparing me
for something else. And I'm so thankful I was ready,
(20:49):
because it happened in the form of a conversation with
an NFL players mother. And while we were working through
his issues on his nonprofit, she just looked at me
and said, where were you in the beginning? Why didn't
we have someone like you? And I dismissed it initially
and said, no, I'm a lawyer. I'm not. I'm not
a sports agent. And as it came out of my mouth,
(21:11):
I thought, oh my goodness, I think, I think this
is where my I think this is God showing me
something here. I need to pay attention to this. So wow,
that's where it all started.
S1 (21:21):
Wow. So just teach me because I'm fascinated on the journey.
Do you have to go back and get re credentialed?
Did you have to take I mean you're teaching sports
law now, so, you know, there's a whole plethora of
things out there. So did you have to go back
and teach your go back to school to get certified
in this area?
S6 (21:38):
I didn't have to go back to school, but you can't.
As I found out, you can't just have a law
degree and say, okay, now I'm an agent. You actually
have to go through a certification process. And it's different
for every sport. So I had to get I had
to choose a sport to be certified in. I'm certified
in football and I'm certified by the players union, the
NFL Players Association. And of course, now with sports with
(22:01):
laws changing across the country, impacting even collegiate athletes, that
also impacts me as an agent. And so there are
all these processes I have to go through. I had
to learn the collective bargaining agreement. I had to get certified,
which is about a year long process. The test is
actually I took the test 16 years ago this week
in Washington, D.C.. Wow. Um, to become an agent. But
(22:23):
if I wanted to represent basketball players or baseball players,
I would have to do the same thing. I'd have
to go through a process, and then there are a
whole bunch of other hoops you have to jump through administratively.
It's quite a quite a process. But yeah, I started
that's part of the humor of my my book that
people will read. I knew nothing about sports law or
being an agent when I started nothing. And I really,
(22:46):
really messed up a lot in the beginning and learned,
you know, trial, trial by fire. I really had to
learn the hard way.
S1 (22:53):
Wow. Let me go back to pick your sport. I
love that. So I'm you know, it's almost a redundant question. Okay.
You're from Oklahoma. So naturally I'm thinking you're going to
go toward football, but did you? When you take the certification,
do you have to know? This is a foolish question,
but maybe not. Do you have to know something about
the sport for which you're going to be certified as
(23:14):
an agent?
S6 (23:15):
Well, thank goodness they don't test you on, um, you know,
coverages and offensive schemes and defensive schemes and the route
tree and all of those, those football things that football
people know that I know now, but at the time,
I knew I knew enough. As a casual fan. I
knew what a touchdown was. I knew, you know, that
it you know how many yards it took to get
a first down. That was pretty much it. Those were
(23:38):
my limits. But to take the test, you have to
know about the collective bargaining agreement. So it's very much
a legal and business level of knowledge, which I devoured.
I thought it was so fascinating. I thought it was
so much fun to take all of my years of
experience as a lawyer and pour it into learning something,
learning about something that I really loved. I loved the sport,
(24:01):
but I really knew nothing about it. And so it
was really fun for me to, uh, to study and
become a football agent. And then over the years, I've
become a better I've become more proficient in my football knowledge.
But I wasn't in the beginning. Wow.
S1 (24:15):
Wow. Okay, what a place to take a break. So
you get certified. The other thing here, and this is
an important takeaway in your story so far, Kelly too,
which is if you feel that this is where the
Lord is calling you, God is as big on preparation.
So Moses goes out and he herd sheep for 40
years before he leads people. Paul is in Arabia for
three years before he starts his world transforming business. And
(24:36):
you were willing to stick it out and to get
certified and trained. You stuck to it because there was
a calling on your life. That is really cool and
such an important lesson. Let me take a break right
back after this. How do you keep your finger on
(25:05):
the pulse of America while listening to the heartbeat of
God's Word? On in the market, we look for God's
perspective on current events, become a partial partner today, and
keep this Christ centered program on the air. As a benefit,
you'll receive exclusive resources every week prepared just for you.
You'll get behind the scenes Intel from my email to yours.
Call 877 Janet, 58, or go online to in the
(25:26):
market with Janet Parshall. Well, let me just give you
a little friendly advice. If you're just joining us, trust me,
you're going to want to download the entire podcast for
this hour. Easy peasy. In the market with Janet Parshall.
Right hand side, two words sitting right next to each other.
Past programs download this hour in its entirety, or either
(25:47):
of the two hours we do every single day, going
back a full year. Our audio library is one year's
worth of programming, so you don't have to miss it.
By the way, if you know somebody who loves sports,
I tell you, if you're not new to this program,
you understand how often we talk about the intersection between
faith and sports. I don't know when your dad's a
football coach. That's just the way you were raised. So
that just kind of happens naturally in your life. But
(26:09):
I love it because I see the athleticism of the
Christian life so clearly, boxing and running and all of
the things that Scripture talks about, developing that spiritual muscle
that's so necessary. So there truly is an athleticism. Maybe
you don't see it that way, but I sure do.
And athleticism to the Christian life. And I love the
way God prepares his people. He doesn't call the qualified.
(26:30):
Although Kelly Masters is unbelievably qualified, he qualifies the called.
So from being a champion baton twirler to Miss Oklahoma,
to competing in Miss America, to becoming an attorney, to
becoming a certified sports agent, to becoming the founder of
KMS sports, which is a full service sports management company
based in Oklahoma City and now an author. This is
(26:52):
a woman who simply said, yes, Lord, and as a result,
she is showing us what it means to have a
high impact life that happens to be the name of
her brand new book. So you persevered. You go through
the testing, you go through the certification about collective bargaining.
I mean, so there's a lot of labor law in
all of this, and that's a real reminder to our friends,
particularly in professional sports. It isn't just a game, it's
(27:13):
a business. That's why they call them franchises. And so
there's that aspect of it as well, which is absolutely fascinating.
But Kelly, I am so glad we're talking woman to
woman Because and I'm not. I wouldn't classify myself as
a feminist under any stretch of the imagination, but I
love women who get used in a wonderful way. And
that's your life. So here you are. No ands, if
or buts. Oh my, what a male dominated world. So
(27:36):
you're having the conversation with yourself and your bathroom mirror,
and you're thinking to yourself, am I out of my mind?
What did you think before you stepped into this?
S6 (27:44):
You know what's amazing is, and maybe it was the
right way I was raised, but when I first decided,
you know, this is I know this is where God's
calling me, I'm going to step out in faith and
do it. The last challenge on my mind was that
I was going to be the only woman. I didn't
even think about that. I thought, this is what God's
given me to do. I'm going to do it. It's,
(28:06):
you know, it's going to be tough, but I'm going
to persevere. And then I walk into the room to
take the agent exam, and I look around and I
realize there are 300 men and me in the room.
I'm going, oh, um, yeah. They're probably wondering what I'm
doing here. And then, of course, I passed the test
and I go to the NFL combine, which I don't
(28:27):
know if your listeners are familiar with that. I'm sure
you are. As a sports fan, um, where all the
top draft picks are invited to work out for all
the teams, and it's all the testosterone in the world
stuffed into, like, a downtown area. And and there's me,
you know, 900 men, uh, and just a handful of
us women. And, you know, I didn't set out to
(28:49):
be a pioneer. I definitely, um, like you, I would
not call myself a feminist in in the way it's
portrayed now. Mhm. Um, but I just knew I was
I was meant to be there. I was called to
be there and uh, yeah, I had some, there were
some great stories. I won't spoil the all the stories
in the book, the stories of how I kind of
overcame the questions and the lectures and people talking to
(29:12):
my face and behind my back about why women didn't
belong in that room. And I just kept digging deep
and saying, but no, like God wants me here, he
needs me here. And there are young men, young boys, uh,
who are going to need me, you know, and their families,
they're gonna need me to be prepared to fight for them.
And they're gonna need me to to do this. And
(29:33):
I remember recruiting one of my my very first big
player that I signed. And in the very first meeting,
his dad looked at me and said, we just want
you to know we don't care that you're a woman.
In fact, we see you as a Deborah and wow.
And I loved that. Oh, and from that point on,
I stopped apologizing for being a woman or trying to
explain that, no, no, I can really do this. And
(29:55):
I just walked in that calling and, uh, yeah, it's
been amazing.
S1 (30:00):
Wow. But again, there's there's so many takeaways in your story.
So when you know that you are exactly where God
wants you to be, and you look around and it's
all men and the only woman, no wonder that's not
the first thing on your mind. This is where God
wants me. So I don't care if the room is
filled with giraffes. This is where God wants me to be.
So you're the only woman and you move forward. But
the other thing is, uh, you talked about not having
(30:20):
to be as well versed as you are now in
football in order to be certified as the agent. But
when you are representing an athlete, you have to know
who can't throw a ball two inches and who can
throw a bullet pass. So how do you, as an
agent then say, oh, this person I would like to represent,
you just can't hang a sign around your neck that says, agent,
come to me. I'll walk you through labor law. How
(30:40):
do they come to you? And you have to have
some sense of this person is I think this person's
going to need me. So how do you pick those
people out?
S6 (30:48):
So I think, as with anyone who is is wanting
to pursue greatness in an industry, you surround yourself with
people that you can learn from, and you surround yourself
with people who know more than you do, so that
you can glean that wisdom and glean that knowledge and study.
And so that's what I did. I set out to
build as many relationships as I could with NFL scouts,
(31:12):
with coaches, with anyone who would talk to me. And
it was a painful process. Because I'm naturally so introverted,
I really talk about stepping out in faith and introducing
myself to, you know, to NFL personnel that probably thought,
what is she doing here? And I would say, I need,
you know, I just need to know, what do you
look for in a player? And I could you know,
(31:33):
generally everyone kind of knows who's the Heisman frontrunner. You know,
who are the best quarterbacks in the country. Um, but
as far as identifying, you know, a great three technique
defensive tackle or, you know, a great, you know, safety
or nickelback or whatever it is that you're looking for.
I didn't know. And so I just befriended everyone that
(31:54):
I knew I could learn from. And that's where it started.
I built a great network of relationships of people that
I could ask for their advice, pick their brains, get information,
gather information, uh, and then learn as much as I
could about going after the players that wanted to represent.
And for me, it's not just great players, but also
men of character, you know, players that really do see
(32:16):
the bigger picture and want to accomplish more with their
life than just scoring touchdowns.
S1 (32:20):
Wow. That's amazing. All right. Another takeaway. This this is
so easy because there's just so many in your life.
It's unbelievable. But this idea of mentorship you know the
Bible's big on that by the way. So here's Paul
training Timothy, right. And John Mark. And you see all
of these mentorships that take place. So the idea that
you went to people who could train you to mentor you,
(32:40):
and that I think is such if you want to
have a high impact life, it seems to me that
being mentored, being willing to be the student to someone
else is teaching you, I think is absolutely mandatory. And
I'm so impressed that you said I'm not worried about
the gender thing. You're going to have to deal with that.
This is what God's called me to do. Teach me.
What can you teach me to do? So how do you.
Because and you know, everything's fallen this side of glory.
(33:04):
And our battle continues to be against the world, the
flesh and the devil. So we know that there can
be corruption. We can know, you know, there's going to
be malfeasance in any part of the world. Their rotten lawyers,
their rotten football players, their great lawyers and great football players.
So how do you particularly when you're talking about a
man of character? You can't be like, you're in the
pit of the Chicago Board of Trade shouting out trades
(33:25):
to try to get an athlete. How do you how
do you begin the rapport with an athlete that you
think has potential integrity and a future and sees the
big picture?
S6 (33:35):
That is a really good question. You know, I realized
very early on that I was going to be a
very different agent. My approach was going to be different.
I saw I spent a year really studying the industry
before I jumped in and everything I saw, um, honestly,
at first made me want to run the other direction
because it was so dirty and shady and I thought,
(33:56):
I just don't fit in with that. I'm not going
to do that. And yet, at the same time, I thought,
that's exactly why I need to be in this business,
because there are going to be young men and families
that are looking for someone of integrity to work with,
and so I knew I would not be for everybody.
I wouldn't fit the mold, the typical mold of an agent,
but I knew I would have to identify players and
(34:17):
families who truly were looking for someone that shared their values,
that saw them as more than just a football player,
and that really wanted to. That they valued the right
things in life. They valued excellence and faith and and
a principled life, as opposed to just money and fame
and glory and get rich quick. And so and lifestyle.
(34:39):
And so I quickly realized I needed to identify players
who were not just exceptional players, but also not that
they had to be saints or no one's perfect, right? Um,
and not even like strong walking with God Christians. I
love working with those players, but most of the players
that I, when I meet them first, they're young men.
They're trying to figure out life, and I get to
(35:02):
be a light in their life, and I get to
be a mentor to them spiritually and in every other way, uh,
of guiding them through this process of becoming a professional athlete.
And so it's really identifying those situations, players and families
who just want to work with someone of integrity. And
it's that's where the conversation starts.
S1 (35:21):
Wow. I saw a video of you when you were
talking about helping these young men achieve their dreams, and
your voice quivered with emotion. And I got tears in
my eyes when I watched it, because I thought it
isn't just about the momentary sign, the contract. You got
the gig. It really was about this is a dream.
And for a lot of these people, with whatever playing
professional sports holds, it is a dream. It's a kid
(35:43):
who started out playing varsity ball in school and maybe
gets a college scholarship, and maybe somebody watches him in
the stands when he's playing at school, and the next
thing you know, his name is going to be called
in a draft somewhere. I mean, it's a Cinderella story
in some respects. That's why they say, what, less than 2%
of anybody who plays football will ever end up in
the NFL. So when you talked about helping people fulfill
their dreams, I thought, wow, that just changes your entire perspective.
(36:06):
It's not about Kelly. It's about how God is using
you as a light, as you just said, and a
mentor in other people's lives. I'm so glad I have
more time with you, because I want to come back
and ask you about what happens when you face adversity.
Because you are a standout. You are different. You are
a Deborah. So what happens when adversity shows up? The
book is called High Impact Life, written by Kelly Masters
(36:30):
and attorney, a certified sports agent and the founder of
Kmem Sports, which is located in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Fascinating story.
God puts his people everywhere, even makes him sports agents
back after this. We're spending the hour with Kelly Masters,
(37:05):
an attorney, a sports, a certified sports agent, founder of
Kilham Sports, by the way, named one of the 25
Most influential Women in Sports worldwide by Bleacher Report, and
in 2010 became the very first woman ever, ever, ever
to represent a top five pick in the NFL draft.
What an amazing life. It's not over yet. She has
a high impact life, and that happens to be the
(37:26):
name of her book to teach us how to do
exactly the same thing how we can find purpose in
our lives when we say yes to God. So, Kelly,
you talk about this in the beginning of the book.
I wish I had a nickel. For every time people
run this past you, I'd be a millionaire. But you
can't talk to a sports agent. Unfortunately, without talking about
the movie Jerry Maguire. And you said this in the book,
so I'm going to bring it up. There's this nasty
(37:49):
lawyer who just swoops up a draftee the night before
the draft, and the guy's name was Bob sugar. And
you talk about being Bob sugar more than one time.
So when, when, when bad things happen. And they certainly will,
because that battle of the world, the flesh and the
devil happens on or off the gridiron, it happens to
all of us this side of glory. How do you.
Because you talked about being a light. You talked about
(38:10):
being a mentor. You talk about helping people fulfill their dreams.
But how do you make sure that above all else,
you are a living epistle in this very competitive, dog
eat dog, potentially very me first kind of world.
S6 (38:24):
Such a great question. And we could spend another hour
talking about it, about all of the, uh, the, the
adversity and how to overcome it. You know, I the
scripture that comes to mind, um, is about, uh, that
we wrestle not against flesh and blood. And I have
to remind myself that because because every year, every month,
(38:47):
every day, I face some sort of battle, you know,
whether it's trying to recruit a player and losing out
or trying to to secure a contract or anything that
I'm working on. I work, you know, every year round,
but I don't have an off season. So I'm fighting
constantly for my players, and I'm also fighting constantly to
(39:07):
recruit new players. And that's where the business gets really,
really dark and dirty. And as we see, of course,
in Jerry Maguire, which I can't even watch now because
it just hits too close to home. Um, but I
have to remind myself we wrestle not against flesh and blood.
That every single battle, it has a physical component that
we have to walk out. So I need to make
(39:27):
sure that I am fully prepared, that I have done
everything I need to do to be ready to, to
handle any question, to handle, um, you know, any really
through the process that I'm fully ready and prepared to
do battle. But I also know that that there's a
huge piece of it that is going to be spiritual, um, always.
(39:50):
And the enemy is always going to fight. And my
prayer is that as I fight, that I fight, you know,
knowing what God has called me to do. And then
I believe that if I've done everything that I can
do and I have, I have overcome the enemy, and
I have rebuked Satan out of every situation that I'm in.
At the end of the day, I leave it all
to Jesus and I say, you know what? If I
(40:11):
am like God, give me the victory. And if I
am supposed to represent this athlete or this is supposed
to happen, I am believing by faith it's going to.
And if not, I know that if it's if it's stolen,
I know you're going to redeem it and you're going
to restore it sevenfold. Or if I'm not supposed to
sign this player, if I'm not, if this if this
door is not supposed to supposed to open God, then
(40:34):
I pray you, close it in Jesus name. Wow. And
I just have to believe that if we are walking
with with our spiritual eyes on, if we're walking in
the spirit that God is going to going to guide
us around pitfalls that we're not even aware, you know,
we we know what we want, but then trusting God
(40:55):
that he is going to close the doors that need
to be closed, he's going to open the doors that
need to be opened. And it really, truly does come
down to a battle in the spirit and by faith.
S1 (41:06):
Wow Jesus CEO, I was just thinking of the 2122
year olds that are thinking, wow, she's really good. I
want to sign her up. And I thought if they
knew that Jesus was in fact the CEO of KM sports,
what their attitude would be, I think that's amazing. So
let me flip this around. Let's say that that God's
opened the door and and and this is an important
question because I want people to apply this to failures
(41:28):
in their own life. You sign somebody, you really think
they're great. And then those sad stories that make the
news and my heart breaks. So this guy's going to jail.
This guy was involved in a hit and run. This
guy was involved in drugs. And and you helped sign him.
What do you how do you say, Lord, I can't
take that personally. What do you how do you deal
with that? Where you think, man, I saw what this
could have been, but it's not.
S6 (41:48):
Mhm. Uh, again we could talk for another hour on that.
I have received some really heartbreaking phone calls over the years,
and quite honestly, I'm so thankful in that moment that
I am I am an agent because God called me
to be, not just because I thought it would look
fun and that it seemed like a dream job. I
know that it is my ministry, and it is my
(42:09):
calling and my assignment from the Lord to do this.
And so I know in that moment that those are
the most critical moments when I truly am called to
be a light, and I'm there to provide wisdom and
answers and guidance and even teach my players about grace
and forgiveness and how to how to not just stay
(42:30):
in that dark place, but also how to repent and
walk forward and pursue a better life. And so for me,
I say this all the time when you're pursuing your calling,
even the really bad days, the really tough moments, um,
are fulfilling because you know that you're supposed to be there,
you're equipped and you're prepared, and God is with you
(42:51):
in those moments, giving you the strength and the wisdom
to say, okay, here's what we need to do to
move forward. Here's how we need to to solve this problem.
And so I look at it, I try and I'm human, I, I, I,
I don't get it right every single time. But I
see every problem as an opportunity that okay, how can
I be, you know, God's voice here. How can I
(43:13):
be the hands and feet of Jesus in this situation,
even though it's a horrible situation? What good can come
from this? And how do we get there?
S1 (43:21):
Well, not a missionary in Africa, but a missionary nonetheless. Kelly,
did your dad? Is your dad still alive and did
he get to see you become a sports agent?
S6 (43:32):
Oh. Didn't he? Uh, yeah. He passed away right before
I took the bar exam. So he didn't even see
me sworn in as an attorney. Um, which I know
would have made him very proud. And then as a, uh,
high school, you know, a decorated high school football player
and then a play by play guy, I grew up
listening to him call games.
S1 (43:50):
Oh.
S6 (43:50):
And, uh, and I would have. I can only imagine
how proud he would be of me now that not
only do I know X's and O's, but I am
actually representing NFL athletes.
S1 (44:00):
I was going to say, why do I think the
buttons on his shirt would just pop right off his chest?
And you know what? I know based on our conversation
this hour, and I'm so glad you and I are
going to spend eternity together. I know your Heavenly Father
is unbelievably proud of you as well. Thank you for
taking this quote. Dream job. Everybody thinks that looking on
the outside in that you're using this as a mission field. Yeah,
(44:22):
it's the play playing field we're talking about. But you
know what? In Kelly Masters life, professional sports are her
mission field. Pray for her, would you? That God would
continue to let her light so shine before men? And
not only that, that the way she's taught us, we
would learn what it means to have a high impact
life by saying, yes, Lord, putting our hand in his
and following him wherever he leads. Thank you so much
(44:45):
for joining us. We'll see you next time on In
the Market with Janet Parshall.
Hi friends, thanks so much for downloading this podcast and
I certainly hope what you hear will encourage, edify, equip,
enlighten and then will gently but consistently push you out
there into the marketplace of ideas. Wait. But before you
start to listen, may I take one minute and tell
you about this month's truth tool? It's written by Doctor
Ronnie Floyd and it's called The Supernatural Power of Prayer
and Fasting. You know, prayer and fasting are something that
(00:21):
we're invited to do. In fact, the Bible talks about
it a lot. And Jesus put fasting on the same
level as prayer. But most people don't understand it and
aren't quite sure how it works. Well, in this wonderful
book that Doctor Floyd has written, he wants us to
fix our eyes upon Jesus and fill our lives with
his strength. He reminds us that through prayer and fasting,
we can experience a profound transformation. He wants us to
(00:43):
learn how to listen to God's voice, to transform pride
into humility, to walk in obedience, to surrender our lives
to his will, and to experience his miracles. If you'd
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Just call 877 58. That's 877. Janet 58. And ask
(01:04):
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Click on make Your Donation and I'll be happy to
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(01:25):
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There are more and more people becoming partial partners, so
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(01:50):
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consider it, won't you? And now please enjoy the broadcast.
S2 (02:01):
Here are some of the news headlines we're watching.
S3 (02:03):
The conference was over. The president won a pledge.
S4 (02:05):
Americans worshipping government over God.
S5 (02:08):
Extremely rare safety move by a major 17 years.
S4 (02:11):
The Palestinians and Israelis negotiated.
S5 (02:14):
This is not over.
S1 (02:29):
Hi, friends. Welcome to In the Market with Janet Parshall.
You are going to be so glad you chose to
spend this hour with me. I just want to thank
the Lord this wonderful job that he has given me,
to be able to proclaim his truth to the whole
world all the time is such a wonderful blessing. But
I'll tell you what one of the sidebar stories is.
I get introduced to so many fabulous people that I probably,
(02:52):
at least this side of glory, would not have had
the opportunity to meet them. And you're going to meet
one of those people this hour. I know that she's
been told this a thousand times. People think, at least
at first blush, this must be the quintessential dream job.
The other thing they think are two words Jerry and Maguire.
If you know the movie, you know where I'm going
because we're going to talk to a woman who is.
(03:14):
She wears multiple hats. All of them quite well. I'd
like to point out she's represented more professional athletes than
any woman in the industry, having served as an agent
contract advisor to players in every NFL draft since 2006,
as well as numerous athletes in the MLB draft and
the Olympics. In 2010, she made history as the first
(03:34):
woman to represent a first round pick in the NFL draft.
Just let that sink in for a minute. She is
a former national and world champion baton twirler. She was
also Miss Oklahoma. About the hats. If the words Forrest
Gump come to mind, whatever she does, she's a champion.
And also, by the way, winning awards for her talent
and community service at the Miss America pageant that year.
(03:57):
She currently serves as an adjunct professor at Oklahoma City
University and Oklahoma Christian University. She teaches sports law, which
would be a fascinating area of law. She is a
sought after writer and speaker on topics of sports and
nonprofits such as leadership, diversity, and discovering purpose in life,
and it is her very first book that brings us
together High Impact Life A Sports Agent Secrets to Finding
(04:21):
and Fulfilling a Purpose You Can't Lose. I've told you
this was going to be a great hour. Kelly. The
warmest of welcomes. I just said all the things you do.
I can't imagine how you found an hour to join me,
but I want to thank you for that.
S6 (04:32):
Thank you so much. It is such an honor to
be with you today. And I, first of all, can
I just say I absolutely love talking to people who
are excited about proclaiming Jesus in everything that they do.
That is, there's nothing better. And so, yeah, I'm thrilled
to be here with you today.
S1 (04:48):
Thank you so much. And I'm so excited that not
just my listeners today, but all kinds of people through
your new book are going to discover who you are
and that high impact life that you and I talk
about this hour. I want to start from your beginning
because you're an athlete in your own right. I mean,
anybody who's tried to twirl a baton, good luck with
that one. Okay, so tell me what drew you to
that in the first place?
S6 (05:09):
Oh my goodness. I think I was 3 or 4
years old when I first saw a baton twirler, and
it was just mesmerizing. First of all, I was at
my very first football game. I was at an Oklahoma
Sooners football game, which of course OU has been in
the news recently with the news, the SEC.
S1 (05:23):
Yes.
S6 (05:24):
And so my, my my dad took me to a
game and I loved the I loved the game, but
I loved the pageantry so much that I wanted to
be out there. And I saw the twirler at halftime
and I said, that's it. That's from that time, I
would not stop talking about being a twirler. So I
grew up wanting and dreaming to be the the feature
twirler for OU. And I have a twin sister, and
(05:47):
we trained our entire lives, and we were the twin
twirlers for OU in the early 90s.
S7 (05:52):
And it was such.
S6 (05:53):
A dream come true. And it it was a sport
that took me all over the world. And to be
quite honest, maybe that's another book, but the things that
I learned from baton twirling have made me a great
football agent. So yeah, absolutely.
S1 (06:07):
That's all right. I'm going to ask some really sophomoric questions,
but I don't think I could spin it if my
life depended on it. Where does one go to learn
to twirl?
S6 (06:18):
Uh, you know, we started off at this little baton
twirling camp, which there is such a thing and started
taking baton twirling lessons from the OU twirler at that time.
So that was a dream come true, and I started
training full time. By the age of seven. I was
competing nationally by the time I was 11 and won
my first world title at 14. And uh, yeah, I
(06:38):
my entire childhood and young adult life was was committed to,
of all things, baton twirling. Wow. But it opened so
many doors and gave me such, uh, an understanding of
now what I do with the players that commit themselves
to discipline and having a platform and all of those things.
So I'm thankful for my crazy baton twirling days.
S1 (06:59):
In fact, you just anticipated what I was going to
ask you. I just see that as part of God's
classroom that what you learned, the traveling, the competition, the discipline,
as you said before, the practice, the desire to be
the best in your particular area of endeavor. I mean,
all of that. So now suddenly you're looking at a
ballplayer and you're thinking, this is your dream, this is
what you want to achieve. And I'm aware of everything
(07:20):
that you had to do and that I've never seen
that got you to this place today. So how how
merciful God is in the way he prepares us. That's cool. So, okay,
so you're not going to twirl a baton your whole life? Obviously,
God blesses you not just with brains, but with beauty.
Ta da! You don't just love. Oh, you. I think
I'll represent the Sooners aid. So tell me about entering
a contest.
S6 (07:40):
So I was not the girl that grew up wanting
to do the Miss America pageant. We would watch it
on TV. You know, everyone used to watch it. It
was a big deal. When I was little, we would
all watch the Miss America pageant and watch them walk
the runway, and. But I never in a million years
thought I would be one of those girls. I was
such a tomboy growing up. And then in law school, uh,
I went to Oklahoma City University for my first two
(08:02):
years of law school. And OCU is known for one
big thing throughout the country. Besides producing fabulous Broadway stars
like Kristin Chenoweth, they've also produced the most Miss America
contestants of any school in the country. And so I
got talked into trying a pageant just because I knew
I could win some scholarship money. And and I was
paying out of pocket for law school. So I entered
(08:24):
a pageant not expecting to win. I won and suddenly
found myself on that famous runway in Atlantic City at
the Miss America pageant. But it paid for law school.
If anyone gives me a hard time, it paid for
law school.
S7 (08:35):
Absolutely.
S1 (08:36):
Now, this is a wild guess. I don't know, maybe
I'm far afield here, but I'm. I'm just guessing that
the talent competition. I'm guessing you twirled. Am I right
or wrong?
S6 (08:44):
That's a pretty good, pretty good guess.
S7 (08:46):
Yes. And I almost.
S6 (08:48):
Didn't. I almost talked myself out of it because I
thought it was just to Miss Congeniality, you know, baton
twirling cliche. And so I, I had a choreographer do
a dance for me, and I got together all my
friends and I did the dance for them that I
was going to perform at Miss Oklahoma. And they all
glared at me like, Kelly, you've been twirling your entire life.
Why would you try to do something different?
S1 (09:08):
Exactly.
S7 (09:09):
So I guess I twirled.
S1 (09:10):
Wow. Amazing. All right. That's just the first segment of
our hour together. There is so much more to this
woman's life. I can't wait for you to hear about.
But I will tell you that Kelly Masters is not
only superb in her field of endeavor, male dominated. Let
the record reflect, but she's got a brand new book
out called High Impact Life A Sports Agent Secrets to
Finding and Fulfilling a Purpose You Can't Lose. We've got
(09:33):
a lot more coming your way, so stick around, friends.
More of in the market with Janet Parshall right after this.
(09:58):
Lamentations tells us that the steadfast love of the Lord
never ceases, but sometimes it just doesn't feel like that.
That's why I've chosen the steadfast love of the Lord
as this month's truth tool. Doctor Sam Storms will teach
you that what the Bible says about God's love is true.
As for your copy of The Steadfast Love of the Lord,
when you give a gift of any amount to in
the market, call 877 Janet 58. That's 877 Janet 58
(10:21):
or go to in the market with Janet Parshall. What
a fun conversation to find someone whom God has just
gifted in so many marvelous and unique ways, and let
her be a standout in her field, and she turns
around and gives all the glory to God. Kelly Masters
is with us, an attorney, a certified sports agent, the
(10:43):
founder of CMX sports, which is a full service sports
management company that's based in Oklahoma City. Her book is
called High Impact Life of Sports Agents Secrets to Finding
and Fulfilling a purpose. You can't lose. All right, so
you get Miss Oklahoma. You go to Atlantic City, you
compete in Miss America. Again, I'm seeing how God prepares. Kelly.
(11:03):
This is so interesting because it is a competition. Absolutely. Uh,
you have to have brains. You have to have beauty.
You have to have some talent that you can show
off to the world as well. Again, all that prep
to step into a world where competition defines the very
world that you're being called to. But there's a chasm
here that I want to fill. How does one go
from twirling a baton and in between twirling the baton
(11:25):
and being a beauty queen? Is law school. What pulled
you to law school?
S6 (11:30):
I was finishing my journalism degree. I was working for
the CBS affiliate in Oklahoma City, and I covered two cases, two,
two big cases. First, the OJ Simpson trial and then
the Oklahoma City bombing happened while I was working in
news in Oklahoma City and talk about just a life
changing event for Oklahomans and really for the country and
(11:52):
for television. So the O.J. Simpson trial and the bombing
are both really pivotal moments in television, but also really
opened my eyes to the power that I could have
to fight for justice if I had a law degree.
So I decided to go to law school, and in
the middle of law school, I became a Christian and
thought I was going to be a missionary. But God
(12:13):
kept me on the right path. And, uh, here I
am today.
S1 (12:17):
Well, you are a missionary. Just a different kind of missionary. So.
S6 (12:20):
Absolutely, absolutely. My my mission field is just a little
different than I thought it was going to be.
S1 (12:25):
So. So the story just gets more interesting all the time. So, Kelly,
tell me about your background. Before you went into law school,
were you raised in a Christian home? Did you have
Christian friends? What drew you to him when you were
in law school?
S6 (12:37):
Yeah. Here's the interesting thing. I think growing up in Oklahoma, Everyone.
It's the Bible Belt. At least when I grew up,
everybody called themselves a Christian. You were either a methodist
or a Baptist, and that was it. Everybody went to church.
It was just the thing that everybody did. And I
would hear people talk about having a relationship with Jesus
(12:58):
or relationship with God, and it sounded nice, but for
some reason, I always felt like it was this unattainable
thing for me. I didn't quite understand it, and it
took me until I was in law school, and I
had lived this life of constant, you know, going after
my goals and being excellent. And there's nothing wrong with that.
But looking back, I lived this life where I achieved
(13:20):
sort of out of this fear of not achieving this
fear of failure, fear of not being good enough, being
not impressing people. And I just lived in this constant
state of fear. And I also thought I was doing everything,
you know, I would go to church on Christmas and
Easter and sometimes more. I would say I was a
good person. I had a Bible, All, but I didn't
(13:42):
have a relationship and I honestly, because I was so
performance minded, I thought, well, I'm just never going to
be good enough to to really have that, to earn
that relationship with Jesus. And I remember being in law
school and, you know, on my late nights off after,
I'd be, you know, finished studying, I would be walking
back to my apartment. And I remember looking at the
sky and saying, God, is there more? Yeah. Are you
(14:05):
are you really real? And I had questions like, you know,
when I read the Bible or when I hear Bible stories,
God spoke to people. Why did he do that then?
But he doesn't do that now. Or or healing or miracles,
you know, why do I not see that in my
own life? And I my question very legitimately to God was,
is there more? Is there? You know, I don't see
it in my life, but is there more? And that question,
(14:28):
he answered very, very succinctly when I really hit my
lowest point and ended up in a really sad, like, really,
really dark place of depression when I just cried out
and said, God, I can't. I'm tired of trying to
be perfect. I, I believe there's more and I don't
know if I'm eligible for it, but I need you.
And I cried out to him, and he became so real.
(14:50):
And I remember it was on March 2nd of 1997.
I'll never forget it on my just on my floor.
And it's in the book, but on my floor in
my little apartment saying, God, I can't be perfect anymore.
I can't keep living in fear anymore. I just want
to serve you. I just want I, I want to
know I'm loved. And he became real in that moment.
S1 (15:08):
Wow. Wow. 1997 was a huge year for you. So
you become Miss Oklahoma and your name gets written in
the Lamb's Book of Life. In that same year. That
is unbelievable. Wow, what a story. So you're in law school,
and as anybody who knows law school, you can say, okay,
I want to be a prosecutor. I wanted to be
a defense attorney. I'm going to work in civil rights.
I'm going to I'm going to do public policy. Did you,
(15:30):
when you were going through law school, think, ah, I
want to be a sports agent. I want to go
into sports.
S6 (15:34):
Gosh, no. And it's funny that you mentioned Jerry Maguire
because that movie came out when I was, I think,
my first year of law school and most of my, well,
male classmates watched the movie and said, that's what I'm
going to be. I'm going to show me the money.
I'm going to be an agent. And I don't remember
thinking that. I don't remember identifying that, oh, this is
what I want to do with my life. Quite honestly,
(15:57):
I was trying to figure out where I was supposed
to be. And that was when when I came to
know Jesus personally. That's when I stopped living in fear
and started living. Waking up every day and just saying, okay, God,
why did you put me on this earth? What is
your purpose for my life? What does that look like?
And I just started pursuing that, and it really was
about not me, not chasing the dream and chasing the
(16:19):
limelight anymore, like I had for so long. It was God.
How do I serve? How do I serve? And that
led me to learning nonprofit law. And then nonprofit law
led me five years into my law practice to working
with my very first NFL player who had a foundation
and needed a lawyer. And that opened the door. So
isn't it funny how God uses everything? And if we
(16:43):
just pursue him, he leads us to where we're supposed
to be.
S1 (16:46):
That is. You know, I shouldn't say that. Because he
is God and we are not. He is awesome and
holy and powerful. But. But you intersect with the human
being who's involved in a nonprofit, who is connected to
the sports world. And God goes, follow me this way. Kelly. Amazing.
Kelly's new book is called High Impact Life. A Sports
Agent Secrets to finding and fulfilling a Purpose You can't lose. Oh,
(17:09):
there's so much more still to the story. I told
you that this was such an unbelievable story. But we
serve an unbelievable God. Back after this. What a fascinating story.
(17:34):
And by the way, what a life that's exemplary of saying, yes, Lord,
you know, he leads you one step at a time.
I've always said I thought I would be such a
more obedient child of the Most High King if I
simply got the blueprint ahead of time. Here it is.
Just lay it out. Just follow the steps. Your God,
I'm not. Absolutely no questions, but that's not what his
love letter say. He says that we walk by faith
(17:55):
and not by sight. I put my hand in his.
He leads. I follows where he's going. I don't know,
but I love him enough to go wherever he leads.
And Kelly's life is an absolutely beautiful example of that.
And in the process of being obedient and following, you
discover that you can have exactly her words, a high
impact life. It's an amazing story, and God is using
(18:17):
her as the living epistle to tell this story, which
is so cool. She is an attorney, a certified sports agent,
and the founder of sports, which is a full service
sports management company based in Oklahoma City. So I want
to go back to this connectedness again. There's just and remember,
just as you're skimming over the top of your life.
There's so many other layers that I know that are there.
So I think it's just wonderful that I get to
(18:39):
move forward. But I just know there's even more. So
you're a nonprofit law, which is fascinating, by the way.
I'm coming to you from the nation's capital, where a
town filled with non-profits. So that's always an interesting kind
of law. So then you meet someone who's got a
nonprofit but happens to be connected with sports now. So
you're out in the nonprofit world. But when you were
this is you said in your practice of five years,
so did you. You didn't did you take any classes
(19:01):
in sports law when you were in law school?
S6 (19:03):
Not at all. In fact, when I graduated from O.u.
Undergrad from University of Oklahoma, there was no sports business
sports management degree. I never even thought of that as
a career and then went to law school. And quite honestly,
initially thought I would go back into into radio or television.
And then I decided I got into law school, and
(19:25):
I really felt like I needed to practice law and
be a trial attorney, like my dad had been, just
to learn the ropes before I did anything else. And then,
of course, I meet Jesus and initially think I'm supposed
to move to Africa and work in orphanages and then
had several amazing mentors in my life that said, Kelly,
why don't you actually ask God what you're supposed to
(19:46):
do with this rather than just assume? And so as
I sought God on, do I stay in law school?
Do I serve? Do I go serve? It became very
clear to me that that God had his hand on
my life, and I was in law school for a reason.
And so I initially started my law practice as a litigator,
doing civil litigation for five years, which is very tough
(20:09):
and very draining. But on the side, I told my
law firm that hired me initially that look, I also
have this interest in helping missions and ministries and and
charities around the world. I want to have a nonprofit practice.
So I did both for five years. Wow. And then
became a lawyer. I became a partner in my law firm,
which was also unheard of for women. I think I
(20:29):
was the third woman since the 60s, to begin to
become a partner in this firm. I actually won a
case at the Supreme, the U.S. Supreme Court, as a
litigator in the 10th Circuit. And so I had had
my experience as a lawyer, and it was wonderful. But
I always had this sense that God was preparing me
for something else. And I'm so thankful I was ready,
(20:49):
because it happened in the form of a conversation with
an NFL players mother. And while we were working through
his issues on his nonprofit, she just looked at me
and said, where were you in the beginning? Why didn't
we have someone like you? And I dismissed it initially
and said, no, I'm a lawyer. I'm not. I'm not
a sports agent. And as it came out of my mouth,
(21:11):
I thought, oh my goodness, I think, I think this
is where my I think this is God showing me
something here. I need to pay attention to this. So wow,
that's where it all started.
S1 (21:21):
Wow. So just teach me because I'm fascinated on the journey.
Do you have to go back and get re credentialed?
Did you have to take I mean you're teaching sports
law now, so, you know, there's a whole plethora of
things out there. So did you have to go back
and teach your go back to school to get certified
in this area?
S6 (21:38):
I didn't have to go back to school, but you can't.
As I found out, you can't just have a law
degree and say, okay, now I'm an agent. You actually
have to go through a certification process. And it's different
for every sport. So I had to get I had
to choose a sport to be certified in. I'm certified
in football and I'm certified by the players union, the
NFL Players Association. And of course, now with sports with
(22:01):
laws changing across the country, impacting even collegiate athletes, that
also impacts me as an agent. And so there are
all these processes I have to go through. I had
to learn the collective bargaining agreement. I had to get certified,
which is about a year long process. The test is
actually I took the test 16 years ago this week
in Washington, D.C.. Wow. Um, to become an agent. But
(22:23):
if I wanted to represent basketball players or baseball players,
I would have to do the same thing. I'd have
to go through a process, and then there are a
whole bunch of other hoops you have to jump through administratively.
It's quite a quite a process. But yeah, I started
that's part of the humor of my my book that
people will read. I knew nothing about sports law or
being an agent when I started nothing. And I really,
(22:46):
really messed up a lot in the beginning and learned,
you know, trial, trial by fire. I really had to
learn the hard way.
S1 (22:53):
Wow. Let me go back to pick your sport. I
love that. So I'm you know, it's almost a redundant question. Okay.
You're from Oklahoma. So naturally I'm thinking you're going to
go toward football, but did you? When you take the certification,
do you have to know? This is a foolish question,
but maybe not. Do you have to know something about
the sport for which you're going to be certified as
(23:14):
an agent?
S6 (23:15):
Well, thank goodness they don't test you on, um, you know,
coverages and offensive schemes and defensive schemes and the route
tree and all of those, those football things that football
people know that I know now, but at the time,
I knew I knew enough. As a casual fan. I
knew what a touchdown was. I knew, you know, that
it you know how many yards it took to get
a first down. That was pretty much it. Those were
(23:38):
my limits. But to take the test, you have to
know about the collective bargaining agreement. So it's very much
a legal and business level of knowledge, which I devoured.
I thought it was so fascinating. I thought it was
so much fun to take all of my years of
experience as a lawyer and pour it into learning something,
learning about something that I really loved. I loved the sport,
(24:01):
but I really knew nothing about it. And so it
was really fun for me to, uh, to study and
become a football agent. And then over the years, I've
become a better I've become more proficient in my football knowledge.
But I wasn't in the beginning. Wow.
S1 (24:15):
Wow. Okay, what a place to take a break. So
you get certified. The other thing here, and this is
an important takeaway in your story so far, Kelly too,
which is if you feel that this is where the
Lord is calling you, God is as big on preparation.
So Moses goes out and he herd sheep for 40
years before he leads people. Paul is in Arabia for
three years before he starts his world transforming business. And
(24:36):
you were willing to stick it out and to get
certified and trained. You stuck to it because there was
a calling on your life. That is really cool and
such an important lesson. Let me take a break right
back after this. How do you keep your finger on
(25:05):
the pulse of America while listening to the heartbeat of
God's Word? On in the market, we look for God's
perspective on current events, become a partial partner today, and
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Call 877 Janet, 58, or go online to in the
(25:26):
market with Janet Parshall. Well, let me just give you
a little friendly advice. If you're just joining us, trust me,
you're going to want to download the entire podcast for
this hour. Easy peasy. In the market with Janet Parshall.
Right hand side, two words sitting right next to each other.
Past programs download this hour in its entirety, or either
(25:47):
of the two hours we do every single day, going
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worth of programming, so you don't have to miss it.
By the way, if you know somebody who loves sports,
I tell you, if you're not new to this program,
you understand how often we talk about the intersection between
faith and sports. I don't know when your dad's a
football coach. That's just the way you were raised. So
that just kind of happens naturally in your life. But
(26:09):
I love it because I see the athleticism of the
Christian life so clearly, boxing and running and all of
the things that Scripture talks about, developing that spiritual muscle
that's so necessary. So there truly is an athleticism. Maybe
you don't see it that way, but I sure do.
And athleticism to the Christian life. And I love the
way God prepares his people. He doesn't call the qualified.
(26:30):
Although Kelly Masters is unbelievably qualified, he qualifies the called.
So from being a champion baton twirler to Miss Oklahoma,
to competing in Miss America, to becoming an attorney, to
becoming a certified sports agent, to becoming the founder of
KMS sports, which is a full service sports management company
based in Oklahoma City and now an author. This is
(26:52):
a woman who simply said, yes, Lord, and as a result,
she is showing us what it means to have a
high impact life that happens to be the name of
her brand new book. So you persevered. You go through
the testing, you go through the certification about collective bargaining.
I mean, so there's a lot of labor law in
all of this, and that's a real reminder to our friends,
particularly in professional sports. It isn't just a game, it's
(27:13):
a business. That's why they call them franchises. And so
there's that aspect of it as well, which is absolutely fascinating.
But Kelly, I am so glad we're talking woman to
woman Because and I'm not. I wouldn't classify myself as
a feminist under any stretch of the imagination, but I
love women who get used in a wonderful way. And
that's your life. So here you are. No ands, if
or buts. Oh my, what a male dominated world. So
(27:36):
you're having the conversation with yourself and your bathroom mirror,
and you're thinking to yourself, am I out of my mind?
What did you think before you stepped into this?
S6 (27:44):
You know what's amazing is, and maybe it was the
right way I was raised, but when I first decided,
you know, this is I know this is where God's
calling me, I'm going to step out in faith and
do it. The last challenge on my mind was that
I was going to be the only woman. I didn't
even think about that. I thought, this is what God's
given me to do. I'm going to do it. It's,
(28:06):
you know, it's going to be tough, but I'm going
to persevere. And then I walk into the room to
take the agent exam, and I look around and I
realize there are 300 men and me in the room.
I'm going, oh, um, yeah. They're probably wondering what I'm
doing here. And then, of course, I passed the test
and I go to the NFL combine, which I don't
(28:27):
know if your listeners are familiar with that. I'm sure
you are. As a sports fan, um, where all the
top draft picks are invited to work out for all
the teams, and it's all the testosterone in the world
stuffed into, like, a downtown area. And and there's me,
you know, 900 men, uh, and just a handful of
us women. And, you know, I didn't set out to
(28:49):
be a pioneer. I definitely, um, like you, I would
not call myself a feminist in in the way it's
portrayed now. Mhm. Um, but I just knew I was
I was meant to be there. I was called to
be there and uh, yeah, I had some, there were
some great stories. I won't spoil the all the stories
in the book, the stories of how I kind of
overcame the questions and the lectures and people talking to
(29:12):
my face and behind my back about why women didn't
belong in that room. And I just kept digging deep
and saying, but no, like God wants me here, he
needs me here. And there are young men, young boys, uh,
who are going to need me, you know, and their families,
they're gonna need me to be prepared to fight for them.
And they're gonna need me to to do this. And
(29:33):
I remember recruiting one of my my very first big
player that I signed. And in the very first meeting,
his dad looked at me and said, we just want
you to know we don't care that you're a woman.
In fact, we see you as a Deborah and wow.
And I loved that. Oh, and from that point on,
I stopped apologizing for being a woman or trying to
explain that, no, no, I can really do this. And
(29:55):
I just walked in that calling and, uh, yeah, it's
been amazing.
S1 (30:00):
Wow. But again, there's there's so many takeaways in your story.
So when you know that you are exactly where God
wants you to be, and you look around and it's
all men and the only woman, no wonder that's not
the first thing on your mind. This is where God
wants me. So I don't care if the room is
filled with giraffes. This is where God wants me to be.
So you're the only woman and you move forward. But
the other thing is, uh, you talked about not having
(30:20):
to be as well versed as you are now in
football in order to be certified as the agent. But
when you are representing an athlete, you have to know
who can't throw a ball two inches and who can
throw a bullet pass. So how do you, as an
agent then say, oh, this person I would like to represent,
you just can't hang a sign around your neck that says, agent,
come to me. I'll walk you through labor law. How
(30:40):
do they come to you? And you have to have
some sense of this person is I think this person's
going to need me. So how do you pick those
people out?
S6 (30:48):
So I think, as with anyone who is is wanting
to pursue greatness in an industry, you surround yourself with
people that you can learn from, and you surround yourself
with people who know more than you do, so that
you can glean that wisdom and glean that knowledge and study.
And so that's what I did. I set out to
build as many relationships as I could with NFL scouts,
(31:12):
with coaches, with anyone who would talk to me. And
it was a painful process. Because I'm naturally so introverted,
I really talk about stepping out in faith and introducing
myself to, you know, to NFL personnel that probably thought,
what is she doing here? And I would say, I need,
you know, I just need to know, what do you
look for in a player? And I could you know,
(31:33):
generally everyone kind of knows who's the Heisman frontrunner. You know,
who are the best quarterbacks in the country. Um, but
as far as identifying, you know, a great three technique
defensive tackle or, you know, a great, you know, safety
or nickelback or whatever it is that you're looking for.
I didn't know. And so I just befriended everyone that
(31:54):
I knew I could learn from. And that's where it started.
I built a great network of relationships of people that
I could ask for their advice, pick their brains, get information,
gather information, uh, and then learn as much as I
could about going after the players that wanted to represent.
And for me, it's not just great players, but also
men of character, you know, players that really do see
(32:16):
the bigger picture and want to accomplish more with their
life than just scoring touchdowns.
S1 (32:20):
Wow. That's amazing. All right. Another takeaway. This this is
so easy because there's just so many in your life.
It's unbelievable. But this idea of mentorship you know the
Bible's big on that by the way. So here's Paul
training Timothy, right. And John Mark. And you see all
of these mentorships that take place. So the idea that
you went to people who could train you to mentor you,
(32:40):
and that I think is such if you want to
have a high impact life, it seems to me that
being mentored, being willing to be the student to someone
else is teaching you, I think is absolutely mandatory. And
I'm so impressed that you said I'm not worried about
the gender thing. You're going to have to deal with that.
This is what God's called me to do. Teach me.
What can you teach me to do? So how do you.
Because and you know, everything's fallen this side of glory.
(33:04):
And our battle continues to be against the world, the
flesh and the devil. So we know that there can
be corruption. We can know, you know, there's going to
be malfeasance in any part of the world. Their rotten lawyers,
their rotten football players, their great lawyers and great football players.
So how do you particularly when you're talking about a
man of character? You can't be like, you're in the
pit of the Chicago Board of Trade shouting out trades
(33:25):
to try to get an athlete. How do you how
do you begin the rapport with an athlete that you
think has potential integrity and a future and sees the
big picture?
S6 (33:35):
That is a really good question. You know, I realized
very early on that I was going to be a
very different agent. My approach was going to be different.
I saw I spent a year really studying the industry
before I jumped in and everything I saw, um, honestly,
at first made me want to run the other direction
because it was so dirty and shady and I thought,
(33:56):
I just don't fit in with that. I'm not going
to do that. And yet, at the same time, I thought,
that's exactly why I need to be in this business,
because there are going to be young men and families
that are looking for someone of integrity to work with,
and so I knew I would not be for everybody.
I wouldn't fit the mold, the typical mold of an agent,
but I knew I would have to identify players and
(34:17):
families who truly were looking for someone that shared their values,
that saw them as more than just a football player,
and that really wanted to. That they valued the right
things in life. They valued excellence and faith and and
a principled life, as opposed to just money and fame
and glory and get rich quick. And so and lifestyle.
(34:39):
And so I quickly realized I needed to identify players
who were not just exceptional players, but also not that
they had to be saints or no one's perfect, right? Um,
and not even like strong walking with God Christians. I
love working with those players, but most of the players
that I, when I meet them first, they're young men.
They're trying to figure out life, and I get to
(35:02):
be a light in their life, and I get to
be a mentor to them spiritually and in every other way, uh,
of guiding them through this process of becoming a professional athlete.
And so it's really identifying those situations, players and families
who just want to work with someone of integrity. And
it's that's where the conversation starts.
S1 (35:21):
Wow. I saw a video of you when you were
talking about helping these young men achieve their dreams, and
your voice quivered with emotion. And I got tears in
my eyes when I watched it, because I thought it
isn't just about the momentary sign, the contract. You got
the gig. It really was about this is a dream.
And for a lot of these people, with whatever playing
professional sports holds, it is a dream. It's a kid
(35:43):
who started out playing varsity ball in school and maybe
gets a college scholarship, and maybe somebody watches him in
the stands when he's playing at school, and the next
thing you know, his name is going to be called
in a draft somewhere. I mean, it's a Cinderella story
in some respects. That's why they say, what, less than 2%
of anybody who plays football will ever end up in
the NFL. So when you talked about helping people fulfill
their dreams, I thought, wow, that just changes your entire perspective.
(36:06):
It's not about Kelly. It's about how God is using
you as a light, as you just said, and a
mentor in other people's lives. I'm so glad I have
more time with you, because I want to come back
and ask you about what happens when you face adversity.
Because you are a standout. You are different. You are
a Deborah. So what happens when adversity shows up? The
book is called High Impact Life, written by Kelly Masters
(36:30):
and attorney, a certified sports agent and the founder of
Kmem Sports, which is located in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Fascinating story.
God puts his people everywhere, even makes him sports agents
back after this. We're spending the hour with Kelly Masters,
(37:05):
an attorney, a sports, a certified sports agent, founder of
Kilham Sports, by the way, named one of the 25
Most influential Women in Sports worldwide by Bleacher Report, and
in 2010 became the very first woman ever, ever, ever
to represent a top five pick in the NFL draft.
What an amazing life. It's not over yet. She has
a high impact life, and that happens to be the
(37:26):
name of her book to teach us how to do
exactly the same thing how we can find purpose in
our lives when we say yes to God. So, Kelly,
you talk about this in the beginning of the book.
I wish I had a nickel. For every time people
run this past you, I'd be a millionaire. But you
can't talk to a sports agent. Unfortunately, without talking about
the movie Jerry Maguire. And you said this in the book,
so I'm going to bring it up. There's this nasty
(37:49):
lawyer who just swoops up a draftee the night before
the draft, and the guy's name was Bob sugar. And
you talk about being Bob sugar more than one time.
So when, when, when bad things happen. And they certainly will,
because that battle of the world, the flesh and the
devil happens on or off the gridiron, it happens to
all of us this side of glory. How do you.
Because you talked about being a light. You talked about
(38:10):
being a mentor. You talk about helping people fulfill their dreams.
But how do you make sure that above all else,
you are a living epistle in this very competitive, dog
eat dog, potentially very me first kind of world.
S6 (38:24):
Such a great question. And we could spend another hour
talking about it, about all of the, uh, the, the
adversity and how to overcome it. You know, I the
scripture that comes to mind, um, is about, uh, that
we wrestle not against flesh and blood. And I have
to remind myself that because because every year, every month,
(38:47):
every day, I face some sort of battle, you know,
whether it's trying to recruit a player and losing out
or trying to to secure a contract or anything that
I'm working on. I work, you know, every year round,
but I don't have an off season. So I'm fighting
constantly for my players, and I'm also fighting constantly to
(39:07):
recruit new players. And that's where the business gets really,
really dark and dirty. And as we see, of course,
in Jerry Maguire, which I can't even watch now because
it just hits too close to home. Um, but I
have to remind myself we wrestle not against flesh and blood.
That every single battle, it has a physical component that
we have to walk out. So I need to make
(39:27):
sure that I am fully prepared, that I have done
everything I need to do to be ready to, to
handle any question, to handle, um, you know, any really
through the process that I'm fully ready and prepared to
do battle. But I also know that that there's a
huge piece of it that is going to be spiritual, um, always.
(39:50):
And the enemy is always going to fight. And my
prayer is that as I fight, that I fight, you know,
knowing what God has called me to do. And then
I believe that if I've done everything that I can
do and I have, I have overcome the enemy, and
I have rebuked Satan out of every situation that I'm in.
At the end of the day, I leave it all
to Jesus and I say, you know what? If I
(40:11):
am like God, give me the victory. And if I
am supposed to represent this athlete or this is supposed
to happen, I am believing by faith it's going to.
And if not, I know that if it's if it's stolen,
I know you're going to redeem it and you're going
to restore it sevenfold. Or if I'm not supposed to
sign this player, if I'm not, if this if this
door is not supposed to supposed to open God, then
(40:34):
I pray you, close it in Jesus name. Wow. And
I just have to believe that if we are walking
with with our spiritual eyes on, if we're walking in
the spirit that God is going to going to guide
us around pitfalls that we're not even aware, you know,
we we know what we want, but then trusting God
(40:55):
that he is going to close the doors that need
to be closed, he's going to open the doors that
need to be opened. And it really, truly does come
down to a battle in the spirit and by faith.
S1 (41:06):
Wow Jesus CEO, I was just thinking of the 2122
year olds that are thinking, wow, she's really good. I
want to sign her up. And I thought if they
knew that Jesus was in fact the CEO of KM sports,
what their attitude would be, I think that's amazing. So
let me flip this around. Let's say that that God's
opened the door and and and this is an important
question because I want people to apply this to failures
(41:28):
in their own life. You sign somebody, you really think
they're great. And then those sad stories that make the
news and my heart breaks. So this guy's going to jail.
This guy was involved in a hit and run. This
guy was involved in drugs. And and you helped sign him.
What do you how do you say, Lord, I can't
take that personally. What do you how do you deal
with that? Where you think, man, I saw what this
could have been, but it's not.
S6 (41:48):
Mhm. Uh, again we could talk for another hour on that.
I have received some really heartbreaking phone calls over the years,
and quite honestly, I'm so thankful in that moment that
I am I am an agent because God called me
to be, not just because I thought it would look
fun and that it seemed like a dream job. I
know that it is my ministry, and it is my
(42:09):
calling and my assignment from the Lord to do this.
And so I know in that moment that those are
the most critical moments when I truly am called to
be a light, and I'm there to provide wisdom and
answers and guidance and even teach my players about grace
and forgiveness and how to how to not just stay
(42:30):
in that dark place, but also how to repent and
walk forward and pursue a better life. And so for me,
I say this all the time when you're pursuing your calling,
even the really bad days, the really tough moments, um,
are fulfilling because you know that you're supposed to be there,
you're equipped and you're prepared, and God is with you
(42:51):
in those moments, giving you the strength and the wisdom
to say, okay, here's what we need to do to
move forward. Here's how we need to to solve this problem.
And so I look at it, I try and I'm human, I, I, I,
I don't get it right every single time. But I
see every problem as an opportunity that okay, how can
I be, you know, God's voice here. How can I
(43:13):
be the hands and feet of Jesus in this situation,
even though it's a horrible situation? What good can come
from this? And how do we get there?
S1 (43:21):
Well, not a missionary in Africa, but a missionary nonetheless. Kelly,
did your dad? Is your dad still alive and did
he get to see you become a sports agent?
S6 (43:32):
Oh. Didn't he? Uh, yeah. He passed away right before
I took the bar exam. So he didn't even see
me sworn in as an attorney. Um, which I know
would have made him very proud. And then as a, uh,
high school, you know, a decorated high school football player
and then a play by play guy, I grew up
listening to him call games.
S1 (43:50):
Oh.
S6 (43:50):
And, uh, and I would have. I can only imagine
how proud he would be of me now that not
only do I know X's and O's, but I am
actually representing NFL athletes.
S1 (44:00):
I was going to say, why do I think the
buttons on his shirt would just pop right off his chest?
And you know what? I know based on our conversation
this hour, and I'm so glad you and I are
going to spend eternity together. I know your Heavenly Father
is unbelievably proud of you as well. Thank you for
taking this quote. Dream job. Everybody thinks that looking on
the outside in that you're using this as a mission field. Yeah,
(44:22):
it's the play playing field we're talking about. But you
know what? In Kelly Masters life, professional sports are her
mission field. Pray for her, would you? That God would
continue to let her light so shine before men? And
not only that, that the way she's taught us, we
would learn what it means to have a high impact
life by saying, yes, Lord, putting our hand in his
and following him wherever he leads. Thank you so much
(44:45):
for joining us. We'll see you next time on In
the Market with Janet Parshall.
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