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Speaker 2: Good morning, afternoon everyone. Every one is having a start
Speaker 2: to their day. My name is Isaiah Jones. I work
Speaker 2: at UTA and our New York office side and then
Speaker 2: our comedy and live touring group. I have the pleasure
Speaker 2: today to introduce to Nicole Linda, one of our colleagues
Speaker 2: here at UTA. I think some of you probably are
Speaker 2: probably very familiar with her amazing success. But for those
Speaker 2: of you who are not going to run through a
Speaker 2: couple of things and then click kick it over to
Speaker 2: Cliff to introduce the eyl Nicole is a PRIG graduate
Speaker 2: of the University of Oklahoma with a bachelor's degree in
Speaker 2: Business management and Doctor of Law with honors. She has
Speaker 2: tackled Wall Street as a financial analyst and obtain both
Speaker 2: our Series seven and Series sixty three certifications. In fifty
Speaker 2: Nicole made one of the biggest touchdowns of her career,
Speaker 2: thus far becoming the first female agent to represent top
Speaker 2: NFL agency Players REP. Twenty seventeen, Players Rep was acquired
Speaker 2: by Young Money APAA Sports Agency, owned by world renow
Speaker 2: rapper Lil Wayne. I'm sure we all no. In twenty
Speaker 2: twenty one, Nicole elevated her career and joined the team
Speaker 2: that Clutch Sports Group as their new President of Football Operations.
Speaker 2: Nicole's incredible business avvy and strong will to succeed as
Speaker 2: letter to become one of the youngest female sports agents
Speaker 2: in the industry, signing her first client at only twenty six.
Speaker 2: Her extensive client list includes NFL players with the Denver Broncos,
Speaker 2: Oakland Raiders, Washington Commanders, and that's being nominated soft ball
Speaker 2: star and a ballerina from the famous American Ballet Theater.
Speaker 2: We are extremely excited to have her here with us
Speaker 2: and I'm gonna pick it over to Cliff.
Speaker 3: Hello, Hello, Hello, everyone. Happy Tuesday to everybody. So I'm
Speaker 3: more than honored to introduce these these two illustrious gentlemen,
Speaker 3: the hosts of the the Infamous and the Illustrious Earned
Speaker 3: Your Leisure podcast. These fellas have two of the top
Speaker 3: ten finance and business podcasts out with Earn Your Leisure
Speaker 3: and Market Mondays. They also have like their new show
Speaker 3: Assets of Reliabilities that came out, Please go check that out.
Speaker 3: They're also proud members of the Beer Gang as you
Speaker 3: all see.
Speaker 4: Okay, okay. They are probably.
Speaker 3: One of the most exciting clients that we have to
Speaker 3: date on the bleeding edge of culture, finance, business and sports.
Speaker 3: So we're extremely excited to introduce the men, the myth
Speaker 3: and the Legends, Troy Millings and Rashad Balah.
Speaker 4: Thank you for having us yl, Cliff.
Speaker 5: We appreciate that, appreciate that much.
Speaker 3: Love, So from here I'm gonna go ahead and let
Speaker 3: you guys take it over and allow you all to
Speaker 3: have the conversation. After this, We'll also have some have
Speaker 3: Q and a's that I'll be able to feed to
Speaker 3: you guys.
Speaker 6: Appreciate it for sure. I appreciate it, Isaiah Man.
Speaker 7: I appreciate you getting the Washington team right man, that's
Speaker 7: my team.
Speaker 6: So appreciate you.
Speaker 4: Nicole. First and foremost is honor.
Speaker 8: Thank you. I'm excited to be here. How's it going?
Speaker 4: Good? Good? You know, it's so crazy.
Speaker 5: We have posted you on our platform at the beginning,
Speaker 5: like three years ago, like when we first started Instagram.
Speaker 5: You were one of the first stories that we posted
Speaker 5: about the young Money thing and we actually tried to
Speaker 5: get you on the podcast then like three years ago,
Speaker 5: it be tough.
Speaker 8: Now look we're here, we're here.
Speaker 5: Yeah, three years later that before, it's yeah, but you know,
Speaker 5: big fans of what you got going on. So first
Speaker 5: and foremost, thank you for joining us, and congratulations all
Speaker 5: your success.
Speaker 8: Thank you. I'm excited to be here.
Speaker 4: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 5: So I guess we could just jump right into it,
Speaker 5: so people might not be fully aware of your journey,
Speaker 5: and it just kind of gave some background. But it's
Speaker 5: interesting because you come from a finance background from Wall
Speaker 5: Street talking about Servy seven and different things like that.
Speaker 5: That's like in our world. So how did you transition
Speaker 5: from working on Wall Street being in finance to you know,
Speaker 5: being an NFL agent and now being you know, the
Speaker 5: head of the football division at clubch Yeah.
Speaker 8: So I, you know, I always knew that I wanted
Speaker 8: to work with athletes. I didn't exactly know that it
Speaker 8: was called a sports agent, but I knew the capacity
Speaker 8: that I wanted to work with them, and so I
Speaker 8: thought that it was a financial advisor. And so I
Speaker 8: moved to New York City. I worked at this big
Speaker 8: company called Morgan Stanley. I was actually doing investment banking
Speaker 8: at the time, but wanted to flip to the financial
Speaker 8: advisor side. And so I met with the financial advisor,
Speaker 8: kind of told him what I was interested in, and
Speaker 8: he's like, you want to be an agent. He's like,
Speaker 8: you don't want to be a financial advisor. So I
Speaker 8: was like, really, what does an agent do? And so
Speaker 8: he's explaining to me exactly what that is is. And
Speaker 8: once I realized I was in kind of the wrong field,
Speaker 8: I went and applied to take the lsat probably within
Speaker 8: like a week, and then applied to law school like
Speaker 8: it was, you know, really quick. In order to be
Speaker 8: an NFL agent, you have to have a postgraduate degree,
Speaker 8: so either a law degree or a master's degree. So
Speaker 8: that's why I ended up going to law school and
Speaker 8: went to law school graduate, waited there in two and
Speaker 8: a half years. Spent about six about eight months at
Speaker 8: the NFL Players Association before I got certified. Got certified,
Speaker 8: and then I started this dual career as an attorney
Speaker 8: and a sports agent. So I worked at the number
Speaker 8: three ranked a law firm in the world's huge international
Speaker 8: law firm, and then I also worked at Players Rep
Speaker 8: which became Young Money Sports kind of at the same time.
Speaker 8: So I was moonlighting as an agent for about six
Speaker 8: to seven years before I joined Clutge doctor Lynn.
Speaker 7: Okay, So I meant most people, I mean, especially for
Speaker 7: my generation, when we thought agents, you know, people we
Speaker 7: watched Jeri McGuire like sounds all.
Speaker 6: Right, But what is the actual role of an agent?
Speaker 6: All right?
Speaker 7: Because like most people think like that's the person that
Speaker 7: gets to meet the athlete and hang out on the
Speaker 7: sideline and what it's time to do a deal like, oh,
Speaker 7: they'll come around, but what is it the actual role
Speaker 7: of the agent.
Speaker 8: So the actual role my job description is that I
Speaker 8: negotiate the contract for the player on behalf of the
Speaker 8: player with the team. Like that is the box. That
Speaker 8: is really all my job is now from a day
Speaker 8: to day. It doesn't look just like that. That may
Speaker 8: be what the job description reads, but it's really me
Speaker 8: wearing a bunch of hats. So I'm a personal assistant,
Speaker 8: I'm a travel agent, I'm a friend, a mentor. You know,
Speaker 8: it could be anything from planning a vacation for an athlete,
Speaker 8: negotiating an endorsement deal, to being a therapist and talking
Speaker 8: about mental health. Like really, you're kind of the glue
Speaker 8: for the player. So it's an everyday thing. So when
Speaker 8: I'm repping a player, I'm talking to them at least
Speaker 8: once a day about it, any and everything.
Speaker 4: So we interview Bobby Wagner.
Speaker 5: Yes, great guy, and we know a few are a
Speaker 5: few other players in the league. We know a lot
Speaker 5: of players in the league actually, So what's interesting about
Speaker 5: him is that he does not have an agent. He
Speaker 5: represents himself and that's something that's kind of become a
Speaker 5: little bit more popular nowadays, especially what contracts kind of
Speaker 5: being set already is not really a lot of negotiation.
Speaker 4: Correct me if I'm wrong.
Speaker 5: So how do you feel about that players representing themselves
Speaker 5: and you do you think that that is a trend
Speaker 5: that will continue?
Speaker 8: So kind of to your point about contracts being lockstep,
Speaker 8: that's only in the rookie deal. So veteran deals are
Speaker 8: not lockstep. You very much have to negotiate everything from
Speaker 8: the money to the language to the payout. It takes
Speaker 8: a skill set. There are a few players that represent themselves,
Speaker 8: but I would say it's not a trend yet. I
Speaker 8: mean I could name maybe four out of two thousand players,
Speaker 8: so we hear the big name, so it makes us
Speaker 8: think that it's pretty common, but it's still not very
Speaker 8: common for me. If a player is able to right
Speaker 8: and they've got the knowledge and the expends to negotiate
Speaker 8: their own deal, totally do it. You know, I want
Speaker 8: you to feel empowered. I personally, if I need surgery,
Speaker 8: I'm not doing my own surgery. I'm going to a doctor.
Speaker 8: But that's just me. You know, some people like people
Speaker 8: google their symptoms. I like to go to the doctor,
Speaker 8: so I think it's similar to that. You know, there's
Speaker 8: Bobby did a great job with his deal, phenomenal job,
Speaker 8: but that is not always the case unfortunately. You know,
Speaker 8: we've seen some deals that have been negotiated by non agents,
Speaker 8: not attorneys, and they just you know, are not up
Speaker 8: to par with the market. So if you can do it, great,
Speaker 8: you know, I just what we're paid is such a fraction,
Speaker 8: and you know, I pay people what they're worth, and
Speaker 8: there are any expertise I think is worth it.
Speaker 4: With the commission got cut recently, it's like two percent
Speaker 4: now like that, No, it's three. Yeah, but it was
Speaker 4: higher than that previously, right, It's.
Speaker 8: It's always been three, but they're able to negotiate it down.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 7: So so we're in a Black History month, and when
Speaker 7: we talk about history, obviously black future, Black Future month
Speaker 7: as well, because we shout out to yeah, that's right,
Speaker 7: Black Future Month, and that's about the future, especially for
Speaker 7: females and sports. Right, we don't really see females as agents,
Speaker 7: and we're starting to see it now and in the
Speaker 7: training and coaching, but I haven't seen many female agents.
Speaker 7: It's specifically black female agents.
Speaker 4: So what has that.
Speaker 7: Journey been like for you some you know, trials and
Speaker 7: tribulations that you've had to face as a black female
Speaker 7: indos industry.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I mean it's not easy. It's definitely gotten to
Speaker 8: a point now where people are used to seeing me
Speaker 8: in the rooms and there's not that well factor. But
Speaker 8: early on it was really tough. You know. I think
Speaker 8: the first half that made it difficult was recruiting. Right,
Speaker 8: I go into a player's room and I'm talking to dad,
Speaker 8: and Dad is quizzing me on the game of football,
Speaker 8: you know, charging me up. The other aspect of it.
Speaker 8: I signed my first client at twenty six. The first
Speaker 8: player I ever signed was a veteran player who was
Speaker 8: twenty five. And so these are my peers. You know.
Speaker 8: I'm finally aging out of the locker room, praise God.
Speaker 8: But my age was bigger of an issue than my
Speaker 8: gender and my race, you know. I think being young
Speaker 8: was such a trial and tribulation for me. So there's
Speaker 8: that half of it, and then the second half is
Speaker 8: dealing with the NFL and being taken serious by the
Speaker 8: general managers and the scouts and salary cap people, and
Speaker 8: that took a while. You know. I tell women all
Speaker 8: the time that excellence is your greatest currency, right, so
Speaker 8: if you are excellent everything you do, there will be
Speaker 8: no one that can question. And so for me, I
Speaker 8: always work harder than my peers. You know, I'm trying
Speaker 8: to show up excellent every single day. I want to
Speaker 8: make it tough for them to say anything about nicolon.
Speaker 5: So let me ask you this because I think there's
Speaker 5: a lot of college students on this. Of course, So
Speaker 5: let's get into like the education. What are the steps
Speaker 5: to become an NFL agent? Can you just kind of
Speaker 5: walk like step by step process.
Speaker 8: So graduating from college is a requirement, so NBA is different.
Speaker 8: This is just NFL graduating from college getting some type
Speaker 8: of postgraduate degree. So that can be a master's degree.
Speaker 8: You know, you can go get an online one year
Speaker 8: master's degree, or you can go to law school. You
Speaker 8: do not have to go to law school to be
Speaker 8: an agent. Get that question all the time. Do I
Speaker 8: think it was valuable? Yes? What I've done it again? Yes,
Speaker 8: but it's not necessary passing whatever masters or a JD
Speaker 8: program you're in, and then you've got to sit for
Speaker 8: the NFLPA exam. That exam is offered only once a
Speaker 8: year in July for two days and you have to
Speaker 8: apply for that exam in January. So you apply in January.
Speaker 8: You spend like three thousand dollars to apply. They do
Speaker 8: this big background check on you, all these references. They're
Speaker 8: going to do a credit check to make sure you
Speaker 8: don't have too much debt. I mean, it's a whole thing.
Speaker 8: And then you sit for the exam in July. The
Speaker 8: test results come out around October. This year, only thirty
Speaker 8: five percent of people that took the exam past, so
Speaker 8: it's a very low pass rate. And then you're registered.
Speaker 8: And then every year that you are an agent, you
Speaker 8: have to pay NFLPA dues, which are around twenty five hundred.
Speaker 8: You have to pay NFLPA insurance, which is another fifteen hundreds.
Speaker 8: It's five grand, five grand, no players, just to say
Speaker 8: you're an agent. You have to pay a fee in
Speaker 8: every single state you recruit in. So in Tech says
Speaker 8: it's five hundred in Alabama. I think it's a thousand.
Speaker 8: You have to get a surety bond in every single
Speaker 8: state you recruit in, so that's another thousand bucks per state.
Speaker 8: So if I recruit in five ten states, I mean
Speaker 8: easily we're talking twenty five thousand dollars a year to
Speaker 8: be an agent and not have a client. So when
Speaker 8: people ask me what's the big biggest barrier to entry,
Speaker 8: it's money. People that are agents have money, you know,
Speaker 8: or they had an investor, which is why I worked
Speaker 8: this law job for seven years because I didn't have
Speaker 8: no money. But that's kind of the steps.
Speaker 4: Now, that's good information. But then so also to follow
Speaker 4: up from that.
Speaker 5: Okay, so say somebody wants to they they can do
Speaker 5: that financially, they passed, they passed it, but they still
Speaker 5: don't have any clients. So the next step I would
Speaker 5: assume would be to try to work with an agent
Speaker 5: to try to get hired by an agency or do
Speaker 5: you see people doing it independently and just trying to
Speaker 5: just get clients on their own.
Speaker 8: Most young agents are on their own, so I know
Speaker 8: that we see the big clutch cias of the world,
Speaker 8: those are few far in between. There's nine hundred certified agent.
Speaker 8: I'd say eight hundred of them are on their own
Speaker 8: or in small little agents with a couple groups, like
Speaker 8: small little groups of agents. Most are not at big agencies,
Speaker 8: so most are going to be on their own.
Speaker 7: Yeah, So what led you to the process of choosing
Speaker 7: players rep. Because I mean at that point, I mean,
Speaker 7: I'm a huge I'm a huge wings fand by the way,
Speaker 7: but at that point, were you trying to find agency
Speaker 7: that says, you know what they're going to value me
Speaker 7: or what was that process like for you?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 8: I mean they were the only ones that answered the phone.
Speaker 8: I probably called one hundred agents, tried to get a
Speaker 8: job with everyone in the business. No one returned my call.
Speaker 8: The guy that ended up giving my giving me my
Speaker 8: shot was named Kenzarnoff. He worked a players rep. He
Speaker 8: rapped a bunch of players from OU and I went
Speaker 8: to OU and I was friends with a lot of
Speaker 8: these guys, and so I kind of leveraged it and
Speaker 8: was like, hey, I know all your clients. Can you
Speaker 8: give me ten minutes? And we got on a call
Speaker 8: and he just told me, Hey, this is a very
Speaker 8: terrible business. It's so hard to get in, and you're
Speaker 8: a woman, and you're a black woman. Like he basically
Speaker 8: was trying to talk me out of it. I get
Speaker 8: it now that I'm on the side, I totally get it.
Speaker 8: And he said, I get this call twice a week.
Speaker 8: Why are you different? He's like, what makes you stand out.
Speaker 8: Why would I give you a shot? I got one
Speaker 8: hundred kids that call me every day. And he's like,
Speaker 8: if you could get me a meeting with let's say
Speaker 8: the Raven Clark And this is a kid at the
Speaker 8: time that was like this top offensive lineman. He's like, okay, sure,
Speaker 8: I hear you out, like he just named a person.
Speaker 8: And so I end up actually getting him that meeting
Speaker 8: the next day and then he hired me. So it
Speaker 8: was one of those weird just god moments.
Speaker 6: You know who you never know who you know.
Speaker 5: It's actually, you know, you bring up a very valid point,
Speaker 5: and especially for all of the college students that are listening,
Speaker 5: because a lot of people like ask for internships or mentorships,
Speaker 5: but they go about it the wrong way. They go
Speaker 5: about it more so like you can help me, but
Speaker 5: that's more of a charity thing, and you can only
Speaker 5: do so much charity.
Speaker 4: But if you can actually add value to a person, and.
Speaker 5: It's like like how you introduced him to somebody that
Speaker 5: he was looking. Now, that's the actual value add You
Speaker 5: don't even have to have money to have some level
Speaker 5: of value that you can bring. So talk about that,
Speaker 5: because you guys said I know that. You know a
Speaker 5: lot of people probably hit you up all the time,
Speaker 5: like can I intern for you? Can I work for
Speaker 5: under you? Can I introduce me to this person that person?
Speaker 5: Like talk about how it's important to add value first
Speaker 5: when looking to be a part of something.
Speaker 8: I one hundred percent agree. I wrote a book and
Speaker 8: I have a whole chapter on this as being a
Speaker 8: value add when it comes to this mentor question. You know,
Speaker 8: I do have guys and women reach out to me
Speaker 8: all the time and say can you mentor me? And,
Speaker 8: like you said, that's charity. And although I do find
Speaker 8: in my heart to help as many as I can,
Speaker 8: it's tough to filter through who do you choose? And
Speaker 8: so when you're looking to find a mentor, you definitely
Speaker 8: want to see if there's something you can do for them.
Speaker 8: You know, like you said, it doesn't have to be money,
Speaker 8: but maybe it's a relationship, maybe it's a connection, Maybe
Speaker 8: it's just taking stuff off their plate. You know, Hey,
Speaker 8: can I be your assistant for free for a month?
Speaker 8: Let me organize your emails. You know, I noticed that
Speaker 8: when you post a screenshot on your phone, you had
Speaker 8: a lot of messages that run read let me go
Speaker 8: through messages, let me organize something for you. Whatever that
Speaker 8: may be, something that sets you apart. You know, it's
Speaker 8: got to be a mutually beneficial relationship unless you know
Speaker 8: the person.
Speaker 7: Yeah, you said that when you made the phone call.
Speaker 7: You know the general is trying to discourage you from
Speaker 7: taking it, and you understood it. Now being on this side,
Speaker 7: my gosh, So can we dive into it a little bit?
Speaker 7: Like what are the things that you that you were
Speaker 7: seeing it? You know, like, oh, I get it. Maybe
Speaker 7: he was trying to protect me. But I'm going to
Speaker 7: go with my intuition and my gut and this is
Speaker 7: my passion. So what were the things were you seeing?
Speaker 8: I mean, I think the biggest thing for me is
Speaker 8: that there are a lot of ways to work with
Speaker 8: athletes and a lot of ways to change the lives
Speaker 8: of athletes without being an agent. And so when I
Speaker 8: meet with people and they say they want to be
Speaker 8: an agent, I want to know that you can't sleep
Speaker 8: at night unless you're an agent. If not, you can
Speaker 8: work for a team and do some of the similar
Speaker 8: things that I do without the risk, right and without
Speaker 8: the work that is involved. We talked about the money part.
Speaker 8: It cost a ton of money. You know, we didn't
Speaker 8: even get into how much it costs to sign a player.
Speaker 8: You know, it could cost twenty five thousand to one
Speaker 8: hundred thousand dollars to sign a player, and god forbid,
Speaker 8: he goes undrafted. You don't get your money back. So
Speaker 8: it's almost like gambling, or you know you're in. You're investing.
Speaker 8: Just like investments, it can hit or or it may not,
Speaker 8: and so the amount of money you have to put
Speaker 8: in and the level of risk that it takes is
Speaker 8: not always worth it. You're never off. I'm always on right.
Speaker 8: I never have a day off. My phone is always buzzing.
Speaker 8: If somebody calls me at two in the morning, I
Speaker 8: take the call. I don't get to take planned vacations.
Speaker 8: There's never a day I can just go out the
Speaker 8: country and plan it in advance, Like that's not the case.
Speaker 8: So I just I want to make sure that people
Speaker 8: know there's other jobs where you can work with athletes.
Speaker 8: You don't have to have all the bad stuff. You know,
Speaker 8: you can be a publicist, you can work for a team,
Speaker 8: you can work for the Players Association, all of those
Speaker 8: impact athletes every single day in a similar way that
Speaker 8: I get.
Speaker 5: To do that.
Speaker 7: People didn't see that that side of it. So I
Speaker 7: mean that that's good to know. Now you said that
Speaker 7: it's hit or miss, and so a lot of times
Speaker 7: people will focus on getting that first round pick, getting
Speaker 7: in that first round pick, I'm assuming because of the
Speaker 7: guaranteed contract that comes with it. What was that process
Speaker 7: like for you, because I know you cured a top
Speaker 7: three picks, So what was that process like?
Speaker 8: Yeah, I mean, of course we all want first round picks,
Speaker 8: but there's only thirty two of them, and there's nine
Speaker 8: hundred certified agents, and you're competing against Tom Brady's agent
Speaker 8: and Aaron Rodgers agent, you know, and so it's I
Speaker 8: would love to have millions of first round picks, but
Speaker 8: they're very, very hard to get. And so when I
Speaker 8: started off in my career, I had to go after
Speaker 8: the guys that I knew would go undrafted but they
Speaker 8: could maybe make a team. So it's like finding the gyms,
Speaker 8: the guys that were like great players but went under
Speaker 8: the radar, and I could get them a shot. As
Speaker 8: far as getting like a top five, top ten pick,
Speaker 8: I've had three top ten picks now, and you know,
Speaker 8: it's been nothing but favor you know, I would love
Speaker 8: to say that I worked harder than everybody else or
Speaker 8: smarter than everybody else, But there's an ounce of like
Speaker 8: favor or luck or God or whatever you want to
Speaker 8: call it, that goes into some of these moments, and
Speaker 8: people don't like to talk about it. They want to
Speaker 8: look like they just worked their butt off and that
Speaker 8: was it, and I'm like, nah, it was God. My
Speaker 8: situation with getting my top three pick was the kids
Speaker 8: saw something different in me and wanted to make history.
Speaker 8: I want to design a woman so that he could
Speaker 8: help change the trajectory for women. He did not say, Nicole,
Speaker 8: you were the smartest person I've ever met. You work
Speaker 8: harder than everybody else. I can't take that credit. Like
Speaker 8: a lot of it was just favor. Yes, I work
Speaker 8: very hard and I think I'm smart, but there's that
Speaker 8: aspect and so that's tough. I can't teach that part,
Speaker 8: you know, absolutely.
Speaker 5: You said so you said something about one hundred thousand
Speaker 5: just to even sign an athlete.
Speaker 4: Can you talk about that? Can you go into like
Speaker 4: what you actually mean by that?
Speaker 8: Of course, so you sign a player in January, that's
Speaker 8: when their season is over and they can eligible, you know,
Speaker 8: legally sign with you. From January to March. First, they
Speaker 8: trained for the Combine. The combine is a place where
Speaker 8: they go and they test, see who runs the fastest,
Speaker 8: who jumps the highest, all of that. During those eight
Speaker 8: weeks before the combine, they've got to prepare, and so
Speaker 8: you send your guy to a training facility to prepare
Speaker 8: to run fast and jump high. And those training facilities,
Speaker 8: you got to pay for the facility. You got to
Speaker 8: pay for their rental car for eight weeks, you got
Speaker 8: to pay for their food, chef nutrition, and you got
Speaker 8: to give them some spending money to live on. Depending
Speaker 8: on the player, you're not spending less than i'd say
Speaker 8: now probably thirty five k, like seventh round pick, still
Speaker 8: around thirty five K. And then the stipend is bigger
Speaker 8: depending on the higher rank of the player. So you
Speaker 8: could end up spending one hundred thousand dollars on a
Speaker 8: client and if they don't make it or they go
Speaker 8: lower in the draft. You know, this is not alone.
Speaker 8: This is you just saying I'm investing in you and
Speaker 8: then hopefully you make it back.
Speaker 1: You may.
Speaker 4: I used to go to IMG Academy.
Speaker 5: So when I was at IMG, I was I was
Speaker 5: in high school, but all of the NFL guys is
Speaker 5: coming to actually train, So like Byron left Ridge and
Speaker 5: Eli Manning and all of these guys were down there,
Speaker 5: and it was just it was cool to see, like,
Speaker 5: you know, the NFL they were training going to the
Speaker 5: combine at that point in time, so I got to
Speaker 5: see firsthand what you're actually explaining. But then also talk
Speaker 5: about what if somebody decides to go with somebody else?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, how how's that?
Speaker 5: Like they can there's nothing to stop them from erners?
Speaker 6: What's up?
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Speaker 8: Changing your mind the last minute right m happens all
Speaker 8: the time, or changing their mind when they get into
Speaker 8: their career after you spend all this money. Three hundred
Speaker 8: nfl agents per year switch agents three hundred. That's just
Speaker 8: a statistic. There's not a lot of littlety in our business.
Speaker 8: That's the other part makes it really difficult. So every
Speaker 8: year three hundred are changing their agents. And I've gotten
Speaker 8: the benefit of that because I've have a lot of
Speaker 8: veteran guys that have switched over to me that maybe
Speaker 8: went to bigger agents and didn't get the individual attention.
Speaker 8: But you know, you put all the money and you
Speaker 8: put all the time, like you said, and then you
Speaker 8: could lose out on the player at any point in
Speaker 8: their career, right before they're up for their big second
Speaker 8: contract that you work so hard for, right before they're
Speaker 8: getting drafted, right after the draft. Yeah, I mean it's
Speaker 8: emotionally taxing, and your life, your mortgage getting paid, your
Speaker 8: car note getting paid, is contingent on how a twenty
Speaker 8: two year old feels about you that day when they
Speaker 8: wake up. Do you know the level of anxiety that
Speaker 8: you have. But women out there, if you've ever been ghosted, geez,
Speaker 8: that is nothing compared to you.
Speaker 6: Oh no, not after Valencie, as they know, I know,
Speaker 6: let me, let me, let me.
Speaker 8: Ghost fruits all the time. It's like you're recruiting kid
Speaker 8: for two years and then all Suddens have takes them
Speaker 8: back and it's like what happened? You know? So the
Speaker 8: story of my life is getting ghosted.
Speaker 7: Yeah, so you said you get players in January. Obviously
Speaker 7: that's after the college season ends. But I'm wondering now,
Speaker 7: with the NIL rules that are in place, like how
Speaker 7: that affects your business, right? Because now, I mean, you
Speaker 7: got kids, and we spend some time this weekend with
Speaker 7: some of the guys that you know play for some
Speaker 7: of the southern California teams that are making six figures,
Speaker 7: and it's like, all right, well this is different now,
Speaker 7: so what's that? What has NIL done for your profession?
Speaker 8: The hard part with NIL is that you know, players
Speaker 8: can sign as freshmen, and so I think for us
Speaker 8: it's it's as agents generally. I think we're all trying
Speaker 8: to decide do we want to get heavy in the business.
Speaker 8: Do we want to stand back? You know, the benefit
Speaker 8: of getting in is that maybe you build this relationship
Speaker 8: with this kid and then you get them for the draft.
Speaker 8: But the likelihood of that happening is slim. It's already
Speaker 8: hard to keep clients as it is, you know, hearing
Speaker 8: that statistic of three hundred guys switch in a ear,
Speaker 8: Signing a guy at eighteen as a freshman and making
Speaker 8: sure you've kept him happy for four years before the draft.
Speaker 8: It's it's dangerous. You know, I recruit a kid for
Speaker 8: six months and I'm in too long. You know, I
Speaker 8: came in too early. Now the new shiny toy comes
Speaker 8: and I lose four years. I mean that's tough. So
Speaker 8: but but there are some guys that are loyal and
Speaker 8: if you get in early and then they become the
Speaker 8: number one pick, you're happy you did. So it's really
Speaker 8: this tough decision. There's also, you know a lot of
Speaker 8: guys that won't get as much in I own money
Speaker 8: as they think, like our alignment defensive players, and then
Speaker 8: you sign them and they blame it on you. Oh,
Speaker 8: I mean I didn't get any marketing. My agent's not
Speaker 8: doing nothing. It's like, no, you're an offensive lineman.
Speaker 6: They don't make SI offense alignment.
Speaker 8: Yeah, so it can be a little bit difficult, and
Speaker 8: you don't want to take the blame. You don't want
Speaker 8: to lose a client and it be on you that
Speaker 8: you lost them.
Speaker 5: Well, how do you feel about the rule in general?
Speaker 5: As far as the uh, there's been something that's been
Speaker 5: you know, talked about for a long period of time
Speaker 5: for athletes. This still not actually getting paid from the universities,
Speaker 5: but at least that being they getting some endorsement deals.
Speaker 5: So how do you how do you feel about it,
Speaker 5: and how do you feel it will impact college sports.
Speaker 8: I think it was an easy way out for the NCUBA.
Speaker 8: This is, like you said, it's not pay for play.
Speaker 8: I think that's the bigger issues that they're literally playing
Speaker 8: for free when they should be being paid by the
Speaker 8: nc DOUBLEA. So that's a separate issue that still needs
Speaker 8: to be tackled. I'm excited that guys are able to
Speaker 8: benefit off their likeness. There's so many question marks though,
Speaker 8: Like you know, I have to remind players, you got
Speaker 8: to pay taxes on that money, right, and they don't
Speaker 8: know they get this one hundred thousand dollars check and
Speaker 8: they don't take taxes out like W two income it's
Speaker 8: ten ninety nine. They've got to pay it. They need
Speaker 8: to have LLCs, they maybe have lawyers. I've seen guys
Speaker 8: getting caught up in contracts with exclusivity provisions and now
Speaker 8: they can't sign anything else the rest of their college
Speaker 8: career because of this contract they signed. So it needs
Speaker 8: to be policed in a way that protects the players
Speaker 8: and it's just not not yet.
Speaker 7: So right now, the president of Football Operations at CLUTCH,
Speaker 7: what is that? What is your role at CLUTCH? And
Speaker 7: you know on a day to day what does that
Speaker 7: look like?
Speaker 6: Right?
Speaker 7: Are you still hand to hand with the clients or
Speaker 7: do you have a team under you now that works
Speaker 7: and they do with some of the heavy work that
Speaker 7: you use it do.
Speaker 8: Yeah, so I you know, I represent about twenty one
Speaker 8: NFL players personally, we have I think seventy five or
Speaker 8: so at CLUTCH, and so I still am day to
Speaker 8: day with my guys. We do have a team of
Speaker 8: people like client services, reps, marketing people that work with
Speaker 8: our players too. That takes a little bit of the
Speaker 8: burden off of me. But as president of Football oppos,
Speaker 8: it's more of just a big picture, right. It's more
Speaker 8: of me saying not just my twenty one players, but
Speaker 8: seventy five guys. You know, how are we operating as
Speaker 8: a group, whether that's going to the Senior Bowl or
Speaker 8: going to the Combine or making sure that they're set
Speaker 8: up for their off season training. It's more of that
Speaker 8: logistics for everyone and just kind of helping lead the
Speaker 8: division with my partner Bobo.
Speaker 4: So I forget what the exact number is.
Speaker 5: What is something like seventy percent of NFL players file
Speaker 5: for bankruptcy five years after they get finished playing something
Speaker 5: like that. Okay, so now that you are in a
Speaker 5: position to you know, influence and affect a lot of people,
Speaker 5: how do you change that statistic? Because you would assume that,
Speaker 5: you know, it would decrease as people make more money,
Speaker 5: but it really hasn't changed. Even though in salaries increase,
Speaker 5: it's still kind of the same rate of people mismanaging
Speaker 5: their money. So what a what is what is the
Speaker 5: core reasons for this? And what are some ways you
Speaker 5: think that you could possibly change that?
Speaker 8: Yeah, so I will say one of the biggest lessons
Speaker 8: I learned getting into this business because part of why
Speaker 8: I got in was guys gone broke. Me watching guys
Speaker 8: go from rags to riches to rags. That was why
Speaker 8: I wanted to get in, and that's why I went
Speaker 8: to finance, thinking, Okay, I'm gonna be their financial advisor.
Speaker 8: And so when I got in, I'm like, no, guys
Speaker 8: going broke under my watch, Like I'm going to be
Speaker 8: on it. And I learned that you can only protect
Speaker 8: a player so much. I had a player literally go
Speaker 8: broke me Nicole Lon who is so hands on, And
Speaker 8: the only reason why I got in this business was
Speaker 8: for that. And I watched this player go broke, and
Speaker 8: there is only so much I could do. These are
Speaker 8: grown men with their own money, and it was such
Speaker 8: a hard peel pill to swallow to know that no
Speaker 8: matter what you do or what you say, there's certain
Speaker 8: guys that will slip through the cracks, you know. So
Speaker 8: my goal is just if I can help majority as
Speaker 8: long as they have the resources, I mean, they've still
Speaker 8: got to take it. I say. The main reason why
Speaker 8: they caught some of the guys go broke is family members.
Speaker 8: You know, they're paying for everybody and the mama. And
Speaker 8: then it's little things like living up to certain standards
Speaker 8: of the NFL has, like away games. The guys wear
Speaker 8: these suits, right, they all get these suits for eight
Speaker 8: games a week, and they spend sixty grand on suits
Speaker 8: that they only can wear once because that's the rule.
Speaker 8: Little stupid stuff like that. You know, statistics show that
Speaker 8: some of those little things are part of the reason
Speaker 8: why guys go broke. It's like stuff that just it's
Speaker 8: literally throwing away money.
Speaker 6: So we shouldn't wait to cardia glasses.
Speaker 4: That's an investment. That's an investment.
Speaker 7: So I'm wondering now because obviously, you know, crypto is,
Speaker 7: you know, an asset class, a new one for this generation,
Speaker 7: and a lot of the high profile athletes have been
Speaker 7: taking portions of their salary in crypto. So you know
Speaker 7: what happens when you know one of your clients says, hey,
Speaker 7: I want to explore this route. What do you advise
Speaker 7: at this point? Right, we saw Odell caught a lot
Speaker 7: of flashback and people didn't really understand the terms of it.
Speaker 7: But like, what do you say to a client that says, hey,
Speaker 7: I want to explore this route too, You.
Speaker 8: Know, I think that's really for their financial advisor. I
Speaker 8: try to make sure that there's boundaries, you know. I
Speaker 8: don't manage a person's money. All My goal is to
Speaker 8: educate them on big picture like the thought process of money.
Speaker 8: You know, similar to me, a lot of the guys
Speaker 8: I've worked with grew up broke and so our thought
Speaker 8: process and the way we view money is really skewed.
Speaker 8: So I'm there for that part. But I want to
Speaker 8: make sure that they have the right people and the
Speaker 8: experts around them, So I asked them to go to
Speaker 8: their financial advisor, make sure that they know what they're
Speaker 8: into before they do it. Can't just go with what
Speaker 8: the trend is. You got to be able to explain
Speaker 8: to me, Hey, this is what crypto is, Nicole, and
Speaker 8: here's why it's important, and here's why I want to
Speaker 8: do it. If you can't talk it back to me,
Speaker 8: then you don't get it. And if you don't get it,
Speaker 8: your money shouldn't be in it.
Speaker 5: Have any Have any of clutch athletes taken salary and
Speaker 5: bitcoin or acts or side?
Speaker 8: No? Not on the football side. Okay, there's not a
Speaker 8: lot of guys in football generally that I've seen, like
Speaker 8: three or four. It's the same. It's just like getting
Speaker 8: paid and then you can put your money. I think
Speaker 8: it's more of a pr moment. If I'm keeping it real,
Speaker 8: it's like you could just go get your check and
Speaker 8: buy your own bitcoin.
Speaker 7: I think that's what when I was referring to people
Speaker 7: don't really understand the terms of the deal. So like
Speaker 7: when you see Odell do it, or we saw Aaron
Speaker 7: Rodgers take portion of it, there must be a part
Speaker 7: of that deal where they're like, hey, if you say this, then.
Speaker 4: Well it was ponsible by cash app exactly.
Speaker 5: So it's room with that cash up actually paid a
Speaker 5: million more money than they actually received, so.
Speaker 8: You know, some more of a marketing deal involved.
Speaker 4: Exactly.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you recently wrote a book, right I did?
Speaker 8: I did?
Speaker 4: Can you talk about that?
Speaker 8: Absolutely? So you know, the book is really a self
Speaker 8: help book. It's not a memoir. There's pieces of my life,
Speaker 8: whether it's like growing up or kind of working in
Speaker 8: the industry. Like, there's definitely some stories in there, but
Speaker 8: it's mostly about how to become your own agent. It's
Speaker 8: not about how to get into sports. You know. I
Speaker 8: feel like if you're not walking in your purpose, you're
Speaker 8: just working and living to die. And so I want
Speaker 8: the younger generation to really figure out what their purpose is,
Speaker 8: how to be successful in that purpose, you know, and
Speaker 8: how to really just navigate life. And so that's what
Speaker 8: what agent you use about. So it's everything from like
Speaker 8: how to take the jump to chase your dream to
Speaker 8: self care back.
Speaker 7: Like we never left, right we were here exactly, let's
Speaker 7: talk about that.
Speaker 8: I went and got the book agent you So, yeah,
Speaker 8: you can buy this book anywhere bart and Nobles, Amazon.
Speaker 8: Believe that it will change your life. Like I said,
Speaker 8: it's not a memoir, it is a self help book,
Speaker 8: and I and there's action items in it, and I've
Speaker 8: been working on it. I worked on it for years,
Speaker 8: So I believe it. I believe it'll change your life.
Speaker 7: And it's not necessarily for somebody that wants to get
Speaker 7: into the field of being an agent. You said, it's
Speaker 7: more for and for people to advocate for themselves. Right,
Speaker 7: So when you were coming up with the idea for
Speaker 7: the book and the concept for the book, what you're
Speaker 7: thinking about the young men and women that were, you know,
Speaker 7: trying to trailblaze in different areas of business and finance,
Speaker 7: So entrepreneurs, Yeah, I.
Speaker 8: Mean it's all I can think about is, you know,
Speaker 8: people getting a seat at the table whatever in their
Speaker 8: respective industries. How to get a seat at the table.
Speaker 8: People that look like us don't always have that opportunity.
Speaker 8: So what is it? What was the X factor for
Speaker 8: me that can apply to anybody in sports and finance?
Speaker 8: You know if you're an entrepreneur that that's the same
Speaker 8: thing that I did that others can do. And I
Speaker 8: really wanted to give the blueprint because people ask me
Speaker 8: all the time how'd you do it? And it's not
Speaker 8: about in the sports, but how did you reach your
Speaker 8: dream job? And I'm like, you can do it too, like,
Speaker 8: so I just want to give away the secret sauce.
Speaker 8: So get your get your dream job, get your book.
Speaker 4: There you have it.
Speaker 5: I think we have a few more minutes before we wrap,
Speaker 5: so I just wanted to ask you some questions. You know,
Speaker 5: being around what is what is a common denominate? Because,
Speaker 5: like I said, there's a lot of young people, So
Speaker 5: what are the common denominates that you see, whether it's
Speaker 5: high level performing athletes or being around Rich Paul or
Speaker 5: being around you know, anybody, Like, I'm sure that there's
Speaker 5: common themes that you see and that you can give
Speaker 5: advice for people to actually apply and to become successful.
Speaker 8: One obviously is work ethic. You know, I feel like
Speaker 8: that's super cliche, but the best of the best work
Speaker 8: harder than their peers, you know, point blank period. People
Speaker 8: think they're working hard until you're sitting next to Rich
Speaker 8: Paul and then you're like, oh am I working hard
Speaker 8: And it's similar to me. You think you're working hards
Speaker 8: you've really met me, and it's like it makes you
Speaker 8: want to level up. I think the second we talked
Speaker 8: about is excellence dooing and trying to be excellent everything
Speaker 8: you do, whether it's a small meeting, making sure you're
Speaker 8: on time, making sure you have the notes you know,
Speaker 8: or making sure that you have more information than everyone else.
Speaker 8: So like when I'm going in to meet a player,
Speaker 8: I'm going to know every stat I'm going to know
Speaker 8: the kid's birthday. I'm gonna know what elementary school he
Speaker 8: went to. I am going to be excellent everything I do.
Speaker 8: And then I think third is people that have really
Speaker 8: reached this caliber and success are comfortable with losing. And
Speaker 8: I talk about that in my book. It's like someone
Speaker 8: that is okay with getting to know, you know, they
Speaker 8: don't fall down and you know, slump and get depressed
Speaker 8: and say, hey this I'm giving up. It's like, no,
Speaker 8: they're comfortable with losing. They're comfortable with the know it
Speaker 8: motivates them to keep going.
Speaker 7: Probably, so I know you represent obviously NFL players and
Speaker 7: just other areas of talent that you represent. Did you
Speaker 7: ever think of any other professional leagues? You know, I'm
Speaker 7: just football is my thing, kind of been my dream job.
Speaker 7: I want to stay here, dominate this or all we
Speaker 7: think about expanding NHL, NBA, MLB.
Speaker 8: So I'm actually certified in the NBA as well, you know,
Speaker 8: I you know, I hate I'm not trying y'all spiritual,
Speaker 8: but you know, I felt like God told me to
Speaker 8: get certified. I don't recruit in the NBA. I just
Speaker 8: feel like I'm supposed to have it for a reason.
Speaker 8: I don't know what that reason is. So maybe on
Speaker 8: the next podcast in a year or two, it'll it'll
Speaker 8: all reveal itself. But I am certified in the NBA,
Speaker 8: and then I represent some pro softball players. So I've
Speaker 8: had three number one overall picks on the softball realm,
Speaker 8: which yes, there is a pro softball league, and I
Speaker 8: actually represent them for free. And so really for me,
Speaker 8: my way to get back to women's sports and really
Speaker 8: find that, you know, try to find that way to
Speaker 8: have parity in men and women's sports is by making
Speaker 8: sure that they have an advocate, they have an agent.
Speaker 8: A lot of them don't and most of the reason
Speaker 8: is because they can't afford it, and so I do
Speaker 8: that for them for no charge.
Speaker 7: Being so being certified in the NBA doesn't also quale
Speaker 7: for you for the w n B A as well.
Speaker 8: I think technically I don't think there's a certification for
Speaker 8: the w NBA. Okay, yeah, I don't think that there is.
Speaker 4: So what's next for you? You started off as in
Speaker 4: there Gohos, Cliff had, I had.
Speaker 3: I had a couple of questions to have to read
Speaker 3: out some of the q and as that we had
Speaker 3: come in.
Speaker 4: I mean, we're done, yeah, Cliff ispen in now Yeah?
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So the Jalen had a question h and was asking
Speaker 3: what would you tell your what was it that you
Speaker 3: were telling yourself while you were working in undergrad you know,
Speaker 3: in what that process looked like.
Speaker 8: Like to motivate myself.
Speaker 6: Yeah?
Speaker 8: Uh, you know, I don't My upbringing was a little rough,
Speaker 8: and so I think I was very much driven by
Speaker 8: not going back. You know. It was always like you
Speaker 8: are not about to be broken again. So I think
Speaker 8: there was a little bit of fear, like driven by fear,
Speaker 8: which is not something I'm proud to say, but you know,
Speaker 8: I just I didn't have a plan B. It was
Speaker 8: either I was going to be successful or I was
Speaker 8: going to be screwed. You know, I had to take
Speaker 8: care of family, and so I think it was more
Speaker 8: just me motivating myself that you don't ever want to
Speaker 8: go back to where you started. And you know, people
Speaker 8: will ask me the question, oh, could you have ever
Speaker 8: imagined this being your life fifteen years ago? I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 8: I could. I mean, I just always and I hope
Speaker 8: that you feel the same way about yourself and have
Speaker 8: that level of confidence. But I always knew it was
Speaker 8: never a question. It's like, oh, yeah, I'm a I'm
Speaker 8: a work for athletic. It's like I said it so confident,
Speaker 8: like probably jay Z did thirty years ago saying he's
Speaker 8: going to be a rapper. Like it was the same way.
Speaker 8: You know, It's like, yeah, I'm gonna be a rapper?
Speaker 4: What else?
Speaker 3: So so yeah, perfect, And I'm this question is for
Speaker 3: all of you, all for Nicole overshad Android, and it's
Speaker 3: I think it's very important because I think as any
Speaker 3: of like the students are starting to work their way
Speaker 3: up and understanding like the pressures that that is going
Speaker 3: to take in and learn how to live with that
Speaker 3: uncomfortability is also so important to you know, mental health
Speaker 3: and self care.
Speaker 6: So for for you know, for.
Speaker 3: All of you, what is it that they were asking
Speaker 3: what you did to make sure that you're you know,
Speaker 3: working on self care. So if there's anything that you
Speaker 3: all could offers, like nuggets uh for for how you
Speaker 3: you know, maintain that equilibrium, I think they'd be useful
Speaker 3: for everyone.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean for me personally, balance is a tough word,
Speaker 7: especially in our space, just because of a level of
Speaker 7: commitment and sacrifice that you have to make.
Speaker 6: But I guess set.
Speaker 7: In limits and so like for me personally, like even
Speaker 7: having people having access to me, I cut off at
Speaker 7: a certain point during my day just because I know
Speaker 7: that there's a family that's counting on me first and foremost. Right,
Speaker 7: I'm still a husband, I'm still a father, still a son,
Speaker 7: and a brother and an uncle to to a family,
Speaker 7: and so I have limits.
Speaker 6: Unto what I'll allow access.
Speaker 7: So trying to create those type of things in my
Speaker 7: life helps with I guess the imbalance that persists.
Speaker 6: So that would be one thing just to keep saying it.
Speaker 7: And they keep you grounded too, right, Like I never
Speaker 7: get they always like you guys are so humble when
Speaker 7: we meet you.
Speaker 6: It's like I'm like, yeah, I.
Speaker 7: Got like seven people that live around me that could
Speaker 7: care less what I'm doing. Right, They're like, yo, change,
Speaker 7: like did you take out the garbage? Like can you
Speaker 7: help me on my iPad? Like they could care less
Speaker 7: about somebody's portfolio that you're helping. Like these people keep
Speaker 7: you grounded and so that that helps with the you know,
Speaker 7: I guess kind of the the imbalance of life that
Speaker 7: we kind of live right now.
Speaker 3: What about you, Werisha? And then we talked about yoga
Speaker 3: and pilates this past week.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I haven't done either a very long time. But
Speaker 5: you know, it's difficult. I think, you know, Shannon Sharp
Speaker 5: had a great post, but I mean, of course we
Speaker 5: can kind of romanticize it and say.
Speaker 4: Like, you know, yeah, you can have it all.
Speaker 5: You could be balance, and I'm sure some people can,
Speaker 5: but it's definitely not a balanced life that we we're
Speaker 5: living right now, Like we.
Speaker 4: Travel all the time.
Speaker 5: Like's not it's not a normal they we're not living
Speaker 5: a normal life. But that's the sacrifice that you have
Speaker 5: to make if you want to be great, and the
Speaker 5: people around you have to accept that. And you know,
Speaker 5: I wish I could say something a little bit more
Speaker 5: gentle like how he just said it. But you know,
Speaker 5: right now, I feel like, you know, you could either
Speaker 5: be great or you could be normal, and there's nothing
Speaker 5: wrong with either one. But if you choose to be great,
Speaker 5: there's gonna be certain sacrifices that's gonna be made and
Speaker 5: certain people are going to suffer from that.
Speaker 4: But while you have time, you should make the time.
Speaker 5: So like whenever I'm in town, I always make the time,
Speaker 5: you know, go to my son's basketball games and be
Speaker 5: around my family because that's important to me.
Speaker 4: But there's a lot of games that I can't make,
Speaker 4: you know, it's just it is what it is.
Speaker 5: Like if we're traveling, if we're in a different country,
Speaker 5: I can't make that game, and you know other parents
Speaker 5: can make that game.
Speaker 4: So that's a sacrifice.
Speaker 5: That he's going to be in a different financial space
Speaker 5: than I was at his age, and he's going to
Speaker 5: be able to do different things. So what's more important?
Speaker 5: And I think for everybody that's in college that's listening,
Speaker 5: like you know, you have to make that decision too early,
Speaker 5: whether that's you know, it's going to affect your relationship,
Speaker 5: it's going to affect you know, the people that you're around.
Speaker 5: These are things that it is not really pretty to
Speaker 5: talk about, but it's a reality. So just know that
Speaker 5: when you're trying to, you know, reach the level of
Speaker 5: success that you think that you want to achieve.
Speaker 4: There's always a trade off for everything in life. Yeah.
Speaker 8: For me, it's just letting go of busy, being busy
Speaker 8: as a status symbol, even for myself, you know. And
Speaker 8: I'm not great with self care at all, So it's
Speaker 8: something that I struggle with.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 8: My goal is just to work smart and not hard,
Speaker 8: you know, doing things that are efficient, and I don't
Speaker 8: always do that. I'm a check, check the box type person,
Speaker 8: do all the things type person when a lot of
Speaker 8: it's wasting time. So I really want to get better
Speaker 8: at being like, let's work smart and not hard. But
Speaker 8: I have nothing else on self care. I'm the worst
Speaker 8: giving advice on that.
Speaker 6: Loties.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, very And so I think we're we're
Speaker 3: wrapping up one time here. So I wanted to just
Speaker 3: thank you guys a ton for for coming out here.
Speaker 3: I personally appreciate it. This is this is surreal for me,
Speaker 3: just personally, and I think that everyone's taking like a
Speaker 3: bunch of you know, excellent nuggets. Nicole, thank you so much,
Speaker 3: Rashad and Troy. We really appreciate you guys. Everyone each
Speaker 3: one of you, myself all had like a different path
Speaker 3: for us to even get, you know, onto this type
Speaker 3: of zoom and you know, get into this type of
Speaker 3: like environment, and for other people that look like us
Speaker 3: to see us here. You know, it's kind of it's
Speaker 3: a great moment to timestamp. So I just want to say,
Speaker 3: I appreciate you all.
Speaker 4: Appreciate it.
Speaker 7: I appreciate you too, man having us Cole, it was
Speaker 7: a pleasure, doctor, doctor Lynn.
Speaker 6: It was a pleasure.
Speaker 8: Thank you for having me.
Speaker 4: It took three years, but we got it done.
Speaker 8: It's worth the way, no time like now, exactly exactly.
Speaker 8: Thank you, sire.
Speaker 6: You guys have a great one.
Speaker 4: All right, all right, I'll go with yall.
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