Speaker 1: Are you ready for this? Sean Merriman A one a
Speaker 1: hand effect. Boom boom boom, out go the light. This
Speaker 1: is Lights Out with Sean Merriman. Now what's up, guys.
Speaker 1: We're back again with another Lights Out podcast with me
Speaker 1: Sean Merriman. And we're back again this week and um
Speaker 1: we we gotta. We got a really cool guest today
Speaker 1: and and something that we don't talk about as much.
Speaker 1: I know, I had a few guests come on, a
Speaker 1: lorenz O'Neil um akbar R g B. Miller to come on,
Speaker 1: and we talked about financial literacy. Today. We have a
Speaker 1: great agent, Nicole land Um what happens to have a
Speaker 1: book coming out and you know she is a is
Speaker 1: an agent and a great agent at that. But one
Speaker 1: of the one of the things that she's been talking
Speaker 1: about over this this period of time, and one thing
Speaker 1: if I've heard her talk personally about, is uh financial
Speaker 1: literacy and helping these guys out, especially when they get drafted,
Speaker 1: putting a plan for them in place, because I feel
Speaker 1: that there's not a plan full lot of guys, especially
Speaker 1: when you come out of school early, where you come
Speaker 1: from a background like I came from, where a lot
Speaker 1: of these things aren't taught. So we got a great
Speaker 1: guest coming up, Nicole ln How are you? Hey? Thank
Speaker 1: you for having me. Which which part of the country
Speaker 1: you and I am in Houston, Texas? Okay. You know
Speaker 1: I've been meaning to um kind of cross paths for
Speaker 1: some time. You got a couple of guys I know
Speaker 1: do you represent? And uh, I just thought it was
Speaker 1: it was It was great to hear. And I've heard
Speaker 1: you speak a few times, especially on the financial literacy
Speaker 1: part um that I think that a lot of guys, Uh,
Speaker 1: I need to hear, right, and I'm talking about my
Speaker 1: ten year old self of mine too, um, because I
Speaker 1: think we all go through that where um, you know,
Speaker 1: you just come into your money, You just come into
Speaker 1: successful the first time. Your head's kind of spending and
Speaker 1: you don't have any experience in you know, a lot
Speaker 1: of guys, especially the younger guys, you know, depending where
Speaker 1: you come from, make a lot of mistakes. Um. And
Speaker 1: you know, just to hear you talk about that has
Speaker 1: just been unreal And you know I appreciate you for that.
Speaker 1: Can you talk a little bit about your book? The
Speaker 1: book is called Agent. You show up, do the work
Speaker 1: and succeed on your own terms. You know, this book
Speaker 1: is really me pulling back the curtain on how I
Speaker 1: got to where I am. It's it's you know, my raw,
Speaker 1: unfiltered story. But it also is a blueprint. You know,
Speaker 1: the number one question I get all the time is
Speaker 1: how did you do it? And so this is the
Speaker 1: blueprint for anybody that's chasing their dreams, anybody that's you know,
Speaker 1: chasing after a goal. I want to teach the reader
Speaker 1: how to be their own agent, how to advocate for themselves,
Speaker 1: how to negotiate their own deal, how to get a
Speaker 1: seat at the table, how to find their life's purpose.
Speaker 1: So this is the this is that you know, where
Speaker 1: the checklist of how did it get there? Absolutely And
Speaker 1: you know one thing that you know kind of read
Speaker 1: about you, Nicole, is, uh, you know your upbringing and
Speaker 1: some of the things you went through. And I relate
Speaker 1: a lot to that because you know, a few times
Speaker 1: growing up I was homeless and I lived in shelters
Speaker 1: and back of the cars and things like that. And
Speaker 1: I always say this, um, those things, even though I
Speaker 1: was a terrible time in my life, has shaped a
Speaker 1: lot of what's going on now my life and the
Speaker 1: reason why I'm able to you know, always push forward,
Speaker 1: always keep things positive no matter what's going on. How
Speaker 1: much that has helped you and some of your upbringing,
Speaker 1: the things you dealt with um to you know, kind
Speaker 1: of your success now, you know, I think it. It
Speaker 1: gave me the It made me an impact. So it
Speaker 1: gave me the empathy for people that grew up like me,
Speaker 1: you know, grew up like you. I've had the same
Speaker 1: stories homeless, living in cars, not knowing what I'm gonna
Speaker 1: eat the next day as a child, and so when
Speaker 1: I'm working with people that have similar stories to me,
Speaker 1: or athletes, I can just relate on a different level, right,
Speaker 1: And it also gave me a different level of grit.
Speaker 1: You know, there was no Plan B for me. There's
Speaker 1: no trust fund, there's nobody to fall on. And so
Speaker 1: it was either I made it or I didn't. And
Speaker 1: so I always had that you know, that drive that
Speaker 1: maybe others didn't. No, absolutely, I I say this, it
Speaker 1: put something in you that most people don't have, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, until you really struggle and you know what
Speaker 1: you don't you know, you know what it's like to
Speaker 1: um to kind of wake up and not knowing what's
Speaker 1: gonna happen the next day. I remember coming home from
Speaker 1: practice and seeing um if viction notices on the door,
Speaker 1: or the sheriff's coming in, you know, to um to
Speaker 1: kick us out. And you know, so when when people
Speaker 1: say they're having a hard day, right, my my hard
Speaker 1: days were a lot different. So I look at everything
Speaker 1: on a grand scheme of things, and I'm able to
Speaker 1: put a lot of things in perspective. Now, how however,
Speaker 1: you passed this because you know, obviously these guys are
Speaker 1: coming out of college, um, you know, young and sometimes
Speaker 1: earlier I came out as a junior, and you know,
Speaker 1: you've got all these people just coming at you, pulling
Speaker 1: at you left and right. How how do you separate
Speaker 1: yourself when you're going to you know, being able to
Speaker 1: talk to new guys, right because you got these agents here.
Speaker 1: Some of them are walking up on the college campuses.
Speaker 1: Some of them, you know, just they're always around. And
Speaker 1: a lot of these guys there aren't good guys right there,
Speaker 1: just they're in there for the wrong reason. So how
Speaker 1: do you kind of separate yourself when um, you know,
Speaker 1: maybe discussion a new guy coming to sign with you. You
Speaker 1: You know, I think my work speaks for itself. You know,
Speaker 1: a lot of my guys have friends in the league
Speaker 1: or in college and they talk and so, you know,
Speaker 1: you get to kind of see that I do it differently.
Speaker 1: When I'm meeting with recruits. You know, we're talking about
Speaker 1: the contracts and the negotiation. All that's great, but that's
Speaker 1: a bare minimum. You know. My conversations are always also
Speaker 1: about what are we going to do when the game
Speaker 1: is over? What does that look like? And how am
Speaker 1: I going to be there right beside you when the NFL,
Speaker 1: which I think stands for not for long and that
Speaker 1: ends right, no, no, And you talked to talk about
Speaker 1: what are you doing after the game. And so I
Speaker 1: own a mm A league called Lights Out Extreme Fight,
Speaker 1: and I have a bunch of former guys from NFL rugby,
Speaker 1: former at pro athletes that are kind of transitioning into
Speaker 1: the next phase and they want to fight. I mean,
Speaker 1: I know it sounds like more of a brute kind
Speaker 1: of thing to do, but there's a lot of guys
Speaker 1: that are just strictly competitive to get done early. You know,
Speaker 1: I got I got injured. I blew my knee out
Speaker 1: of cane back from that, and I blew my Achilles
Speaker 1: out right after that. So I had to back to
Speaker 1: back major injuries. And I got done when I was
Speaker 1: going twenty nine years old. Um, and so you still
Speaker 1: have a lot of a lot of time left with
Speaker 1: another career. For me, I got into this in May space.
Speaker 1: How are you helping guys, because that's the hardest part,
Speaker 1: that's transitioning. UM. I remember sitting on set, I had
Speaker 1: to deal with NFL network, uh, And I was doing
Speaker 1: a commentated thing when I got done, And when I
Speaker 1: got out set, I was like, damn, this, this isn't enough.
Speaker 1: Like I was still going through it for a year
Speaker 1: or two trying to figure things out, even though I
Speaker 1: had plenty of things lined up. How are you helping
Speaker 1: guys transition? After the game? I start talking about it
Speaker 1: on day one. It's a lot easier to talk about
Speaker 1: Plan B when Plan A is still intact. It's a
Speaker 1: lot harder to talk about Plan B. But we have
Speaker 1: nothing else going. And so I find that let's figure
Speaker 1: that out while you're at the pinicle or the height
Speaker 1: of your career, not when you're on the way up.
Speaker 1: You know you're in a better headspace to have those conversations.
Speaker 1: And then I also you know, really encouraged and pushed
Speaker 1: all my guys to finish their degree. Those are things
Speaker 1: that you you know, you're forty and you don't want
Speaker 1: to go back and do that. You want to have
Speaker 1: that over with. And so we do that in the
Speaker 1: off season with all my players, and we do externships
Speaker 1: and you know, if they want to start a business,
Speaker 1: we make sure they have advisors. All of that is
Speaker 1: early on conversations, and I find that that's a lot
Speaker 1: easier for their transition. Fox Sports Radio has the best
Speaker 1: sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our
Speaker 1: shows at Fox Sports Radio dot com and within the
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio app search f s R to listen live.
Speaker 1: I say that all the time. And you know, you
Speaker 1: have a lot of guys that want to pick up
Speaker 1: and start doing someone they get done, and you know what,
Speaker 1: I what I tell them the co I said, look,
Speaker 1: I'm not saying that's a hunted per safety case, but
Speaker 1: when you're done, there's a lot of people that don't
Speaker 1: don't give a damn right. I mean, you're not in
Speaker 1: the same light as you were when you were playing
Speaker 1: and you on top of the world, and you on
Speaker 1: top of your game. Um, and so you have to
Speaker 1: build these relationships early on. You know, don't go to
Speaker 1: these people when you get done and you're trying to
Speaker 1: figure things out. Um, you know, get get into your
Speaker 1: local towns, getting get into whatever it is, charity or
Speaker 1: whatever you whatever you plan on doing when you're done,
Speaker 1: start doing it early on. I agree, absolutely, you know.
Speaker 1: And also while your name is still hot. Unfortunately, you know,
Speaker 1: when you're an athlete, that doesn't always your name does
Speaker 1: not continue to stay, you know, with the buzz, and
Speaker 1: so use your brand and your hype while you have it.
Speaker 1: I think that's the most important thing. And I said this, um,
Speaker 1: and I see it all the time about building a brand,
Speaker 1: and a lot of guys have to understand what that is,
Speaker 1: right because it's that's not necessarily that you you have
Speaker 1: to be a star at NFL. UM. You know, you're
Speaker 1: gonna have you a couple of big name guys per team,
Speaker 1: but you know, the rest kind of on the rest
Speaker 1: of the roster, you're gonna have a lot of guys
Speaker 1: that people don't know, especially when they get done playing.
Speaker 1: But you still have a brand, and so just talk
Speaker 1: talk talk a little bit about helping guys build their brand,
Speaker 1: whether it's through you know, intellectual property, whether it's through copyright,
Speaker 1: just something something that you kind of help don't put together. Um,
Speaker 1: so they had that longevity. Yeah, you know, I actually
Speaker 1: talked about this in my book. And it's not just
Speaker 1: for athletes. You know, every single human is a brand. Lawyers, engineers, accountants,
Speaker 1: whoever you are. You should be building your brand professionally
Speaker 1: and personally. And so I encourage my guys to come
Speaker 1: up with pillars, you know, three or four pillars that
Speaker 1: are basically the basis for your brand. What is what
Speaker 1: are those pillars of the faith? Is a family, is
Speaker 1: a comedy, And every single thing that you do should
Speaker 1: fall within those pillars, you know. And then like you mentioned,
Speaker 1: finding if you have a logo, making sure legally that
Speaker 1: you you own that by getting a trademark, or you know,
Speaker 1: if you're doing any of merchandise business, making sure you
Speaker 1: have the right business entities so that your taxes are
Speaker 1: done correctly. And so building a brand is twofold. But
Speaker 1: that second part of the actual physical merge brand we
Speaker 1: we help with all of the business formation and making
Speaker 1: sure everything set. That's extremely helpful because I was fortunate enough,
Speaker 1: you know, I had lights Out and I bought Lights
Speaker 1: Out from another company in Irvine, California, back in two
Speaker 1: thousand six. You know, but I had the kind of
Speaker 1: the mindset to already start getting those things set. But
Speaker 1: when you start talking about intellectual property or guys owning
Speaker 1: their brand or building their brand or showing them with
Speaker 1: their brand worth. Um, you know a lot of guys
Speaker 1: that come in, they just don't they don't understand right,
Speaker 1: They've never heard of it. So, um, that's that's big
Speaker 1: up to you for kind of putting these guys up
Speaker 1: on it early on, because time just changing. Like when
Speaker 1: I when I play, guys are getting paid, but like
Speaker 1: now they're really getting paid, like they're the contracts are
Speaker 1: are just astronomical and out of this world. And so
Speaker 1: how do you how do you um what? He's one
Speaker 1: of the things. But it's a personal question for me too,
Speaker 1: what are some of the biggest downfalls you see what guys?
Speaker 1: Early on? For me, it was, you know, kind of
Speaker 1: separating the whole family thing, Like family was my hardest
Speaker 1: thing to deal with when I first got into the
Speaker 1: NFL and I first got my own. Um, are you
Speaker 1: still seeing this anything? You know, family or close friends
Speaker 1: and kind of all the people that were around growing up.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I mean that is still a day to
Speaker 1: day issue. Um, But it's because most of my guys
Speaker 1: have big hearts. They want to help everybody, you know,
Speaker 1: they want to everybody along the journey with them. And
Speaker 1: it's tough. I deal with this personally myself, but it's
Speaker 1: it's saying, hey, I've got to protect me first, and
Speaker 1: that's hard for us. Like we're taught, we grow up
Speaker 1: of saving the hood, saving our parents, saving bloody and
Speaker 1: so I have to help my guys say hey, it's
Speaker 1: okay to think about you. Okay, Well, Nicole, I appreciate
Speaker 1: your time. I appreciate you for jumping on and uh,
Speaker 1: you know, getting these guys um together right, because especially
Speaker 1: when a lot of us come from we don't have it.
Speaker 1: And so I appreciate you for um, you know, keeping
Speaker 1: these guys on track and more success and good luck
Speaker 1: on that book, hope hopefully list number one. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Thanks guys. Listening to another lightstot podcast me Shawn Marimon. Um,
Speaker 1: and that was really cool, um that Nicole jumped on
Speaker 1: and just talked about won her book. Um. I think
Speaker 1: it's gonna be a great book if if it's anything
Speaker 1: like I've heard her talk about over the last couple
Speaker 1: of years, UM and helping guys out, being a great
Speaker 1: agent in the industry, being a woman agent in the industry,
Speaker 1: and just doing her parts. So thank you guys for
Speaker 1: listening to another lightsole podcast me Sean Ram and keep
Speaker 1: leaving those reviews, those great reviews. I try to read
Speaker 1: as many of the messages as possible. UM. And when
Speaker 1: you hear the podcast, makes your repoke and tell tell
Speaker 1: your friends, cousins, uncle's brother and sisters, brother and all
Speaker 1: that to uh subscribe and uh well always I appreciate
Speaker 1: your support. Thank you