There are some great insights here for athletes, parents and businesses. Below, I've included some highlights from the interview Enjoy! ... “Zo's Mini donuts is built on the foundation of young entrepreneurship and we just saw it as a great way to, I guess, show our support of young entrepreneurship in our own community.” “ Our state had been talking about like the conversation of like high school allowing NIL… and on January 28th, they announced it and we were sitting at the dinner table as a family and we're like, oh, we're doing this… This is, this is the type of marketing. This is where we wanna spend our money. We think this is a genius idea.” “ we have an NIL opportunity. Are you even open to this? Yep. cause if someone was like, no, obviously we would respect that. And then yeah, everyone said yes. And they were like, can we email you what we will be offering? “ “That all of the athletes had to wear our merchandise.. and then they were eating our hot and fresh donuts. What was so special is that a lot of them brought their parents. So it was really parents, grandparents, free donuts for everyone. Drinks for everyone. We all kind of knew, we were all like, under the impression we were all making history.” “They were compensated for.. in the social media world, there's main grid posts. Which is like, has to be on your main grid. And then there's also story posts as well… we did combinations of those…then caption as well… and then hashtag NIL.” “They got paid. They got a $15 gift card. But we also gave them, got our merchandise for free.” “we really saw it as a way to say thank you to the community…because it was a way we could support local teens in our area. That was like why we wanted to do it, our approach for it, but we didn't know. I didn't know it would have this much traction for sure. We, we were just like, this is something that's coming out and this is something our brand wants to be positively associated with and we value, we see so much value and this is a value of ours, young entrepreneurship. It's a value of ours.”

I recently made a video presentation for a mother and her son, helping them get started with their NIL Journey I wanted to share a summary of the content with the group. …. Important Information: 1. The Student-Athlete is a Freshman Men’s Basketball player for a Division I School 2. He is reserved / an introvert (Like many of us :) …. Step 1: Connect with the school’s athletic department and see if they partner with companies like OpenDorse. These companies as the middle man between departments and companies, to help athletes land NIL Deals. Step 2: Set realistic expectations with athlete. Help them develop the right frame in their mind, on what “success” will look like. For 98% of athletes, it WONT be Company A calling to offer 100K NIL Deal For 98% of us, it will be the freelancer mentality. Hustle for opportunities. Hustle for work. Build a network. Provide free value. Provide more free value….then more free value. Step 3: Build an attractive brand on social media Reach out to local Non-Profits and ask if you can partner with them to promote their goals / initiatives / events. For example: The local special olympics community has a big event in a few months. You reach out and ask if you can help promote the event through your social media accounts. You help local Non-Profits!!! Which is the #1 reward. You promote their mission You give to the community You build an attractive personal brand Step 4: Do it again Step 5: Do it again Step 6: Do it again Step whenever: Then eventually, after the right degree of rewarding work, you have built a GREAT book of business that companies will be attracted to This book of business, and your willingness to provide value, for free, will open up a TONNNNNN of NIL opportunities. To Summarize: Provide value for free Build an attractive brand on social media Do it again Watch how your NIL success compounds

5-in-5 Rule The NCAA is considering a new rule change that would impact the eligibility of all college athletes. In summary, each athlete would have 5 years of eligibility , in a 5 year span. The NCAA would then seek to eliminate redshirt years, and other waiver’s of eligibility. This idea has gained a lot of traction, because a former junior college player, now QB at Vanderbilt, was granted a preliminary injunction, to have an additional year of eligibility. …. How does this impact you / your child? Assuming your son or daughter is younger than a senior in college, that means they get an additional year of eligibility.. From a NIL standpoint, that’s one more additional year of NIL opportunity…which can be significant!! We will watch for how this ruling plays out during the summer. https://sports.yahoo.com/college-sports-leaders-mulling-5-in-5-rule-to-eliminate-redshirts-waivers-and-other-exemptions-211750014.html

Would love to create a good thought web of NIL stories. Anybody have any experiences, advice they’ve received, stories they’ve heard, that would benefit interested athletes or parents?!

In today’s world, your social media can help you get ahead or hold you back. If you want to get NIL deals, you need to have a clean and professional profile. People who hire or partner with athletes will look at your social media, so it’s important to show who you are in a positive way. This guide will help clean up your online presence. Let’s make your social media a great tool for your future!