The 6am Practice Podcast
The go-to podcast for all things student athlete related...for both parents and athletes.
Coach Riley interviews leading experts in the world of sports...and gets you the must-know information.
The 6am Practice Podcast
Athlete Narrative is the Social Media Manager Your Kid Needs - Brian Fullmer CEO
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Uncover the powerful intersection of athletics and brand-building as Brian, the CEO of Athlete Narrative, joins me to discuss how his platform reshapes the social media game for athletes. Picture a world where your online presence can be as influential as your athletic performance, where every tweet and post shapes the trajectory of your career. That's the cutting-edge reality Athlete Narrative champions, providing personalized strategies for athletes to maintain a professional image, engage with fans, and seize lucrative NIL opportunities.
Delving into the meat of our conversation, we traverse the new frontier where an athlete's personal brand is as critical as their sportsmanship. Brian shares his passion for guiding athletes through this journey, harnessing the power of personality tests and strategic social media to not only sharpen their images but to also equip them for life beyond the playing field. The platform's digital tools and mentorship shine a spotlight on how marketability extends far beyond the scoreboard, preparing athletes for seamless transitions into their next chapters.
Our exchange culminates in exploring Athlete Narrative's communal heartbeat—the digital "locker room." It's a sanctuary for athletes to bond, exchange wisdom, and grow together. Beyond the camaraderie, there's a wealth of mental health resources, financial literacy guidance, and networking opportunities. This platform is revolutionizing the way athletes connect, share their experiences, and build their legacies. Join us to witness how Athlete Narrative not only nurtures athletes' careers but also molds them into well-rounded individuals, ready to tackle all facets of life with confidence and clarity.
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Website https://athletenarrative.com/
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Athlete Narrative
Speaker 1Welcome to the 6am podcast . I'm your host , coach Riley . We have got a great , great interview for you today . This is something that if you're a parent and you're concerned about social media and your kids and how they're on it and what they're posting and things like that I stumbled across these guys one day they were in my feed . It's the most fantastic innovation I've seen coming into social media and it's really , really going to help the parents and the athletes maintain their goals , keep focused on what they're doing and not torpedoing their career before it even starts . So I'd like to take a minute to introduce Brian . Here he's with Athlete Narrative and again , it's one of the this I can't wait to dive into this . So how are you doing today , brian ?
Speaker 2Good , I'm excited . I'm excited to be on here and I love that you . I love that you mentioned that we just naturally showed up in your feed one day , because it brings credit to what we do for the actual athletes on a daily basis , where we just help them naturally show up in other people's feeds . So so yes , I'm Brian former . I'm the CEO of Athlete Narrative . We'll dissect it a little bit more as we go along , but we're excited , to excited to let all your followers and the parents of your followers know what we're about and how we're going to help them and their kids .
Speaker 1So just to give a brief background on you and how you are involved in the sportshold and stuff like that , what was your experience in high school and like your sporting career essentially ?
Speaker 2Yeah , so my sporting career is is that of many , many high school kids and that I was an above average high school athlete in a small town . So I was . I was kind of that cool kid in a small town . I'm a six foot white guy with a suspect jump shot . So there isn't there . There wasn't a huge place for me in the next level . I could have played next level football , but I didn't really particularly like the contact . And then I had an opportunity to play next level soccer , but soccer is just not my soccer is not my jam .
Speaker 2So immediately went into the business world and spent 17 years in the financing and banking industry . But how that dovetails into Athlete Narrative is have that business background , have that financing background . But in the particular field that I was in , social media is a big driver of the leads , a big driver of the closings . So had multiple people that we had hired over the years to run the social media for the company , for myself and for other people , and learned a lot of what they were doing and also realized and hesitate to say this because there are some social influencers and people that run social media accounts that they charge an arm and a leg and they're not doing that much . So I got , I got introduced and brought into Athlete Narrative to run it and help the acorn of the idea take off . And with my background , like I said , in banking and finance , and then also hiring multiple social media people realizing we can make this way better , than they're charging for a fraction of the cost .
Speaker 1And that's a . That's a huge thing with athletes who are at the high school level and they want to go to the college level . There's a lot of salesy stuff that's going on . You know , if you want your kid to go to the next level , I can help and coach . I can do this , I can do that , and most of it's legit . Some of it's not right , you know . So when somebody can come in and say , hey , we have a real product that will really help your students and it's it's so much more than just teaching them how to jump higher right , how to run faster , stuff like that .
Speaker 1What we're about to dive into , you guys cover such a critical aspect that didn't exist 10 years ago and that's why it's so important is that you guys have to be able to do that Is . You know , this is all new , like NIL , stuff like that . So let's let me just ask you a quick question . I know a little bit about it probably not as much as I should , and I know there are a lot of parents out there . What's the like , what's the deal with , like , high school and college athletes now getting paid ? Can you just kind of break that down a little bit , Not super detailed , but , like , how is this ? Like ? There's seems to be all this money flowing and that's one of the things where people are reaching out to parents of athletes and saying , hey , listen , sign with me , I can get your kid this , sign with me , I can get you that . What are they ? What's the ? What are they talking about ?
Speaker 2So there is an ability for athletes to get paid . So there's a couple of different ways for them to get paid . One is through , like the actual university paying them and then and then the other one is through actual brands paying them . Okay , so the top , top athletes , the fraction of the fraction , the universities are going to pay them . They're going to get paid . We're not necessarily going after those athletes . What we're going after is the two , three , four maybe , maybe some five stars , but the majority of the athletes who the universities aren't cutting them a check and what the universities are offering them is like either a discounted school schooling , experience or scholarship , but they're going into a smaller community or a local community and what we're able to help them facilitate is the deals that the agents won't touch , because agents aren't really interested in a $5,000 deal for a female soccer player . There's not enough , there's not enough meat on the bone for them . Okay as well , that agent's going to take 40% of the cut . So we're able to come in and we're able to expand the eyeballs that are on this particular athlete so that they can attract the brand deals towards them .
Speaker 2What we say all the time is like the old way of athletes . Having to constantly push out is dead . Like we want to do away with that . We want to create enough gravity around these athletes where people are constantly pushing out , where they're coming to them , where brands are coming to them , where schools are coming to them . They're the ones with the power now , which is fantastic because for so many years , the athletes were yes , they got fed and they got to play a sport , but really the universities give me a break . The universities had all the power . They are a business masquerading as a higher education . I've been saying that literally since the time I dropped out of college . Like this is highway robbery . This is an absolute joke and thankfully , athletes now have enough power to be able to take their own likeness back and everything back to where they can monetize themselves .
Speaker 1So let's talk about something that you said there . You said that the days of an athlete having to reach out and push themselves constantly . You said that's dead .
Speaker 2Okay .
Speaker 1And so you had said something earlier about how you guys appeared in my feed and that's a complement to the algorithm and how what you guys are doing is actually working Right , so let's just cut down to it , right . What is athlete narrative ?
Speaker 2So there's multiple different layers to it , but at its base we created 10 archetypes , so 10 types of athletes that we believe exist . And it doesn't matter what sport you're in . When an athlete signs up with us , they take an athlete assessment test think of it like a personality test and they're going to run through 37 questions that we've created and it's going to ask them basic things like when you're on the field or when you're on the court , how do you attack X ? How do you view this ? How do you react to this ? How does your teammates look at you ? How does your coach look at you ? How do you want to be viewed ? And then it's going to give them all these potential answers to answer , and we encourage them hey , don't answer what you want , what you think you want us to hear . Answer the reality of who you are .
Speaker 2So any adult has taken well , most adults have taken a personality test . It's very , very similar to that so that athlete can then get their archetype back , and one of the analogies we use all the time one of the archetypes is the underdog hero . So a kid would have went through , they would have tested , and it would have punched back and said , hey , you're actually an underdog hero . Here's the pros of that . Here's the cons to that . Okay , here's what to look out for . And here's a real life example of what an underdog hero is , so that you can understand this , because a lot of kids will be like I don't want to be an underdog , and they're like , hey , well , guess what ? Tom Brady was an underdog Tom Brady .
Speaker 2How they became the goat , and then we have 10 different archetypes that they test out to . Why that matters is because we then build a daily post that's personalized to that athlete 365 posts a year that fit in line with their narrative . One of the things with social media is consistency wins , and if you have a consistency in your branding , you have a consistency in your message . So you have that through line , that , hey , I'm an underdog hero . Okay , I'm an underdog hero . I value family , I value faith , I love to eat and I'm an underdog hero . So we build 365 posts a year for you . Okay , we deliver them to their hand via our app .
Speaker 2Okay , they're going to open that app every single day . They're going to look at it . They're going to read whatever prompt we tell them , which is like hey , grab a grab a photo of you playing your sport as a kid , because our app speeds directly to their camera roll . They hit approve and it posts to every social media account they have on their behalf . They're not having to cut and paste . Once they hit approve on our app , it goes to everything on their behalf . They're able to do some small editing and some other stuff like that , but it's curated to who they are as a person . So what we're seeing is a lot of them will read it and they're like this sounds exactly like me . We're like , yeah , guys , our text is pretty cool , like it's aligned specifically to sound exactly like you . So some of them will edit it , but the vast majority of them will not edit it . They'll just read it , follow the prompt and say this is exactly what I wanted to say . I just I don't have the time or energy to think of this .
Speaker 1So basically what you're saying if your kid has an Instagram account ? So does it cover all social media Every social media . So Instagram TikTok X , twitter .
Speaker 2The kids are too young for Facebook . It's tied to Facebook . But none of the kids are going to do Facebook . But it's okay , it's tied to Facebook .
Speaker 1Right , well , I mean , the coaches are looking at Facebook programs . And if it's feeding , you know it's feeding it , so okay . So so I download your software . It's an app on the phone . Let's walk through the steps . So I'm an athlete , I hear about this , I see an Instagram and I'm like , okay , I want it . What do I need to do ?
Speaker 2So they would go to our website athletenarrativecom and hit sign up . But for you , because do you want to talk about real quickly what you've helped negotiate ? Because ideally we will , you would want them going through you so here's what happened , guys .
Speaker 1I'm in Instagram , I'm scrolling through , I see athlete narrative and they're talking about how to protect your kids on social media , how to build a brand All these things that are important to students nowadays . That wasn't 10 years ago . So I got ahold of them , cinnamon DM , and I said hey , I really like what you guys are doing . I speak to a lot of athletes . I have a pretty big crowd . I'd like to see what you guys can do for them and to set them up for success , and we're going to go into some other things that go beyond sports here . That's absolutely a game changer in setting your kids up parents . And so what I did was with this hey , listen , I've got a lot of followers , I speak directly to a lot of parents . Let's see if we can get these guys hooked up with you . And then , what can you do for me in exchange ? And they offered 10% off . So if you sign up through me , through the link that's down in the show notes , you'll get 10% off .
Speaker 2Yeah Well , and guys , to be clear , that is literally the only place right now that is discounted . We've got this priced at a level to where it is already affordable for what we're offering and genuinely , that's not a sales gimmick . He is the only one with the 10% off right now , so it's going to be nationwide here very quickly . It's going to take off like wildfire . How long will allow him to take that temper ? I don't know how I'm going to allow him , but right now , right now , he won us over and we said all right , we'll give you 10% off .
Speaker 1And mom and dad . Athletes , you're going to want to get in on this . I don't care what level you play , what sport you play . This is such a game changer in the world with social media . It's one of those things where people are like , why didn't I think of that ? It's such , it's such , it is so insanely insane
Athlete Brands
Speaker 1.
Speaker 1Okay , so you were talking about how they take this , this test , this personality test , similar to a disc test , right , that everybody's taken for your job and stuff like that . And then you assign them a narrative , right ? And basically what that means is is everybody is their own hero and everybody has their own story and everybody has their own background , right ? But when you look at the collective of the entire world throughout the entire history of time , there's only so many stories and they're played again and again and again . It's like the story of Star Wars . It's you know , underdog meets a mentor , overcomes great challenges , like . Everybody loves that story because they can relate , and that's what athlete narrative does is it builds a brand around you and your story and who you are .
Speaker 1Because college programs are looking the days of the dumb jocks getting in . That's over with . That's that's over with . They're looking at character , they're looking at brand ability . They're looking at what culture do you bring to their team ? Right , there's all kinds of professional athletes that you hear these stories about in the locker room where they're just they're so toxic the team wants to get rid of them . Like what they bring to the team is worse than what they can offer the team right .
Speaker 2It's also the eyeballs on the team and that's that's a hard thing for a lot of people to understand . If a school's having to decide between two kids that are very , very similar , but one's got 7,000 real engaged followers and one has 200 any post cap videos and this one actually posts real stuff and real content , you're kidding yourself if you don't think they're going to choose this , this child , because that's 7,000 fans that are going to then follow in there . It's a business and they can no longer claim it's . It's not a business , it's a business and it's just like any aspect of marketing . It's the eyeballs of the wind . That's what matters where we come in , because we'll talk more into the protection , because that that's the thing that we created , thinking it was just kind of cool , but that's what's actually gotten us and we're kind of shocked by this into SEC schools already and well , right now it's packed 12 . I don't know how long it's going to be packed 12 , but into some packed 12 universities as well , because they're wanting to , may almost , mandate it .
Speaker 2Our goal is to humanize the athlete and life after sport is to put , you know , put that , put that student athlete up for success . So the story I tell all the time is let's take , let's take a female soccer player . Okay , there's not a lot of money in female sports . Everyone's well aware of that . Good , bad or indifferent . I'm not making an opinion on it , I'm simply stating the fact there's not a lot of money in that sport . It's me and female sports . However , this stud female soccer player and let's even call her a middle of the road female soccer player , from the time she's about a sophomore in high school till , she's a senior in college . Wherever she decides to play , she's got a lot of eyeballs on her . She's got a tremendous amount of eyeballs on her . Okay , so our goal is to make her as exposed as possible so that when she's graduating her senior year , we're reaching out to her saying , hey , what's your goal after this ? What are you doing after this ? And most of them will then say I don't really know . I'm graduating with a communications degree or a business management degree . I really don't have a clue what I'm going to do .
Speaker 2We then provide them with our career assessment test and it will help them figure out kind of a career path , and then the last 12 months , 18 months of their career in college , we will start dripping into their campaign . They're not their campaign , their narrative posts about the field they're going to . And let's say , this young lady tested out to be , like great at sales and she wants to go into insurance sales because she's got a connection in insurance . That's great . We're about 18 months to her 7 to 10,000 followers and her local community . We're going to start dripping in business and insurance . Then , all of a sudden , when she graduates and says , hey , by the way , guys , I'm now going and joining XYZ insurance firm , all these followers go . I've liked her for the last four years . She's cool , she gives out good content , she seems normal . Why don't we give her a shot at our insurance ?
Speaker 2We hated hearing all the time and we've all heard it from athletes is they all ? They retire , even professional or collegiate , and they say what do I do now ? What the heck do I do now ? And they haven't taken advantage of everything that's in front of them because all of their focus has been on the sport and I don't blame them for that . It's tremendous amounts of pressure . That's why we do all of it for them , to grow them , so that when life comes after sport , they transition into the community better , into their own households better and they're actually enjoying life better . That makes sense .
Speaker 1Yeah , and that's the thing I like the most about what you guys do is , at every level , athletic stops .
Speaker 1It ends injury . You just run out of talent . You retire , father , time wins out . Something is going to end your sports career Right Now . You're 100% correct .
Speaker 1Those athletes are usually focused all the time on their sports , sports and friends . Social media that's their life and you mentioned it earlier consistency wins In the world of social media . If you want to grow a brand and your brand is yourself you have to consistently post . You have to post things . The algorithm understands and recognizes and thereby sees that people are looking at you and so they show it to more people , right ? And so they grow this audience . So now it's life after sports .
Social Media's Impact on Athletes' Brands
Speaker 1Or you know , I'm going to graduate a senior . I'm not going to go play in the NBA . What am I going to do ? They take another assessment test right in the world of business and so , like you said , sales , insurance , anything , or connections or everything in the business world is who you know , right ? But now you don't actually have to know them , they just know you . And if I'm a big ? So let's just talk about the algorithm a little bit . So I'm an insurance guy . I live in any town USA there's a college that any town USA roots for and there's some players that play for them and I follow them on social media and I see these people that are using your product . I don't know this , but they're always showing up in my feed because your guys is the algorithm , the story that you tell it . It puts those posts in front of the eyeballs that want to see it . Right , I'm a mini college USA guy and I'm in insurance . Hold on , here's a person who went to this college , played . I followed for a while . They're interested in insurance . That's a no brainer , because people want to work with people that they like and know and you can . Everybody knows people on YouTube PewDiePie . I consider them like a long lost brother . Why ? Because I watch his videos . Like you build this emotional connection , same with radio DJs . If you have a morning show that you listen to every day during the commute , those people essentially become part of your family , the family that exists in this you know other dimension type thing . And so , with you guys putting the athletes in front of these future prospects and you're setting them up , so you guys are growing their personal brand . So let's take a step back and talk about something that's even more important , and that is you mentioned earlier how you protect the athlete , and so there are tons of athletes .
Speaker 1The thing I don't like the most about professional athletes and what they post is they post the parties , the cars , the girls , the like , all the results and none of the work . And so what did the kids do ? Kids emulate their stars , right , they're going to essentially like if I got a Steph Curry's , my favorite basketball player , I'm going to want to be like Steph , I'm going to want to do you know , and so I want to shoot like Steph , I want to dribble like Steph . But there's also the social media aspect that didn't exist before . So if Steph posts this kind of stuff , for that kind of stuff , like I'm going to do the same thing , right , correct , and a professional athlete that's a grown man , grown woman , like they're a business person , essentially , right , sports is a business at that level and they're all business people .
Speaker 1But when you're a student and you post the same things that the professional athletes do , that can get you in a lot of trouble . I've personally spoken to many people who have deep ties in the recruiting industry and they all said that Social media is a huge part of what they look at . If you got kid A and kid B and they both have the same amount of grades and they both have the same amount of talent , and this guy's always posting party pictures and this guy's posting football pictures or pictures about his teammates , they're going with that guy . Oh yeah , that is a real thing . Now . That's just how they would never pick somebody on there . So freedom of speech .
Speaker 2Let them say what you want , oh well , like I said in my previous career I was 17 years in the banking and finance world . I was a VP of a bank . I have hired and fired lots of people in my career and every time my staff or I had an assistant that would go through the stack of resumes and she would slim it down for me and be like , hey , here's the five I think we should roll with . First thing I would do is just social media and literally quickly look and be like , oh yep , no , thank you , no , thank you , no , thank you , because it's telling me everything I need to know about that person . So don't kid yourself , they are absolutely looking at it and we've talked to a lot of recruiters as we developed this , because several recruiters helped us and gave us their two cents on it , and that's one of the first things they look at , because they want to get as much information on the kid as they can , because there are a lot of them . They got very similar stats , but they need to know as much about can they actually rely on this kid . So we created a thing that we thought was just kind of an afterthought . We didn't even think it was that cool . It's actually something , that number two thing that people like more than anything else , and that is the protective mechanism . So when someone goes off narrative , we have AI that will scan the post inside of our app so they have the ability to organically post inside of athlete narrative , not just approve our post . There's an ability for them to go in and post on their own , which that's how we encourage them to do it . Our AI will scan it and if it's off narrative meaning they go to post something real knuckleheaded and it's off narrative we will give them a warning that says hey , this is off narrative . This could have some serious consequences . Are you sure you want to post this ? Okay , if they hit approve , great . It's then gonna live in a five minute timeout , because we really want their frontal lobe to really process what they're about ready to do . Cause , how many people have sent a really dumb text , a really dumb email , and had that email lived for five minutes before it was delivered , they could have pulled it back out of the system . How many tiers would have been saved . How many careers would have been saved . How many people would have been like oh , I'm so glad I had that five minute timeout . So that then goes to another five minute timeout where they have to come back into the app and hit approve a second time .
Speaker 2We know we're not gonna stop 100% of the stupid posts and you and I are saying stupid , but you know the real world word we want to say . But we know we're not gonna stop 100% , but we really think we can stop 75 to 80% of them , that if a kid gets a chance and he really , he or she really fires off a stupid response that's emotionally driven , they're not thinking long-term consequences , that those two warnings are gonna get them to go . I don't think I wanna do this . You and I are both old enough . We didn't grow up with social media . Social media came when I was it was right , as I was dropping out of college . Social media came about okay . I cannot imagine being 17 years old , 16 years old and having social media because I was so stupid and it wasn't because I , my brain's not developed . We all know the frontal lobes not developed and that's what understands consequences till roughly 23 to 25 . And we're expecting these kids to not say really , really dumb , knuckleheaded stuff . It's unfair to them .
Speaker 2So we created that , just being like , hey , this is kind of an actual office . That's the thing . Like I said , that's gotten us into a Pac-12 school , an SEC school and a whole bunch of local high schools as well and a couple of California high schools already that are like we want this for all of our athletes because they all have social media decorum , they have social media etiquette that they sign and this just helps them stay in line with that stuff and it helps it helps control it . The other thing that's kind of surprised us is we've even had sports agencies approach us because sport and I can tell this real story I won't tell you the athlete he's a baseball player and the Jordan brand keeps threatening to take away their agreement because this guy will not post what he's agreed to post with Jordan . And it's not because he doesn't love the Jordan brand , he's just lazy . He just legitimately doesn't want to post it .
Speaker 2So the agency came to us and they're like if we tell you guys how often they need to post for this brand or this brand , can you just build it in ? And we're like yeah , they're like oh , great , okay , we're putting all of our athletes in it . So the SEC school they came up with the idea of like , could we have all the athletes , like help supporting . Like hey , it's a girl's volleyball night , can all the athletes the university , can they all post hey , go watch the girl's volleyball ? Like yeah , absolutely . So it's morphing into different ways that we didn't even think , which is awesome , because it's what it's there for . It's for community to help grow and it's taking the power back away , which social media is great . But we want a little bit more of the power to come back to the individual and utilize it as a tool , versus social media taking care of everything .
Speaker 1Yeah , the fact that social media is such a big player and I mean and you were just mentioning these schools and these agents we're talking hundreds of millions of dollars , if not billions of dollars , flowing through this , this network of business and sports , and we're talking hundreds of millions , billions of dollars , billions of dollars , easy . And the fact that those guys recognize you coming in on the ground floor with this amazing technology that can protect the athletes , promote the athletes with consistency , where it can win , at social media . There's 10 million people out there posting stuff on social media . How does it get in front of the eyeballs ? Algorithm consistency wins .
Speaker 1I mean , that level of sports would not be looking at you guys if they didn't see the real potential and they all want in on the ground floor , right , and that's why this is so . It's just so revolutionary when it comes to social media and athletes , because you said it earlier , I cannot believe if there was . They're 17 years old , they're not thinking properly , they're being impacted by social media , they're just seeing this is what the world does Like . That's their world , that phone is their world . And so for me as a parent , and you as a parent , to think well , my kid is smart , my kid's smart man . He won't make it .
Speaker 2He is smart , but his brain's still not developed . It's not his fault .
Speaker 1Exactly , exactly , and so , as a parent , you worry about your kid , you worry about you , know what are they doing and we have so little control over their social media . So little control .
Speaker 2So we have moms which we didn't expect this . A lot of the moms that find out about this go my child is never posting organically . Again , we're like what do you mean ? And they're like my child is only posting through athlete narrative moving forward . Because if you're going to give them two warnings and they blow through those two warnings , then fine , they deserve whatever consequences . But if you're going to give them , you're the only place giving them those two warnings where you can actually quickly review it to be like , hey , this is off narrative
Creating a Community for Athletes
Speaker 2.
Speaker 2So again , this was one of the things that we were kind of surprised with . Like caught on so quickly , like wildfire that . And then it's locker room . We call it our locker room . That's the thing . Again , we kind of created it just as a cool spot , but it's the thing that the athletes themselves , the schools and the parents they go nuts for the warning . The athletes go nuts for the locker room . And the best way I can explain it is it's Reddit for athletes , behind our paywall . So it's only for the athletes . They come in . It's player and age specific , it's sport specific , so they can get into this . You know , let's call it a high school basketball community . They can get in and it's only the high school basketball players able to communicate . Okay , we also got like a got a section called show my social some love where they , as an athlete , can get into this forum and say , hey , I just got an offer from XYZ school . Can all you guys go in and give it a thumbs up ? I want . It's not actually the school I want to go to , I want to go to their rival school , but I need , I need this post to blow up . Cool , we can take 70,000 athletes and they can all immediately start showing this social some love and they can start . They can start blowing it up . Okay , we also bring in mental mental health experts , financial literacy experts , like FCA chaplain type stuff . Again , we want to create a space where only athletes exist , where they can be real and they can be vulnerable and they can actually get help from one another .
Speaker 2We provide them with like playbooks . One of the things we provide them is like recruiting playbook . A lot of athletes have no clue how to actually get recruited . Okay , the studs of the studs , they get recruited , they get found . It doesn't matter if , like like the dudes go into Auburn and K-State like they're getting found regardless , can you . But for the rest of us and I put myself in that category that , like I was a good athlete , I started all the time . But like man K-State wasn't calling me , auburn wasn't calling me , I'm not that good . Okay , but provide them with what we call the recruiting playbook , which gives them decorum . It gives them email templates on . Here's a template of an email you would send a head coach Okay , here's what you email the position coach , here's how often you reach out to them .
Speaker 2And we brought in ex-athletes as well , and I'll tell this story . One of the athletes we brought in , he was a stud receiver , played in the NFL for like seven years and he told the story of when he was getting recruited . He really wanted to go to Colorado . Now , this was 10 years ago , this wasn't . It was like 15 years ago , excuse me . He really , really wanted to go to Colorado , but they weren't giving him as much feedback as he wanted . So he started constantly reaching out to them and after a few months they ended up pulling back and he found out later when he was actually in the NFL . He ended up talking to that head coach of , like you saw what I did in college , I was a freaking college . I was a stud in college and I had a great NFL career . Why didn't you guys recruit me ? He said you reached out to us too much . It was like you were recruiting us . It turned us off . And they say hold on , we regret it because we could have really used you . You were a stud , but you turned us off . So we've brought in actual real life people that have all these stories and said , okay , where did you fault , when did you this , where did you this , where did you this ? And we've built this playbook so they know , like your junior year , here's how much you reach out to them . Your senior year , here's how much . Here's the question dress Cause a lot of kids too .
Speaker 2They'll get on the phone with a coach or a recruiter . They don't have a clue what to ask . They have zero clue what to ask . They're not used to speaking on the phone . Everything's via text . So they don't even know what to communicate . They have no clue . So we've provided them with that playbook just to help them . We want to give them as many resources as possible . Again , we are not a recruiting platform . We bring in all the recruiting platforms we bring in . We bring in the huddle , we bring in the jungle , we bring in all of that , but we are the one that blows the brand up , cause we want to treat them as more than just the athlete .
Speaker 1Yeah , I mean the fact that I mean you guys , you're building the brand , you're building the athlete , you're providing a community for
Empowering Athletes Through Athlete Narrative
Speaker 1them . I'd mentioned earlier that you know , you watch somebody on YouTube all the time . They become part of your family , right , even though you never you never actually talked to them Inside the locker room . You have age specific players . You're all playing the same sport , right , so you're probably all about the same skill level , maybe somebody's one or two notches above you , one or two notches below you , right , right , that's where you make the most progress .
Speaker 1If you're a freshman JB basketball player , you're going to learn something from LeBron James , but not much . The gap is too huge . Yeah , he's untouchable , correct . You need somebody who's like , two levels above you , right , that's an achievable goal for you . You're like , well , that guy goes to the same school , we go to the same gym , like , it becomes achievable . And so when you have that interaction and there's a little bit of competition cause they're all athletes , so they're all you know everybody's competitive . But now you got guys helping guys , right , because when you're just on the team yourself , that guy who could help you , he doesn't want to help you because he doesn't want you taking the spot Correct . So it's very selfish , but in the locker room you don't go to the same schools . You're all over the United States and you want to see everybody win right and so the more you give , the more people give back right and you end up helping each other in fostering this . It's essentially another team .
Speaker 2So 100% . That's why we call it a locker room , because any athlete knows that male , female , it doesn't matter . Some of the best times you have is in the locker room . Some of the strongest members you talk to and I'm sure you've talked to a bunch of ex-professional athletes they don't miss the game all that much . They miss the locker room , they miss their dogs , they miss that . That's . What they miss is all their dudes .
Speaker 2So that's why we created that . And I mean there's another cool thing that we have in . There is one of them is like hey , who knows ? And it's what we call it . So it's a forum for someone to go in and be like hey , and I'll make it up . Hey , I want to go to USC . Who knows the cell phone or the position coach , wow . So that they can actually start sharing all of it , because if we've got 100,000 athletes on it , they're going to have all the power Again .
Speaker 2We are giving all of the power back to the athlete Again . No , we are not a recruiting , but we will put your kid at a higher level than what they would have gotten . Again , athlete narrative wouldn't have made me six , six with a better jump shot , but what athlete narrative would have done is it would have created a bigger hype around me to where I would have gotten more opportunities outside of just hey , nice invitations to potentially walk on . I would have actually gotten opportunities because the highlights would have existed , the personality would have been able to come through and all of that would have then shined to where it made my transition into career that much easier . Again , that all came after , so we had to grow in a different way through social media and financial . But this stuff's in front of these kids . They have so many tools , so we're going to take care of as much as we can for them , to give them the power .
Speaker 1And so let's say I'm a parent and my kid is five five and he wants to play basketball . I know he's not going to Duke , he's going to go to a D three . I'm assuming that athlete narrative it works to no matter what school you want to go to because you're plugging the information in .
Speaker 1You want to go to this school and this school and this school . I'm telling you that , and you guys are actually plugging that into the posts and the hashtags and who you're showing it to . So this isn't like a D one and only thing . Like you know we go on pro , so this . So this works for anybody .
Speaker 2Any call , absolutely let's . Let's take that example that we say , that we say all the time Okay , the stud on the on the basketball court male , female , I don't care the stud on the basketball court , they're going D one , okay , but what about the six man ? What about the dude coming off the bench ? That's still a Hooper , still good and should be going somewhere . Okay , that that student athlete is going to a division two , division three , okay , but there's no reason , the same thing inside of that community , wherever they're playing , that we can't get them seven to 10,000 raving fans inside of that community , okay . So the parent and then would have realized hey , you're , you know , you're not going to Duke , there's only a few slots to go to Duke . You're not going to Duke , you're going to an all , just make up Montana State Western , I don't know . Okay , but you're going to go . They're going to go into the app and they're going to put the head coach for Montana State Western , they're going to put the recruiting for Montana State Western , they're going to put the boosters , all that in there , and then we're going to work in the background and within a few months we will naturally start showing up in the feed of the coaches and the recruiters and they're going to say who the heck is this six man and why ? Why is no one paying attention to him ? And then they go to the university . We continue that same pattern and when they're graduating and they say , okay , what am I going to do now ? You're graduating with real engaged people and that's that's where the money is moving forward .
Speaker 2You said it early , I had , and I've been in business for 17 years . There's a lot of really , really untalented people that have made a tremendous amount of money simply because of who they know . Okay , it's , it is . It is the reality , and so much of business is who you know and who your connections are . Who's in your Rolodex now ? Parents hearing that term , they know what the heck a Rolodex is . The kids hearing that term , they have no clue what a Rolodex is . Their Rolodex now is their followers . That's who in there can they rely on to get , to get help from . That's where we come in to blow that stuff up .
Speaker 1Yeah , and just the fact that you know you're . Again . It doesn't matter what level kid , it doesn't matter what level your kid's going to play at , and athlete's dream is to really just continue to play the game .
Speaker 2That's it , they just want to play again , right .
Speaker 1And just because you started out at a D3 or a D2 , that doesn't mean you stay there , right . If you go there and you're working and now you're out of high school , and here's the biggest thing this is the biggest thing that every college athlete has told me once they go from high school to college is that college it's real . On the high school team , you have people who want to be there , people who don't want to be there . Like you know , you got your wall sitters . Like you got everybody right . If you're blessed with a whole bunch of guys who want it , you have great seasons and it's a lot of fun . If not , you're always bummed out . But you might be the best player at the school .
Speaker 1Still , when you go to the college level , workouts are totally different . Nutrition , totally different . The energy because big fish , small pond now it's big . You know . Small fish , big pond , and everybody there is as good as you . Actually , they're probably all better , right , but everybody just wants to play again , continue playing right . And so you guys are basically making that possible , because to know what to do on social media very hard to win .
Speaker 2It's a full-time job . It's literally it's a full-time job and it's unfair to expect them to be able to do it , and that's again . I've had employees do this for me for years , for my companies as well as for myself personally , and that it's a full-time job . And that's why we brought it all in-house and said , hey , what's the cheapest we can do this for , to where we're profitable as a company , but to where we make this , to where it makes sense for as many people as possible .
Speaker 1You guys have figured out the game , but you're not charging an arm and a leg , no , right ? No , it's very reasonable . As a parent who has three sons who all played athletics , I would have plunked this down every month , no brainer , based on a subscription model , but it's very reasonable and the return on investment is huge . We're talking about teaching your kids how to be successful , because they're opening these doors . You got the locker room . You got the you know who knows , right , you got . You're giving them a five-minute time out if they go to post something stupid Like . You're facilitating mental growth in all these kids .
Speaker 2Yeah , and giving them , teaching them how to be consistent with their branding , giving them the same branding moving forward , giving them the day , the daily stuff , moving forward . It's huge and that's why we're so proud of it , as well as proud of the price that we're offering it for every , for everyone else . It's a hundred bucks . A hundred bucks a month . Your , your listeners , are the only ones that are getting a 10% discount because you've twisted arm a little bit . We'll be happy with it . We , like you . I mean , you were pretty passionate about giving a discount to your , to your clientele .
Speaker 1Yeah , and for again , as a parent , who is your sacrifice in your time ? You're sacrificing , you know financially right . You're making other hard choices as a parent because you want your kid to be better than you . Every parent just wants their kid to be more successful than they are , and you don't know what you don't know and it took me .
Speaker 1It took me a long time . I've been in the Instagram game for six years and I'm just finally beginning to understand how it really works . And so you don't have six years as a parent or as a high school athlete . You got four and you , you want to make the most of those four , and so the fact that I'm a parent , I can come to you , I can pay you guys 90 bucks a month . You guys handle my kids social media . You , you help Teach them the things that the coaches don't teach them . You help them learn how to be successful in the next level of their life , whether it's athletic or not athletic . Right Like you guys are essentially a parent's best friend .
Speaker 2No , correct this . And one of the acorn like the acorn idea that kind of sparked this was in so many of your Mothers of the athletes , as well as fathers of the athletes , will be able to resonate with the story of like They've traveled with this child . Whether it's soccer , football , basketball , volleyball I don't , dance , cheer , I don't care . You have been traveling with this child since grade school . Okay , almost every other weekend You've been doing it . You've now moved on their early years of high school . You've moved on to getting the junior high and into early years of high school . You've moved on to one-on-one training sessions , going to speed schools , all this sort of stuff . And then somewhere around the freshman , sophomore year , a Coach , a trainer , someone looks at the parent and says , hey , this kid has the ability to paint , play next level , and the parent was awesome . All this sacrifice is paid off , they say . But you need to get exposure for them online .
Speaker 2And then it's the dun , dun , dun , because all the parents like how do I do that ? I have no clue how to do that . I was just told if I was part of this traveling Academy , someone would take care of them . But that like we're not there yet and that's . That's where we come in to say great , you've done everything you need to do , we'll take care of all . We'll take care of that . Actual exposure . That's our job , that's what we're phenomenal at . You get back to be in the parent , let the student athlete get back to be in the student athlete and we'll take care of everything else . That again , that's why it's only a hundred bucks , but for your listeners it's 90 , because it's not a huge investment for everything that we're giving it's mean .
Speaker 1Honestly , I wish you guys would have been around ten years ago . The reason I started on social media was because I wanted to be the guy that I wish I would have known , because it is such a different , like you know . So here's the way it worked for me . My kids were young . They played some boys club sports and some , you know , d1 stuff and but I thought everything was either you know , because the thing I watched the most is professional sports or college sports , and so there's this big , huge gap of how do you get from here to there ? Right , really happens that you get into high school and so now You're seeing these guys who are ready to go into college .
Speaker 1They've been preparing their seniors and your kids a freshman
Athlete Narrative's Power and Impact
Speaker 1. You're like , well , wait a minute , what does he know that I don't know . Like he's done something , because there's that guy who's a senior and then there's the other guys on the team and he's a senior and he's the guy they put in when there's 30 seconds left in a blowout , right ? So what does this guy know that I don't know . And so , essentially , that's what I started looking at . What were all the questions ?
Speaker 1I had new trip , like nutrition , like , isn't that ? Orange slices and Capri Suns , like that's that's nutrition for sports parents , right ? Isn't that what it is ? And Workouts , well , games , you know , there's practices and games , that's it . No , there's practices , there's games . There's offseason , there's nutrition , there's rest , there's there's all these different parts . And so that's who I became , and when I stumbled across you guys , you guys knew Everything that I wish I would have known , and so you're essentially the guy who can tell the parents exactly what they need to do . Dad , but I never played sports , I didn't have any athletic stuff and my kids just naturally gifted , so I don't know anything about anything . You guys are my new best friend .
Speaker 2Yeah , I think of it . Thinking was like a PR firm , that's like a hybrid PR firm , or was actually ? It's actually personalized and we're doing it for you . Yes , you could go get all of this on your own , everything that we're providing . It would cost you , and we've done the math . On the cheapest aspect , you'd be about 890 a month . On the high end it'd be about five grand a month . So what we do exists , but it exists in like an all-a-car forum . It doesn't exist in in a wholesale all-in-one the way we're doing it .
Speaker 1Yeah , the just the way you guys have packaged the entire thing . It's just incredible and the price you're offering Insanely insane . And if you're a parent , I highly advise that you sign up . At least go look at it right and think about how are you gonna help your kid plan for the future in this new world of technology ? I have no idea . You have no idea . The kid has no idea .
Speaker 1But the guys who do it for a living Like athlete narrative they do know and they're willing to walk your kid through the steps . They're willing to go with them along on this journey . And even if the journey , if their dream is the NBA and it doesn't work out to be the NBA , these guys are still right beside them , walking them through , helping them out with the next level of their life , no matter what it is . And as a parent , a mentor like that , you can't put a price tag on that that your kids success and your kids happiness and your kids Ability to learn how to achieve goals and work with others and everything that sports teaches . That's what sports is such magical thing , because it teaches you all these aspects of life , things you would never even think of in the business world . They all come down to these basic , same tendencies and in sports they're , they're magnified because there's always a next level , there's always jobs . There's not always another job like you're looking for the promotion , but in sports it's you know ompligs when you're a kid , by rec leagues , compligs , junior high travel teams , high schools . I mean most kids that play on travel teams don't even play on their high school team , right there . It's just , it's a different world for the parents nowadays . And Again , I'm so glad these guys came across in my feed because what they're doing is so powerful and it is .
Speaker 1It is such , it is such a a relief as a parent to know that , if I'm putting it all this time and in Resources and sacrifices that I'm making for my kid , these guys are here on the side , helping them make sure they don't blow it , helping them make sure they get to the next level . And for that I mean I just you know whoever had the idea and came up with it , just the collective that you guys have there and what you're doing for the athletes and for the students . And you know we say students and athletes , we say that a lie , it's really your kids , they're doing this for you . You say athlete . That's one that when you say your kid , that's a whole different emotional thing and they're doing it for your kids . They're here to help you out . They're here to help you make sure that you get what you need .
Speaker 1It doesn't cost you an arm and a leg because you know everything's expensive . Now is it anyway , but you know you're throwing travel leagues and all that other stuff . It's , it's , it's almost free , essentially for what you get , for what you get , for what you pay , it's , it's , it's huge and I would highly advise that everybody go check them out . They can work miracles for your students . I mean , there's just the protection . The five minute timeout thing alone is worth it's weight in gold . Because here's another thing as they learn to like what is damaging to their posts , like that'll deprogram out of their mind . They'll learn because if they really want to be an athlete , they'll say , oh , I'm supposed to be doing these things . And every time I go to post this and just think it's a funny joke and they tell me no , like that's gonna reprogram the thinking right . You guys are literally impacting an entire generation , student by student , kid by kid , athlete by athlete . You guys are gonna change the world , man .
Speaker 2You guys are gonna change the world that that's our goal in the , the youth Athletic world , that you're a hundred percent accurate , that is . Our goal is to give them the power back and To also allow the parent to be the parent and allow the kid to be the athlete .
Speaker 1What we'll take care of that other stuff , that's that's just so , because that's a big thing for parents . We try to wear all these hats too much . I'd be the coach , the trainer , the chauffeur , the bank , the parent right , the Everything , the social media expert , right , and you kids never gonna show you what they're post on social media anyway . But I mean that's a huge fight right there . You use these guys . I just want to thank you so much for taking the time to come on and talk to me and talk to the parents out there and the athletes and listen . If you're an athlete , these guys will hope you get to go where you want to go . These are your guys . These are the guys , the guys you want to know . These are the guys they're talking to . They're communicating with big colleges . They're communicating with small colleges . They're communicating with agents . These are the guys you want to know . Trust me . Trust me , brian . Thank you so much for Taking the time to come on .
Speaker 1We'll have to definitely check in again here in the future as you guys make you know . I know there's gonna be a lot of adaptability . It's just gonna get better . It's already fantastic . I can't even wait to see what it looks like in six months or a year , like what you guys come up with . So Athlete narrative , athlete narrative , calm . I'll put my link below in the show notes 10% off . You're gonna want to do that . Check them out on Instagram , they're everywhere if they want the 10% off moving .
Speaker 2It's not one month gimmicky , it's always in forever . Anyone that uses your link will give them 10% off , because we respect what you're doing , because so much what you're doing aligns with what we're doing , which is helping and protecting , because it's gonna benefit kids .
Speaker 1Check . Go check them out . Athlete narrative calm . Check them on Instagram . Check them out through my show notes the link of my show notes down there . You get 10% off . I can't wait to see you guys again . I believe in you . You guys got this . I'll see you later .
