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If you are interested in NIL athlete representation, NIL education for your college or high school, and student-athlete personal brand coaching, please contact me: [email protected]

Where do I begin with NIL?

When I speak to student-athletes and their parents about personal branding and NIL, one question consistently bubbles up to the top:

How do I (or how does my child) get started?

This is a great question - and a good place for the student-athlete to start.

Steps to take

• Know Your Why

  • The first thing a student-athlete should focus on is why they want to engage in personal branding and NIL.

  • Whether it’s to build a foundation for themselves during and after college, earn NIL deals, both, or something else altogether, understanding this first and foremost will set a good precedent for what they want to do

• Focus on building your brand first

  • Most student-athletes want NIL deals - and rightfully so. They should be rewarded for their hard work and engaged following.

  • However, taking a step back and creating your brand will be more important in the long run.

• Define your brand

  • In very simple terms, your personal brand is a combination of how you view yourself and how others view you.

  • Take some time to focus on who you are and how you want to be perceived.

• Don’t worry about NIL deals - for now

  • While it’s tempting to want brand deals and free products and cash, ensure your brand is in a good place before beginning to contact companies for deals.

  • When brands want to work with athletes, the first thing they (mostly) do is view an athlete’s social media profiles. If there is very little to no content posted, most brands will not partner with these athletes, not matter how accomplished they are in their sport. This is because brands don’t know who you are - so again, focus on building your brand first and foremost.

Tips

• Be patient

  • Just like student-athletes become great in their sport, they built up their skillset over many years. Building your brand should be the same.

• Assess and adjust

  • See what is working (and not working) for your brand, then shift content as necessary.

    • Are you getting more engagement on TikTok than Instagram? Lean in to TikTok more.

    • People love your Day in the Life content? Great! Make more of those videos.

• Look to others for motivation

  • Do you have a favorite athlete or teammate you follow on social media? View their content and take learnings from them to incorporate into your own brand and social media presence.

Thank You for reading today’s newsletter

^{I discuss insights and news related to NIL and personal branding for athletes every Wednesday at 12p ET/9a PT.}

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