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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]

Be Proactive

Student-athletes looking for NIL deals:

Be proactive.

Be creative.

Be a go-getter.

And lastly (but most importantly), be you.

Plenty of coaches and trainers have slid in your DM’s over the years to recruit you, train you, work with you, etc.

Now is your chance to ‘return the favor’ and reach out to brands for partnerships.

But Tariq, I averaged 23 points per game last season! Surely brands will be reaching out to me instead, right!?

Maybe - but most likely not.

Nothing personal - but unless you are Caitlin Clark or JuJu Watkins or Angel Reese, brands most likely are not knocking at your door to partner with you.

Whatever! Brands only want to work with football players anyways.

Incorrect.

Truthfully, there are plenty of brands that are sport-agnostic when partnering with athletes. So don’t get caught up in not playing a certain sport - instead, focus on your own sport, as there are brands out there who want to work with you and offer sport-specific products and services.

OK, so how I can be relatable and attractive to brands?

Great question! Keep reading…

Tips

• Use a script when reaching out to brands

  • This doesn’t need to be very long (nor should it be), but ensure it includes key info:

    • Your name

    • Your school

    • Your sport

    • Your classification (Sophomore, Grad Student, etc.)

    • Your love for the product/service and your regular use of it

    • Let’s discuss a partnership, and offer days/times to connect

• Overdeliver

  • When you earn NIL deals, go above and beyond what is required of the partnership.

    • No, this does not mean create five videos when you are only contractually obligated to share one video. Rather, create content, share across multiple social media channels, then re-share 2-4 weeks later to keep the conversation going and increase reach and engagement.

• Create content for products you regularly use

  • You will most likely create much better content for products you regularly consume, so why not start now?

  • Create content for your favorite brand and tag them in your social media posts (or invite them as a Collaborator on Instagram)

    • While it’s not guaranteed the brand will accept your collab request, there is nothing wrong with shooting your shot - the brand may see your content and want to partner with you.

Newsletter recommendations

Recently subscribed to two sports-business newsletters that provide me great value:

• The Scouting Report (Stories and insights from sports leaders.)

• Sports Industry Weekly (business, marketing and career insights from the sports industry’s most significant business headlines every Friday morning.)

Feel free to subscribe if you feel these newsletter would be valuable to you as well! (P.S. Not a paid promotion.)

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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