Managing Athletes and NIL Brands…Mistakes Made and 4 Lessons Learned:
When I started my athlete brand marketing and management company over 25+ years ago, my vision was to help clients succeed, on and off the field of play, by helping them build their brands, maximize their name, image and likeness, as well as reach their ultimate goals.
For almost 15+ years, I created, negotiated and structured NIL deals with major corporate brands and managed the careers of Major Champions, Ryder Cup players, Top 10 players in the world, as well as having worked with a Super Bowl MVP, without encountering any obstacles or major disagreements. Little did I know that my passion for fostering genuine relationships with my clients would distract me from a situation that I never saw coming.
I had let my company success and client success distract me from my original vision, thus ignoring the warning signs emerging from a high profile client. Simply put, I became too busy building a international company, subsequently spreading myself too thin, and didn’t stop to discuss the client’s expectations once he achieved major success.
In an effort to provide my client with more efficient day to day service, I delegated certain responsibilities that I had once handled myself to my employees. Which, in hindsight, created an external perception of disinterest and lack of effort on my part to the client.
Behind the scenes, I still fully directed and handled all of the high level negotiations, while managing the athlete and NIL brand plan. This perception led to an attempt by the client to rescind his representation agreement and contractual obligations, in what I call “the meeting”.
Lesson 1: Managing Expectations:
To be clear, I helped build this client’s brand through unique media partnerships that delivered national and international coverage (“NIL”), as well as negotiating millions of dollars in corporate partnerships and international opportunities to expand his NIL brand.
The dissolution of that one relationship had a domino effect on my future business decisions and made me question whether I truly wanted to move forward in managing athlete’s careers and building their NIL brands. Hint: I didn’t and decided to change my focus and pivoted to help educate and advise others using “real world experience” (successes and failures) that very few have in the NIL space.
After “the meeting”, I tried processing the ”why”, but was not worried and felt the issue could be amicably resolved. In hindsight, it was an issue that could have been prevented by taking pride and emotion out of the equation. It didn’t end well for either of us short term, but it was a valuable and humbling learning experience.
“Small issues can fester and become big issues if not addressed and managed properly”.
One way to help manage expectations, is to have regular meetings and update clients on their career and NIL plan progress, as well as address any possible issues etc. Athletes should always be involved in the process of building their brand, but not at the expense of performing at the highest level of their sport. Communication has to be a two-way street and if the manager is not made aware of any issues, how can they solve them? Answer: Ask more questions and seek to understand.
Lesson 2: Have a Clear Plan:
On a side note, “the meeting” that I never saw coming was directly after a photo shoot with Sports Illustrated for a feature piece in a Masters Preview Edition. That shoot featured the client with a major retail food brand, as well as exposure for his other brand partners etc.
Capitalizing on this exposure, we were looking to expand his brand identity outside of sports by following the strategic athlete brand plan. The original plan was to develop additional business opportunities that would position the athlete as an all-around businessman.
The major retail food brand was interested in discussing a cash and “equity” partnership in a new region where the client lived and was known.
We had hoped to announce the possible partnership during the week of the Masters. It would have garnered a lot of media attention, but the client wanted short term money upfront (retainer) and long term missed out on a lucrative cash and equity opportunity because of “the meeting”.
“Be clear and consistent in communications with clients.”
Mea culpa, I should have done a better job of articulating “why” a combination of short and long term opportunities were important for his brand. By clearly laying out the overall brand plan, especially from a short and long term standpoint, a lot of this confusion could have been avoided.
Lesson 3 Crisis Management:
All athlete managers have had contractual issues with clients and will never win a public relations battle. However, there are always two sides to every story and unfortunately the facts can be boring and don’t fit the narrative needed by others to create sensationalism and hyperbole. No matter what the facts are in any disagreement, the media and others will try to stay on good terms with the athlete, rather than the athlete manager. I learned the hard way by having my integrity impugned by a few media outlets, industry reps and former company clients without any opportunity to present my side of the story.
I learned a lot from that experience and it made me a more humble, balanced and experienced athlete NIL brand marketer, advisor and educator.
“Learning from successes, as well as failures (and admitting them) is a valuable resource in mentoring others.”
Even so, I was the CEO and while there were some extenuating health circumstances involving my family that were never made known, I fully accept the responsibility for the lack of clarity and perception in communicating to former clients.
Lesson 4: Learn from Failure
Many people allow certain failures to hold them back, when in reality failures can be great life lessons and learning tools. Fear of failure prevents some people from following their dreams or even starting a new company. Fear of failure is failure in itself because it can hold you back from your future success stories.
Always look to be a better version of yourself and do the right thing in all situations and don’t let half-truths and innuendos deter your path forward. The truth is a powerful foundation.
“You can please some of the people some of the time, all of the people some of the time, some of the people all of the time, but you can never please all of the people all of the time.” — Abraham Lincoln
