NIL Deals - Getting Your Athlete Prepped for the Money Flow | ep. 129

This episode of Falling for Learning Podcast features Coach CC. She explains the importance of financial literacy for student athletes, the past financial struggles of student athletes, and how to secure NIL deals. Key takeaways include the significance of financial literacy for student athletes and the emphasis on engagement metrics over followers for social media deals. The conversation covers the importance of engagement in social media, the significance of personal branding, and the role of parents and educators in guiding children through the digital landscape. It also emphasizes the need for early education on financial literacy and personal branding for student athletes.

Transcript

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Thanks again for joining the Falling for Learning podcast. Today we're going to be talking about student athletes getting paid, right? So this is a new terrain new laws have been passed so that kids are able to get paid for, their skills as an athlete. And we have an expert here today that's going to help you with how to navigate that, help your kid get started making money. And once they get the money, what are they going to do with it? Hi, thank you so much for joining the Falling for Learning podcast. am TD Linna. We have this podcast to help parents and caregivers with having the resources, strategies, and tools needed to make sure that their children are on track for learning and to stay on track for success. you So welcome to our show, Coach Cece. She's a career educator. She focuses on financial literacy. And again, she was a former student athlete, so she knows what to do. but also she has expertise in how to navigate this new terrain of NIL. Thanks for joining us, Coach Cece. How are you doing? What's going on, what's going on TD on this lovely Saturday? doing so good today. Happy to be here, man, ready to educate the masses. Absolutely. So we always ask all of our guests, what is it that thing that made you fall in love with learning as a kid? I remember as a kid, my mom, I don't know, know, in the black families, they used to have these little encyclopedia books that they had like different colors. I don't know what it is that made me just start picking up every year. I guess people would knock on the doors and sell them to us or whatever. But you know, a lot of families, they were meant for decoration. But I would actually get in the books and read the books. And I don't know. Was there something just innate, just in me that was just had a curiosity about things? Even in elementary schools, it's like schoolwork was just easy. I was just like, what do need to do? My brain was just understanding a lot of things. So I was just learning to just to be learning. Then I don't know, it was just something in me. But the older I became, it was just really fascinating just to know things, like to know facts and to be, I was just a nerd, just a school nerd, just, you know, just learning. But the older I got, I was like, Man, this is kind of cool just to have knowledge and to be able to once I get the knowledge, I learned as well that I want to teach other people what I've learned. And I think that's what got me into being an educator and be a teacher for 17 years. So those encyclopedias. Yes is one of my things as well. I was into those Can you tell us how you're learning and you're like? curiosity and your reading really led to Your career that you had like as you were uh Advancing in education like when you went to college It started with, I played basketball and our coach had us to do like this personality quiz, like a career assessment quiz. Because I wanted to go make, first I was going to go to the WNBA, that was everybody saying. And then I wanted to like get into business because I felt like I was kind of good at sales or whatever. So I'm like, I'm about to go make some bread. So we take the career assessment and my number one thing on the career assessment was to be a teacher, be an educator. I looked at the test, I was like, hey coach. not doing this, they don't make money not doing this. And so it started with that career assessment. And guess what? I actually ignored it and I went out into the workforce and I had all these different jobs and careers. I was getting into sports management. I did some work for the SWAC, the Southwestern Athletic Conference. And I just wasn't happy. Like something was just off and I started coaching girls basketball on the side. So when I go off, When I leave that job and go coach, I just felt like my day was just getting started. So it started off with coaching basketball. And then the principal of that school loved me so much. She was like, if you go get your masters in education, she said, you'll have a job waiting on you. So I went and got my masters in education. She let me live with them, her and her five kids for a while. And next thing you know, I'm in education system teaching and I'm coaching. And I fell in love with the students. When I watch them get an aha moment, when I watch them learn something, I feel in love with that feeling of watching them learn. So that's what kept me in the education system as well. Okay. So what do you teach? What have you been teaching? This subject. I teach high school business and marketing electives, so it's kind of like whatever they sign up for their year. So right now I'm teaching digital marketing, sports and entertainment marketing, and entrepreneurship. Yeah. And they got rid of my favorite class, is this career prep class that was teaching a lot about financial literacy and how to get a job and those kind of things. But I still kind of sprinkle that in my curriculum anyway. I got it. Okay. And so that leads us to, you know, as you were in college, tell us about like your financial situation because we know you teach financial literacy and all of that. Broke! Broke! Broke! Didn't know anything about money. Didn't, I never had a job before. I was on a full ride scholarship. So I'm thinking full ride scholarship, they're about to pay for everything. So I'm like, I'm good. But I still need money to put gas in my car, to buy clothes, to be able to eat out with my friends, to buy gifts, oh know, to buy gifts for people, Christmas gifts. I still needed money, but I did not understand that. So. You know, as a student athlete, y'all know, some people y'all know, we would wait on those Pell Grants and we would get those Pell Grants and we thought we were like living it up. But the Pell Grants, know, the Pell Grants, the Pell Grants are for, you know, for families who are low income families. And so, so, but when that would run out, it's like, you know, as a student athlete, you don't have time to work, you know, because of your sport and academics. So we would depend on that money. But when that money ran dry, man, we were struggling, we were broke. So. So I was like, okay, what to do? Okay, get a job. So I started off, first income I was getting is doing basketball camps in the summertime. So that was like my first income. And that was my first time learning about taxes. I almost cried. I almost lost it when I learned about taxes. I got that check. I'm like, hold on now. The hours times how much y'all were gonna pay me, that ain't adding up. I went up there, I said, hey coach, what's going on with my check? And that's when I first learned about taxes. So she talked me about taxes then. was like, wow. But yeah, but, you know, being in college, man, and being a student athlete, you don't have time to make money. So you just get the little, you know, little scraps that you can. And we was just, it was bad. A lot of people don't talk about it, but it is bad. But, you know, now it's different. They got opportunity now, but back then we were struggling. A lot of my teammates were going, plasma. They were going to the plasma bank. Like, By teammate, we were trying to get it. We were trying to get it. Yeah. Yeah. Yes, I have it. you looking like, ah, I done been through one of them bags. No, I had a, I knew someone who was giving sperm and that was, yeah. you gotta get it, you gotta get it how you can. Yes. OK, so, you know, there were laws and stuff like that. What were some of the laws that like were restricting you all back then? was what I heard because I was not a student athlete is that no one that people couldn't even buy you groceries or something like that. They might get you in trouble or what were the restrictions? we were pretty, I mean, we were there. So, you know, back then pretty much ah we could get a job, like we could get jobs, but it's just, you get paid minimum wage to only work, what, two hours, three hours? You know, that's nothing. But back then you couldn't get paid to sign autographs. You couldn't get paid if you wanted to sell your jerseys, if you wanted to show up to a basketball camp or something like that. You couldn't get paid for for any of that. Like, so it was the law because they considered that to be eminent. Like we're amateur athletes and so as amateur athletes we can't get paid to have anything to do with our name, our image or our likeness. Yeah, which of course we know that new legislation allows people to get paid for through NIL. So tell us what NIL means. People use these acronyms all the time, but what does that mean? So when I tell you, so NIL stands for name, image, and likeness. But all it is is really your reputation, it's personal brand names, your reputation is just you being able to be an entrepreneur like your own boss. So that's all it is. That's all it is. But the cool thing about it is in the summer of 2021, they changed the law over saying that now student athletes can use their name in missing lightness to make money because there's some athletes that were on a Video games like their face their jersey number were on video games and they couldn't get paid for it The NCAA was making some ways money off of us are not just ticket sales But I'm like you selling my jersey with bond with my name on the back and I can't see any of that money You know So a loss fans of 2021 is saying yeah, they they can uh But yeah, they've been trying to It's been a while while west out there because a lot of different states have different regulations. everybody is different. So for each state, the laws may be tweaked and changed just a little bit. if any families are looking to get into that, sure you check with your state. Make sure you check with the athletic offices first and compliance first, and then check your state laws on that because everybody's different. Every state is different. Yeah, so you work with high schoolers and I know that even high schoolers can make money now through the NIL deals. So how does that work? You know, who's reaching out like who's paying them? Like how is that working? So high schools in many states, not all states though, they haven't reached Alabama, Mississippi. I'm like, I'm in Alabama. I'm like, I need to go up there. I need to go up there and get some signatures or something, don't I? But not mostly, but I feel like it's coming because you think if high school, if they're doing it in high school and it's not your state, the colleges in that, they're gonna lose some of those, they're gonna lose some of those players. So in high school, so from high school to college is all really the same. Let's just say there's a brand. oh Let's say there's a supplement brand. The supplement brand, check out your social media and they're like, man, I really like what they stand for. They got influence. They got a lot of engagement on their social media. This supplement brand may come to you and say, hey, let's do a deal. Maybe they call them deliverables. So if you have a deliverable, you have to post so many times on your social media. And it's like you making a commercial or an ad for them. Or it can be organic, just saying that you use it, like you're using it. So the brand would come to them and say, you have to do this many ads or this many posts about this brand. And that could be a deal. Supplement brands, oh, you got to think locally is what I really hit in on. I try to get a lot of families to look at, because they see the big deals. They see all the big people making the big deals, but that's only about 1 % of student athletes. Yes, yes. hey y'all, what about that local cart that car wash down in the church you keep going to all the time? What about this restaurant that you love the burger at this restaurant? What about, how about the whole team? How about the whole team, this restaurant y'all always go and spend money at? How about y'all work out a deal, maybe get a burger that y'all name, that y'all design a burger, and every time somebody buy that burger, y'all get the proceeds from that. You see what I'm saying? So I try to get them more start thinking like an entrepreneur. So you got law offices or you just think about any brand that a student athlete may use that they would come into a student athlete like an influencer and then say, they treat them like influencers because instead of spending their ad money with billboards, which is getting old school, or spending their money on commercials that goes on cable, what is everybody on now? Everybody's glued to their phone. So if they're on the phone, you got to meet the people where they are so the brands is like, let's get smart. We're gonna meet them where they are, they're on social media, and let's use this student athlete, since everybody's watching them anyway, to get our product out there. So now we got a win-win situation. The student athletes, they're getting paid for using their influence, and then the brand, they're gonna get more eyes on their brand from the student athletes. So it's a win-win situation, pretty dope. Yeah, really. is there uh amount of social media followers you should try to have to get this type of deal? I'm so glad you asked me that. So a lot of people think that it's about your followers, how many followers you have. The social media algorithm has changed. So now I've talked to brands and I've interviewed with brands and the brands are looking for engagement, influence, engagements. They don't care about followers anymore because the algorithm has changed. I've started with TikTok. Everyone's adapting. uh to what TikTok has been doing. So TikTok's algorithm now it's on it's called an interest graph. now it doesn't matter your followers is now about what you're interested in. Check it out. Like look at your feed and you're not going to see a lot of people that you follow. You'll see maybe things that you've been interested in. Maybe you like something or you DM somebody or you engage with the content. The algorithm is going to show you more of that. So now brands are like, let me look at your engagement metrics. So if your engagement metrics that tells me that you can have a million followers, but if they're not engaging with you, we don't want that. Because our product or service is not getting out there, not getting eyes on it. So they're looking at the engagement right now. The rewrite method and the rewrite method workbook are your go. Two, resource for helping kids to learn to fall in love with writing. It has the tips, tools, resources, strategies, and skill building activities to help kids fall out of writing hate and into loving to write. Get your book set today. Okay, that's really good to know. So if you have a post and a million people are looking at it, maybe you have a thousand followers, 500 followers, but that that million is something that people are engaging. They think it's funny. They're liking it, sharing it. Okay, that makes sense. to see that. They want to see what you're posting. People are sharing and commenting, liking it. That's what they said that they want to see. And they said they also want to see, uh if you're using products, like, how good are you at making content about the products that you're already using? I was like, oh, OK. That's something that I learned as well. But I say educate myself. I stay in the room. I stay at these NIL conferences, the financial literacy conference, anything with branding. I stay learning. So but just hearing it just from hearing it from the brand, they're saying this is what we're looking for, not followers. Got it. um So you do talk about, you started with saying like, the kids are, the young athletes are now thinking about themselves as a brand or as a business themselves. So that makes me think about their image. Like you said, they like what you stand for. So what are some things that kids might be doing on their social media that are actually opposite of that? Is something that people are like, don't wanna deal with this person. flashing money uh Clothes are off middle finger up or or or that's been a thing but or this is one brand said when they go look at it They said if they're gonna looking at the pages some things that they're doing wrong is they're not showing their personality at all all they're showing this highlight clips and photos so the brand is like I can't tell who you are if you actually represent what we believe in or not by looking at your page because all I see is that you're good at your sport. They're not just only choosing people that's good at their sport. uh Also, the first thing, their profile. In your uh profile, you need to have what sports you play. You can have your number, what team you play for, but you also need to have like an email address. It can be a Gmail account, but like an email address and say, you know, NIL inquiries with the email address. You know what saying? So you gotta have some way for them to contact you, but you need to put a quote or something that says something about who you are and what you believe in. Because they just want to see that their mission aligns with your mission. That's what they're looking for. other than that stuff, those are the no's. Like having a profile that you can't tell who you are, only posting photos, only posting highlight reels. and you know the parties and posting that kind of stuff they're not that's those are red flags for brands. great. So I know that the audience would be very interested in that, you know, making sure you are presenting yourself well online. So that's something that we didn't have to worry about when we were kids, right? We could just show up to the interview looking presentable and acting like we got some sense, even though we might be acting a fool out em other places, as long as we didn't get in trouble, right? You know, but when we're putting everything online, yeah. yeah, because baby, I used to be out there. I'm like, man, I used to be at the parties. I used to be silly, goof out, but I was like the life of the party. Shout out to the Leos. But we had social media back then, baby. I don't know if a deal would have, wanted a deal with me back then. I would have to straight up. I would have to straight up, right? But watch this, parents, this is good for you as well because if your kid is looking to, know, to, make money from their NIL, now they're going to clean their act up. So now they're actually going to be acting better. They're to be worried about who they're hanging out with. Hey, bro, I can't be seen. I can't be seen in that kind of environment. So now the kid now is starting to learn, I am a business man. So now if I start seeing, she starts seeing me as a business, as an entrepreneur, I'm going to start changing up how I move. So That's a whole nother angle that a lot of people not talk about, I try to teach them that as well. Yeah, that's good. That's great, right? Because we know online has gone to a place where people, you know, they can't really control what their kids do online or but at least this was something that maybe will help keep that in check and help them to reframe it for themselves because we know, you know, that's what it is about kids making decisions for themselves and and choosing correctly because we can't be there all the time. It would be great if we could. Be clear we can, but you know, but you know, but we can't, but you know, as a, you know, your brain's not fully developed yet, you just gonna, you're gonna make some mistakes. But I think, but I think what, you know, with personal branding or, you know, reputation, oh I tell my people like, you don't have to have an NIL deal to have a brand. Matter of fact, we all have brains. We are all a walking billboard of ourselves. Your resume, is that you look at it, that's you branding. We are all brands. You don't have to have an NIL deal to build a brand. uh Also, because you could be networking and building relationships with these brands. So now when you graduate, you may have a job waiting for you with these brands because they like how you are moving in college. I actually used my NIL to get my first, well, all of my jobs. I used my NIL. Did I have an NIL deal? No, but I used my NIL because I was going up to the athletic department, just speaking to people, being nice to the athletic directors. And so when it was time for me to graduate, I didn't have a job. Like, I don't think they do a good job of helping you transition from school to into the professional world. I needed help. And so because of me using my name, image, and likeness, and they remember me through the five years I was there, this guy was able to get me the interview at the SWAC. So he got me to interview. I got the job, but he got me the interview. So that's, that's why I tell people your personal brand, should just be, you always have that. And so you need to be working on building it anyway, like without a brand name. absolutely. Absolutely. All right. Yes. brand and you can use it other than that. Like every job I got, the teaching job I got to this day, I was able to use my, that I was a basketball player at Sanford University in Birmingham, Alabama. And I was able to get a job. I was able to get my job, but I've been at this job for 17 years. You see what I'm saying? So we're all, we're all, we all got a personal brand. So you so that's one of the things that you do is help parents and kids and navigate athletes navigate this new kind of landscape Is that what you do or tell us more about what you do to help kids? Yeah, so I help student athletes and their families, coaches. I help them to be able to make, manage, and grow the money that they make from their NIL deal, even if they don't have a deal yet. So I help them build their personal brand. I educate them on NIL. And then I help them. have a system, because a lot of them are making money. You know they're doing with the money? Like what any young kid would do with the money? Blowing it. We out. We at the clubs. I got the J's, my friends, I got y'all blowing it and they don't have a plan for their money. So I developed a system for student athletes of what to do with their money. Cause back then I was like money was meant to spend. I was never taught to talk about financial literacy. money would mean we get money, we spend it. I got $7 left in my account. Oh, I'm finna go buy some, I need to spend that. So we spent money. So when I got older, I had, I developed myself a system. And so I just kind of tweaked it a little bit for student athletes. And it starts with a calculator. So if I got some money coming in, so NIO money coming in, I put my money in this calculator, and this calculator tells me this is how much you put aside for taxes. This is how much you put in your business reserve. And then this is how much owners draw. I'm already teaching them about owners draw. Owners draw, this goes into your personal account. And then from your personal account, I teach a four bucket system so now you got your personal money. That calculator will tell you this is how much for fixed costs, this is how much you save, invest, and this is how much you can spend your fun money. So your guilt free spending, fun money. So when you spend that, you ain't even gotta worry about how much I got left. That money is only meant for you can spend it on whatever you want to spend it on. That system right there completely changed my life. Completely changed my life. So now my money is It's automatically working for me and I don't have to overthink how much, can I spend money on that? Can I spend money on that? This system, I'm like, oh, I wasn't bad with money. just, I ain't had no system. So I teach that and I got it in my book, NIL money, my book, NIL money, that's, I was gonna go on pre-sale soon, but I got that in my book. And then I also got a starter kit that will, that'll guide you through getting an LLC. When I tell you. These kids are getting this money and they're treating it like it's their personal money. No business set up, no liability set up. So I teach them how to set up their LLC, get a business bank account, separate your personal money, your business money, good IRS come for you, you already said. Bookkeeping, so I got that in there. Taxes, I used to have a tax business and I'm knowledgeable on taxes. So I have a tax strategy training video for them to teach them about taxes and what's a... What's deduction was not a deduction. I teach them how to invest. I got a training video on teaching them how to invest, first investment, how to set up an account, how to automatically have that money going in, what's in, uh what's invested, educational purposes. but so I got some training videos and the money system and I got them, I teaching them and I also got a budget template, like a spending plan. So they'll actually see, students already done the math for it. As soon as they put their numbers in. they can see if they're overspending or underspending for those four buckets. So I have a whole system in there, it's called the NIL starter kit. ah If anybody, you know, want to take a look at that, my uh Instagram, CC the Coach, it's in my link, it's a link in my bio for that. Or you can comment me the word money as well. Or you can go to theprosperityleague.com forward slash start. We love this. And it's all, we also gonna have everything in the show notes for you as well so that you can get all the access you need to coach Cece, get your kids on track, get that money going early, right? They, mm-hmm. I thought I have a lot of I have to approach parents I'm like you're not taking advantage of they're like what we don't understand it they think is just the money from the school that the schools are doing from the collectives that's another one the collectives that's a whole separate thing where the collectives are getting money from donors to be able to give to the students I'm not even talking about that I'm talking about them becoming entrepreneurs and business owners uh themselves so they get more control of it. But a lot of parents think that's all they can do is accept money from the collectives. So collectives is something that people are donating to an institution like a school like they might donate it to the high school or the college What is a collective tell us more? A collective is completely separate than the school. Usually it's like a nonprofit organization that people who love the school or love the sports team, when they went there, they'll get a collective together. Alumni, know, business people, they'll get a collective together and people would donate money to that nonprofit. They can get a tax write off. Businesses that donate to that nonprofit and then the collectors will take that money and they'll pay. The the teams like as a whole like they'll pay they'll just give them like a stipend or some money like that So that the collectors do that as well Okay, so yeah, um, you know, but you know, of course that some collectors are promised you some money and I know student athletes right now saying I have not seen any of that money, but they've been got me here and they wonder why so many people get in the transfer portal because y'all promising me something that I haven't even seen anything about it. They're giving these kids trucks and stuff But they don't know, it's not being taught, we just see on social media. The whole team got trucks, but we're not seeing that they still have to write off a portion of whatever the value of that truck. They still have to pay taxes on that, whatever the value of that is as well. So it's got different ways that they can make money. I love the part where they're on their own, like saying, their personal brand, making money. And then now it's still, they're trying to decide if the colleges are going to start paying them as W-2 employees. That would be crazy. Cause as a W-2 employee, that means if I'm late, you can't treat it like an employee. Like you can get fired as an employee. So they're kind of dealing, they kind of playing around with that law as well. just, oh, I hope they don't do that. But you know, I can't control that. But I just, I'm here to educate people on what's going on. Right. Yeah. Keep you updated on all the changes. It's, you know, like she said, the Wild Wild West, it's new, lots of changes, lots of things are happening and getting a strategy and, you know, being, you know, aware and staying updated on things is really important. And I really like. Yeah, I really like what you're saying is that you don't have to be this big athlete yet because everyone's not like a superstar athlete. Like we know that LeBron James when he was in high school, people were coming in, you know, to see him like you don't have to be that there are ways to get money, you know, using the local brands and businesses that you interact with. So we just love that you came on the show and gave us this. This is such right and on time information for parents. A lot of people don't know what to do. leaving money on the table, know, letting other people take advantage of us maybe, you know, we don't know, but we gotta make sure also cutting ourselves off, right, by acting a fool online or, yeah. So it's really, it's so important. lot, you know, the viewers are going to get a lot out of this. You've dropped so many gems. We love it. I know I probably get, you see how my passion, I get so passionate about it. Say, see, put it in the book, put it all in the book. So. And it's coming up. Yes, we're to drop that pre-order link so we could get we could put it in. Yeah, so we're we love this. So again, is there any like? in, sorry, I hope parents that's in middle school or high school, this is so important to me, parents in middle school or high school, I'm gonna tell y'all right now, do not wait till they get to college to start trying to learn this stuff. You can start learning it and preparing them and building their brand now. Like don't wait, it's almost too late when they get, cause now, Everybody's gonna come in, you don't know who's scamming, who to trust and all that, but I want y'all to be educated before the offer even hits the table. Yeah, absolutely. This is so good. All right, so again, you can reach out to Coach Cece and that's what I was gonna say. Any last things unless she's telling us right now, get started right now. Don't wait till tomorrow or two years from now. You can start getting uh ideas right now, getting, know, wise to different things that are happening. Excellent. Well, again, thanks so much, Coach Cece, for visiting the Filing for Learning podcast, dropping all this knowledge on us. And for parents and educators out there, make sure you do something today to give your child the competitive advantage. Thank you, see you next time. Thanks again for supporting the Falling for Learning podcast. New episodes go live every Saturday at 5 p.m. You can watch us on youtube.com at Falling for Learning or listen on all major podcast platforms. such as Apple, Google, Audible, Spotify, and much more. For more resources, visit fallinginlovewithlearning.com. We really appreciate you. Have a wonderful week.