June 5, 2023: 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm:
Hoped on a zoom call with the team and received my role of outreaching brands for partnerships with EAMG Sports and our athletes. During that time I got to learn about the EAMG Sports Agency and got to introduce myself to the team. I received my role of being a brand out-reacher that send emails, make calls and connect with brands marketing or CEO's to explain EAMG Sports and how we can add value to the brands. I started this by scouting out potential brands that fits our athletes interests to better build authentic relationships between the player and the specific brand. The list I made of potential brands to outreach were sports nutrition brands, fitness apparel, gyms, street apparel, and sports recovery brands. These brands will allow me to better build an authentic relationship because the brands directly correlate with our athletes. They can either use or wear these products or create a personal story around the products to showcase a genuine connection with the product and brand. I primarily used email to reach out to brans because it was more convent for me since I was busy during the day and could not make calls because businesses were closed. The first day was very good and I gathered a lot of information on how to be successful in this industry. Being consistent and having a great work ethic is key to capitalize and maximize on every opportunity to add value to the agency and also our clients as well.
June 6, 9:00 am - 4:00 pm:
Contacted Dick's Sporting Goods, sending an introductory email outlining the potential benefits of an endorsement partnership. Highlighted our athletes' accomplishments and their alignment with the brand's mission of promoting sports and an active lifestyle. This choice of brand was perfect and I've done a lot of research on their brand to determine if they work with athletes specifically football players. Looking through their social media and websites it was definitely promising that they work with athletes primary and I made the decision that our top clients with high following would be good for this brand because Dick's Sporting Goods would be want to work with an athlete that has the following to increase their brands value. In NIL an athletes value is determined by their social platform and then their success on the football field. I started to research on what players and how do Dick's Sporting Goods use marketing with athletes to gain traffic and sales. With analyzing their brand I learned that they primary focus on professional athletes and they deal with a lot of nonprofit organizations regarding youth sports organizations. This wasn't the particular brand our athletes need at this time and I would be wasting a lot of time trying to get the brands attention. It was a great learning experience and it helped me gain more experience of my role at EAMG Sports to better understand what a top brand like Dick’s Sporting Goods would like as far as a potential partnership with EAMG Sports athletes promoting their brand.
June 7, 10:00 am - 3:00 pm:
Joined a Zoom meeting with the EAMG Sports team, including Jake O'Donnell, Josh Katz, Daniel Lomba, Jake Kling, Zachary, Ricki Cruz, and Kerian. Discussed the progress of our outreach efforts and shared insights on the brands we contacted. Each team member provided updates on their assigned brands and discussed any responses or feedback received. These meetings are held every Wednesday at 8pm and it's just a follow up meeting on the things we work on individually and as a team. We discuss the tasks we’re working on and the team members can offer their feedback on to better the tasks or congratulate the results that were given from completing a tasks. We plan out the week on what projects each team member should work on to better increase value and productivity in the the agency. Core values and the overall foundation of the agency is a motivating factor to continue doing a great job at the roles each team member has in the agency. There wasn’t too much success as far out reaching brands and setting up a follow up meeting but the other side of the agency was pretty successful with having a couple athletes play in the USFL and get playing time. This could lead into a potential NFL contract which will be a high achievement for the players and our athletes as well. Continuing working hard and staying consistent are key in the NIL agency industry and constantly supporting our clients to be the best person and athlete they can be.
June 8, 11:00 am - 5:00 pm:
Continued reaching out to brands, focusing on Clean Express Car Wash and PepsiCo. Crafted compelling messages tailored to their specific industries, emphasizing how our clients could enhance their marketing campaigns and engage with their target consumers effectively. Clean Express Car Was was a attractive brand to out reach because it was different and I believe our athletes would do a great job promoting their brand. I believe a Car Wash can be a creative NIL deal with utilizing superb creative content with storytelling, events, commercials, etc. There hasn’t been many car wash NIL deals being constructed so I felt like this could be the big break to get our athletes some compensation and personal brand status via social media. Pepsi Co is a huge corporation with a well known name that pretty much doesn’t need any outsourced personnel to promote their brand. But that didn’t stop me at all, I wanted to see if there were any chance of Pepsi Co needing an athlete to promote their brand to potential target a new market of customers. I reached out to PepsiCo marketing department and I didn’t get any answers and I was running into a brick wall. I learned a lot during this process which was keep going no matter what even if something doesn’t seem possible. I started to gain more knowledge and I getting a top NIL deal started to be my career goal working for EAMG Sports.
June 9, 12:00 pm - 4:00 pm:
Research additional sports nutrition brands and identified potential partners that aligned with our clients' values and shared a commitment to wellness and performance. To start the week I usually conduct research on brands for the week just to make outreach a much easier process. Things can get very hectic with multiple duties and tasks can start to pile up on each other. Organization and implementing a strategy that works for me is something I started to work on and it's benefiting me. Nutrition brands are the key brands to out reach this week because they are easier to build relationships with and generate a partnership with because of the direct correlation of nutrition and sports. Athletes need the proper nutrition to excel at a high level and to keep that level of excellence through the course of their given season. This will better our athletes and give them the extra boost they need in order to be successful on the field. These nutrition brands I out reached too were G2G nutrition, Ghost Energy, and Rx Bars. These brands are well respected in the nutrition/ supplement market and this will give the proper insurance our agency needs to get our athletes the support they need. I gathered some success with generating follow up meetings and we look to work with these brands in the future and potential gain a long term partnership. Everyday Im getting better and I know it will pay off in the long run. Looking forward to the future.
June 10, 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm:
Made follow-up emails to brands such as Dick's Sporting Goods, Clean Express Wash and Pepsi CO, Ghost, G2G and Rx Bars to thank them for their time and expressed our eagerness to explore collaboration opportunities. Provided any additional information they requested and addressed any concerns they raised. Following is something I started to do and I usually do it after a week of initial out reach because I know brands are being crowded with emails and call each day and order to stand out from the rest I have to make sure my outreach is at the top of their contact lists. Most deals that done is from follow ups, its key to stay grasping the attention to brands and keep your agencies name in these brands minds. I was able to et up meetings because of my ability to follow up. The rule I set for my self is to two follow up with a specific brand at least three times and I get no response then is time to move on to the next brand because you don’t want to be an annoyance and get on the do no contact or blocked list. The deal might not happen this year but next year it may and knowing when to hold back on follow ups can generate a potential NIL deal in the future. Feeling really good about my role and what I need to do each day in order to provide value to the agency.
June 11, 8:00 am - 9:00 pm:
Attended our weekly zoom meeting with the team to discuss the progress of our outreach and brainstorm ideas for optimizing our communication strategies. Shared successful approaches and best practices that yielded positive responses from brands. Collaboratively explored new potential brands and avenues for outreach. We made our decisions on a strategic way to out reach brands with out giving too much information on what we want out of a deal, and focused primarily on how we can help brands build their brand in different avenues such as increasing traffic through social media which will entail feed, story and reel post to really get the engagement, impressions and interaction a brand would need to push out their products or even the overall image of brand. Other ways we discussed were to pitch athlete appearances to gain physical relationship with customers to ultimately increase sales. With physical appearances we can provide spaces where our athletes can sign autographs, mini helmets, trading cards and other memorabilia. This will bring in the fans that support our athletes and this will open up the opportunity for brands to market their name/products to gather a new demographic of consumers. We are having a lot of success with out two athletes in the USFL, they are making big plays and out NFL contract advisor is receiving NFL calls about them. So we’re happy that they’re doing good and we’re waiting on those big calls to help them further their career in the NFL.
June 12, 3:00 pm - 10:30 pm:
Reached out to youth organizations such as Boys and Girls Club, and Rock Mount Prep. Emphasized the positive impact our clients could have on young athletes and the community. Proposed partnerships for events, mentorship programs, and shared initiatives to foster a love for sports and personal growth.These organizations are perfect for athletes to be apart of because they’re giving back to a specific organization or community. This brings the community together for something much greater than the game of football. Creating youth camps where athletes can receive the coaching from top athletes they look up to will motivate the youth to be the best they can be at their sport. Also gaining life skills that will make them a better person will be more impactful in this stage because they're receiving the knowledge from a person they want to be like one day. So the whole youth organizations are a positive and beneficial way for youth and colligate football players to interact and have fun. The Boys and Girls Club wanted to work with our player from NC State and were a sponsor for a youth camp he’s hosting in July. The deal was constructed by someone else on our team but it's still a great success and we're looking forward to more success in the neat future. Rocky Mount Prep didn’t showcase any interest in apart of our players youth camp which would be a perfect fit for our athlete and the community based on the location on the camp being in Rocky Mount, NC.
June 13, 8am-4pm:
Continuing to reach out to youth organizations to be a sponsor of our players youth football camps. These players are Justin Wodlty a University of Cincinnati defensive lineman and Shyheim Battle a NC State cornerback. I reached out the YMCA, Boys Hope Girls Hope. Gathering information on the brands and setting up meetings with Justin Wodlty to figure out a plan on what he and the other coached need to have a successful youth camp. We discussed a logo to represent the camp and to showcase it on T-shirts that the coaches, players and attendees would wearing during the camp. We connected with Coach Austin the head of Impact Youth Organization to receive the support we need to make this camp a major success and the best camp in Ohio. I continued to work on gaining sponsorships and reaching out to local brands as well and received a few responses but a lot of brands aren’t in the market for being a sponsor. I started to follow up on past brands I reach out to try to formulate a potential partnership. Things are starting to formulate and moves are being made to get out athletes the best opportunities and giving them the support they need to achieve everything they venture into.
June 14, 1pm-8pm:
Assisted my team members with proposing partnerships for events, mentorship programs, and shared initiatives to foster a love for sports and personal growth with many sports brands. The focus today was being a team player and helping out as much as possible. This entailed doing different things as far out reaching and sharing information to my team members to help the overall success of the team. This can be beneficial for our agency because each member and department has to work together and be on the same page so we can better utilize our strengths. I’ve also reached out to brands and gained some responses that can potentially lead to potential deals, these brands are breakaway data a sports analytics company that tracks an athletes athletic ability that gives a user real time date on their performance, such as speed and power. A user can use this data to help increase their performance to gain better results in the long run. Breakaway data showed interest in working with Shyheim Battle in the future and he plans on using the Breakaway Data platform to better his performance on the field by using it for training purposes that will lead to him promoting their brand on social media. This is a new innovative brand that is going to be the main measurement of sports athletic performance and its good that I founded them out before other agencies started to reach out to them.The hope is that we get a fair partnership with the brand and our athlete.
June 15, 1pm-8pm:
Researching additional sports nutrition brands and health brands to expand our outreach efforts. The more brands I reach out to the better because I Wille eventually reach a potential partner because they would have shared interest. Its a everyday grind its important to keep going and never give up on out reaching because their are times where I may not get any interest and its nothing personal it could just be that the brands aren’t in a position to spend money on marketing. Its times where brands were interested in working with our company but they didn’t have the budget for it or they just used up their marketing money for something else in their business. Just have to keep moving forward and continue to look for brands that share the same interest we as an agency do and figure out ways we can add value to their brands. I used different resources to able to find different brands to start out reaching to in the likes of Instagram. Instagram is a major tool to find brands and learn how they strategic market their brand and that gives me insight on how to better contact a specific brand. Utilizing instagram algorithm and continuing searching specific brands and clicking on brands that match what the overall search was helps with the search for more brands in the same industry. The agency as a whole is always positive and we continue to search for more ways to get our name out there and provide for our clients.
June 16, 8am-7pm:
Researched restaurants in local areas of our athletes and analyzed each brands marketing strategies to tailor our marketing to better assist brands with brand development. One restaurant that showed interest was Next Level Cafe in Auburn, Alabama. They were a small local cafe that provide many selections for customers such as breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We proposed a NIL contract that consisted of our athlete Brian Battie to promote Next Level Cafe on social media using stories, reels and feed posts, as well a physical appearance where Brian will eat at the restaurant, possibly bring his teammates, sign autographs , and potentially have his own meal on the Next Level Cafe Menu. We kept in close contact with Next Level Cafe to reach an agreement on a price that will work well with the restaurant, our client and the agency as a whole. Also I conducted meetings with Fire Fly Recovery for a potential partnership with our athletes. They’re a brand that focused on recovery for athletes and the forms of portable seems that gives athletes a instant pain relief and allow them to keep pushing. This brand wasn’t interested in any in depth marketing strategy but wanted simple social media post to promote their products. This agreement would just be a product gifting where our players will receive free products to promote on their social media platforms. Products like this are always welcomed these are things we look for as an agency to help our clients out as much as possible.
June 17, 10am-9pm:
Conducted a follow up meeting with Fire Fly recovery to reach a deal on how a partnership will work with Fire Fly utilizing our athletes NIL to promote their brand. This became a success with products being sent to our athletes to help them throughout their season. This was a huge success for me as I was gaining confidence with expressing the EAMG Sports agency to brands and giving them insight on how they can benefit from a partnership with our agency. I began to start looking for more brands in the recovery industry to be gain more interest to land a big deal that can bring a lot of attention to our players and brand. Also I was apart of the meeting where me and the CEO of the company were on the call getting to know Fire Fly Recovery a little bit more so we can build a relationship. The meeting was a successful and I felt both parties ended up with great optimism of of this partnership. The grind continues and I started to follow up on brands and researching on how other NIL agencies obtain partnerships that benefit their players. Being trendy but also creative is a healthy balance for growing a business and our goal is to overachieve these aspects in this industry to better expand our capabilities which will lead to an increase of brand awareness. Overall this was a good day and hope to have more days like this. Have to keep going.
June 23, 12pm- 8pm:
Reached out to different local brands regarding a youth football camp for one of our athletes Shyheim Battle to assist with gaining sponsorships for the youth camp. Brands consisted of Pizza Inn, media brands for coverage of the camp such as WNCN, WTVD and WRAL. Pizza inn is brand I found on yelp that is based in Rocky Mount, NC I felt that their brand was innovative compared to other pizza restaurants in the area. This brand would primary be a sponsor of Shyheim’s Battle youth camp which is perfect because kids love Pizza and it would benefit Pizza Inn with increase of sales. The brand showed interested and I spoke to the CEO of the brand but couldn’t reach an agreement on them being a sponsor so the focus shifted to getting media coverage so the story of Shyheim Battle can be shared to the whole state. The community needs to be aware of young collegiate athletes using their time to support the youth. The news stations are a vital part of having a successful youth camp because local news still hold credibility to people and social media tends to use news stations takes on social media so there isn’t a major drop off of reliable, fast news content in the media world. I’ve received interest of local news stations reaching out providing a chance of them attending the youth camp. This was a success and the next step is to just keep reaching back out to keep the information fresh in the minds of these news directors.
June 24, 8am-5pm:
Followed up with brands from previous weeks. This is a weekly task that I receive the most benefit from. I went back to brands that I contacted two or three weeks ago to hopefully connect with someone in a brands marketing department. I’ve really got a understanding how things go doing this job and I know its something you have to be keep pushing with and my goal is to continue reaching out to brands and land some big deals. Supporting my team members and our clients on social media has been a big emphasis because our main goal as a agency is to increase our athletes personal brand so any little thing to get people aware of our athletes will be beneficial to their overall brand.
June 25, 8am-5pm:
Outreached more local brands in the Cleveland area of sponsor for a youth camp at John Marshall High School that Justin Wodtly is hosting on July 29th. This is a project that I’ve been tasked with and I took on the challenge with my knowledge of the industry and my peers as well. I conducted meetings with support organizations and coaches that were involved in the camp and planned out what sponsors, necessities we need to get the camp up in running. I tasked myself with buying a cooler, ice and Gatorade for the youth and outsourced media combines to provide professional coverage of the camp. This will help our player and the supporting organizations with their brand outlook. We just have intention of being fair and doing things the right to benefit all parties at this camp and its starting to look good on the future outlook view of things. I started with outreaching local brands in Cleveland such as YMCA’s, We bleed Ohio and Play it Again Sports. These are brands that are well known in Cleveland I believe they will help provide the support we need to make this the best camp in Ohio. This was a first step of managing an athlete and I enjoyed every bit of it and it really taught me a lot oof how to make time for your clients and support them and expand on their ideas to lead them into the right direction. This what margining athletes is about and its something that I will continue to do.
June 26, 1pm-7pm:
Continuing to outreach for brands, reached out to Next Level Cafe and I set up a meeting to have one of our athletes promote the restaurant/cafe using social media and make appearances. This meeting seems promising but later on we stopped hearing from Next Level Cafe and it we found out that they eventually went out business. This was a let down because we thought this was going to be a good deal. We had a proposal written up and contract and believed that both sides were interested. Anything could’ve happened with this business, they could be been hit with a major bill that they couldn’t afford, sales weren’t as good as they should or the owner just didn’t want to run the business anymore. But I went kept moving forward and took this situation as a learning experience to get better and find out what things as a team could’ve done better. This is something we discussed in our team meetings and these help direct us to being a better at what we do and motivate us to keep pushing. We know that more NIL opportunities will come and we always come up with different ideas on how to better get the attention brands and figure out their problems and use the tools we have as an agency to solve their problems. This is the goal for the rest of the year and I believe this will be met and more success will be coming in the near future.
June 27, 1pm-9pm:
Follow up on brands that I reached out to 3 weeks ago that I've contacted to reach a partnership deal. Continued to call and email brands for sponsorships for both Justin Wodtly and Shyheim Battle. Offered more information to brands such as Key Bank and Gunton Windows and formulated presentations that tells the brands a little more about our agency of how we can use our strategizes and tools to help brands fix their problems. The presentation offered information about the youth camps on our two players and a descriptive biography about them so brands can get a better feel for them before a potential face to face meeting virtually or physically. One of our players from the USFL is going really good this season and is leading nation in sacks as defense tackle which is a really hard tasks to do. We created a story about him to get his name out here to people to know and with hope of gaining support so that NFL teams can see that this player is worthy of a roster spot.
June 30, 1pm-8pm:
Made contact with a production specialist that works for WRAL to help me get news coverage for Shyheim Battle's youth camp. The employee at WRAL suggested on creating a story of the specifics of what the camp is about and create a training video before the camp. This will help boost Shyheims brands but also make an spotlight on the youth camp he’s hosting because he passionate about support his community and giving back to them. This is a something I been trying to obtain for weeks and it felt good finding this connections and getting our players story out there in the world. I later made more extensive relationship with the production specialist with hopes a future partnership when Shyheim gets ready for the NFL. This would be great for him because he’ll have the media around him to help boost his draft stock when the time comes. Connections is really big and making sure these connections will provide value for both parties is vital in the sports industry. People will tend to work with those they are familiar with and it's my job to to find those connections and capitalize on them.
July 1, 10am-7pm:
Today I focused on getting local news stations to come to Justin Wodlty’s youth football camp that will be on July 29th at John Marshall School of Engineering that’s in Cleveland, Ohio. I reached out to channel 3 news WYKC to see if they can provide media coverage of the youth camp. Media coverage would help people know the overall mission of the camp and to showcase Justin Wodlty’s story to the Cleveland community. It's a on going process and it's important to keep reaching out to news stations because they typically operate stores as they come especially for events that are held on weekends. They will start to formulate their stories to cover two days before the weekend. So I started emailing and calling just to keep the information about the camp fresh in their minds. I also reached out to Fox 8 news and Channel 19 as well. After I reached out to local news stations I reached out to a youth sports media company operating in Cleveland, Ohio and asked them would they want to cover Justin’s camp. This was a success as they accepted the partnership to work with our agency and the youth organization to take photos. This was a good opportunity to learn how media companies operate so when future events happen I know how to strategize. Started to follow up on past emails and calls I sent out just to see if there is an opportunity for a potential sponsor or partnership for the youth football camp.
July 2, 8am-5pm:
Today was there want much going on as far outreaching to brands. I wanted to take a little break and just focus on the agencies weekly meetings. The meeting was primary about how can we improves a company and the mangers asked how they can help us interns on our outreach efforts to land deals. It's just a competitive and new industry so brands really aren’t aware of NIL and there is no set in stone rules and guidelines with NIL so brands really don’t know how to operate and implement their ways of business into the NIL landscape. So I have to do abetter job of explaining what EAMG Sports offer as an agency and how we can bring value and solve brands problems. Being informative is a key aspect of out reaching to brands because there are so many strategies and formulations on how to attack and utilize NIL so being clear and making sure brands know how what we’re asking from them as well as solving their problems. This is something I’m going to do more often and I believe it’ll help in a great way. Also in the meeting we discussed what’s been goin on as a company as far as major moves that need to be made which led to creating goals as a company to keep our thought and actions guided to ultimately achieve great amounts of productivity. Starting to get prepared for Justin Wodlty’s Youth Camp a well as Shyheim Battle’s youth camp.
July 3, 8am-5pm:
Started reaching out to Cleveland brands to be a sponsor at Justin Wodlty’s youth camp on July 29th. I reached out to Dave’s Supermarket here in Cleveland,Ohio. I found the marketing director of the business and sent emails and made calls and finally got a response. The director asked for more information so I created a presentation about who we are as a agency and information on our athlete Justin Wodlty and the youth camp he’s hosting. I created the presentation using Canva which is a great website that helps you create power powerpoint and tools a user can utilize to help market or advertise. This was pretty simple and it didn’t take a lot of time if I would start all the way from stretch using keynote or powerpoint. The templates that Canva has are great and effective and they have icons, features, and creative components on the website for any industry of business. Starting to use presentations as a quick way to give out information to brands instead of overflowing them with paragraphs or just simple writing. Being creative is a great way to attract attention from brands because they are used to typical, ordinary out reach techniques. Utilizing this strategy will hopefully help my success in out reaching to brands to lead to a potential NIL deal. Getting used to using outsources resources to help me in business and also life. This will be a great week of working with EAMG Sports and I hope I can reach my goals.
July 6, 8am-5pm:
Focused on reaching out to Cleveland youth organizations that primary utilize their efforts for supporting the youth through academics and wellness programs. I’ve contacted the Ronald McDonald House to see if they would want to be a sponsor and help inform and the youth to accept their services. The plan was to get Ronald McDonald House to bring their mobile health “RV” to the camp so the kids can get check ups in the format of teeth cleaning, blood pressure, blood sugar, etc. This will help Ronald McDonald House to market their brand and to continue supporting the youth to be healthy. A sponsor like this will give parents another option for them to help their children in a event something happens or to make a change to get the best expertise and health services known to mankind. The typical sponsor packages included brands to get media recognition, logo present meaning that their logo will be put on banners and shirts, and social media branded content. The package was 50% of what we typically ask for when we get sponsors for out athletes. I continued to reach out to youth organizations such as the Boys and Girls Club in Cleveland, Ohio utilizing the internet to find points of communication to get to the person that oversees marketing to pitch them how their organization will benefit from supporting this youth football camp. Took a long time to find the people in charge but I was able to find them using Google.
July 7, 8am-6pm:
Out reaching local brands in Cleveland. One brand stood out was KrazyBins a store that take in merchandise and resales them for discounted prices. Its sort of like a Goodwill Store in a sense but with much more newer and packaged merchandise. It doesn’t focus on clothing primarily but I felt like this was a good brand to partner with so I called them and for some reason their phone wasn’t working so I looked them up on instagram and sent them a message saying how interested I am with potentially working with them to partner and be a sponsor for our players football camp. This was a success and I was directed to their marketing team where I emailed them information on the youth camp and what they will receive for Krazybins being a sponsor. Local restaurants and clothing stores were at importance this week so I used Yelp to find brands that are in need for outsourced promotion. These are the best brands because they are more open for a partnership. Our agent will be able to showcase our capability to brands and solve their problems in a much effective way. In order to continue finding brands I started to use outsourced tools using database contact websites to find particular brands and people that have the branches of leadership that includes their contact information.
July 8, 8am-6pm:
Reached out to Platos Closet in East Lansing, Michigan because I personally shop there and I believe they’re a great franchise. I called them and spot with their marketing manager and I told her about our agency and it was a success. I then settled up a meeting where our CEO pitched them the different opportunities we can offer Platos Closet. The biggest things that stood out to Plato’s Closet was that we had Michigan State Football players signed to our agency, autograph trading car signings to attract customers, mini helmet giveaways to give back to the fan base. These made fans of the players come into the store and the hopes are that see something they like in the store and that is a win-win partnership. The meeting went well and we are now continuing to work with Platos Closet finding ways to improve our partnership and hope to create an everlasting partnership long term. This deal is for two of our athletes Ade Willie and Charles Brantley both are elite football players and they are active on social media so it helps them with obtaining brand deals because they can utilize their social media platforms to promote/ advertise a brands products or overall image. Brands see the gahh engagement, followers and interaction and they are able to make a strategic observations on how they can gain profit, traffic, brand awareness and positive ROI return based on athletes social media analytics. This is different the first of many deals that are going to be made looking forward to the next.