In a shorter blog today we will be previewing my upcoming podcast. In the upcoming week we will be talking about the NCAA and paying the athletes. We have a very special guest coming in to discuss this. Stay tuned for more updates to here our podcast. We are all very excited to get started!
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Over the past few weeks the only real topics for discussions were the riots that took place in the United States Capital building. These acts were uncalled for and simply wrong. I wanted to talk about how much of an impact this had on the sports world. Many athletes took to twitter to voice the disgust with theactions of these people, but one athlete that I wanted to talk about was Lakers forward Anthony Davis. Davis put out this tweet The message that Davis is trying to send is that the country is going in the wrong direction when it comes to uniting. There is a huge double standard for white Americans in this country and Davis and many other people who are with BLM are trying to fight for this equality. My goal here is show how athletes can and should continue to raise there voices about the disturbing inequality that some Americans have shown based on race and also sex. My blog here was short but I think for the circumstances that the Country is going through I want to promote to all athletes and anyone else who has a voice, please use it to help better this country and create the freedom liberty and justice FOR ALL that this country was founded on.
There are not many people who have had the opportunity to establish a brand like Lebron James has, but for the rare people who have had that opportunity they have not capitalized on it like Lebron James has. In seventeen seasons in the NBA Lebron James has accomplished so much more off the court than he has on it. With a platform as big as he has Lebron James has taken that chance and ran with it, Lebron is very active in current social issues and wants to take part as a civil rights activist. As the best basketball player in the NBA it would be very easy for him to not care about anything besides basketball but he is one that goes out of his way to show that there are more important things than basketball. This is a huge brand building technique as many people love what he has done for certain issues. specifically police brutality and shines a light on things that might not be talked about by the media as much. With his huge platform he generates notice and more and more people especially young kids can see early on the issues that todays America has. My advice to young kids who want to be like Lebron would defiantly be to speak out against the wrong doings in America. Michael Jordan had the same if not a bigger platform than Lebron but he chose to not speak out about almost any social issues. This could have affected America and how kids think because people respected him just as much as Lebron. Instead the best role model you can look up too is Lebron because of all the justice he has done for America and how he will continue to shape the country with his huge platform.
Trevor Bauer is a 2020 MLB Free Agent, meaning that he can sign with whatever team he so chooses. He is marketed as one of the best free agents and he is a player that almost every team has salivated over. Fans, Owners, and even other players have advocated for Trevor Bauer to join their team. But here is the thing, Trevor Bauer has been mediocre throughout his career. Only one good season of Bauer and people have put him in the conversation for best pitcher in the league when that simply is not the case. Why is this?... Does he play for a big market team?... No. The reason Bauer has so much popularity is because of his personal branding skills. Trevor Bauer has been largely outspoken on why the MLB has been down in viewership, what they can do to change it and lastly he is not afraid to take on anyone who calls him out. People love how Bauer is so confident and how much he speaks his mind to the point where they will throw 230 million dollars in his face just to pitch average. Let me put this into perspective, Jacob Degrom is no doubt the best pitcher in the leauge and is making 110 million dollars over 6 years. Trevor Bauer is not even close to his level but for the next upcoming seasons he is likely to make around 200 million dollars. This goes to show you that by promoting yourself and your brand even as a professional athlete can have its perks. Without Bauer and his social networking skills he would not even come close to 70 million let alone 200. This is a lesson to all of the younger athletes who are watching this to show how much your brand and reputation can impact your life. Even when his quotes may not seem like the best thing to say such as when he came at the MLB commissioner by saying "F*ck you, baseball would be better without you." People respect his honesty and how he isn't afraid of even the highest levels. Many young athletes try too hard to recreate his success by doing similar things, but the key is to wait until you make it professionally to start speaking your mind. If you speak it to a fault many people will think you are not a good person and will not want to associate with you, that is the main message I am trying to create with this blog.
A huge part to building your brand is using your voice to better the world and how at the same time can increase your popularity in the marketing world. A person I would recommend following is Colin Kaepernick. Kaepernick was a NFL quarterback and managed to make it to the Super Bowl with the San Fransisco 49ers, the following year Kaepernick decided to make a social protest by kneeling during the national anthem.He did this in order to spread awareness toward police brutality. This caused outrage in America because people thought he was doing a disservice to Americans who served the country. The aftermath of this was Kaepernick lost his job, received millions of death threats, and is hated amongst most right-wingers in America. There are positives that have come out of this though, not only has he spread awareness to an issue that is so clearly a human rights violation but he has also established a brand for himself and will be forever known as more then just a quarterback but a civil rights activist. The message that I want to spread is to always speak your voice, not only because it can bennifit you but it can also benefit millions of others and inspire change. I admire Colin Kaepernick and he is a huge role model for me. He has built one of the biggest brands anyone in the world can ask for yet that was not his number one goal. #ImWithKap
A great person that young athletes can look up to would be New York Mets starting pitcher... Marcus Stroman. Marcus Stroman has been a solid pitcher in the big leagues but has been inconsistent. The Mets starter has been in the big leagues for five years but really only has one solid year. Even with just one year of consistency, Stroman is well known around the league because of his brand and how he promotes himself. If you don't know most pitchers in the MLB are over six feet tall and that has become the norm. Stroman is an outlier standing at only five feet eight inches. Instead of being down on himself for this he has taken pride in the fact that he is different than most. Over social media he has constantly used the phrase "HDMH" (Height Doesn't Measure Heart). Stroman utilizes this because he knows there are many kids who look up to him who might be considered small as well. On twitter after all his good games he always tweets his signature "HDMH" and it really has become a selling point for him. He now has a clothing brand and multiple sponsorships deals all because of his positive attitude and how he conducts himself over social media. The point of this blog is to show how you can use your differences and setbacks and use it as motivation to promote yourself. There are many people who might be in a similar position and you as a young athlete can be used to inspire others just as Stroman has. Even though Stroman has been just average, everybody knows his name because of the brand he has established based on the setbacks he was born with. Personally I have been inspired by Stroman and hopefully can follow in his footsteps. The moral is that you can build a brand and be a success to thousands even if you aren't the most talented athlete.
It is hard to know somebody who is unaware of the Ball family. If you are unfamillar with the Ball family, it consists of Father Lavar Ball and his three sons Lonzo ,Liangelo , and Lamelo. The children are all elite basketball players and all have made a name for themselves for there special skills. The father Lavar has been known for his crazy hot takes in interviews and his insane antics such as saying that he would beat Michael Jordan in a basketball game. People laughed at him for all these statements but little did they know that it would help build a huge brand. Coming out of high school Lozno Ball was the 4th ranked player in the country people knew him and how great he was on the court. Typically high school players do not have much hype until they hit the college or professional ranks. This is where Lonzos father comes in, he would make statements saying that Lonzo was better than Steph Curry and how he would be the best player in the NBA. He was going under the impression that all publicity was good publicity, to be fair in this scenario he was right. Lavar made himself into a meme but at the same time people loved it. Lavar created a product called "Big Baller Brand" where they would sell basketball merchandise. Not even in college yet Lonzo had over a million followers along with his two younger brothers who were still much younger than him. Lonzo and his father have accumulated a net worth of over 15 million dollars all from the fact of publicizing themselves over twitter and other social platforms. Currenelty Lonzo and Liangelo are in the NBA and Lamelo is preparing to be a top 5 pick in the draft. Lonzo and Liangelo have done ok for NBA standards but nothing special, yet everyone knows who they are due to the marketing schemes that Lavar has promoted for his children. This proves how to market yourself even if you will be laughed at and ridiucled if it means your personal brand will improve.
In previous blogs, we have talked about some athletes who have used social media to promote themselves or build a brand. These athletes are the ones who use social media with a good intent and use it intentionally. What I have not covered are some of the athletes who were not smart about how they used social media. The example I will be using today will be Brewers closer... Josh Hader. Josh Hader was in the middle of a breakout year, the closer was dominating and was selected to the all star game. In the middle of the all star game old tweets from Hader resurfaced from when he was a teen. Many of the tweets were hate speech and transphobic and many of these slurs are offensive when directed at the people he chose to call.Following the all star game, Hader was berated with questions about his tweets and even though he had a great game in his first all star appearance, the old tweets were the center of attention. Following the game Hader was forced to make an apology, his twitter was deleted, and he lost respect from all his teammates. Hader made a mistake that I think all athletes should follow. Be careful what you put on social media because it will always come back to you. Hader is a prime example of this and I hope everyone can learn from him
An athletes brand is one of the most important aspects of ones career. Think of your favorite athlete and think about the brand that they have established. Many players have built themselves on social media and have made awareness to social issues, or have promoted something that they believe in. My goal for the blog is to create and compare different athletes and the ways that they market themselves and teach amateur athletes how they can follow in the footsteps of some of the biggest brand builders that sports has to offer. Some huge athletes that have established brands are... Lebron James, Serena Williams, Colin Kaepernick, Marcus Stroman and countless others. These are some athletes who have changed the culture of how social media can be played and I want to express that and show others how they can model there medias in a similar fashion.
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