Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Antone Barnes discusses his Brand Architects Firm that specializes in career development for pro athletes

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Antone Barnes discusses his Brand Architects Firm that specializes in career development for pro athletes · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

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Speaker 1: entrepreneurs and really industry decision makers. My next guest is
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Speaker 1: an industry decision maker. His name is Anton Bonds. Over
1:11
Speaker 1: fifteen years in the music industry as a record executive
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Speaker 1: Rockefeller Records or Sonyloud Records, Universal Moldtime Records, Couch Records,
1:19
Speaker 1: as regional and national director of promotions. He left the
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Speaker 1: music industry right there's key because a lot of you
1:24
Speaker 1: out there are sitting in positions where you want to transition,
1:27
Speaker 1: you want to move with fear stops you. So in
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Speaker 1: two thousand and nine he started. He decided to start
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Speaker 1: the Brand Architects, which is a form that specialized in
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Speaker 1: pro athletes individual brand development. I know a lot about
1:40
Speaker 1: brand I've been fortunately, work with a lot of high
1:42
Speaker 1: profile talent, and Brandon is, uh, we're just throwing around
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Speaker 1: a lot. I don't know. When I started in twos
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Speaker 1: with Steve Harvey, and I brought up the idea of
1:49
Speaker 1: branding to him in two thousand two. Didn't nobody know
1:52
Speaker 1: what I was talking about, but I worked at IBM,
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Speaker 1: and I always felt that if a company could have
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Speaker 1: standards and and brands and and can stay there an individual.
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Speaker 1: Why can the individual have those same standards? Well, that's
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Speaker 1: what he does with pro athlete brand development, Please working
2:08
Speaker 1: to money making conversations. He's down in PGC, y'all, that's
2:11
Speaker 1: in that DC area. That's an Tom. How you doing that? Tom? Hey,
2:16
Speaker 1: I'm great today? Or so how you doing? But the
2:18
Speaker 1: weather that you know, we all when this spree time,
2:21
Speaker 1: you know, it's kind of like starting is thirty five
2:24
Speaker 1: when I wake up, sixty five when I when I
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Speaker 1: walk out of my office. How is it down there
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Speaker 1: in the PGC? Pretty much the same? You know today, Well,
2:32
Speaker 1: yesterday it was in the thirties. Tomorrow is supposed to
2:34
Speaker 1: be almost seventy two. So what I'm saying, you know,
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Speaker 1: it's that time of the year. Is that for the
2:38
Speaker 1: grass to sard green? The beauty of uh? Because you know,
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Speaker 1: I know of you we've talked before. Is that you
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Speaker 1: have the ability to communicate? Is that you feel that's
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Speaker 1: that's one of your true gifts. Your ability to be relatable,
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Speaker 1: your ability to communicate with people. I concur I concur um.
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Speaker 1: One thing I'm a firm believer in is also transparency.
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Speaker 1: You know, I was born in New Jersey, so I'm
3:04
Speaker 1: very frank with people, you know, I think there's too
3:07
Speaker 1: many How can I say, too many people being misled
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Speaker 1: and missing from misinformed. I was always taught, you know,
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Speaker 1: I'd rather you be mad and be I grew up
3:18
Speaker 1: during the age of constructive criticism, you know, and you know, listen,
3:23
Speaker 1: we all make mistakes, we all we don't know everything.
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Speaker 1: And the only way you learn is by listening and
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Speaker 1: by making mistakes and you know, being honest with anyone.
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Speaker 1: Because I want that. I want the same treatment to me,
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Speaker 1: you know. Don't beat me around the boys, don't feed
3:36
Speaker 1: me no bs the truth because they're Not's the only
3:39
Speaker 1: way you can make you can fix things or advance
3:42
Speaker 1: or learn yourself in the process of learning. Now, you know,
3:46
Speaker 1: you have educational learning, you have learning in the streets,
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Speaker 1: and you have learning in life. You know, So what
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Speaker 1: lay out those three paths that will that will help
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Speaker 1: you to from the educational standpoint, the streets and their life?
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Speaker 1: Well I had uh. My father was a very successful
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Speaker 1: black business owner in New Jersey. So I was thank
4:09
Speaker 1: god I was blessed to see it forehand born and
4:11
Speaker 1: raised in Jersey City, you know, came from very humble beginnings,
4:15
Speaker 1: and the projects. My father uh went on to become
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Speaker 1: a councilman in Jersey City in the eighties, actually initiated
4:22
Speaker 1: the the Jersey City Redevelopment Project, which is now you
4:26
Speaker 1: see Newport Downtown Newport City. So my father was very
4:31
Speaker 1: uh involved in the community in regards to politics, but
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Speaker 1: also business. You know, he owned business stores, he owned
4:37
Speaker 1: car dealership. So I was able to see what hard work.
4:40
Speaker 1: But then also I saw with him how you know,
4:44
Speaker 1: also the difference being a black man, what he had
4:46
Speaker 1: to deal with, but he never let it stop him
4:49
Speaker 1: and he really used it his motivation. But one thing
4:51
Speaker 1: I also saw was his connect with the community. He
4:54
Speaker 1: always gave back and took care of the community and
4:56
Speaker 1: vice versa back in those days. Now unfortunately, he passed
4:59
Speaker 1: a a when I graduated high school, so I had
5:02
Speaker 1: to really take lessons that I saw his mistakes and
5:07
Speaker 1: his advancements and use it to myself. And then I
5:09
Speaker 1: attended Morgan State University HBCU. Proud there's in Baltimore. So
5:15
Speaker 1: I went there and that's kind of that's kind of
5:17
Speaker 1: where I found myself as a man, but also what
5:20
Speaker 1: I wanted to do in the industry. I wanted to
5:22
Speaker 1: sell cars. I don't want to be in the music industry.
5:24
Speaker 1: I'nna be honest with you. You know, it was by
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Speaker 1: chance um me and a group of friends of mine.
5:30
Speaker 1: We used to throw parties in concerts and upon a
5:34
Speaker 1: chance meeting with jay Z, we had jay Z. I
5:37
Speaker 1: wanted to where people that I could say I had
5:39
Speaker 1: jay Z performed for me for free. He had jay
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Speaker 1: Z performed for us for free for Faith Evans album
5:45
Speaker 1: released party and to Baltimore Grant. This may have been nine.
5:50
Speaker 1: And upon meeting jay Z and the Rockefeller crew, we
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Speaker 1: had to perform. They offered me a position at Rockefeller
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Speaker 1: Records that I couldn't turn down. And and that kind
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Speaker 1: of was my you know, my opportunity. You know, you
6:03
Speaker 1: being an individual like yourself, you know, opportunities come. You
6:06
Speaker 1: gotta be able to go with it. Don't be like
6:09
Speaker 1: you said, fearful or scared of opportunities, because sometimes that
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Speaker 1: may take you on a path that you never even
6:15
Speaker 1: intended on, that could take you the biggest dreams that
6:17
Speaker 1: you really initially didn't And you said that because you said, Richard,
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Speaker 1: and look, first of all, if I go to you,
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Speaker 1: you selling cars, and now you just music and now
6:27
Speaker 1: you know, managing and branded athletes. Let's talk about HBCUs. Yeah,
6:32
Speaker 1: and then in Twitter twenty during the pandemic, somehow white
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Speaker 1: America discovered HBCUs, especially corporate America. They decided to start donating. Uh,
6:42
Speaker 1: there's a good and bad to that because of the
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Speaker 1: fact that it means that you know, this is not
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Speaker 1: something new in the black community. What hbc was founded
6:50
Speaker 1: do to racism because there you can see that there,
6:53
Speaker 1: but made basically in the southeast part of the country
6:56
Speaker 1: as it rolls up the Eastern Carter because of racist
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Speaker 1: admission practices and prevented black people from trying to pursue
7:03
Speaker 1: the next level education. But you went to Morgan State,
7:06
Speaker 1: which is right outside of Baltimore area. Talk about your
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Speaker 1: HBCU experience and then seeing what's happened in and moving
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Speaker 1: forward like the All Star Game, three million dollars were
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Speaker 1: donated from the All Star Game to the hbc U
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Speaker 1: s UH athletes who went to p w I s
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Speaker 1: as predominant white institutions are now focusing their attention on HBCU.
7:29
Speaker 1: You gotta be proud, but you also got to be
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Speaker 1: you know what's going on. Yes, I'm glad you brought
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Speaker 1: that up. I was coming out of high school. I
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Speaker 1: was actually a highly recruited football player. Actually, uh, I
7:42
Speaker 1: had every intention on playing at Clemson University out of
7:45
Speaker 1: scholarship and highly recruited. But going back, I lost my father,
7:50
Speaker 1: uh literally a month upalm graduating, so I actually wanted
7:54
Speaker 1: to take some time for myself. I mentally just couldn't
7:57
Speaker 1: do it, and I asked for some time to leave
7:59
Speaker 1: clemon In and basically get my mind right. I was
8:03
Speaker 1: mourning the death of my father, and I saw how
8:05
Speaker 1: they treated me differently, see what I'm saying, Like they
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Speaker 1: were like, well, you you're committed, you know, using this
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Speaker 1: motivation to hit harder on the football field. They didn't
8:16
Speaker 1: care about my emotional well being and it rubbed me
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Speaker 1: in the wrong way. So that's when I decided to
8:22
Speaker 1: go to an HBCU. And I always had interested because
8:25
Speaker 1: I grew up watching school days in a different world
8:27
Speaker 1: and I was always intrigued. I was like, wow, that's amazing,
8:31
Speaker 1: Like wow. So I went to Mortgage State, went for
8:33
Speaker 1: a visit, and fell in love. And it was the
8:37
Speaker 1: best decision me personally that I've ever made because I
8:40
Speaker 1: was able to be around like minded individuals, but that
8:43
Speaker 1: had other interests. Like I was around friends that wanted
8:46
Speaker 1: to be engineers, chemist, uh, you know, other business professions,
8:50
Speaker 1: whereas out of p w Y, most of the black
8:53
Speaker 1: faces that I saw, which is athletes, they weren't trying.
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Speaker 1: They didn't have any interest in other professions. So it
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Speaker 1: was it was a very interesting and great developmental stage
9:05
Speaker 1: for myself because I was able to find out who
9:08
Speaker 1: I was as a man, not just an athlete. And
9:11
Speaker 1: we'll kind of get into that later on why I
9:13
Speaker 1: started to brand architects, But it's like it was I
9:15
Speaker 1: went through that personal experience in regards to development as
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Speaker 1: a man and being at a historically black, black university.
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Speaker 1: And this was in the nineties. Like you said, you know,
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Speaker 1: I go to Morgan. Now it's like I'm in alle,
9:26
Speaker 1: Like wow, they put all this money, Like the campus
9:28
Speaker 1: looks nothing like but you know, the experience was definitely
9:33
Speaker 1: mind boggling. And like you said, and all of a sudden,
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Speaker 1: everybody sees the I call them the hidden gems of
9:40
Speaker 1: our society HBCUs And I'm proud, I'm glad now people
9:44
Speaker 1: are finally giving them the credit that they deserve. Because
9:48
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Speaker 1: interesting that you say all move to a campus change
11:53
Speaker 1: and when you went to I know, I graduated p
11:56
Speaker 1: w I, which was a University of Houston Cougar and
12:01
Speaker 1: three H five SLA my jam Clyde Drexler and uh
12:08
Speaker 1: they lost the championship. I still don't have the ring,
12:10
Speaker 1: so I could not pay myself, I said with them,
12:17
Speaker 1: but I couldn't put a ring on my finger. Man,
12:20
Speaker 1: when they lost that A three championship, I take credit
12:24
Speaker 1: for it. I think it's my boys though. But when
12:26
Speaker 1: you but you're absolutely right. I remember when I was
12:29
Speaker 1: at the University Houston, it's about thirty or five thousand
12:32
Speaker 1: students on campus, it was probably about two thousand black people.
12:35
Speaker 1: It looked like it was a ton of us until
12:37
Speaker 1: you actually with what they found out how many it
12:40
Speaker 1: really was of us. But it tends to be that
12:43
Speaker 1: the case of where if you go to UH HPCU,
12:47
Speaker 1: everybody on their representative of who you are and who
12:50
Speaker 1: you can be, and it feels like a much more
12:53
Speaker 1: communal format. But again, when you see the NBA and
12:57
Speaker 1: you UH do what they did on and you know
13:00
Speaker 1: the HP the court was HBCU, you see the donations
13:04
Speaker 1: they make, you know, inspiring. I'm just saying, man, you
13:09
Speaker 1: know I didn't go there, but wow, I have to
13:11
Speaker 1: say wow when I see that. It's unique for Sean,
13:14
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna be honest with you. They're thirty years
13:18
Speaker 1: upon leaving Morgan State. There are people we still Like
13:22
Speaker 1: I tell everyone, when you go to a p w Y,
13:25
Speaker 1: you don't know a home coming until you go to HBCU.
13:29
Speaker 1: It's totally it's a totally different experience. And I have
13:31
Speaker 1: friends that went the p WISE and when they come
13:33
Speaker 1: to our home commings there and all, they're like, Wow,
13:36
Speaker 1: I still came through and I'm glad you brought that
13:39
Speaker 1: up too. We there's not just that family love, but
13:43
Speaker 1: we also still do business together. See that's critical. That's critical.
13:47
Speaker 1: Like I get my advice from black doctors that graduated
13:50
Speaker 1: from Morgan I know, I know black judges moan like
13:55
Speaker 1: if I need that. That is unique and I cherish
13:59
Speaker 1: it because I could talk to people that could relate
14:02
Speaker 1: to me as a black man, but also make that
14:05
Speaker 1: connection on a professional level. You see what I'm saying,
14:09
Speaker 1: where I could like, Okay, you know everybody's talking about
14:11
Speaker 1: the vaccine now, like okay, should I take it or not?
14:14
Speaker 1: I have four professional black doctors that I could call
14:18
Speaker 1: to that I went to Morgan State with. They're gonna
14:20
Speaker 1: give me that straight up for thirty years and we do.
14:25
Speaker 1: I got an individual what I'm doing with. He's a
14:28
Speaker 1: secret service agent and I'm actually consulting him now because
14:31
Speaker 1: he wants to do something about mental health and if
14:33
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk about that later, especially in the black community.
14:36
Speaker 1: So it's like, you know, it's not just a family.
14:39
Speaker 1: It's a family, but it's also business unification. I call
14:43
Speaker 1: it as well too. You know. I cheated though, and
14:47
Speaker 1: Tom because I went to University of Houston and I
14:49
Speaker 1: could walk down the Texas Southern University, all right, and
14:53
Speaker 1: then I could drive forty five minutes to pray if
14:56
Speaker 1: you and them, So I cheated, and I cheated. I
15:00
Speaker 1: don't know about something they have social media back then.
15:07
Speaker 1: I cheated. I'm just gonna let you know show what
15:10
Speaker 1: you're talking about, ye brother, I will right down the
15:13
Speaker 1: Texas Universe and drove forty five minutes off the privew Panthers.
15:18
Speaker 1: The Tigers and the Panthers thought you went there. The
15:21
Speaker 1: Tagers and the Panthers had this cougar right here locked up,
15:27
Speaker 1: so you gotta taste of the day. So that's why
15:31
Speaker 1: I gotta tell you I cheat it. I cheated, and
15:33
Speaker 1: I cheated let's talk about you a little bit more.
15:35
Speaker 1: We live in a capitalistic state. There's a lot of
15:37
Speaker 1: cheating going anyway out, fluid. Let's talk about the brand
15:40
Speaker 1: architect You know the reason behind you, the African American man.
15:44
Speaker 1: You're a black man. You know, we live in a
15:46
Speaker 1: society where black athletes have a short window and they
15:51
Speaker 1: make can make a lot of money. And we heard
15:54
Speaker 1: the horror stories about black athletes spending my money and
15:57
Speaker 1: walking away broke, not understanding how or why they do
16:02
Speaker 1: with their money. I don't know if I hear that
16:04
Speaker 1: story is much now and talk, but you know, one
16:07
Speaker 1: time it was pretty bad. So talk about while you
16:10
Speaker 1: started the brand Architects. Well, I started the brand Architects
16:14
Speaker 1: back in uh two thousand nine. While I was in
16:16
Speaker 1: the music industry. I would meet these athletes of course,
16:19
Speaker 1: you know, because we would always have these concerts and
16:21
Speaker 1: parties and then the club, so we will always meet.
16:23
Speaker 1: And I had an interesting conversation with Burnon Davis. Bernon
16:27
Speaker 1: Davis was actually the first NFL player I started working with,
16:30
Speaker 1: and he would always tell me how he was interested
16:32
Speaker 1: in other things, like he was like Anton, there's other
16:35
Speaker 1: things I want to do besides being known as a
16:37
Speaker 1: football player. Um, and he was like, how do I
16:40
Speaker 1: go about that? And at the time, I was kind
16:42
Speaker 1: of brushing ball up, like burning I got to the artists,
16:45
Speaker 1: I gotta you know, I don't have time for this.
16:47
Speaker 1: But then I started doing research. And but let's let's
16:50
Speaker 1: tell everybody who Burnon was. Now he was the number
16:53
Speaker 1: six pick in the draft. You know, University of Maryland,
16:56
Speaker 1: tiny in San Francistico for it. And now the sad
16:59
Speaker 1: part about that, I know all that, and then I
17:02
Speaker 1: didn't know you're gonna bring up his name. That's the
17:04
Speaker 1: sad part about this conversation. So didn't everybody know it
17:07
Speaker 1: wasn't just a low level guy talking to you. This
17:11
Speaker 1: was and that one of the physically built bodies in
17:14
Speaker 1: NFL was was him. I was on a tour with
17:17
Speaker 1: Nellie and Cash Money cause like whatever, but Vernon, yeah,
17:21
Speaker 1: you're cool, like like dude, like I don't get all
17:25
Speaker 1: strug And I tell him straight up, like I tell
17:27
Speaker 1: him I'm not a fan, like you know, I'm I've
17:29
Speaker 1: been on tour with Prints, I've been I've been, Brian
17:32
Speaker 1: McKnight's been to my house. Like I'm like, okay, I
17:34
Speaker 1: don't get into all that. It's about the person, you know,
17:37
Speaker 1: That's what matters to me. And when I started doing
17:40
Speaker 1: the research, I saw similar a lot of similarities between
17:43
Speaker 1: artists and athletes, and how the record label pretty much
17:49
Speaker 1: sucks the artist dry runs them like literally one week
17:52
Speaker 1: you're relevant, the next week you're not. And I started
17:55
Speaker 1: seeing that and I sat back and I did the
17:57
Speaker 1: research and athletes I met. I met an athlete I
18:01
Speaker 1: won't say his name is a Hall of Famer, and
18:04
Speaker 1: I met him at Super Bowl event, and I mean
18:06
Speaker 1: when I saw what he was going through in regards
18:09
Speaker 1: to mental health, financial, uh, just identity crisis in regards
18:15
Speaker 1: to and he had a conversation. We had a very
18:17
Speaker 1: in depth conversation. He said, Anton, there's so many things
18:19
Speaker 1: I would have done differently while I was still playing
18:22
Speaker 1: then now and see. And that's the thing where I
18:24
Speaker 1: started the brand architects. I was like, Okay, you know
18:27
Speaker 1: what these young men, like we said, they come from
18:30
Speaker 1: they go there, they're instantaining. They get money like out
18:33
Speaker 1: of nowhere. I mean a lot of them come from nothing,
18:35
Speaker 1: so they're instantaining there instantly. I'm sorry, put into a
18:38
Speaker 1: situation where they got all this money. But also they
18:41
Speaker 1: have a lot of relevancy. It's like, okay, now people
18:45
Speaker 1: know your name. Like you said, you know Vernon Davis.
18:47
Speaker 1: He ran the four three a forty. You know he
18:49
Speaker 1: was the fastest tight end. But what else do we
18:52
Speaker 1: know about Vernon Das Nothing? We just know the athletes side.
18:56
Speaker 1: And you're not gonna be an athlete your whole career.
18:58
Speaker 1: Let's be honest here. That's a short period of time.
19:01
Speaker 1: Vernon was in the league for eleven years. That's a rarity.
19:04
Speaker 1: You're lucky to get five years in the NFL. Now,
19:07
Speaker 1: let's be honest here, especially now now is three to
19:09
Speaker 1: five years. So what are you gonna do with this
19:12
Speaker 1: platform to make a transition? That's the been the issue
19:15
Speaker 1: with Sean. It is a lot of guys they get
19:18
Speaker 1: I call it the track, and this is where I'm
19:20
Speaker 1: gonna get real deep. Okay. A lot of them depend
19:24
Speaker 1: on their agents to uh, I guess you could say
19:29
Speaker 1: take care or run things to them. That's the number
19:31
Speaker 1: one makes That's the number one mistake that they make.
19:33
Speaker 1: I'm gonna just be honest with you. Your agents should
19:35
Speaker 1: only negotiate your contracts between you and the teams. They
19:39
Speaker 1: shouldn't have anything to do with your marketing, your branding,
19:42
Speaker 1: because first off, okay, most agents don't even care about
19:46
Speaker 1: what you want to do. It could be painting, it
19:47
Speaker 1: could be pottery. Like Vernon was into painting. And now
19:50
Speaker 1: he wasn't a Picasso. But since it was Vernon, Davis
19:53
Speaker 1: and San Francisco loved him so much. We did art exhibits,
19:57
Speaker 1: you know, we did fashion stuff. We did you know
20:00
Speaker 1: him to court. Vernon was not known as being the
20:02
Speaker 1: renaissance man as he is now. Okay, Emmanuel Acho was
20:06
Speaker 1: one of our first clients. Man. He was about the
20:08
Speaker 1: host the Bachelor. Now, Emmanuel wasn't even a starter on
20:12
Speaker 1: his team when he was with the Philadelphia Eagles, but
20:14
Speaker 1: we had a conversation. He wanted to get into sports analysts.
20:17
Speaker 1: He wanted to be an analyst, so he was on
20:19
Speaker 1: Tuesdays he would catch a train from Philly to New
20:21
Speaker 1: York intern at NBC ABC for free, learning the industry
20:27
Speaker 1: that he did not know. See, if you're just a
20:29
Speaker 1: football player, I tell the most important advice I tell
20:33
Speaker 1: any potential pro athlete. Have someone when you when you
20:37
Speaker 1: make it, okay, have a team or someone on your payroll.
20:42
Speaker 1: Does that does not care about football or does not
20:44
Speaker 1: care about basketball. They care about Okay, what you're gonna
20:47
Speaker 1: do when you're done playing, because you have to do
20:50
Speaker 1: it while you're in the league. That's when you have relevancy.
20:52
Speaker 1: That's when the opportunities are going to be there for you,
20:54
Speaker 1: not when you're not when it's over. See, a lot
20:56
Speaker 1: of them the mistake that they make, a lot of
20:58
Speaker 1: them get trapped into the it convinced into waiting. Oh,
21:01
Speaker 1: don't worry about that until you're done playing. Well, you
21:04
Speaker 1: don't know when you're done playing. It takes one weekend
21:06
Speaker 1: that you get hit and it's over. And now even
21:09
Speaker 1: with the salary cap structure, okay, you could be making
21:13
Speaker 1: a league minimum, team doesn't even want to pay you
21:16
Speaker 1: because you your league minimum. Now you you get aged out.
21:19
Speaker 1: A lot of players get aged out that you don't
21:21
Speaker 1: hear about. And then that on that will on set
21:24
Speaker 1: to mental issues too, because now all these people have
21:27
Speaker 1: around them they're gone, including their agent, and a lot
21:30
Speaker 1: of them think there that they they they work for
21:33
Speaker 1: their No, the agent works for you. He's not your boss.
21:36
Speaker 1: Let's be honest. That's the number one thing. A lot
21:38
Speaker 1: of these guys the worst thing that I hear A
21:40
Speaker 1: lot of these athletes say, oh, let me talk, but
21:41
Speaker 1: ask my agent why why you have to know? You
21:45
Speaker 1: need to tell your agent this is what I'm gonna do.
21:47
Speaker 1: I'm gonna hire an outside marketing branding firm that's gonna
21:51
Speaker 1: focus on my lifestyle branding, my image, not my football image,
21:55
Speaker 1: to totally different things and exactly right, because like I said,
21:59
Speaker 1: you know these agencies that you sound with, whether they're
22:02
Speaker 1: I know them all, you know we're MARS c A,
22:05
Speaker 1: you know U t A, and they've all developed little
22:09
Speaker 1: sports divisions, and so what they don't do is day
22:12
Speaker 1: to day they're not there what you They won't talk
22:14
Speaker 1: to you through or four times a day. What you
22:16
Speaker 1: have to do if you want somebody that there's know
22:19
Speaker 1: your brand, know your interests, know your good days and
22:22
Speaker 1: your bad days. Not somebody who shows up at game
22:25
Speaker 1: time high fives you, pointing at you from the stand.
22:28
Speaker 1: That's not a person that's gonna carry you to the
22:30
Speaker 1: next level. And that's the part that they make the
22:33
Speaker 1: mistake on because they allowing these people to make financial
22:37
Speaker 1: decisions and career decisions for them that, like you said,
22:40
Speaker 1: one bad moment and Let's take the salary cap this
22:43
Speaker 1: year with the NFL. It has this is a billion
22:47
Speaker 1: dollar industry and guess what. The cap was reduced, which
22:52
Speaker 1: means the cap instead of going up, it was reduced,
22:54
Speaker 1: which is crazy, all right. So that means that athletes
22:57
Speaker 1: are being cut right now, not because they don't have
23:00
Speaker 1: the ability to play in the NFL, is because a
23:03
Speaker 1: billion dollar industry has made a decision that they need
23:07
Speaker 1: to reduce the salary cap, which means that players are
23:10
Speaker 1: being cut right now and we'll take less money for
23:13
Speaker 1: the two seasons because of the salary cap. This is
23:18
Speaker 1: this is what you're talking about the business side, and
23:21
Speaker 1: that's what you try to protect your athletes and your friends. Yes,
23:26
Speaker 1: because I take it personal. You know, it's a SOB story.
23:28
Speaker 1: Like you know, half of our roster Rashaan or retire guys,
23:32
Speaker 1: they've been on the league three, four or five years.
23:34
Speaker 1: That shows the value on what we do because once
23:38
Speaker 1: we once I signed a client, I tell him, first off,
23:40
Speaker 1: first off, I don't care about football, and if I don't,
23:43
Speaker 1: I don't even haven't been to a game of five years.
23:45
Speaker 1: I don't need to go and be honest, I know
23:47
Speaker 1: I forgot guy I have a guy's playing the Super Bowl.
23:49
Speaker 1: I don't need to go for that. My job and
23:51
Speaker 1: my team's job is to keep you relevant Monday through Friday. Okay,
23:56
Speaker 1: you know, let's get you in the room. You got
23:58
Speaker 1: these fans cheering for you on Sunday. Let's make you relevant.
24:02
Speaker 1: Let's make sure you're in the room with them on Tuesday.
24:05
Speaker 1: Let's utilize your base to create it to increase your
24:10
Speaker 1: personal value. Okay. See there's a difference. And even now
24:14
Speaker 1: with the league, let's be on the league is all
24:16
Speaker 1: about their brand. You have the brand, the NFL brand,
24:18
Speaker 1: and you have the team and their brand. The more
24:21
Speaker 1: value you put on your individual brand, you actually more
24:24
Speaker 1: value it creates for your agent. Because guess what it's like,
24:28
Speaker 1: I tell people you have Lebron fans. You don't have
24:30
Speaker 1: like the fans wherever Lebron goes, this fan base is
24:33
Speaker 1: going scenario these are you know, these are big time examples.
24:39
Speaker 1: But it's like, if you create your own individual brand,
24:42
Speaker 1: it follows you while you're in the league. But guess
24:45
Speaker 1: what most importantly when you're done with the league, but
24:48
Speaker 1: you you you have to utilize the platform. Now you
24:52
Speaker 1: have to The interesting part about it because we were
24:54
Speaker 1: the same page. Because we're talking about media, and now
24:57
Speaker 1: we're seeing brands that were in some ways are bigger
25:01
Speaker 1: than the football teams. Okay, especially from the football perspective,
25:04
Speaker 1: we're seeing it being challenged now by by by UH
25:09
Speaker 1: Dwayne Watson and UH Houston Texas and also Russell Wilson
25:14
Speaker 1: up in cl Seahawks. And you know, you get that
25:17
Speaker 1: little racism type statement where they should keep their mouth shut.
25:21
Speaker 1: Huh okay, keep your mouth shut? Who who were talking
25:25
Speaker 1: about here? You know? And the usually the person who's
25:27
Speaker 1: saying that was the most vocal person in sports. But
25:31
Speaker 1: now they want to tell athletes who to happen to
25:33
Speaker 1: be color of color, they should keep their mouth shut.
25:37
Speaker 1: With social media, and we see how athletes are now
25:40
Speaker 1: becoming more and more engaged in entertainment entertainment productions. How
25:46
Speaker 1: do you tell your athletes that do that are steer
25:48
Speaker 1: playing and athletes who are transitioning post athletics, how do
25:53
Speaker 1: you evolve them with the social media growth partition of
25:56
Speaker 1: the partition of the brand as well as the entertainment
26:00
Speaker 1: side of it. Well, social media nowadays literally your resume.
26:05
Speaker 1: Let's just be to be honest when someone brings up
26:08
Speaker 1: your name, first thing they're gonna do is google you. Okay,
26:10
Speaker 1: And a lot of times what comes up if you
26:12
Speaker 1: don't have a Wikipedia page, is your Instagram, your Facebook,
26:16
Speaker 1: your website. But then also what follows and I'm glad
26:19
Speaker 1: you brought that up for song? What other what other
26:21
Speaker 1: categories will come up? What interviews that you have you conducted,
26:25
Speaker 1: Like if you're just doing okay, ESPN or CBS sports
26:30
Speaker 1: or and you're just talking about sports, guess what, You're
26:34
Speaker 1: just relevant in the sports for me. So you're just
26:36
Speaker 1: relevant to Nike, Adidas, etcetera, etcetera. You're not relevant to
26:40
Speaker 1: lifestyle brains. Okay, let's just say hypothetically, if a client's
26:44
Speaker 1: interested in the fashion Ronnie Mclouds, one of our clients,
26:46
Speaker 1: is very into fashion, so we set him up with
26:49
Speaker 1: doing interviews with fashion magazines talking about fashion, not talking
26:54
Speaker 1: about how many passes he intercepted, on how many tackles
26:56
Speaker 1: he had. See what I'm saying, it's about expanding your
26:59
Speaker 1: knowledge age while also gaining your knowledge and expanding your
27:03
Speaker 1: relevancy in the in the other industry. Because now you're
27:06
Speaker 1: in the NFL, people want to talk to you. It's
27:08
Speaker 1: interested in what you want to say, and to be
27:10
Speaker 1: honest with you, a lot of the times media you'll
27:12
Speaker 1: get a better interview out of an athlete if you're
27:15
Speaker 1: talking about things that's not just athletes. Like athletes get
27:18
Speaker 1: tired of talking about how many tackles they had and
27:21
Speaker 1: how many and then they were like, well that was
27:22
Speaker 1: a sorry interview. Well you're talking about something that they
27:25
Speaker 1: to them, this is their job, and that's what I
27:27
Speaker 1: tell them too. I'm like, listen, Okay, you're in a
27:30
Speaker 1: unique position. Isn't there something else that you like to do?
27:34
Speaker 1: Football after a while isn't fun to them, it's a job.
27:37
Speaker 1: So it's like, okay, let's start invest let's you need
27:40
Speaker 1: to invest in cars or you know, house building, whatever
27:44
Speaker 1: your other interests are, because that's the American dream, right
27:47
Speaker 1: to get paid doing what you like to do. You're
27:50
Speaker 1: in a unique position at the typical four year old
27:54
Speaker 1: young male isn't so you have this door that doors
27:58
Speaker 1: that doors cracked open for you where we got to
28:00
Speaker 1: pick the rock and work through it and trying to
28:02
Speaker 1: figure out a way that door's cracked open for you.
28:05
Speaker 1: What are you gonna do with it? Because if you
28:07
Speaker 1: wait until you're done playing guess what to shut you got?
28:10
Speaker 1: It took your spot for you. We were talking about
28:13
Speaker 1: talking to Anton Barnes, you know, the founder of the
28:16
Speaker 1: brand Architect, and you brought up something I definitely want
28:18
Speaker 1: to talk about before we leave the air, the mental
28:21
Speaker 1: health part of it. Because athletes, they seem invincible, they
28:25
Speaker 1: seem that they're your heroes, but we don't see the
28:30
Speaker 1: when they're off the main stage, or when they retire,
28:32
Speaker 1: they land in bed and afraid to get out, or
28:35
Speaker 1: can't get out due to some ailment or due to
28:38
Speaker 1: some head injury. Let's talk about that which is not
28:41
Speaker 1: often discussed. You know, there was a settlement several years
28:44
Speaker 1: ago and it's kind of been brushed aside, but we
28:46
Speaker 1: know that problem still exists out there. So let's talk
28:48
Speaker 1: about the mental health side of being a professional athlete.
28:52
Speaker 1: The mental health side is very, very it's it's brushed under.
28:56
Speaker 1: The league doesn't really want that to get as much
28:58
Speaker 1: shine as it deserves. You know, let's be honest here
29:01
Speaker 1: and then, especially amongst our black athletes, we all not
29:03
Speaker 1: noticed that, you know, the black community is a stigma
29:05
Speaker 1: that we're already fighting through. You know, back in the
29:08
Speaker 1: day you know, suck it up or you know, so
29:10
Speaker 1: it's you know, it's a sign of weakness looking for help.
29:13
Speaker 1: But especially in in pro athletes, people don't realize, especially
29:17
Speaker 1: in the NFL, the pressures that these young men go through. Okay,
29:22
Speaker 1: it's such a physical sport. And then it's also to availability.
29:27
Speaker 1: Means if you're not available, you're more than likely gonna
29:29
Speaker 1: get cut in the team. Isn't doesn't not gonna pick
29:31
Speaker 1: you up. You don't know how many times these guys
29:33
Speaker 1: have gone. I see the comments that these people make,
29:36
Speaker 1: and they don't realize what when I talk to these
29:38
Speaker 1: guys on Monday, it's like they went through a car crash. Literally,
29:41
Speaker 1: it's it's been proven that their body has been through
29:44
Speaker 1: a car crash. You got these ultimate athletes that can't
29:48
Speaker 1: be that could barely walk. Okay, so you got the
29:50
Speaker 1: physical aspect, but then we're sawing the most important thing
29:54
Speaker 1: is the mental aspect. They don't have anyone that they
29:56
Speaker 1: can really talk to. Okay, they can't. You know, it's
30:00
Speaker 1: that you know, it's it's not it's not my cheesemo,
30:03
Speaker 1: it's not man enough to talk about whatever you're going
30:06
Speaker 1: through mentally. And then by the time it comes out,
30:09
Speaker 1: it's too late. You know how many pro athletes have
30:11
Speaker 1: committed suicide. You killed themselves, and people think, oh, it's
30:15
Speaker 1: all financially based. No, it's not that. And then it's
30:18
Speaker 1: also part, like I said, of that transition stage that
30:20
Speaker 1: we focus on. You go from being the man one
30:23
Speaker 1: day to no one calling you. Tori Smith actually put
30:26
Speaker 1: a tweet out the other day saying the same thing.
30:29
Speaker 1: You know, He's like, listen, you know, one day you're
30:32
Speaker 1: the man. Everybody's calling you, everybody is available. The next day,
30:35
Speaker 1: nobody's answering your call. Your agent mon't even your agent.
30:39
Speaker 1: Most of their the biggest problems, Okay, having all those
30:42
Speaker 1: people that were around you when you were scoring touchdowns
30:45
Speaker 1: and dunking the basketball. They're going and you don't have
30:49
Speaker 1: anything to transition to. You have no self value. And
30:52
Speaker 1: that's what we try to instill in our guys. You
30:54
Speaker 1: have to have self value and you as a person,
30:57
Speaker 1: not just an act. Incredible interview. In two thousand nine,
31:01
Speaker 1: he left the record business and decided to a bed
31:03
Speaker 1: on himself and founded the brand Architect And now not
31:07
Speaker 1: unless he changing lives, but he's also improving lives, and
31:10
Speaker 1: especially in the African American Black Athlete Area Arena, not
31:13
Speaker 1: only for himself but also letting people you know, you
31:16
Speaker 1: think they hit the head coaching problems in all these
31:18
Speaker 1: pro leagues, management and agency, it's worse. It's worse, and
31:23
Speaker 1: and and gentlemen like Anton very important in breaking down
31:26
Speaker 1: those walls. And I want to thank you for coming
31:29
Speaker 1: on Money Making Conversation, Mr Barnes. Yeah, I appreciate that
31:35
Speaker 1: you're having me on. And hey, listen anytime you know
31:39
Speaker 1: I'm I'm gonna be because I may. I'm telling we
31:42
Speaker 1: could have it's like thirty minutes we've been talking about
31:45
Speaker 1: and yeah, because we had you talked about the p
31:48
Speaker 1: GC yet you know that was part of the stuff
31:49
Speaker 1: off and we said we're gonna talk about PTC and
31:52
Speaker 1: so the Holy Spirit. So no that we're gonna get
31:55
Speaker 1: back on the line real quick, kid, probably about draft
31:57
Speaker 1: time a little bit after that. Come back on the show.
31:59
Speaker 1: And I can see your friend, my brother, he has
32:02
Speaker 1: like some barbershops in the d C area, So you know,
32:04
Speaker 1: the COVID died down. I'll be back out there often
32:07
Speaker 1: like I awards previously, and we're gonna connect. But importantly,
32:10
Speaker 1: most importantly, I just wanted to share your story about
32:13
Speaker 1: the brand architect, who you are and uh and and
32:16
Speaker 1: and how you are changing the game. And I appreciate you.
32:20
Speaker 1: I appreciate it. And hey, listen, I'm trying to keep
32:22
Speaker 1: over there your trailblaze yourself, so it's always a privilege
32:24
Speaker 1: to be on it. Which thank you. If we hear
32:26
Speaker 1: more Money Making Conversations interviews, please go to Money Making
32:29
Speaker 1: Conversation dot com. I'm Rashan McDonald. I am your host.
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