Bussin' With The Boys - Opendorse (w/ Blake Lawrence and Adi Kunalic)

Episode Date: August 25, 2021

Recorded: July 14, 2021 | You will most likely want to grab your notepads for this one boys because we are talking business in this pod. Comp brings in the founders of Name Image Likeness industry leader, Opendorse, Blake Lawrence and Adi Kunalic to talk us through the ins and outs of the NIL world. We learn early on in this podcast that Will made his own pitch to be an investor in the company, but Opendorse wasn't sure he was a good fit in the beginning for multiple reasons. Next, Blake and Adi explain the origins of Opendorse, when the NCAA reached out, and how they have been operating long before the NIL movement took over the collegiate athlete world. Then, Comp tries to get a feel for what it is like being co-founders with your best friend and how to navigate around the differences and play into each others strengths. Wait, did we forget to mention that Blake, Adi and Comp all played ball together back in the day at Nebraska?? The boys share plenty of old stories from their playing days, and Blake and Adi tell us what Comp was like on his recruiting visit. The pod wraps up with some money talk about who the biggest earners are thus far in the NCAA and the answers might shock you. The Boys have been on a roll and this one is another banger! ----- BUSSIN' MAIL: Send a video to The Boys! bit.ly/BussinMail ----- EARN YOUR WOLF: Want to be featured on our Instagram Story? Screenshot this episode, tag @bussinwtb, and share it to your Story. The Boys will take care of the rest... ----- SHOP: https://store.barstoolsports.com/collections/bussin-with-the-boys FOLLOW THE BOYS Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bussinwtb Twitter: https://twitter.com/BussinWTB Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BussinWTB Website: https://www.bussinwtb.com ----- SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS: Chevy Silverado: The Strongest, Most Advanced Silverado Ever. BetterHelp: Go to https://barstool.link/BetterhelpBussin to get 10% off your first month. Cross Country Mortgage: Go to https://barstool.link/crosscountrymortgageBSS to learn more Cigars International: Go to https://barstool.link/BussinCigars and use Promo code BOYS at checkout. Georgia Boots: Head over to https://barstool.link/GeorgiaBoot and use code BUSSIN for 20% off Showtime: GO TO https://barstool.link/PPVShowtime TO ORDER NOW!For more, visit barstool.link/bussinwtbSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey guys, it's us The Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast called, Hey Jonas. We invented a podcast?

Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it. But, you know, tired and sick. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen.

We don't care where you hear it. I'm Joey Dardano. And on my new podcast, Hope From a Hypocrite, I'll be changing lives, helping people in need with thoughtful solutions. Sike, I'm a comedian. I'm not qualified to give good advice. Join me and my comedian friends as we riff, rant, recommend some of the most legally dubious advice known to me.

This is Help from a Hypocrite, the worst advice from the dumbest people you know. Listen to Help from a Hypocrite Wednesdays on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Why are we all so obsessed with romance? On the Radio 831 podcast, join us, Sanjana Basker and Tyler McCall, as we unpack all the trending tropes, fuzzy adaptations, book talk drama,

and celebrity love stories with hot takes and sharp guests. Each episode digs into what these stories reveal about desire, fantasy, identity, and how we love now. Listen to the Radio 831 podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to another episode of Bussing Your Bussing your balls Welcome to another episode of Bussing with the Boys

I am your host Will Compton My co-host Taylor Luan He is in training camp right now He just had a preseason game He's got a job On this week's episode of Bustin with the Boys I sit down with my guys Blake Lawrence and Adi Knollick

They are founders They are entrepreneurs Of their company Open Doors Which we're going to dive into We talk all things NIL which is name, image, likeness. The reason this is a great episode is because they're great friends of mine. We banter.

We cut back and forth. They are mentors of mine, great friends of mine. Adi, Conallic, he was a kicker. We played on Nebraska together. He played in the league for a short period with the Carolina Panthers. And by short period, I mean, you know, I think preseason. With Blake, my boy Blake, he played linebacker in Nebraska with me with myself and Levanté.

and he had to retire because he had too many concussions. That's not funny. That's not funny. It's just I bust his balls all the time about that. But this is a great episode. Before we get into the episode, we need a shout out PBR. They took care of the boys. Hey, did they not take care of the boys this weekend?

First class, bro. I'm talking, hosted the boys. Well, we got to take different, we got to do whatever we wanted. We got to see the bulls. We got to be able close with the bulls. We got to shoot camera angles from the shark cage, which is out there in the middle of the field. We got to shoot when the bulls are taking off.

What do they call that? The shotgun? The shotgun cage? I don't know. We got to be. Yeah, that sounds good. We got to be up top, the aerial view. But anyway, shout out PBR.

Some other house cleaning, not housekeeping, some house cleaning items. New merchandise, flags. Get your flags ready to be in the stands, hanging in your dorm rooms, hanging in your man caves, your lady caves because I know we got some tier one we got some tier one chicks that watch the boys did but get your new flags fly them all around the stadiums nationwide

we also have new Hawaiian shirts that you guys have seen a lot of cool stuff new those new row paths there's like over 100 left get in there get in the store store dot barstillsports dot com and click on brands you'll see busts with the boys click there you'll find all of our merch but continue to buy our merch

also this weekend Saturday, third preseason game. The boys, we're having our only one and only preseason game, our dress rehearsal. We're throwing a tailgate and watch party at Acme Feed and Seed. That is this Saturday, August 28th. The Boys versus the other boys. I don't know if we can, yeah, we can say names. Well, I just know we can't advertise with the logos. Yeah, the Boys versus the Bears.

And so we're going to be at Acme Feed and Seas. see the bus will be parked on Broadway. We will be on the corner first on Broadway. The bus will be on Broadway. So if you're listening to this right now, you might not even be going to watch the preseason game, but you might be going out downtown to Nashville. On Saturday evening, Saturday night,

the bus will be parked on Broadway if you want a photo with it on the outside, not on the inside. But the boys will be there watching the game, having fun, slinging merch, doing some giveaways. I don't know if we're actually doing giveaways, but now the boys are going to have to think of giveaways. So yeah, this episode is brought to you by our great partners at Chevy Silverado. Shout out the strongest most advanced Silverado ever.

I love driving my Chevy Silverado. It is the only truck that sits in my driveway now. Again, the strongest most advanced Silverado ever. The Silverado is strong, dependable, hardworking, gritty. It is a driving lunch pail, boys. It is dependable like the people who drive them, you, other lunch pail grinders. The design is big, bold, and commanding. and this truck turns heads.

I am not, I hate to say it, but I am not the best parked Chevy Sovado on my street even. There's a neighbor next to me who's got a beautiful high country that's got the lift kit on it, it's got the nice tires. Like he outdoes the boy. I don't even have the best Chevy on my street. But I damn near break my neck every time I walk outside looking at it.

Tailgating, hauling, towing, off-roading, moving day, helping out a friend or family member road trips, whatever you want to do, road tripping down to the tail. tailgate this weekend. Does she see a beautiful Chevy Sovarado parked on Broadway with that beautiful bus? Go to a Chevy dealership near you, let them know the boys since you. You might get a free tailgate, you know, as always said. But hey, shout out our boys at Chevy Sovarado.

All the love. The best partner in the game. The grittiest. The best truck. Now let's go to the episode. Bus with the boys. Open doors. Big hugs, tiny kisses.

Like you are the biggest athlete, investor. that we could have even landed. There's nobody better than you. I've truly been trying to invest, though, since. Come on now. Yeah. I want to hear you say it. I would say probably day one.

Hey, let me get in. Let me get in. You would never let me. No, I didn't want to take most of your salary. That's probably what it is, yeah. It probably was. He probably felt bad. Like, at the beginning did it all.

Was it always tough, like not a lot? allowing, like close friends and family. It's not, I don't think it's about not allowing. It's just like the timing has to work out the right way. It's like, it's not like as a company, you're not just always taking on money. There's like periods of time when you're taking on money. And then your major investors, they have to, like, they have to be a part of it. You have to find a lead investor.

And then it goes through the process. So when someone's like, hey, let me invest, it's like, well, if you, if you ask the question at the right time, it might actually. happen, right? But if you don't, then it's like, hey, I know you're interested and we're going to come back to it when it makes sense. Got you. So as we get started, because I'm actually going to have to introduce you guys, you know,

because you guys are like business guys. You guys aren't like, you know, the superstar athletes where everybody knows who's going to be on the bus. You know what I'm saying? Like, I'm going to have to sell my soul to get people to come and listen to this pod. That's fine. Like, I know you guys aren't going to, you guys don't understand right now. But if you click the link and listen to the boys, you guys are going to learn a lot in

this episode. But we have, these are the founders. Is it, you know, I don't, I know you guys have ego. Are you guys both co-founders? Is that what you guys say? The founders of open doors. Blake Lawrence and Adi Conallic. Adi, you are from Bosnia? Bosnia, originally, yes. Blake is from Kansas City, Missouri or something like that. Kansas. They're a cool side of Missouri. And I played with these dudes in college. So we were all at Nebraska together. In 2008, when I was getting recruited, Lake was my host on my recruiting trip. And so I've known these dudes throughout Nebraska. We've done the GPPs, the workouts.

We've ground together. Like, I'm having Boe on. I'm having Coach Bo on. Like, we all play for Coach Boe. And these dudes are like real-ass entrepreneurs. You guys are running, pioneering this whole NIL market, name, image-likeness in college. Obviously, people see college full of what?

NCAA. But you guys, you guys do stuff for Open Doors as partnered with who? NFLPA. Yeah, NFLPA, MLPA, NBPA, NBPA, NHLPJT Tour, LBCA, Team USA. Yeah, like, the majority of professional sports organizations use open doors in some way. And you guys, your platform has essentially been built to pioneer this NIL movement. Yeah. That is now happening in throughout all of collegiate sports. We're like, I don't know when this episode is dropping, but right now we are two weeks removed from the announcement of this whole NIL, this wild west of athletes being able to, you know, get sponsored and make money

off the field. And that's something we always say, and Blake's said this time and time again, like NIL is not new to sports. NIL is new to college sports, right, as it pertains to student athletes. So this has been around for a long time. We've been helping athletes, professional athletes, monetize their name and mention likeness since 2012. So, like, it's in our DNA.

Like, foundationally, this is why we build. the company, it just happens to be that the market shifted in our favor. And now we get to continue to help even more athletes with student athletes being involved. Yeah, explain what OpenDorce is. Yeah, so OpenDorce is the most innovative and compliant way that athletes can monetize or name image and likeness. So you see an athlete promoting a product on Twitter. You see them showing up and doing an appearance. Like that whole experience, somebody had to reach out to that athlete pitch them an idea to promote their product go through the contract negotiations pay the athlete the athlete they had to do it send it out measure it sign the agreement get paid do their taxes

and that whole process is very complicated open doors is a software that that automates all of that right so if a brand or fan goes open doors dot com they sign up they'll find out like booking a deal with any athlete is as easy as booking a trip on expedia right like you just you find the athlete there's 50,000 of them in one place you say hey hey I want to send Will Compton an opportunity to do an appearance for my business. You click Will, you click appearance and say, all are from $10. Because that would be market for you probably. Like five bucks, yeah.

Five bucks for an hour. A lot of my shit's usually free. Like sometimes I'll text you like, yeah, when the fuck is Nebraska going to pay? Yeah. Yeah. You're not pushing big dollars to the doors. But it's making it super easy. Like this is, you talk about student athletes starting to get paid.

You know, the student athlete, let's say about pro athlete endorsements. There's about 5,000 pro athletes in North America that move the needle with, like, athlete endorsements, right? And now that NCAA student athletes are able to make money through endorsements, like, there's now 500,000 student athletes in the market. So the market got 100 times bigger two weeks ago. And so Open Doors is getting a ton of traffic. Like every student athlete in the country is signing up for this tool because it's the easiest way for them to make money, but follow the rules. Right. When did you guys start to realize that?

because obviously compliance a lot of legal shit like you guys will know being on the business side of everything but like when when did you start to become aware that okay you do this stuff for all of like professional athletes and you're making the seamless software program where you can go on the app and you can find the athletes but when NIL started to come for college

like how did you guys have to start to pivot and build your programming for the NCAA like the collegiate level because there's a lot of fucking there's a lot of compliance issues You know every coach in America right now is probably having a team meeting about distractions and everybody. Like, you know, Dave comes out and talks about barstool athlete. Right. And every athlete in America essentially wants to throw their ass at barstool for a t-shirt.

Right. You know what I mean? Now they got barstool athlete and their thing. Like, it's the Wild Wild West. So what kind of pivot did you have to do to start to build and prepare for this all happening in college? Well, here's, like, I'll take you back. Like the 2013, we had. Prince of Mukumara, so we all know Prince, Prince is about on the bus, right? He's one of the boys.

Yeah. And so Prince was back and we had just launched like the very first version of Open Doors and he was in our office in Lincoln, Nebraska. And we paid him $10 to send out a tweet. Like hey, just signed up for Open Doors, right? And he was like 10 bucks. Like he was making a $1,000 a tweet at the time, you know? Yeah. And so, you know, he did it, send it out. And the very next day, the NFL Players Association called us. Right? So like the NFLPA, MLBPA, NBPA, NBPA, like they're watching. they're listening like every single business that any of these, you know, athletes promote. They got eyes on it, right? And so from that day, like seriously, the second day, the thing was live, we started to think about how do we build compliance and rules, like making sure that if an athlete's going to use this thing to make money, that they're not going to lose your eligibility. They're not going to get in trouble with the union. So like we've been doing the compliance thing for a long time.

It's just, it's not sexy, right? But like athletes, for you, you just hit a green button, you make money, right? But open doors, our job is to make sure that you're falling all the rules. Yeah. And then we were championing athletes the entire time. I think so like people like when we look back at, especially now that NIL is hot and it's trendy, everyone's like, hey, how did you guys know that this was coming? It's like truth be told like we didn't, there wasn't like this magic time where we're sitting there like, hey, the NCAA is going to change their rules one day and we'll stand to benefit from that. Like that was never the intent. I think we knew that if the company is around long enough because at the core we've been always just trying to help every athlete. That's our vision state. We've said that for like 10 years now. Yeah. So we're like, if we're around when these rules change, man, holy shit, like we'll actually be able to help every athlete, not just professional athletes, not just retired athletes,

not just alumni athletes, but like every athlete in student athletes. And so we got a letter in the mail. It was like, 2019, like that summerish. And Blake walks up to my office and he's like, he printed it out, right? And he puts it on my desk and like, what is this? And I look and there's a blue dot in the top left corner. corner and it was the NCAA. And they're like, hey, it's basically like we're we are considering changing the rules or the legislation and we would love to invite you to be part of the working

group because we know your extensive experience helping professional athletes with image and likeness for the last six years at the time, seven years at the time. So, uh, they're inviting us to be sort of the experts to help them navigate what is coming. And when we saw that and Blake's sitting in my office I'm like things are really going to change now like it was like the most exciting day because we when was this when was this like two years ago almost of the day yeah it was in july so yeah yeah and you were you were in lincoln and you you just literally put I'm like wait wait wait wait wait wait what is happening you're probably like yo do you fucking see it yeah he was excited because like he's you know I'll give him credit blake's a visionary so

literally he he had that and it was later that afternoon he comes in in, he's like, here's the model, dude. Here's how this is going to work. I'm like, when did you do this? You know? And he like, canceled all his meetings. And he had already like, you know, he's got freaking whiteboard and whatnot. But he's like, he had already drawn up the ecosystem.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And like, just like, because it's, we have, we had all this institutional knowledge of how this should work. Yeah. And Blake's like, dude, if we just do this, this is this. We already have compliant technology. We already know the people in the space. And the thing is like, Blake mentioned all the acronyms, all different sports organizations. So what's interesting is they all have different rules.

Yeah. Right? Like if you're a brand and you want to work with NFL players, if you don't have an NFLPA license, you can only work up with the five active players. Once you go beyond that, you got to get a license. Well, with the MLBPA, it's two, right? It's only two players. So if you're someone-

And these are guys who are not in the union. Yeah, exactly. So it's like you have to understand all those rules. A lot of times we were educating brands that were looking to spend money in sports on what it's like to work with players. So then this whole thing is like, of course the NCAA is going to reach out to us and be like, hey, if we're going to do this, what's the right way to do it? Right. Because there's going to be a lot of compliance.

There's going to be a lot of regulation. What are the rules that should be in place? And so he's like, dude, it's right here. So that was exciting. Like right there. Yeah. So like that was the only compliment I'm going to give him all day. He's gassing me up.

For every compliment that I give Blake, he gets, I just destroy my way. Oh, bro. Well, we've done nothing but drag. I guess you got an ounce. I meant to insult ratio one to five. That's 100%. It's way high. So how when all of it finally got announced, like obviously you guys are probably still living

in the highest, probably some lows too. I know you've been in some phone calls as well. Like what's it been like since it's all dropped since it's all been announced? Like how many athletes have actually started to benefit off of open doors? Like off of name image likeness? Because everyone thinks, like I think the same way is probably going to be the best player on every team or maybe the hottest. Like how many athletes have actually started to benefit from this?

Well, I mean, there are, right now there's 40,000 student athletes that use open doors. And they are all one click away from getting an endorsement deal. Like we have a brand partner, GoPuff. That's basically like, hey, we will pay every single student athlete in the country. Like, because there's so many people like, oh, only the quarterback's going to get a deal. Only the, you know, the starting point guard is going to get a deal. But we've got a brand that's like, no, we will offer every single student athlete in the country. Right. So as a student athlete downloads the app and signs up, they get their first endorsement deal.

So what is GoPuff? They must be like a shoe. They must have a shit load of money to spend, right? It's a snack delivery app, right? Like it's like postmates before a college campus. It's open 24-7. You need snacks in the middle of the night. Man, GoPuff is there. No free shout-outs. Yeah. No free shout-outs of Go-Puff. You better spend on Open doors to pay for this fucking shout-out. Oh, really? So I'm just behind the time. I'm just not up. Okay. It's perfect for like college campuses. Like that's their audience. Like,

because you're like, you're, you know, you're playing video games. You're hanging out with the boys and you're like, I just need like some snacks. And we all have had that moment. And you go on their app and it's,

it's right there. So it's like, it's natural that like that's one of those things that, uh, being in college, you know, you go back to Nebraska, right?

Everyone knew that there was the monster rep or a Red Bull rep or like the dude that was working at the bar, you know, and everyone knew that guy. And so like these businesses have always tried to find the most influential like fraternity sorority member to like be an ambassador right right but all these brands the easiest way to know who the most influential person is on a campus is to pick a student athlete but they've never ever been able to actually pay a student athlete to be an ambassador

before right and if they did it's always been in an envelope or yeah right right so if you're go puff you'll go into open doors and if they want to pay every athlete are they basically going to pay the face value that's sitting on the athlete like based on what your guys's metrics are that have curated like a price. You know what I mean? No, these guys have a flat rate offer for anybody. It's the same for everybody, right? And they're just like, hey, if you're a student athlete and you turn on deals,

then boom, within seconds, you get your first endorsement offer. You say yes. And then open doors automates, like they send out the tweet. They send it the payment. We handle the tax preparation. Like these kids are getting paid within seconds of signing up. It's wild. And we have a bunch of partners that are comparable to GoPups that are lining up for

these, we call them like welcome offer programs where what they want to do is they want to be able to help every athlete. So we're like, well, that aligns with what we want to do. So like our idea for Open Doors in the future is that as a student athlete, if you have the app, that every week there's a deal sitting there for you from a different brand. Like every week, you're like, oh, I just went to the app and I'm able to make 50 bucks. I'm able to make 100 bucks. And I think the coolest part also from all the brands that we've been like just everyone that's been calling us inbound to really figure us out is there's just like where everyone's thinking that they're just going to go after the quarterback or the star volleyball player it's like most of the brands

that want to do big big things at scale are like I want to help every athlete I want to do it with with gymnasts with the softball players I want to do with with niche sports and that's really cool because think about those are like the sort of uh kind of underdogs a lot of times of the grinders they don't get any love they like everybody's football basketball gets all love and now we get to look actually prove out the model to say that every student athlete should benefit from this from name and image and likeness and they get to actually do it this podcast is sponsored by better help online therapy look life is full of stressors and it doesn't matter who you are what you have your life is probably stressful in some kind of way whether it's jobs money having a

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listeners get 10% off their first month at betterhelp.com slash bussing. That's B-E-T-T-E-R-H-E-L-P-L-P-com slash busing. I'm just kidding, sweetheart. I love you. That was just, it's just for the podcast. But betterhelp. com slash bussing. So how many, back to the question, how many kids have, how many kids have probably benefited

from the deal? I know. In the last couple weeks. In the first couple weeks, there's more than, then 5,000 endorsement deals have been just facilitated through open doors. Really? Yeah, 5,000 in the first two weeks. And you have, so you have 40,000, you have 40,000 athletes signed up right now?

Yeah, student athletes. And each one, like, they're just got to turn, like flip a switch and get the deal. So like every, as we're sitting here, there's probably 100 new student athletes that are getting their first deal. Oh, man, that's crazy. That's pretty, I mean, what's it look like if, uh, as people continue to sign up, like, say you had, say every, how many student athletes are there? There's 500,000 student athletes. So if every student athlete in the country made an average of, let's say, $200 a month, okay? That would be $100 million a month in endorsements, right, that is going to flow into this market.

And like somebody has to manage it. You know, somebody has to make sure that that dude is getting paid for that thing. And it's not a recruiting inducement. It's not a pay-for-play scheme. Like, he's not getting paid by his coach. Right? So, like, unlike the professional athlete market, like, this is super regular. You know, and then again, and 99.9% of student athletes won't have an agent, but 100% of them will have an app, right? And that's us. Like, we are the tool that they're using to monetize their name image of likeness. And what's wild is like, we started this thing just to help one athlete, help two athletes, help three athletes. But now we're on a path here. It's like, this should be the standard for every student athlete, every pro athlete, like for the rest of their career to do this right. Wild. That is wild. I'm sitting here thinking like, you, you,

you were bringing up the agent stuff. Like, do you see a lot more agents now getting in this strategy, getting in this atmosphere of collegiate sports? The economic model doesn't make any sense. Mm-hmm. Right?

You're essentially saying you can, you can, like brands, why sit there and negotiate with an agent when they're going to try to hold the leverage road player when you can just go on this, when you can essentially just go on open doors?

You guys are the middleman yourself. We don't replace agents, right? Yeah, I'm not saying that. I'm just saying if you're, If you're a brand wanting to spend. We would repair what an agent would do. We're like, there's so many of these, okay, the economic model of being an agent,

imagine you're at Nebraska and you're pulling in $200 a month. Like for you, that's real money. Oh, no question. But an agent would, what, take 10, 20% of that? So what agent is going to get out of bed and like, man, I'm going to work my tail off and make $10 this month? You know what I'm saying? That doesn't make sense.

Because it started. Word all started was like 2011. Like I had my short time in Carolina. I remember being in the locker room. And back in Nebraska, Blake and I were helping athletes get deals, like some of our former teammates, right? And I'm in the Panthers locker room and I know, like, my agent cared about me, but it didn't make sense for him to go and find a local Charlotte sponsor who would want to work with me. It just didn't make sense because it was, even if it was a $300, $400 deal, I had a small audience. What's he going to make?

$40 on that? When he can go spend the same amount of time for a starting linebacker and get a $15,000 deal. So I can't be mad at the agent. The problem was access. So we're like, hey, let's build a platform that addresses the access problem. Let's let, like, why are only Peyton Manning and the Tom Brady is getting all the endorsement dollars? It's not that brands like don't want to work with the niche athletes. Like for you, you've got a really passionate.

Did you hit 100K yet? Yeah, I think we did today. Oh, shit. No, congrats, man. It feels really good. You're now getting into that next year, right? But it's like, you know, it's like it's not, it wasn't, it wasn't, it didn't feel fair that all the, the top athletes were getting all the deals. And the brands really did want to work even with the 100K athletes.

Actually, probably even more than that. But they just, they had the issue of access. How do I get a hold of them? I don't want to negotiate this. Like, because it's not really a big span, but it would be advantageous for the athlete. And so we're like, we need to solve that. problem. So we started solving that problem back in freaking 2011, 2012. And what Blake was saying, when the NFLPA called us, they're like, we need this problem solved for all 2,000 of our

active players. And then here we are 10 years later. And we're trying to solve that problem for 500,000 student athletes. Yeah. Fuck, man. She. Yeah. Not even only the 500,000 student athletes, also the ones you still work with, like, all the pro guys too. Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's the cool part too is like to know that you know you can log in anytime like to open doors and you just you can see deal flow right and it's like okay the largest car company on the planet just sent out 500 endorsement deals to every Olympic athlete like every team USA Olympic athlete you're like that's cool right and then the next you scroll down it's like oh a food truck and Lincoln Nebraska just paid the all-American volleyball player to be an ambassador for the year oh that's cool you know and you're you know and you

just keep scrolling and you get to a point where it's like, oh my gosh, like that's Alex Morgan getting paid real, real money to say drop a post on Instagram. And, you know, you build this tool with a dream like that cool things can happen. And then eventually you have a team around you and you just get to see it kind of come to life. It's like its own little thing. Yeah. It's like this bus, dude, this bus at one point was a dream of yours. You know? And like now you get to show up and there's people here operating this thing. And you're like, oh my God, like this is bigger than me. This is big. It's, it's, it's a living, breathing thing.

Now you just got to, like, kind of guide it, coach it, you know? But it's crazy. Yeah, it's like, it's hard. Like, everybody would want to sponsor probably, you know, a niche of a team or like a group of a team or a position group or the entire team. Yeah. But it's hard when you've got to work with probably, you know, all those different agents and all those different people.

Yeah. And you have no clue of the guys who have like small little followings, but they do some damage. That's right. And it's not worth it for that. agent to be sticking out their neck because like you were saying, your agent would only make, you know, 20 bucks off of like a $400 deal. That's right. Well, and think about like the, nuance that exists. Like so most of the time, even early on brands, it's not about just working with one athlete. They want to work with 10 athletes. And if they're all represented by different

agents, that's 10 different marketing reps or agents. Yeah. So like it just different negotiating stuff. It's chaos real quick, different contracts. So then it becomes a head. Now you're like, I don't even want to do this because that's too much. Or let's say nine athletes were miraculously easy to work with, but the one agent is just being like it's tough. And again, it's not the agent's fault. They're negotiating on behalf of their athlete and they may, they might feel that the athlete is worth than they should be or vice versa, right? And it just slows down everything. So then a lot of marketers just would just not want to do it because like I don't, I don't understand athlete marketing. It's it's too confusing. I don't want to go down the path of

to negotiate way too much of this. And so we're like, okay, we'll create a tool so that all these parties can feel informed. They can do it quickly. And when it's all set and done, it gets executed. And no one, and the athlete literally just pulls their phone out. They click approved, put their phone back in their pocket. Everyone's happy. Yeah.

So to explain what essentially happens, like us at Busson, we use open doors. Like we use when we get all of our content and gets dropped into open doors. So I get a text. Once the content, all the boys get done making the content, I get a text on my phone. your folders ready for all the content we've made for Bustin with the boys. I click on that folder. It takes me to our folder. And it's got all the clips, all the photos, anything I might want to post. I can sit there and click on a photo or I can click on a clip. And I can hit tweet or Instagram. And I can make the caption right from there from the app.

And then it goes right out to the platform. So that's how it helps us on Bustin, but how it works for like the athletes. What we're sitting here talking about, they get a text and you can hit approve. So if Bustin with the boys wanted to, you know, I'm looking at Jack, Jack's a student athlete. If Bustin with the boys wanted to sponsor Jack, throwing some merch, throwing 50 bucks, we see, we would go into Open Doors.com,

we would see based on what we want to get accomplished that, Jack's are our player or a group of players that we find. Like, these are the guys we want to hit because this is, these are the metrics, is how well they do in that city. This is the reach we want to have. I click on Jack, a couple other guys, and send out this deal to them.

It goes through it, filters, through your guys of software. The only thing that happens for the athlete, they get a vibration in their pocket, just like a text message. It comes from a Lincoln, it comes from a Nebraska number 402. You open it up, and it says Open Doors has a deal for you. Go check it out. You click on the link. It takes you right to it. It shows you the tweet that you're going to have. It shows you the caption that's going with it. It shows you the graphic. It shows you everything. You hit that it's worth $50 and some merchandise. You hit accept or decline. If you hit accept, it says thank you. will take care of the rest.

It goes out for busing with the boys. At the timestamp, we picked it, at the day we chose, the date, time, all of it. It's seamless for both sides. The athlete benefits and gets the money in their bank account. And then obviously the merchandise gets shipped to them. If they hit the client, they hit the client and nothing happens. Or you can edit it and make the caption your own.

But did I, anything I miss there? I'm sitting here trying to think of it. I'm like, bam, you want to, you want a job, bro? Yeah. Do you want to do sales for us? do it one more time. Maybe you can smooth it up. And every year in Nebraska, where the season starts or a spring game happens, they target the alumni to do a spring game post. It comes in, says it's for free. So we're always doing

a sell up for the boys. Shout on the boys. And there's always a graphic with like, you know, spring game is 51 days away. And I'll beg, oh, that's a corny caption. So I'll edit the caption. Right. Hit accept. And then literally the tweet, I could be chilling all day long and the tweet would have been out there. And, you know, you just, they take care of it for you. And you know what's while I was like, I love how you say that. And there's a lot of people that listen, they watch this show, and they see you, Will, they see Taylor. And like, you are the 1% of 1% of athletes that understand, like, how to properly market yourself.

Like, you're active. You're on social media. You're saying the right things, right place, right time. And the majority of athletes aren't natural marketers. You know what I'm saying? Like, that was one of the things that we had to learn over this last decade, too, was like, you know the old saying, like, if you build it, they will come. Right?

Like, every startup founder is like, oh, we're going to be billionaires. in a day, you know? Like, yeah, no doubt. Like, we throw this idea. Let's figure it out. We're rich tomorrow. Just getting a rocket ship to the moon, you know? And that's not how it works.

Like, you've got to go through fits and starts and realize, like, that these athletes are like, hey, why aren't these brands like jumping on these athletes? And then you would go to the athletes feed and they haven't, like, tweeted or posted on Instagram in a month, you know? And like, imagine you work at ESPN. You're trying to, hey, man, this is the best show. You should advertise on the show. And like, oh, let me watch it.

You turn it on. It's static. Yeah. Like, no one's going to buy advertising on. a static TV, right? So what we realized, like, we had to find a way to, like, help athletes figure, like, you got to market yourself, man. Like, you got to, you got to photos, videos, content. Like, you got to be pushing that stuff out all the time. And, like, that's the secret is that everyone that's listening here that behind the scenes of your favorite athlete,

most likely is this open-doors app that's like hand-delivering them, photos, videos, content from their team, their league, their alma mater. So they can be more active because nobody's going, none of these brands want to work with athletes unless they have something to say and they're saying it. Correct. And like, again, most athletes aren't natural marketers. Like, Will Compton is an anomaly. He's a, he's a, he's a freak.

Are we, okay. All the boys back there are like, oh, fuck. Yeah. He just hit 100K followers and now he's hanging is an anomaly. He's a free maker. Jesus Christ. This guy is the most natural market. Well, I remember, too, like, you're wanting to make content for the athlete.

So also, like, in my open doors folder, I have all my, uh, Washington photos, all my Tennessee photos. I did that for you. You did. All my Oakland Raider photos. All of it. All those different folders. And then obviously all the busing assets that we have.

But it is, but like I'll just the last thing I'll add on the comment because I think it is important is like we, we realize that like not all athletes are marketers, but consistency is the one thing that you can't like as long as you're sharing something, you're going to be growing. Right. So like the worst thing you can do is not share anything. And because you're worried about it.

Yeah. You're worried about something. Yeah. You'll just post it. Exactly. Just post a photo. Like I would say I'm like social media introvert. Like I don't share a lot.

I know what my brand is. But like once I figured out like the things that I like to talk about is I like to champion other people. I like to champion my teammates. I like to talk about when other people are winning. I love that shit. Right. If our company is doing something exciting, I love that stuff. Right.

And so you just double down on those things. And like imagine if you had a folder, it was just you and your teammates. You could literally like every week just post that or go. And make fun of one of your teammates, right? Or do something, right? That's content. You're not talking about yourself for those athletes who are, again, more on the introvert signs. Like, dude, social media is not for me.

It's like, yes, it might not be for you, but your fans, they do care about what you're doing. And this is the only window of opportunity you have. Like, you think about this. Like, man, I cannot believe that Wilcoff is still playing in the NFL. You know what I'm saying? Hey, no, that's, that is a miracle. Because I saw this rule day one recruiting trip. I said, this dude?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's this dude? Dude, remember when Callahan got fired? You were committed before, like, you weren't committed to Bo, right? Yeah, correct. I was committed to Callahan first. Yeah, and then they're like, dude, there's a beast. We got to keep them.

We got to keep them. Four star, you know? And I'm like, okay. And you came in the dorms. We had that like that super double. Yeah, that's super double. And you're like, dude, but Mr. Erie do, like I might go down to Missou. I'm like, dude, stop it.

Oh my God. Stop it. Stop it. Dude, it's a hometown state. Dude, you know, like, Wales got that raspy voice. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You do, dude. He's like, I don't know, man.

With them little chicklettee, too. Yeah. Dude, they were a classic. You left those in Bontair. Those were down there. You're going to pick them teeth up. She's, but no, like, you imagine, though, you're still doing it. And, like, we were playing at the same time, bro.

We started together. And, like, I haven't been a football player for 12 years. You know what I'm saying? Because of concussions. Well, yeah, I mean, I had some concussion issue. You would have been in league. Oh, for sure. Yeah, it was a beast in you in practice.

I guess what I'm saying like this guy geez how much could you bench 135 how many times I got it like to 11 one time dude I was so hey I was so weak Blake was like the only dude had the body where like the tight the tight fit shirt like looked like a t-shirt no dude that's not right that's

that's what's the strength coach that he's at Tampa Bay now coach Wade coach Wade yes yeah Wade's dope he told me every day he said hey Lawrence you're skinny fat. I'm like, what is that? That's brutal. That's pre-dad bod mode. Like that's like when dad bodod was not a thing yet.

Like you had a dad-bob when you were like when you're like 19. I'm trendy though. And you didn't have children or a wife. I was dad-botted before dad-bottom was cool. Yeah. No, no. Just pounding the gatorade shakes trying to get big. Yeah, I got some, yeah. We did use to pound some gatorade shakes. I used to put

in my pockets when we weigh in. If you were underweight, remember you when you were underweight you to roll. Yeah, that's the most brutal thing. How of a dog's saying he's like yeah we should have never made you guys do that that was terrible he admits a lot of stuff yeah he does he does but you guys were so tre like he talked about how what the culture was like when they got there and they had to just do some extreme as shit yeah oh they did they they did it right though i mean i gave him a lot of compliments i'm like we needed to get our ass kick

that's how you get people to like fall in line and actually do things yeah and commit and yeah they met dob yesterday did they really yeah that was here for the dale jr yeah he awesome dude he yeah he Yeah, he liked you guys. Fuck, I was a project. It's like this dude? I was like just so little, but I don't know. I did the, I would go in to get the chocolate milks. I'd get them out of the fridge.

You know, we had pockets in those Adidas shorts. I would go down there like mosey down and I'd have two chocolate milks in my pockets. And we would weigh into the hawks and then there was that closet right there. So I would weigh in and I'd make weight. And then I would duck into that closet, take out the chocolate milk and just chuck them into that closet. I did it all summer. And then one day the trainer was going in there to get like the pads out. And she came out gagging.

You know, because all the spoiled milk. Racks of spoiled milk in this hot ass closet down in the facility. I made weight though. I never, I never had a roll. Just made that trainer's day though. Shout out Cigars International. No free shoutouts. Shout out Will.

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cigars. I don't smoke cigars with dudes that look like that, dude. That looked like what? A beast? Look like a beta. Look at that. That's what smoking cigars will do. Get you a body like this.

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they can't spell, when you're ready to check out. That website is Cigars with an S-International.com and use promo code boys. Back to the episode. We went off on a tangent. What were we? You're talking about, you're talking about, you know, be still playing. Oh, I'm like, yeah. Building the brand.

No, I'm, yeah, you're talking about like there's a small moment in the window. Yeah. And you're like, think about this, dude. You've played for- It's over, man. It's over before you know it. Like, so, you know, one day, I'm a starting lineback in Nebraska. The next day I can never play football again, you know?

And my career was done in a day. And like, from that day to this moment, like, I've dedicated my whole professional career, Audi has too, to making sure athletes understand this doesn't last forever. Like, you have no idea how long your window of opportunity is. So if we can give you a tool, a technology, like, so you can make the most, of it. Like, these eyeballs on you are not going to be there when you're gone. So get as many as you can. Like, collect them up. They'll get them. Like, this is like a supermarket frenzy. Get every fan in Nebraska in the cart because you're out of there before you even know it.

Right. And like, if you do that for every athlete on the planet, like, then everyone's going to win, you know? And like, you've done it. You found a way to trick all these NFL teams and and assign a new to play. And then you'd get to 100K 10 years later. I mean, like, it's a Cinderella. It's a rig. That is, but you're playing the long game, you know? But we got to do that. And I think we're, I know we're making a difference in a lot of kids' lives.

They have to walk out of this. And it's not like. Yeah, like, Audie, how long did you play? Did you only play a year or two years? Audi was a kicker. Oddly, unbelievable kicker. I mean, kind of hurt us. Big Tolchanger.

We won't talk about that. Oh, no. Dude, don't. kicked in the league for the Panthers. Yeah. And then obviously you transitioned right away into being an entrepreneur. Well, so Blake and I had started our first company. It was a social media agency in 2010.

Heard that. Yeah, heard that. Where'd you hear that? I heard that on Facebook. I don't know why we chose. Actually, I do know. That company still exists. Yeah, bro.

So we sold the company in 2014, but it's alive and well right now. Like it has probably like, I don't know, 20 employees and they carry on it's kind of weird to walk by like and see the office. Yeah. And not knowing that company. That's awesome. Yeah. You guys started that.

Yeah. Yeah. So that, so we started that company and I had like a dilemma and, um, I was telling you about this maybe at some point, but like I think as an athlete, uh, the one thing I think every athlete is, is taught their entire life is to not quit. Right. So the transition from wanting to be an athlete and, and like making a decision to do something

else is very, very difficult because you feel like you're quitting something. And then most people are forced into quitting things. And I think this is why also like sometimes people just, they hang on for too long. Right. Like if you don't make it in that first year in the league, usually it's like, dude, you're probably not going to make it. Right. Or if you haven't played like, it's like if I'm hanging on to the dream. And I don't get a call for another year. And it's still July and I'm like, I got to be ready to go. And then you're like, you're like doing like, you know, we've had teammates, former teammates. But. I think a lot of athletes go through this where they're like, yeah, man, I'm just like trying

to make a team right now. Like I'm staying super busy. I'm like, with what? Yeah. And they're like, well, you know, I just got a workout in. I'm like, and then what do you do the rest of the day? Like, well, nothing. I'm like, dude, what are you doing?

Right. Like, it's not coming back. And I think that that is a tough part because it's the quitting thing in your head. Right. Right. And it's a psyche thing, right? You're like, I don't want to quit. And you find those rare examples of it working out, like for the majority, for the most

part 90% is done after that happens. A great example. You have like, you know, your invincible stories and stuff where guys get that opportunity. Because they only cover the success stories, dude. They only cover like the guys that that, you know, hung on and they freaking made a team. And it's great. I think that should exist in sports. But for the most part, I think when you're hanging on for that long and it's not like moving forward, you are not starting to transition into reality of life. Like being in the NFL is not a real thing. Like making, making $20,000 a week, whatever it is minimum now, it's like, that's not real life, right?

So when you start to have a real job and you start to realize how much it takes to make $40,000 a year or $50 or $60, like you're like, what? So I'm on the side of like you should start to realize that a little bit sooner than trying to hang on to something and whatnot. But that's kind of like beside the point. But like I had this dilemma where I got back. my last workout trial was with the Buffalo Bills. It was in December. Going to kick in Buffalo in December. Yeah.

And I was like, I literally, I remember I called my, my wife now. It's 2012. And I called Shan, my wife. And we were dating then. And I'm like, I don't even know if I want to make this team. Because I'm like, this place would suck to win it. You know, it was just like, it's just, you know. And I, yeah, yeah.

So sorry. You don't want to get chokeslammed on the table? he's probably yeah yeah yeah now I'm gonna get a bunch of people attacking me but no like I so but I remember I came back and we had our business going at the time

and I had this like moment where I'm like I'm done with these workouts man I'm done trying to make a team it was becoming more and more difficult to try to lead people and a company when you had like a side thing when it was like okay I'm I'm trying to build a business but also like

if I get a call from somebody then I might go and do that and so me and him had the conversation and I was like it was but it felt good that like I made the decision to stop right and I don't know if I would have gotten a call again I just I'm gonna call my agent and he I was like hey if I get any more inbound calls just let him know like I'm done right he's like well what about Canada I'm like I'm not doing Canada like it's just not my jam and I'm super thankful looking back that I made that transition because one we had something but two it felt more like I was in control of the the situation the story and I got to

I get to kick in the league. Like it was like first Bosnian player to ever play in the NFL. Like that was, that was a proud moment, right? Dude, you're the first Bosnian player that ever play in the NFL? It's like a super fun fact, right? Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, it's a dope fan. Yeah. I mean, how many Bosnians are going actually even have an opportunity to do it? Yeah. No doubt.

If there's ever another Bosnian plays in the league, it'll probably be a kicker. Right. If it ever happens. Second to you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's going on. First. So first.

But yeah, that was, but that was a, that was a, kind of a cool thing looking back at it now. But like, and I was giving you some credit earlier, I think you've had the best, you're like in the middle of this transition from athlete to, uh, entrepreneur, like business owner, like podcast because it's like it is, you're like in it halfway. You're over here, but then you're doing things and like you're doing it like the best way. You're setting yourself up. Yeah. Like you've been investing in your own brand for a very long time to be able to. do it. And it's very clear that you like there's a, um, there is effort there. There's skill there. There's obviously like the, the actual like talent that you have there. So I think that's really cool.

And it's, it's something that other people could look at as a playbook and actually try to do and replicate themselves. I appreciate it. Like I'm trying to get better at accepting compliments and everything. Yeah. You know, you guys have, isn't that funny? I think I'm having too many and I'm starting to get like five. Yeah. Yeah. You're still an idiot from von Tampiari. You have a podcast. And it's so funny ho. You give someone a compliment and then you're just waiting for the next roast. Like you're saying,

I know. Like we do got to just be better. Like Taylor and I are trying to consciously be better. Like when we're, you know, we had the thing yesterday. Like, all right,

let's hurry up and stop talking about this. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. One more. One more.

Yeah. I feel you though, man. It's like, it's always been tough because a lot of times guys don't like with all of it. Everything we're talking about, right? Mm-hmm. Number one, it fires me up that you're like, it's gone in a day.

Like your window of opportunity is so small. It's like athletes are brands too. That book. You guys know the book well. Read that book in one day, the only time I've ever read a book in one day. It had pictures in it, lots of colors. Yeah, let's pop a book. It was a pop-up book.

But phenomenal book. And it just breaks down the moment of time that you actually have as an athlete. It's like, look, you got your unicorns. You got your mom's, you got your quarterback. You got your ones that they're always going to make. the big money, like the 1% of the 1% of the 1% but everybody else like you got to find your niche, you got to find your voice

like whether you want to be in it or not like you're in the game of social media. Dude, you know what's what? Yeah, you don't have to care about it. If you want to do other stuff like you know, you want to, I don't know, but you want to do other stuff, it's fine

or if you want to think like what am I trying to say here? Like if you're not about it, then it's all good. Not everyone has to do this, right? But if you realize what you have, you should consider using sports as a springboard into whatever you want to do.

Right. Like if you have interest, you need to understand that this stuff is a tool. And you only have a finite window, the average window. Like, it's not even the pro guys. It's like if you play in college or even high school, like you have a very small window to use it as an advantage for you. This is something I like, like,

I think LinkedIn is completely like underutilized or misunderstood. to, and I think... I think I'm misunderstanding because I want to figure out. Okay, so imagine this. When you are at Nebraska, you've got that end on your helmet, on the side of your helmet, you have a lot of leverage, right? So, like, if you wanted to meet with anybody in town, they're going to do it because you're a player.

Like, you have a freaking jersey on. You're one of one. There's no one like you. So if I'm a student athlete, I'm getting a LinkedIn. I'm connecting with everybody in the community. And let's say I care about engineering or... I'm big into advertising. I would connect with everybody in the community,

everyone that went to Nebraska who's in advertising. I'd be like, hey, just want to connect with you. I'm a current student athlete. I would just love to connect with you on here. Maybe sometime I'd love to pick your brain on something. You're literally amassing this network. And at any given point, let's say in the spring, you got some downtime.

You can go and grab coffee with that person. And now you've been building your network. When you're done playing sports, they will remember you and you got to literally almost build like a network and a resume of people that you can go and work with right away. Well, when you graduate and you don't have the leverage anymore, you don't have the helmet anymore, it's harder to get that coffee meeting. Oh, it's different. It's different because it's not that, I don't know, it's not that like people all of a sudden don't care about you. It's just like, it's just different. We all know that. Yeah, it just is what

it is. Like you're playing a sport like if I'm a fan, right, of the Titans. And I'm a diehard fan. And you're watching the Titans and Celebrate. And then you see one of them where you get to have engagement with one of them. Like it just hypes you up regardless. If they're in an alumni, it's just different. It's not that they don't. It's not that it's just different.

It's just different. Yeah. I think that's one of the things like to what we're doing, like a lot of these kids are signing up for open doors and they're like, oh, I'm going to get money. I'm going to get money. You know? And it's like, yeah, it's great. If they use openers to get an endorsement deal, then that is so, so awesome. But, like, in reality, they're going to build an audience so they can get a job offer.

Right? Like, that's as good. And, like, if you're a kid and you walk out of Nebraska with 20,000 followers, like, one of those people is going to offer you a job. Right. Like, that's how that should work. And that's, again, like, trying to springboard off of that. And so we're, it's fun, like, being what we're doing. But then anyone that's listening, like, I think that you, who was on the bus yesterday, I'm just going to throw off.

You know, this part of this. Dale Jr. Right. Dale Jr. was on the bus, dude. Do you remember, like, the very first. time that you had a Twitter exchange with him. Pretty, I mean, yeah, we were talking about it. I was gassed.

I was geeked out, man. I was running around screenshot. I'm like, dude, Will Compton's talking to somebody cool, you know? I'm like. You're saying you were? I was hyped up for you. Because you, in that moment, you had to realize, bro, that you are garbage. We don't like you, but you're talking to it.

Why is Ernst are not talking to you? No, but like that's a. And then you, at that moment, you had to realize, oh, dang. Like I can use this platform for this. He was on your bus, on your podcast, in your city. And it all started on some Twitter exchange. Yeah. Like that's the power of an athlete actually leaning into this stuff, dude.

Yeah. No, I know. Yeah, you're right. That is weird. That's crazy. And because I always go for like, when you say it's just different. Like, the thing I always say is you're better looking. Your jokes are funny.

You can shake more hands when you're in the league. That's right. Or when you have a jersey on or when you're repping something of like, quote, unquote status, right? And the minute you're out of it, it just, it all goes the other way. That's right. Whether it comes off as you trying harder or a little more desperate, all that stuff. Leverage, dude. Yeah, you don't have that as much, right? Because like when you're in the league, like you have leverage. So then whoever has the more leverage in the relationship can come off maybe a little bit more desperate or they have a, they have a motive to want something from you.

When you are, when you have all the leverage and you show humility and that you're humble, that You're just grateful for people remember that. And then later, when you don't have the leverage, those people will remember how you treated them, how you made them feel, and you'll be able to work with them. Or you'll be able to do something. And that's, I mean, if you think, I mean, we, like,

this is all about, like, at the end of the day, it's all about what Blake was saying is, like, hyping people up, helping people. And that's what it is. It's like, if you are a, just like a genuine, authentic person when you have leverage, then even after it's going, people will still want to do things with you.

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everybody was like when he was in the league at the end of every year he'd get about 50 jerseys and any meeting any conversation he wanted to have he would whether he had the meeting already or one of one he would send him a jersey yeah with a written note on it so that was like a memorable thing so that way he he always had them in their network because it is like if you want to relate it to anybody like anybody in life as they're going through stuff everybody negotiates yeah like at some point or another we're always negotiating and it's all about having some kind of leverage or having some kind of want to fill some need that's right and in this finite amount of time as an athlete as a student athlete whatever you have that limited time to use it as much

as a tool as you can that's right because you're trending this way and then when it's over you hope you've built a network or an audience the way they're explaining at athletes are brand sue to where even as it goes down because you're done playing you're still able to keep it that's right you know the whole hockey stick whatever it's fucking called graph well it's it's it's it's it's It's scary, dude. Like, the, whenever, like, the last graph. The graph. Real tough word.

Real tough word. Gove Augustic graph. Whatever. God damn it. Like, you made me lose my train of thought here. But no, I was talking about it. Then when it's done it, it drops. If you have zero, if you have zero.

It's like, I think about it this way. It's like, it's scary. So you, the last bowl game happens. And it's, it's so interesting. Whether you win the game or you lose the game, but there is a ton of mixed emotions in the locker room. Everyone gets back in the locker room if you're a senior, right? So you're looking around and there's some people that are crying

because they're like, this is the last time they'll ever play the sport again. There is some people who like they know they're going to have a shot at the next level. So they're just kind of like, it's just another. It might be sad that they're not playing with the boys. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's just kind of like that. There is, then there's some people who are uncertain. There's some people who are like, man, this was the coolest thing.

that's ever going to happen in my life. That's a sad thing to say, but there's some people that have that mentality, right? Because whether you were at Nebraska or freaking Ohio State or Clems, I don't know, but like those things are definitely going through people's minds. And so then whatever that feeling is,

because it's almost like a timetable. After that ballgame happens, after that day, it's almost, it's on a decline, right? The lead up to the draft is kind of like everyone still has hope because free agency happens, you might get drafted.

The whole thought is you just need to get in the camp. Exactly. I just need to get in camp. But it's just on this like slow, like steady kind of decline. And it's crazy. Then if you then run into people in the summer who nothing happened, it's like the leverage is completely gone.

And that's when you want to be like, hey, but what else have you been doing to build your brand? Right. And even that person, you'll feel the energy from them to that nothing's going on. And when you haven't built, Blas and I talk about it. But when you haven't built like a plan B, it's like that whole mindset, don't ever have a plan B because it deters from playing. Like I personally hate that advice just because I've always thought about like what's going to come next.

That's right. So that way whenever you transition, there's something like you're just not, you just don't have that energy about you that nothing's happening. You're at the peak and it's not going to be there anymore. Yes, dude. You are sad to say, but like you can be in denial, right? Like you're like, well, if I, if I'm planning for a plan B, then that means I'm not 100% in for plan A. But it's almost, you're, you're almost too scared to admit to yourself that a plan B is a good decision. I just I guess I think that you had because you had to make that call oh absolutely yeah I was building a plan B plan C plan D I'm like I don't know what's gonna happen but yeah is it when I was on dress and I have my I apologize I keep your thought keep your thought but when I got my first house I said it my signing bonus was $5,000 being a drafted guy I remember put it in my account I'm like to talk with my mom she helps we were like on this Dave Ramsey kick should go buy a Bentley what you do no no I'm like I got to make this last for you know like I got this for three months I got this for three months and I'm like I got this for three months and I'm like

thinking like what the next step's going to be like same thing but anyway go ahead no i i was just going to make fun of adi for being a kicker so yeah the second he's he's never done that he's never done that shitty segue if we're on if we're on a call together he's bringing that up and i'm like dude we've already talked to these people because it's a kicker joke it's all yeah because he's like oh i played in the NFL i was like no you kicked in the

NFL dog that's the difference and then he'll be like well what's the NFL stand for not for long and i'm like i dude already heard the joke already heard the joke i came on this bus to tell those jokes to the world. Okay, that's fine. That's fine. You're taking them right out. Your jokes are great. Yo, I love seeing the authenticity from this too. Dude, I'm just telling you. Having questions on that, like, you guys have clearly been like best friends since

the Lynx apartments when we were all at the links and Blake can't come out and play video games with those because his girlfriend at the time is pissed off at him. And, you know, he's like, yeah, he's like, you know, about my girlfriend. You're like, yo, just come and party with the boys, dude. I would have beasted you in Halo, though. Yeah, true. I'm not a Halo guy. No, yeah, you're a week. But you guys being best friends this long,

like navigating your partnership and growing this business together. Like what growing pains has there been? Like, what advice would you have? Like, make it a two-part question too, because I have like questions for any young listeners or athletes listening that have like these inklings of interest on how to start.

But let's start there. Hey, I would say like anyone that's listening now obviously knows you and Taylor and your dynamics, right? And I think that sometimes you guys your goof balls 100% of the time, right? But like, it is obvious. And he gasses you up every once in a while, give you a compliment, like that you balance him out.

Like, you're running this show, right? And you get to both get on the mic, but he probably shows up and you're doing a lot of work. You know what I'm saying? Like, in this, in this relationship, like, I'm more the tailor. Right? Like, I get to show up. Adi is the, like, we are a complete, like,

Yin Yang, you know, Audi is an absolute operator. And I'm over on the whiteboard, like, thinking about God knows what, like some crazy ass idea. Dudeling. Yeah, I'm doodling. Exactly. My job is not drawing whiteboards. Not doing any work. Yeah, I really don't. I really don't. Literally, I'm a senior in school and they're running her dad. The first one they were alluding to earlier. The first business you guys built. And Blake is in my business law class. One of my business classes. And Blake is like the guest speaker. And he's doodling the entire time to explain it throughout his speech. He like speeches and doodles. That's like. No, man. It's a balance though. Yeah, for sure. What do you have on that? I think the early The biggest misconception is that we're actually friends.

So that like I don't know why anyone thinks that. No. Oh my gosh. I think we've had we've had ups and downs. I think we had early in our journey. We had two businesses that we were running when we were two years into her dad when we started open doors.

And Blake being the visionary and me being the integrator, right? The traction thing is like I know how to execute, build teams and scale. And he knows how to take things from like, blank sheet of paper to something, right? And so we had like a two-year journey where we were running separate companies. We were sort of in the same office, kind of partitioned, and then we lived together. So he would come home at night and he would try to brag to me. And he's like, dude, I just closed a $300,000 round or fund rates from friends and family. And I'd be like, yeah, man, but I closed

a $100,000 contract. So I was like, making money is way harder than raising money. Okay. Oh, no, dude. Chill. Like, yeah, give me money. Yeah, go make money. Create value. That's weird.

You don't know anything about that. So, so we would have this competition. I took over revenue this quarter and we were up 120% over Audie's numbers last quarter. So, you know, you know what he's competing? He's comparing those numbers to COVID last year, dude.

Of course, the numbers were down. Don't handicap me, bro. Okay. Anyways. And you got the big announcement. You got a lot of hype this year, too. It's like being in ticket sales at the Titans.

Like yeah, dude, ticket sales are up this year. It's like, yeah, no one went. There was no one at the game last year. A lot more people in the games. Yeah. Ticket sell guy, you know? And so I think, so I think that to your journey were we were running separate businesses. And we, one, we had like, we both owned the business.

So there was like, it was mutually beneficial for us to succeed in, in both areas. But then, like, when we came back and got to run openers together, like, I got to use my strengths. Blake got to use his strengths. And we also got to see kind of. Like, hey, you're really good at those things and I'm really good at these things. And that's what we should do. So I think when when you can sort of understand and respect each other's strengths and then double down those things, that's when you can have a really good partnership or a good like. It is a balance of strengths, dude.

Not everyone plays quarterback, right? Yeah. Like you got to have a kicker. Yeah. Okay. When the kicker's making all the money, that's really weird to make. Oh, my goodness. What's going on here?

Oh, my. We've had, I mean, we've also, I would say, I would also say we've had, we've had, we've had our, like, we. Give me, give me a, uh, give me a moment in time you guys are probably both thinking about in the old noggin where it was like rough sled in between your guys's partnership and friendship to where it's like, you know, you had to navigate waters and learn about yourself to where it's like, okay. Now we're finding these strengths of each other. Not like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You were good at this over in your job. I'm good at this. We both figured it out and found our way. Like, like, I, I think it was like early on it was just, so as I tell the story, it feels clean. Like it all happened like that. But it didn't. It was like we had to go through the learning pains of understanding that. And then you reflect and you kind of look back at it. But like, I don't know if there was like a moment in time where I'm just like me and him, we definitely do get in arguments.

Right. I mean, you know, we see the bantering. I can see. Yeah, no, we do. Yeah, this is fun. This, you know, we'll have that. But I think that's what that's what's good about it. I think I always sell Blake.

the best times are when he is not in the weeds of the business, right? Because he likes to come in and disrupt. And the ideas are good, but like sometimes you need to let things kind of flow and you need to trust the team will kind of get there. And then same thing. Like sometimes he can come in and like it can actually help that department or that team. So it works really well. No, I'm just saying like here's what happens.

Like I have like 20 ideas a day. Right. And like I go in and like audio dude. Yeah. I go do it all. This is a good one. And like, I walk out of there and like, I'm like, dang, dude, I think I already liked that idea. And like, you can like look over your shoulder and he's just ripping up the paper. You know, he's like, okay. Because I'll forget about it by the time I walk out the door. That's right. That's right. That's right. That's what it is to like have a balance. You know, because every person, how many people since you had your first recording of a podcast have started a podcast? Will. How many, dude? Millions. And they don't get to episode three. Right. Because you got. there's the difference between people who have things and people who want things or people who do things. You know what I'm saying? You are doing this.

I remember when you called and said, I'm going to do a podcast, right? And I was like, hell yeah. Like when you get it going, let me know. Because like, dude, everyone now being founders, you're a founder, entrepreneur, like people probably come with you all. It's, oh, I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. And like, you check in. I'm going to do this.

Yeah. Like I'll tell you when our very first company, we were having beers over it. I remember, right, what was that, Turtle Creek. Yeah, yeah. We're like all the boys like Turtle Creek and Lincoln. All the college boys. And I'm over at Audies and we're having a six pack and we're just, you know, about to crush and go down to O Street. And Audi's like, yo, dude, going in the senior year, he's sitting there.

He's like, hey, man, I don't want to work for anybody. Like, what should we do after I'm done playing ball? Like, what should we do? Because we were always idea dudes, you know? And I'm like, I don't know, man, I'm doing this like social media thing. Like, I was getting paid to tweet for a company, you know? Like, that was my job as an intern. And I was like, I don't think it would do this and not just for this one company, but for everybody.

And like we started bullshit and going back and forth. And like we just finished the six, go down to the rail and forget the night, right? Yeah. The next morning, I wake up, groggy, and I checked my email inbox and Audie had sent me a one-page business plan. He said, let's do it. That's why we started hurt at. If he doesn't exist, that's an idea that's a six-pack and a night on O Street and disappeared. And a rager at the rail.

And a rager at the rail. You're probably there shirt off back of the club. Yeah, dude. God, you would be. Just grinding on one of those rails on the side. Yeah, you would, dude. You would always be lost in that song. I am fully convinced that COVID started in the back of the rail.

Like somewhere in there. Yeah, no doubt. Just not a good place. Shout out Georgia Boot, the world's most comfortable boot. Georgia Boot is America's hardest working boot. For 80 years, Georgia's been making boots that work as hard as you. These boots will hold up in any condition without sacrificing comfort. I gotta be honest.

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and use code busin for 20% sent off. Back to the episode. Shout out Georgia Boot. Shout out Georgia Boot. I remember because Blake, he has, he's always been an idea, man. And he's always wanted to do the entrepreneur route and everything. And so I'm always like, I'm around these dudes a lot.

So I'm, I'm low-key with my, like, young spirit as well. Like, always asking Blake, hey, like, what are you doing? And he's talking about, remember when you brought up Twitter diaries? Yeah, my Twitter diary? Yeah, you thought it was going to be a hitter, too. It's a bangor, dude. You're like, you know, people could look. back at their tweets.

Like, he's had idea. Like, you do. That was a cool one. MyTweridiarry.com. I can't get access to the domain. But basically, take your tweets and turn it into a hard copy book. Put it on your coffee table.

It's pretty good idea. You're actually going to do that. 1499. My Twitter diary.com. Just kidding. No shotouts. No. Yeah.

Don't go there. It's broken. Yeah. But no. That's, but you, everyone has ideas, man.

You got to go do it. You got to go do it. And like right now we're sitting here. Like, we have. 69 employees at Open Door's 69. And those are people like that their livelihood depends on like this. Yeah, it's a good number.

We're not hiring anymore. You say, mm-hmm, a lot. Well, no, I'm just, I'm not saying what he's saying. It's like, yeah, yeah, I would say. Well, because, so the way I think about it is, like, most, like, great businesses, like, the idea initially sounds dumb at first. It just always how it is, right? So whether it's my Twitter diary or when we were. But some of the boys felt dumb as shit.

Yeah. It's like that, but then it becomes really trendy. Like when we first started our company, I don't think we were ever saying, oh, we want to be entrepreneur. I don't think that the word entrepreneur was no like a thing back then. It was like we're going to try to solve a problem. Yeah. And we're going to run up. We're going to build a business.

Exactly. Then you get another one pay you. And then entrepreneurship as a word became trendy. Everybody wants to be an entrepreneur, right? Same thing. Yeah, exactly. That made it. Yeah.

It made everyone like, oh, man, I'm just going to go in there and, you know, Mr. Wonderful is going to give me all this money. Yeah. You're like, dude, what are you talking about? Right? Same thing with podcasts. I think podcasts are super trendy right now. Everybody wants to start a podcast. But to actually have an operation to create true, like, engagement, entertainment, the business model behind it, like the licensing, the merchandise.

Like that takes actual skill set and effort and strategy and planning. That's the whole thing that Blake is talking about. Like you have to go actually do it. But when we were starting, we're like, hey, let's just solve a problem. Yeah. And see how many people have that problem? Is anyone else doing anything about it already? And like, like, how can we get it going?

Yeah. What for you guys, like getting stuff going and off the floor, like, for people out there, they, like, have ideas and they want to learn about, like, growing business like me in particular. Like, you guys have both mentored me, Audie more so than like. Yeah. Hey. I had time for you. Yeah, you don't, dude.

You always give me good ideas. But it is true. The way you guys do talk about your dynamic in the office is like, I feel like, I feel the dynamic of mentoring I get as well, like, where you have ideas. And if I need to go to, like, execute and put operating stuff into play, Adi's always a good. If you want to actually make real money and, like, scale things, you come to me. If you want to get distracted, when I want to go to this guy.

When I want to check on my teachings of Will, I turn on television on Sundays and I say, taught him everything he knows. He does. He tries to ride that all the fucking time. Well, it's true, man. You're on the bench most of time. You have that one photo of me on the bench. Huh?

Yeah. You know what I'm saying. Man, I was really good at standing on the sidelines, too. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? I taught you everything you know. With starting and getting all this stuff off the ground, like outside of schooling and education, like me, a lot of my stuff that I get is through books or through like mentoring, like you guys, like asking people who are doing things that I would like to do or pick their brain. Like what types of tips or advice do you have for people like that?

Like where did you figure out a lot of this operating stuff? Is it always through school or is there books? Is there philosophy? Like what are some of the learnings that you've had? Well, I think first you need to figure out whatever, what's your like learning. vehicle. How do you learn? And what I mean by that is like, do you learn by reading books? Do you learn by talking to people? Do you learn by doing? Do you learn by watching? Like, so once you figure that out, because some people are like, oh, well, I'm just going to go read a bunch of books. I'm like,

well, what do you do with that information? Are you able to actually apply it or whatnot? Like I, my most exciting times and still to this day is when we set very ambitious, aggressive goals for a quarter where I'm asked to do something that we've literally never done before because I get to go through my learning process, which is I'll go dive in on a, let's say we want to build a certain strategy that we've literally never done before. I like to go and read a bunch of material on that thing. And I might buy two or three books. I'm not going to read them from front to back, but just pattern matching that stuff,

applying it, getting the right people to buy in. Like, I just enjoy that experience. And it's been like that, like even in the early days. And we're like, hey, we don't have a, we don't have a HR process when we got like five employees. Or, hey, we need to go fire somebody. And for me, I'm like, okay, well, I want to do it the right way. I want to be prepared so I can execute this the right way. So then I'll go through that process.

But yeah, I mean. No, I'm just saying like today we're flying in Nashville and I asked all you a question. And he pulls out a book that like looks like an old tattered like Bible, you know? And he's got writing in the columns. He's got highlighted. He's got posted notes in it. And he's like, this dude ingest information stores it. and can pull it up like an, you know, encyclopedia, like a Wikipedia page.

Like, and, but he learns from reading and, and applying. And then applying, you know? Yeah. You were talking about pattern matching. What do you mean by pattern matching? It's, it's like you're not supposed to, for example, like if you want to become really good at investing, you're not going to go read a bunch of investment books because they're just going to have, like, principals.

It's like just being back in school again. it's better for you to look at case studies of people that have done great investments or companies that have gone through some or historical things that are maybe super niche or a specific subject like the I don't know history on on a certain vertical that's way better than to go and just try to learn to fundamentals because that's just that's so educational that doesn't so when I say pattern matching I'm like okay we as a company right now we have 70 employees and we 69 employees. He loves that. He's like, we shouldn't hire anybody for a while. So we have 69 employees. I'm like, are you five years old or what? But anyways. So then I'm like, okay, I'll look at like,

where do we want to be, right? I'll look at where do we want to be as a company? And then I will go and find and talk sometimes to certain people who have literally gone through that process and done it before. So I just have validation in my thinking and I have way more confidence in all the decisions that we make. Like you're basically like, uh, a quote that you've actually told me to, success leaves clues. Yeah. It's, you're just finding a blueprint.

That's right. And then you just have matching the pattern. Absolutely. And you have your own spin to it and whatnot. But like imagine every choice that you make, the more confident that you can be in it. That you have the self assurance. You're like way more decisive.

That's speed, dude. Because then you don't, you're not hesitating. Like, oh, I don't know if we should do this. It's like it's all about speed, dude. And especially for us, like right now, it's like you should choose speed over, efficiency in the face of uncertainty. And that's literally what we're going through, which is like

we got to go really fast. We want to win the market. We feel like we're a leader and we want to own that. And so we don't really have time to be like, well, what if it doesn't work or maybe we shouldn't do this? It's about going to town. For a perspective, Will, the first two months of July, we have tripled the amount of business in one of our products than all of last year. And the first two weeks at this month. Like, I'm telling like, that's insane, right? Like, I'm into like, a year. A year ago there was 15,000 athletes that used up. What's up Jee? Now there's 50,000. Your response.

Oh, where you go? Dude, I love that, man. God damn, dude. These just know me too well. You will just retaining the information and that's his reaction. Mouth open. Yeah, but like that's the real deal. Hey, you know me, like we hired 27.

Adi hired 15 people in the last like 60 days. 15 people. We got to hire eight more. next 30 right and like that that is all that's a lot right like you think about that's a person that's their life they get to get them commit believe breathe like and like that's the type like you move fast sometimes because market opportunities are market opportunities like we have a chance to help every athlete right now so that's what we do you know and I I you talk about learning behavior like how do I want to can I get my fair shake yeah absolutely yeah yeah yeah my fault no I know this dude's

talking he's a philosophize it's like a LinkedIn advertisement man yeah he is a Philosifier. Dude, I love that. That's a great word. Philosifier. Let's go. Jebis. I don't know how you learn, Blake. Why don't you walk? I went through that because... I don't know. Maybe he would benefit. I mean, I'd benefit.

I'm going to start talking and I'll find my way to how I learn. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I would say, like, Will, do you have a book? Like, have you written a book? Yeah, if I've read a book. You have not written a book. Oh, written a book, no. No, but you've learned a thing or two.

Yeah. Right? And so, like, one of the things is if you think about your favorite people that have taught you so much, like, have they written a book? Yeah. They have? The favorite people who've taught me stuff? Like the thing about has, has,

it's like I'm sitting here like I've read a, like, has Bill Compton the second written a book? Oh, no, no. No, but you've learned a lot from that man. Right. Like what I'm trying to say here is like, Bo Pliny hasn't written a book.

Yeah, Boleyn. Right. And that would be the top seller. Yeah. Bo knows. Focus on the process. Compete every day. Dude, that's,

that's my email. Bo knows. You open it up and it's focused on the process. Yeah, yeah. And like a hundred slides of just the same thing. Same thing. No, but like, so.

So what I'm trying to say is that there's a lot of things that I learn from people, right? I want to go find another founder that has been in a similar situation where like maybe they're running low on cash. They got a big market opportunity. Their head of marketing is about to quit and they got to get a, you know, five new people to come in and try and fill his position, right? And like, I don't know where you find that in a book. But if you go and like talk to five founders, like they're going to, three of them are going to have a situation that was at least similar. Like, you know, and most people have a similar experience. If you like strip away the industry, strip away the actual problems and just say, hey, here's the emotion I'm feeling.

Have you felt that emotion? Tell me about the time in which you felt that emotion. How did you get through it? You know? Because a lot of part of this business stuff is like, yeah, there's exes and nose, but there's the like the Johnny's and Joe's, right? That would be in Bo's book too, right? That was solid. You should just stood on it.

I sure. Yeah, but I'll take it. But there are, there's those things that a lot of building a business or building anything is, it's deeply emotional, right? Like it is, you're invested in this thing. It's a part of you. So if you can go talk to people that can tell you how they felt when they went through something similar, then you can extract like that too.

Because a lot of it is like just reassurance. Like am I doing, like am I doing this right? Like am I thinking the right way? Like are we treating people the right way? And like at least you can learn from other people's experience, which maybe you just can't extract that from a book. Right. So you do a good job of navigating finding the right people who've probably been through a similar experience.

I love talking about it. Or somebody that you look up to. You love communicating about it. And Audi knows that. Dude, I'll get on a call with somebody. And they just, you just one little tidbit. It's like,

oh, man, did you know what this dude did? Like, he sold his company for 20 million, you know, and here's what he did when they were in this situation. And he's like, dang,

that's crazy because that dude's never going to write a book and put that story in there. But now I have that story that can, like, inspire me to try something like that too. That's right. That's good. Yeah.

I learned. It is. I mean, I feel like also, like, the things that we really care about. Like so for me, for example, we talked about hiring. So I think that building a team is more of an art than a science, right?

But somebody who doesn't really care about hiring or recruiting, which is a very difficult thing to do, right? Like you building a team, this is a very hard thing to do. These guys have to, they have to give a shit. They have to have ownership mentality. They have to show up when you're not here. They have to set things up. They have to care about what you guys are trying to build.

For it to look and feel and turn out great, that has to happen. to be the right team. And for me, that is an art. Like I, I can get on an interview. Blake, Blake will be part of interviews with some people and he'll like, yeah, that person was great. I'm like, no. Like, because to me, it's more of an art. I'm literally interpreting everything that's going on, how they're answering certain questions, how they showed up, like what they said their background was. And that's because it's something that I care about. Now, there might be some other things that are a little bit more of a science where it is more about the principles or sort of the rules around and whatnot. But like you are definitely more of a, dude, I'll hire anybody.

Yeah. Yeah. You want to work out where it's like, hell yeah, dude, there's a five star. You know, it's like, that guy is a walk on. You know what? That's no, but you wanted to work here. You know, like, happens all the time. Like he sees it like hire him. He wants to wear that in on his helmet. Yeah, yeah. That's like, dude. No, for sure. Like that is, I, but to me, I, that's what that's the balance though. You know, like, because for me, anybody that believes in a second, like, in the vision i'm like get on board do let's go you know i want to win the game well that's what's i'm saying like you got you got to build a team yeah that's right that's right that's right yeah for you what's winning the game uh well so i think about building a team did you ask him for him like what's

winning the game yeah that's a cool question yeah well he said that i'm just thinking i was i was more talking about in context of like building a team but if you ask me what went in that's that is a deep question i know we'll say we'll sit back and talk about this shit all the time all of us will just kind of sit around because you just have different angles like what's winning in game for you the most yeah um yeah i don't know i don't know fully yet like for me it's all in like it's broken up right it's just broken up into different priorities um i feel like winning the game for me right now career wise like i'm currently getting to do that and i guess seeing this through and i guess what seeing it through means to me is, I don't know, because every year, probably every six

months, we might see another level of potential we're starting to get into or tap into that we had no idea, that we had really no idea that it was coming. And so then you fall in love with something different that's going on with it. Yeah. Man, that's such a good question, dude. It is. It's a great question because it's hard to answer because I think if you are way too set in what your answer is, I don't know if you're trying hard enough. Right. Right, right, right, right. It's like, oh, I won. Yeah, well, it's like, I don't know.

You want it to be fluid. Like, you know, any entrepreneur that's, or let's say you're running a business and you're like, oh, the end game is I want to sell this company. I'm like, dude, you're not going to succeed. I'm sorry. Right. Because you're already thinking about an exit. Right.

And there might be a time where you should think about that. But like, you'll know when it's the right time to think about that. But like, if you start something with an exit in mind, how are you supposed to actually make that thing great? Hey, but here's the thing. No, yeah. Hey, one of my favorite things, though, is all advice is autobiographical.

You're just talking to yourself in the past because, like, somebody's listening. Like, no, I started slow down autobiographical. Like, all advice is autobiographical. And, like, you're just talking to yourself in the past. Like, if you ask me for advice, I'm, all I can do is reflect on my life, right? And it's as if I'm looking at myself in the past and myself asked me the same question. Like, I'm just talking to myself. Right.

Anyone you ever ask for advice in their life, they're just talking to themselves. Right. and they're just trying to find something familiar. And if you're asking for advice from somebody that's never been in your position, like, why are you asking them for advice anyways, right? So all advice is autobiographical. So somebody's listening is like, no, I started a company with the goal to sell it and they sold it. And that person is always going to say, hey, if you start something without a goal to sell it,

then what are you doing? You know, like what we get to talk about and our journey is we're in the middle of it, you know. And we'll be able to say what success is. The way to success will be in our eyes what we did. Right. But there's never the same path to the same outcome. I just think about that sometimes because I know that you and I just, you and I just, you set a big, hairy, audacious goal.

Right? You say you want to help every athlete. And everyone's like, so what's success for you guys? You know? It's like, well, have we literally helped every athlete? athlete? Like has, has every athlete in the planet downloaded open doors and use this tool? Oh, no, there's another one? Okay, not there yet. Right. So, like, it's just like the pursuit of an impossible goal is ultimately going to, like, that is to me, what this journey is. Like, what

entrepreneurship is. Yeah, I think, too, like, the identity you build, like in it, like all the principles and stuff you've talked about, like, even if that goal doesn't hit. So say my goal is, you know, 10 years in the NFL. Yeah. And I don't get 10 years in the NFL. Yeah. And I don't get 10 years in the NFL. It's like, well, you lost the game. And it's like, well, I mean, I'm still in the game. Like, it's just, the game has changed for me. That's right. That's right. You know what I mean? And I feel like whatever you build from the inside, like working inside out, like all the why stuff, all the cliche why stuff that we talk about, like who you are, I guess as a person, like you just filtered to a different game every time. I don't know what the fucking end game is.

Yeah. And I don't think, I don't think you need to have one, man. I think life should be more fluid. It should be just kind of, you should enjoy it. You should strive for. for big things, you should surround yourself with great people and actually with family and enjoy life and enjoy the journey. I don't think you need to have an end goal. And maybe one day you wake up but you have one. And that's great. Good for you. That's what I'm saying. That's like that's maybe what the disclaimer. Right. It's like we're all like we're all sharing things about like what we have experienced or maybe heard from other people that have been appealing when they shared them with us. I'm like, oh, that's cool. You know, like I'll, I'll have someone tell me a story. I'll change my mind

about something. I'm like, okay. The perspective shift. Yeah, I'm like, oh, great. That's, I'm not, there's, there's nothing that I'm completely set on. You know, sometimes people will have convictions or whether it's like a political view or religion or I don't know, whatever it is. And I'm like, damn, do you're that set on that? Give us examples. Yeah, yeah.

Like, open it up. Like, so, what are you talking about? Let's hear your craziest thought, please. Let's get some clips and really hurt you. No, that's, could say some things we could blackmail you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. God. So that's,

that is, I think that's a, we should all have a disclaimer under everything we say or recommend. And it, I mean, that, yeah.

Yeah, no, yeah, you said, like I'm just trying to win the game. Obviously, you were talking about it from the art standpoint

of hiring somebody and the process that you're seeing through. Because it's team building. What is the, what is winning the game mean to you? Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. I'm like, oh, yeah. Got him. Hey, let me, yeah.

Yeah. There you go. It's unrealistic goal He's winning as a last breath Yeah that's it man That's your book You've been trying to get me on Yeah

The book We've been giving him some love Tim Grover winning The book winning Because it's like when we're 23 Like when I'm 23 To me winning is like playing in the NFL Yeah

And if I knew I wasn't gonna be like a high rounder It's like oh let me just get a couple years in the NFL That's right That's right And that's like winning the game But like No it's not I think the pursuit of some of those things

Like, you know, you're the same, like, how much is enough? And the answer is just a little bit more. You know what I'm saying? Like, the answer is like when you have that next thing, you want that next thing. And so, like, it's a, you spend so much time chasing something. You don't realize, like, when you have it because you keep going. You know what I'm saying? Like, again, Open doors, we've raised $20 million for this company, right?

And I remember when we first raised our first, like, somebody wrote it to $20,000 check. I'm like, God, dang. And I met another founder that had raised $20 million. I'm like, God, Lord, like, just got it all figured out. You know what I'm saying? He's got it all figured out. Then you're sitting there with 20 million and you're like looking at the dude that's got 200 and you're like, just got it all figured out.

Then you eventually realize that nobody hasn't figured out, man. Like go. That never changed. Like just help solve one more problem, one more day, help one more person and like, have fun. Mm-hmm. Shout out Showtime Pay-per-View. Is that right?

Yeah. Or do I even say that? No, no, you're right. Keep going. You got it. But it says Showtime Paperview and Most Value Promotion. Right. You got to say both.

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Back to the episode. Yeah. Enjoy your own shit going on to. What a deep podcast, man. Yeah, dude. This listener's going to be like, all right, we're an hour 20. They're like, is this a startup podcast or is this bus? still. I'm stoked to finally be an investor now. Yes, dude. Welcome aboard.

Thank you. Yeah, we're thinking about naming. I say that with a little friction. Oh, really? I've always tried getting in. I know. You've, you've deserved to get in now. You said I've been a guinea pig. Like, you've tried making content for me. Hey, let's do this. Okay. Like, when do I get to get in? Like, oh, you know, you don't want to get in this,

Cousy. Yeah, no, no. Hey, hey, bro, here's the deal. You know how he talks, too. Oh, Cussie, you don't want to get in this day. Doggy. And I'm just like, all right, I guess we can't have a serious conversation. Doggy, nah. Yeah, you would do that. That's his way to handle like the serious talk. He just starts getting like, yeah.

Doggy, you don't want to get in this dang doggy. Like, oh, I really do. You know the an emoji thing on iPhone? Yeah. Will would only send me videos him as the dinosaur. And I'm like, doggy. Can I put money in? I'm like, dude.

Yeah, this is the type of investor we need. Yeah, yeah. The dinosaur, man. No, I do. So you're in. You're an angel investor. Like William Earl. Compton the third an angel in my life.

You know what I'm saying? Sounds nice. It is, dude. It is nice. But like the reality is like, hey, when you went to the league, you said, hey, that $5,000 has got a stretch. Like, I have never, ever want to take money out of your pocket. You know what I'm saying? Like, I always want to put it in.

Right? And like, that's the thing is that you never did, but. I know. I know. You are. Hey, are these guys going to start paying me for the tweets? Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Now they put some money in. get back. No, but the truth is that, you know, these athletes, they go through and they get to that next level. They get that first paycheck and like, oh, man, you should open up a subway franchise. Oh, clothing line time. Like everyone's trying to get in their pockets and like, hey, yeah, let's do that. Let's do that. Let's do that. And like, none of that stuff pans out. Right. So like, I never felt comfortable saying like, hey, yeah, we should take in like money from athletes that we know

that our entire mission is to help you. Right. But what I know to be true is that your investment in open doors is going to pay dividends. Like you're going to, it's going to be worth it. Like we, but we have validated and worked. Like there's a lot of people that right now just heard about open doors for the first time. O P-E-N-D-O-R-S-E dot com open doors, okay? You're going to hear it for the first time right now. And you're like, oh, that's a great idea, you know? And it's going to be like, oh, it's a overnight success. We've been doing this for 10 years, dude. We've been doing this for 10 years. And like anybody that says that this is easy and it happened fast, like, they're wrong. But now we have validated enough.

We're like, yeah, you can give us some of your money because I'm going to get you a 20x, 30x, 50x return. Let's fucking go. Let's go, dog. Let's go, daddy. Especially once you get that little intro video of you explaining how open doors works. Yeah, we do need to make like a piece of cool content, like how it works. Like if there's a way to like walk through and all you got to do it with whatever I'm saying. But I'm saying visually too, like you click, like you go something.

Hey, we'll make something cool. The boys make something cool. That we don't. I mean, hey, like, when, real quick, how are we doing on time? Like, I'm, I know that this not my job to do any of this shit, but, uh, are we good? Like, you guys, I mean, we're, he's talking about time like on this podcast. Yeah, dude, I just want to make sure, like, if you want to get stories out, like, we've, we've talked like super hypothetical stuff. Mm-hmm.

Right. There's not been many tangible stories about anything in this podcast. Yeah. I mean, I'm sorry. Like, I'm just, like, I just know. Yeah, no, you just know what people listen to, like, I would listen to us talk about hypothetical. of this and I don't know I just know that there's stories to be told

too. All right, cool. It's the blood flowing down low. I get it, dude. I get it. I'm just like, you know. It's a good filter. Yeah. I mean, this is what you do. Yeah. You know? So, I'm not trying to like show, but it's obvious that I could. Is that Charo being like, hey, what do you? No, it's the boy.

Somebody said something, uh, oh, Alex said urgent, something urgent. Oh, okay. We'll respond after. Yeah. Yeah, we got flag for that bullshit I was telling about it earlier. What? I don't want to, yeah, I don't want to say it now. On camera, hey, explain, please.

Let's add more content to that. Yeah, do you guys have anything? Like, you guys, I mean, fuck, if you guys have any questions? Whether it's a story or just anything that we've all talked about or they've all talked about? The craziest deal you've seen for an athlete so far, like what's the most amount of money a college kid has made? Or do you think, what do you think? Are you allowed to say that? Yeah, we can't talk about it.

Like specifics. Can you, we just say player X? Um, yeah. Are we allowed to just be like, what is a college player made? And you just say like a, like something that's been crazy.

We can talk in aggregates. We can talk about averages. What the fuck does that mean, dude? Aggregates, you guys been throwing a lot of bullshit out of here. Yeah, yeah. Big word over here. You should just have a dictionary right next to you and just like,

we can talk about aggregates. Hey, fuck you, man. Yeah. Don't talk about aggregates. aggregates like that. Yeah. This is Tennessee, man. We don't say that.

You raise this motherfucker, dude. Jesus. That's hilarious. The aggregates are all pissed off. But so what? So what is it? Here's the thing. Like most people, I'm, we're knee-deep in athlete endorsements to this sort of thing.

Give us something. All right. All right. There's a gymnast. There's a gymnast for LSU. Her name's Olivia Dunn. Oh. She's got seven figures lined up already in endorsement deals.

A gymnast at LSU. Right? So, like, everyone listens like oh it's got to be spencer ratler bringing home the cash right it's going to be dyrick king making that money like the truth is that the the athletes that are making the most right now are content creators ticotkers YouTubers that just got to flip a switch and they're making money right now right because you know the the the dude that's going to get paid you know to sell a shirt for 20 bucks maybe do an autograph for a hundred bucks like that's going to stack up and rack up be impactful right

oh for sure the the people that are one listen like who's making a in seven figures, it's a gymnast at LSU that's got four million followers on TikTok. It's the Haley and Hannah Kavanaugh at Fresno State that are, that you have thousands of YouTube subscribers and three million TikTok followers. Those are the

athletes that are winning, you know, and that's the coolest thing is that these people, you don't even know about it. But those are the, and for them, there's not like a pro, like this is their moment to make that money. And they're doing it. That's the cool part of NIL. Yeah. People always be curious about like

the big like who's going to be making like the seven figures or six figures of you know shit like that yeah but people don't understand like you were saying it earlier like I mean 200 bucks a month goes in a long way do you imagine getting that like yes we are on full right scholarships and people make that argument oh you got a full ride you get the you know you get college paid for we're busting our ass doing this like you should be grateful blah blah blah like we get our scholarship check it was around what when I was a senior is around 800 yeah $700 a month. $780.

And that was to pay rent. Pay for rent. As like after I pay for rent. It's way more now. Utilities. Phone, rent, car insurance. I remember I would have like a hundred, maybe $100 and $120 left a month.

So I needed $20 to go downtown. Because you know, you know everybody, right? Right. So like that was that was what you did. But like I think that the Scali checks now are like $1,600 or even more. But it's like. But the secret thing though, like that again, I swear,

if you weren't a student athlete like this stuff you'd be like okay I never thought about that but remember that subway over by Home Depot like where you could go and like everyone knew like if you said the right word like you know you might be able to get that five dollar foot long for a little bit less right and

I never did. Huh? No this is a hypothetical. Okay. Taylor LeWan was telling me story at Michigan. Okay, got you. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Look at Michigan. Look at Michigan. Um, what's true now is like for the last two weeks for the first time ever like you've been able to take the burrito

from chipotle when the dude's like hey you're a baller like burrito's on me because like three weeks ago it's not illegal anymore well no you got to do something though like you have to do something it's got you can't just take it because that's that's you have an in i out activity so like kids are doing like oh it's an appearance like i made an appearance at chipotle and i got an eight dollar burrito and like that's all good or they'll tweet out about chipotle like oh tightest roller in town like on O Street, you know, whatever. And, but that, that is what's happening. And that's the stuff that's like people, it's not going to make headlines that some do

got an $8 burrito for free, but for the, like, history of the NCAA, you've never been able to, right? Just to have the option is pretty dang cool. And again, it's not going to break headlines, but that's the type of stuff that I'm excited about. But we got to get some bus in ambassadors, dude. Like, I think that we should, right now, I'm going to make you commit. How much, how much are you going to put towards building out?

the Bustin with the boys teams. Like we need some Bustin athletes. You're talking about how much money to pay financially? Yes. Easy, man. No, let's talk about how many. Hey, a decision like this takes time. No, it doesn't. It takes time.

It takes right now, not money. Let's talk about what, describe the perfect ambassador for Bustin with the boys. You go out and build out the team, the squad. You're like, yeah, those are all Bustin athletes. What do they, tell me what they look like. Are they grud? Obviously somebody for the boys. Oh, yeah.

Yeah, grit. Grit. Grit. The Grit. Lunch pale guys, like wolves, people who are about, like, being for the boys. That embodies being for the boys. It's not like you want people who are going to post. Yeah.

Who aren't going to be afraid to get in an interview. Say we're all in a group chat, right? Or say, hey, this week, if you win, barring that you win the game. Yeah. And you feel good about it. Yeah. Just shout out the boys and say, hey, subscribe to the boys and rate five stars. Let's go.

Right now. You know what I mean? Or, you know, obviously you got stuff that we're, we can give. Of course. Is up in the air. But the ideal person, I think Taylor and I immediately think of our alma maters. Like, how do you take care of those guys? That's right.

That's right. And get them on the train and get them on a train in a way to where they're not nervous about being for the boys. Yeah, absolutely. You know what I mean? That makes sense. You want a lot? You're trying to have, you try to have a bunch.

I don't know. We're trying to figure that out. You're trying to get like 10 boys? See, like, yeah, there's, there's thoughts where you get like a small group or you think, like Taylor being at the, the level he's at playing football, being a pro bowler, being at the high peak of being an offensive lineman. A lot of these young kids, especially in college, you know who Taylor Luan is. So they want to be for the boys somehow.

Like, hey, how can you be it? So you don't know, like, you know, you create this hogs. Like, you create anything, the big boy, any of that's a big nasties, whatever it is. Yeah. And you think about that avenue. You think about, okay, if I worked with a certain amount of linebackers, whether it be in a mentoring avenue. Like there's so many different options that have gone through my head.

I don't necessarily know what that is yet. But I know like a lot of the athletes have already reached out to us. Like how do we be for the boys? Right. And so those are obviously the types of guys we want, people who are taking initiative that know what's going to come with like, they already know about how we go about things. You know what I mean?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course, of course. So you said 100 grand. That's what you said? Did I hear that? I think I heard that too. You heard two? You heard two. Yeah, I think so.

So Bustin with the boys is going to commit 200 Gs to building out the Bustin with the boys. And this is this from Willster. Like pocketbook, yeah, personal cash. Wow. You guys heard you'll see how that looks. Yeah, we'll see how it looks. You heard it here first. 200.

It does fire me up. Like part of you guys visiting was we're going to be talking about those things. Yeah, yeah. We should do that for sure tonight, man. It fires me up, though. But that's a good question. I think it's not about the money. Like, I say that.

I'm not talking about the money part of it. I'm talking about how you go about doing something like with a brand that we have. Like do you want to be selective and exclusive in things? Yeah. Or do you want to be like, you know, Dave puts out the video and every athlete period, you know, wants to put Barstile athlete as long as they get some merch. Mm-hmm. Which is incredible branding, which is a great move by Dave. Yeah.

But there's a lot of compliance issues with that too. Yeah. Big stuff. Like what you know about we won't get into because we, you know, it's been an hour and a half. Yeah. I just thought you would skip over some of the stuff audio was talking about. And we just keep going. I thought I had a friend at the start of this podcast.

I clearly don't. So you and I'm going to hang out to him offended. I've never been more offended in my life. That's cool. Okay. What compliance issues do you run into with all that? Like teaching kids that if you didn't take. You bummed about that?

Yeah, let's have a full man. That's why I was. Yeah. So you got here. Just making a huge fucking body moving back there. Totally like we don't have time for that. And then it. Yeah.

Yeah. Let's talk about. history of, yeah, yeah. Do you want to hire and fire our people? Sure, yeah. Get rid of Garrett. Yeah.

No. Sorry to cut you off. No, yeah. No, it's good, dude. But open doors.com. Here's your, drop your little. This is like anyone listening. Like you can log in open doors.

com, create an account. And you could find whatever athlete you want and ask them to do whatever you want for whatever amount of money. And it will go straight to their phone. Like you want them to tweet about your, your your small business you want them to give you a shout out like it's it's like cameo meets fiber plus just asking an athlete directly hey do you want to support my business or say happy birthday to my kid like open doors it just makes athletes more accessible to the people

that support them like it's super easy and yeah so do that like just do it and you're you're gonna will compton's on there you can ask will come to me just do your thing just do your thing don't bring don't bring this back to me. Don't know. Opendoors.com follow at Open Doors. Yeah. Your Twitter handle. Blake underscore Lawrence.

Yeah. Your Twitter handle? Cana. K-U-N-A-L-C. Follow the boys. We love you. We appreciate you. Big hug, sunny kisses. You can get our merch at barstlesports.com slash store.

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