No Broke Months For Salespeople - Behind the Scenes of Ryan Rottman’s Transition From Actor to Sports Tech Founder

Episode Date: December 28, 2025

What you’ll learn in this episode:● Why rejection is a competitive advantage in sales and entrepreneurship● How acting auditions prepared Ryan for fundraising and investor conversations● The difference between perseverance and staying in something unhealthy● Why customer feedback should drive pivots—not pride● How AthleteAgent.com creates inbound opportunities for athletes and agents● The biggest operational challenges in scaling a sports tech platform● How to stand out so rejection today turns into opportunity tomorrowGuest Links:🌐 AthleteAgent: https://www.athleteagent.com📱 Ryan Rotman (All socials): @RyanRottman To find out more about Dan Rochon and the CPI Community, you can check these links:Website: No Broke MonthsPodcast: No Broke Months for Salespeople PodcastInstagram: @donrochonxFacebook: Dan RochonLinkedIn: Dan RochonTeach to Sell Preorder: Teach to Sell: Why Top Performers Never Sell – And What They Do Instead

You're listening to No Broke Months for Salespeople Podcast. In this episode of the No Broke Months for Salespeople podcast, Dan Rochon sits down with Ryan Rotman, co-founder and COO of Athleteagent.com. Ryan shares how his journey from Hollywood actor to sports tech entrepreneur shaped his mindset around rejection, resilience, and pivoting at the right time. From landing roles on major TV shows to building a platform trusted by Fortune 100 brands, This episode breaks down how perseverance, preparation, and customer-driven focus lead to long-term success in business and sales. Welcome to the No Broke Months podcast. Today, I am joined with Ryan Rotman. My name is Dan Roshan.

Ryan is the co-founder and the chief operating officer of the athleteagent.com, which is a groundbreaking sports tech platform providing verified contact information and tools for athletes, agents, teams, and brands. And today we're going to talk about going from Hollywood to entrepreneurship because before entering the sports tech space, Ryan had a pretty notable career in entertainment, starring in films such as the Billioners Boys Club and the Open Road and the Hallmark of Originals. Who doesn't love a Hallmark of Original TV hits like 90210 and the middle and the line game. Welcome, Ryan. How are you, sir? I'm great. Thanks for having me. I'm telling you that it's hard to get not, it's hard to not get hyped listening to that.

music for the countdown and you got your your good silhouette there with your john lending glasses on it's uh yeah it's fantastic hey coming from you that's that is kudos it's like i'm uh you know i'm not an old man in this big you know like like i'm a hip man i'm good i'm good let's roll it's roll it's it's hyped you're sitting here to listen to listen to music i'm like all right let's get this going right welcome how are you sir uh i'm doing pretty good doing pretty good You've been traveling a lot and good to be back and have a routine again. Good, good, good. So we're talking a little bit about like your journey.

You've had a, I mean, you're an interesting guy. You've had this an incredible journey from, you know, being an entrepreneur, from being, you know, in the media or, you know, in the movies and broadcast, etc. So walk us through, like, let's get before you even got into the, you know, entertainment industry. Let's go back into you as a kid, you was in high school, whatever you think is appropriate before you did your first big thing. Like, walk us through the beginning. Well, I grew up in a small town in Texas called Lufkin. And, you know, it was a great place to grow up, very outdoorsy.

We're always riding dirt bikes and roaming around and, you know, lighting dog poop on people's doorsteps and running away. And, you know, just small town stuff. right and um that go on your resume now well it did because we actually did a how to video for school as a one of our um one of our part of our grade and not that's what we chose to do and uh yeah so it was just it was a really fun upbringing but because i was in a small town we didn't really have a theater department and i kind of had always known that i wanted to do something in an entertainment um but i really didn't have an outlet for it and it wasn't until

I went to college at Texas Tech in Lubbock that I was kind of first presented with a theater department and I always knew that and kind of instilled in me from young age and my dad was like no matter what you, whatever you want to do, just have the business background. So let's major in business. If you want to do theater, do that as a minor. So that's what I ended up doing. And I think it really was beneficial to me. My dad's always been a mentor, but very smart of him for me to take that approach because now it's obviously it's paid off dividends as he likes to say and see an entrepreneur your dad's a business person or he's a businessman yeah he ran one of the largest funeral corporations in the world okay so people are always dying to get in I'm asking because

that I almost stepped right over across that right sorry but I'm asking I'm asking you about your dad because that's unusual advice, meaning that I think the traditional advice from a parent to a son or daughter would be go to school, get a job, get a career. But your dad's advice was, Ryan, I know you've got this entertainment itch that you want to scratch, and it's probably unlikely that you're going to succeed there, though you have. And here's your backup plan, become an entrepreneur. newer right normally that's not the that's not the backup plan no and honestly I'm so grateful because the the craziest thing too was is um while I was studying business and I'd done a couple

plays at school um I came in and said I'm I'm gonna go to L.A. for the summer I'm gonna do it I found an acting school it's obviously it was called New York Film Academy which is weird that it's in Los Angeles um but it was on it was on one of the lots and didn't know anyone and just went and did it and thank god i did i guess because um in that time i got to meet one of the biggest directors in town taught phillips he did old school surrogate and hutch um the joker done a ton of amazing things and uh became friends with him and ended up going out the next summer and interning for him and through that process had really become ingrained there and gotten to know a lot of people and obviously that's such a town built on connections and had the opportunity to have a manager

and an agent and go out there and do that. And when I took it to my parents and said, hey, listen, I'm thinking about going out and doing this, the immediate response was, if you don't do it now, you'll write it later on. And you have your business acrament now to fall back on to an accident, which it could also help you in the business of entertainment.

And so I was very grateful for that. And then I took the plunge and, you know, I was in L.A. for 20-something years. I was able to do a ton of TV shows and different movies and have a ton of different experiences and the cool thing about being an actor is you get to have a ton of a different profession, every job that you get.

You know, I've played a pastor and I've played a doctor and I've played a politician and I played all these different professions that, you know, you learn a lot about so you get to learn about different areas that you usually wouldn't have known before. And then also getting into the business side

of producing and that really taught you a lot and, you know, it really built, my ability to network really well. It's built in that, and that's obviously with business. For me, networking is 90% of the job.

What would you say is the biggest lesson that you learn from your acting career? Hands down is building a thick skin. I think what a lot of people don't realize is what makes the entertainment world so hard is, you know, there's only like, of SAG, which is a screen actors guild, there's one, like, three percent of actors that are actually, like, really working.

And you are consistently told no, right? Like, you know, you may go on three job interviews, three auditions every day, and get told no, right? You're not tall enough. You're not going to go looking enough. You know, didn't like the way you did the character, whatever it may be. And it's to build that thick skin to say, this just wasn't the right one, but the right one is coming and that you don't take it personally. It's just business. And that really transcended

to me into business in the sense of like when it's raising capital. Maybe that's just not the right investor, but the right one is coming. So forever you know, you can get excited because you're that much closer to a yes. And that for me was a huge building block coming into the business world because I don't know how to not had that if I could have taken the rejection or just the passes that you get day in and day out of a startup right because it's it's a hard road you need to you know make connections you need to get money to build the business and when you get told no a lot of I think the problem a lot of people have is they just give up and I notice your sign behind you never ever give up and that's exactly what it is right just never giving up

never getting beaten down knowing and believing and what you're building um has a purpose and can help people and and there's a business behind it so that was the biggest yeah I would say the theory of never, never, never give up has been a recurring theme of mine through my life. I will put it, I will state that there's an asterisk on the back of that sign that you don't see that says unless of you should. And now understanding what would cause you to say I should give up, that's the challenge here because so far, so many people give up way before they get to the gold, way before

where they get to the, uh, to the, you know, 902.10.1 screen or the, you know, the, you know, the doctors or the, or the, or the priest scene, they give up way, way before then, right? So there's a piece of, I'm not going to give up, but then maybe, you know, maybe you're in an unhealthy relationship year after year after year. And it's like, it's just not, you know, moving forward. Then, you know, if, I guess for me, it's, it's about is it, is it being unhealthy, that commitment to never giving up? or is it just having perseverance? And I don't know if I'm sharing a clear thought there or not. But Ryan, what are your thoughts on what I just shared?

No, 100%. I think there's never, never give up until it's time to throw the towel in. And it's all about, like what you said, being healthy, right? Like if you're doing a startup, never ever give up, but it's killing you. Then maybe it's time to throw in the towel in a relationship, right? If it's not healthy, you're going to, you know, you only, well, you only got one life. Right? And it's do what you love. And if what you're doing is not bringing you joy, then find what it is. And so it's if you're not, and it's not failure. It's just trying something new. And I think that's another big part of business with whatever you do is the ability to pivot. Sometimes when I was building this business, I had a clear mindset of what it was. And the biggest component for me was taking those putting blinders on and not being too broad. And,

there was a point where it was a very, very difficult decision, but to pivot the business somewhat. And, you know, it's a hard call to make to investors and all this kind of stuff. But I saw the longevity of what it was and I was listened to the customer of what they wanted. And so the decision ended up being right. But it's a really hard thing to say like and say, okay, well, I didn't fail. We just need a pivot because, you know, you don't know what you have until people start telling you and you get that feedback and reviews and all that kind of stuff. and they say, oh, okay, this is what's needed. And it's a really hard, it's a hard jump.

But I completely agree with it, they never give up. And so let's, let me refine what I heard. Let me sort of put those two ideas together in bullet points. So what I hear you saying is rejection is a natural process, a natural part of the process, whether it's you want to be an actor or actress or you want to be a business, you know, person. there's going to be far greater rejection than acceptance. Would you agree to that statement? 1,000%. Yeah.

So that's the piece there that I think, you know, is the number one sales mistake for most people is, you know, feeling not good enough. And then getting that rejection after rejection after rejection sort of feeds into that, I'm not good enough piece. Now, that's not the same as position yourself so that you are doing what makes you happy. and certainly I don't know anybody that's happy to get rejected but understanding like taking like a you know like a border in between those two things to say look if you really truly want to do this there will be tons of rejection and let's make sure that you're doing what you love doing you know so it's a little bit of a you know a paradox I think yeah but it's also it's I find it's also taking that rejection and learning from it sure right so every time okay you know early starting in the career of entertainment let's say I realized that just going in prepared memorizing all the lines going and prepared having the character i was already like 80% ahead of everyone else okay which is a crazy thought that this is what you want that is crazy i would think that you would go in no like right yeah the company casting directors would say to me thank you so much for coming in prepared wow like it's it's it's so

nice to have that i was like people aren't coming in prepared and maybe i didn't get the role but then i started doing little things that would make me stand out because okay i didn't get this one I didn't get this one. What can I do to change or make myself stand out a little bit more? What's an example of those little things? You recall? Yeah, I did. I was testing for a show and by testing, you get to a certain point.

You go through like five auditions and then you meet with the producers and then testing as you go in front of the network. You know, you're in a room with like 50 people. And I, that when I did that, I got, it was, I played a character that was really wealthy, but I was also like a into drugs and stuff like that but I was also like a CIA informant and so what I did was I

had a buddy go out with me and shoot as he was like almost a paparazzi or a spy like taking photos of me not knowing from all different kinds of angles and and I printed them all out I got a folder and I put I put for your eyes only on it confidential with a cover letter

and then I printed out like 10 of the photos and did it at like 15 times. When I walked in the room, I handed him to everyone to see what I looked like as the character. And it was me and one other guy, and I ended up not getting it, but it was a really massive director, and he called me after and said, I want you to know that it wasn't for a lack of what you did, but what you did do stood out, and we will work together in the future because it took that kind of tenacity and that forward thinking that I just absolutely

loved and yeah sometimes yeah sometimes a rejection leads to a yes you know and when you are when you put the effort in when you prepare when you showcase and you're able to stand out maybe it's not a yes today but they're going to remember you yeah and i mean look then i started then i worked with him on billionaire boys club which was one of the best experiences i've ever had on a film and it's because i left that that lasting um you know memory of myself in his mind that just really stood out so it was super beneficial to me doing that and i didn't get one but i got another and it's the same thing if even if you're you know interviewing for something maybe this isn't the right position but if you leave the last thing good impression it could be the next one which is

maybe even bigger and better athlete agent dot com yeah so at some point you transition from entertainment to and i know you're still in the entertainment space right but you i would say you maybe broaden your you expanded your wings, you know, to take on more. So tell us about that transition into only being in entertainment. Well, were you bartending when you were entertainment? I mean, were you the typical, you know, tell me more about that piece. Yeah. How you transition.

Well, thankfully, again, being, you know, in business through college, I did a lot of day trading and was able to build up a little nest egg. So by the time I went to L.A. I didn't have to. I could just focus on auditioning. And then I started getting work from that. and thankfully I never had to do the bar-titting gig. But in the entertainment world, you really have to figure out that you need to diversify.

Right, because you can do a show for three years and you're making all this money and you think it's never going to end. And you spend like it's never going to end. Then it ends, and you might never have a job for two years. So I became a bar owner and started doing all these different things.

Sounds like a real estate agent. 100%. 100%. That's a big pay days, but then keep coming. then there's nothing um so kind of that transition was there's a a site called iMdb right it's it's owned by amazon and it's bought in like 1999 from 55 million is now worth over three billion but it is the internet movie database and as an actor it's essentially my business card every time i walked into an audition room they have my iMdb page pulled up you can see all my filmography what i'm what i've done

what i'm doing and i did a show called 902 and a producer from the hallmark channel saw me, looked at my IMDB Pro account, saw who my agent manager was, reached out. And because of my information was correct and they could see my manager, I then have done nine Hallmark films. And, you know, if it wasn't correct, I would have missed out on those jobs. It would have missed out on that income. And having that mindset of how beneficial it was for me in the entertainment world in my career, I know being in that world, I know a lot of athletes as well. I was always so curious why something like that didn't exist in the athlete world, right? because the tam the tam for sports is way bigger than entertainment a lot more leagues and one of my

closest friends is the quarterback for Pittsburgh Steelers Aaron Rogers we have a production company together so we knew business working together and him and I were dinner one night and I just said hey man I've had this idea for a while like an IMDB for athletes right that can show you everything they're doing on and off the field so we showcase their business ventures their endorsement deals their philanthropy, their contracts, and then most importantly, who their representation is and how to get a hold of them.

And he said, who'd be told? I said a couple buddies, and he said, don't do anyone else. Like, there's a white space for this. It needs to happen. So we went down the road.

And, you know, there is a white space for it. We've learned. And it's very helpful to not only the athletes and agents, but brands, businesses, you know, we've got a ton of even Fortune 100 companies

that subscribe. and doing what it did for me and so many other actors is giving that visibility to see who represents them to get a hold of them. And so we've been doing that. We've got about 13 sports

on the site right now with every athlete that plays them and all the information that I just told you. So how would that be useful to somebody subscribing? I mean, you got it from the athlete's perspective, right?

then you have it from the business owner's perspective or the agent's perspective, whatever the case may be. Like, help me connect the dots on the benefit on each side. Yeah. So surprisingly, what we found is a lot of agents are doing 90% outbound, right? Because unless you're Aaron Rogers or Patrick Mahomes, like, one of these big athletes that's just constantly getting stuff, this is the other 99% which is who we really built us for, right?

athletes that aren't getting that deal flow, right? Or being provided new decks on companies to invest in or whatever it may be. So the agents are doing a lot of outbound, which we can now create inbound for them. You know, and one of the first subscribers for us was Coca-Cola, which was huge, and showed that even as big as they are, they still have trouble figuring out how to get in contact with athletes to have them be a brain ambassador or, you know, do a charitable event with them or or be the face of cocoa, whatever it may be, um, they still have a difficult, difficult time of finding availability and visibility to who

represents them. So the, that's the agent sidewise. We're creating a lot more inbound for them. On the brand side, it's that it's like, you know, even if you're a local car dealer in Green Bay and you want to get a hold of one of the guys in the O line for the Packers, like, who represents them, right? Now you go to the site, look it up. We can show you everything like you see their contracts you kind of have an idea of how much they make and what to offer um and and have access to trying to utilize them we also have like podcasters or one of our biggest subscribers base because they want to have athletes on their show sure you know and we have the depth of of contact information from their literary agents to even though their theatrical agents to their

on field agents their endorsement agents um we have we started putting on some of their financial advisors for investments. So the depth is really there on all fronts. And actually financial advisors is a big base for us as well because they want to be able to find who the new athletes coming into, the rookies are on their lower, you know, when they've got their base salary to get in early to be their financial advisor because they're not going to get into being into Aaron's camp once he's already set, but the new rookie they can. So that's a big subscriber base for us as well. So that subscriber was a lot broader than we initially thought. It would be more CMOs and brands looking to work with athletes.

But it's actually a lot wider than that. What's the toughest operational challenge that you have in running a fast-growing sports tech company? Hiring is always tough. Especially today. I have an example of I like to have people that like sports. We're excited about what we do. And I had a younger guy that worked for us that, we've only been there for like six months and was on the lower end,

when I say lower end of just data collection. What we do is very manual. That's kind of our moat, right? You can't just scrape this information. So if you're paying us to get this information, it has to be accurate. And after six months came to me and asked for some equity in the company. And, you know, we're startup. It's fine.

I just like, go with this six months. like and instead of getting upset or angry about it i said sit down for a sec i want you explain to me why for six months and what you've done this far you deserve equity and he's kind of stuttered and so well i just because you know it's a new company and i because on the founding team and i was like but what is what in your work would like you log on you log off and you're done and i think it kind of helps him understand too that like it's just i find it tough with this, you know, everyone, I think older people say this, this new generation coming through, they just want stuff given to them instead of going above and beyond and excelling. So hiring

has been tough. And then growth of just, you know, we're adding two or three leagues a month right now. So that data flexions, you know, the bigger we get, the more we're going to expand. We're going up to 50 some leagues. And then we're doing on their talent. And we're doing NIL, which is a massive lift. So the growth is a really big one of, again, And we have 16,000 athletes on the site of keeping that updated on top of adding new athletes, right? Because you don't want to have an endorsement deal for an athlete that's no longer relevant or that they're no longer attached to because then it means that they can't maybe get a similar deal in that arena, right? If they used to be with Red Bull and they're no longer, then Monster may see that and not say, well, we can't reach out to him because he's got a Red Bull deal. So it's that growth of just updating and keeping everything update and relevant, which is very, very difficult.

So, Ryan, so you operate at the intersection of sports, business, media, you've got, and it all, it seems like, you know, you've sort of connected the dots in each of those. So it doesn't seem like it's a shotgun approach where you're in three or four different lanes. It seems like what you've done is you've taken three or four different lanes and you've been able to. able to combine them in a way that's cohesive. And I'm curious, how do you stay focused? How do you stay grounded? What's your mindset, you know, in regards to taking on this mission? Well, it kind of comes back to what I said earlier about the pivot.

And there was a point when we, you know, I wanted to do everything. I just wanted this to be the one-stop shop. And we had an editorial side aspect of it. We had, we showed the stats for every player. We had every player that's ever played the game that's still living, obviously. And there came a moment where the two biggest costs associated with the business was editorial and stats. And after being live and looking at the data and all that,

we realized that the amount of traffic, and we were getting 250,000 people a month at the site, just because our SEO was so massive. But they weren't coming for stats and they weren't coming for editorial. They were coming for the business ventures, endorsement deals, and contact information. And the editorial and the stats were just going to continuously get that cost associated with them was going to get larger. And so I had a pivot of also the previous name.

People had trouble like it was OSDB and everyone kept saying ODB. And it made me think of an old dirty bastard, the rapper. That's a good marketing ploy. yeah you know and then so um so not what you're trying to embed into the brain but you know old dordy bastard you know i got that resonates for somebody for some people and they'd be like oh yeah i loved him um but no so it was that moment of saying okay we need to like find a name that's a little more on the nose right so people know what they're doing and what they're getting um and then getting rid of a bunch of the fluff because whittling it down scaling it like slimming it down yeah

yeah and being hyper-focused of like why the customer was coming and if no one's coming for stats we're not going to compete with ESPN with stats right like as a startup we were like 10,000 a month for stats and every sport was another 5,000 we're going to be at 60,000 a month for something that people weren't coming were and and that was a hard thing because in my mind I really thought stats would help but no one's making a brand deal on someone's stats they're making it on their worth their location um their value and not are they batting 500 yeah so uh that was a hard and also name changed because Aaron and I really liked that name the very beginning because it was such a tie to IMDB we thought that was kind of the crossover um so that was a hard a hard mindset

to kind of wrap my head around of like compressing it getting rid of all the stuff that I thought made it what it was um and just you know the day in a day out of like the worst part of a business is fundraising like you want to build and you want to create and have your times on zooms telling people how great you and your business are and please and please give me money um and that was my first time really doing that besides some producing right but in that world you already have people that are doing you know now you're trying to get people that may not necessarily invest in that in that avenue to get them to to believe in it so that was that was a tough one and also very time-consuming and again back to the rejections you got them all the time but we've been

fortunate to get a ton of good investors if you could give one piece of advice to an entrepreneur you know that that's whether they're in a the digital space as you are or you know a service industry or a bricks and mortar, you know, business, what advice would you give them? Big thing for me was doing research on not only what you're building, but also your competitors out there and finding, like, your differentiator, like what makes you unique. Because there's people that do something similar. A lot of it more is in the entertainment world, but they do some sports, but they do like the top two or three percent of

athletes, then it'll do all 100 of athletes that we have every person on the roster. And seeing that they're okay, there was a white space, doing my research to figure out like, our athletes are going to be open to this? And, and kind of overwhelmingly, they were, yes, we need this.

Like, we're doing outbound, we need imbound, we need help with this. So doing the research really helpful for not only me to say, like, hey, this is a good idea to do, but also to prove the thought out and with investors as well. So the research for me was a big one. And then back to, I mean, the biggest thing for me, too, is like never, ever give up. There's so many moments I wanted to throw in the towel, right?

Because I'm stepping into a new realm here that I wasn't familiar with. And it was educating myself and taking the time to learn the business and doing the research to figure out like, okay, you know, I never thought I'd be big on SEO. And now I'm like an SEO expert. I feel like I'm not, but I feel like I am. And to understand it, like, listen to the customers and figure out that that's what they wanted and just deciding to make, take the cut and take those other things out. Like, there was so many days I wanted to give up. And I just, you know, kept telling myself, like, there's a need for this and I want for this.

Like, just keep at it. That's why I have so many gray hairs now. I don't want to talk about gray hairs. I don't know, your little patches. Yeah, I call my beard calico, you know, like a calico cat, you know, multi, multi-color. You wear a well. Thank you. Do you consider yourself a success?

I consider myself as success in the fact that I'm happy doing what I'm doing. Yeah. Like, I really love it. I love sports. Like, you know, I get to meet incredible athletes. It's always funny. Every actor wants to be an athlete and every athlete wants to be an actor. And so, like, I've met every actor in the world. I don't really care. But I get to meet incredible athletes. I get to deal with helping them. We put two guys dropped out of the

Major League Baseball, got cut. Two different minor league teams couldn't figure out who represented him. Reached out. We connected them. And now they're in their minors working their way back up. So that to me is a success in the fact that I'm helping people, you know, possibly get back to the big show again, putting more money in their pockets. It's, again, guys that aren't top 1%. And I love getting up every day and doing this and talking about it and building something and seeing it come to fruition. So in that sense, I'm a success. Like, you know, I don't know what success for me looks like.

And, you know, is it selling this thing and continuing on? Whatever that may be. I don't know on that front. But I feel successful when I wake up and get to love what I do. Ryan Robin, thank you for joining us. audience, please visit www. www.athletagent.com. That's athleteagent.com.

Find more information. Where else can people find you, Ryan? Yeah, I'm on kind of all the socials at Ryan Rotman. So yeah, come say hi. Come say hi. All right. Thank you, Ryan. Appreciate your time.

Hang tight for a minute. Everybody, have the best of your life. Be grateful. Make good choices to go help somebody. And God bless you. Until next time. This is Dan Roshin. host of No Broke Months.

Do you want consistent and predictable income with no broke months? My new book, Teach to Sell, why top performers never sell, and what they do instead is being published early 2026 by Simon & Schuster. You can pre-order now at www.com and unlock over $10,000 of free bonus training. Don't wait, go to www.com and grab your copy today. That's teach to sell book.com.