Nicole Lynn On Breaking Down Industry Barriers & Accomplishing Your Goals EP 1142

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This is episode number 1142 with NFL Sports agent Nicole Lynn.

Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur and each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness.

Thanks for spending some time with me today.

Now let the class begin.

Ulpert said, the more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate. And Alice Walker said the most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any. My guest today is Nicole lynn who in 2019 became the first black woman to represent a top three NFL draft pick and only the second woman in history to SOL represent an NFL first rounder. The following year Nicole made history representing back to back top 10 NFL draft picks and outside of the sports world, she represents multiple clients in the entertainment industry as well. Most recently, Lynn joined Clutch Sports Group as senior agent and President of football operations and she's written a new book called Agent. You show up, do the work, and succeed on your own terms. And Nicole's story is incredibly fascinating and inspiring and I'm so excited for you to hear this one. And in this episode we discuss the goal setting strategy that you can use to achie achieve success, how to find and pursue your own purpose, how to build self confidence when you don't have any, the greatest lesson Nicole has learned in her career and so much more. And we also go through a session where I challenge Nicole to see how she can upgrade the different parts of her life and becoming even greater at what she does in every area of her life and I think you'll find that part fascinating as well. If you're inspired by this, make sure to share this with someone that you think would be inspired to hear this as well. And a quick reminder, if this is your first time here, make sure to follow the School of Greatness. You can subscribe over on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or anywhere that you are listening to podcasts. And I'm going to be shouting out some more of you who are leaving reviews over on Apple Podcasts as well. So please leave a review over there of the part during this interview that is most inspiring from you. And this was a recent review from Danny who said, the podcast has helped me so much throughout the years. I love hearing Lewis's take on the world and the light he brings every week. So many good lessons and insights each time. Keep it up. This one is from Giselle May who said, I can't speak highly enough about this podcast and I've been listening to Lewis for over two years. It's become part of my morning routine to walk the dog and listen, and I've changed so many things in my life that weren't fueling me because of this show. Lewis has helped me take a leap of faith in my career and aspirations and I'm always looking to learn and grow personally, and this show has given me the courage to go get what I want in life. And the last one of the week is from Lou who says, I subscribed to the School of Greatness years ago and had never listened to it until recently while cleaning out my podcast subscriptions. Needless to say, I went down a rabbit hole listening to countless episodes and this is a great reminder that behind everyone f famous or expert or Ph.D. there is a story, a special gifting a soul like you and I. And it ties in with Lewis's kind message at the end of each episode to everyone listening you are loved. I hope you enjoy this. And again, make sure to leave a review at any point during this episode over on Apple podcast and I'll be doing some more shout outs in the coming episodes and again in just a moment, the one and only Nicole Lynn.

Welcome back everyone at school.

Great.

Is very excited about our guest. We've got Nicole Lynn house. Good to see you, Nicole.

How you doing? Good to see you.

Very excited about this. You've, you've broken so many barriers and molds to being one of the, you know, first female agents to really have top draft picks in the NFL. You've got 19 NFL clients, I think you said you've got multiple influencers, rappers, comedians, pro softball players. You're just taking over in the athlete world. And I'm excited that you're here. Also have your law degree. You were in the financial services for many years and you came from poverty, which I think is fascinating. I'm curious, coming, growing up without having an abundance of money and coming from this place of scarcity and poverty, how did you train your mindset to think more of abundance mindset financially around money? How did you change the conversation or the ideas in your mind? How did you learn about money differently?

You know, it's funny because I don't know that it ever really changed. You know, I always say I still kind of have a poor kid mentality.

Really.

No matter how successful I've been or how much money I've made, I still have this weird fear of going back. So my mindset, it hasn't, it's something I struggle with. It's something I'm really working on. You know, I, I talk a lot in interviews about, you know, balancing these two jobs I had. I worked as a sports agent and a lawyer. Two separate jobs, not at one company. One was at the number three law firm in the world and one was at a top sports agency. And I did that because of money. And my husband would be like, we're good, you can leave that job. But it was this weird fear. So I would say, I mean, you.

Work double jobs because of money, because you wanted to make sure you had money.

Yeah, because being a sports agent cost a lot of money.

People don't know that you're traveling, you've got expenses, you have to wait to contracts to come in. Do you get your commission?

And then you've got to train the players. And each player could cost you 25 grand to 100 grand. And it comes out of your own pocket. Getting ready for the draft, getting ready for the draft. Exactly. And so in order to front that money, I had to have another job. And so even when I got to the position where I had, you know, multiple first round picks and I was doing fine, I still wouldn't leave the job. I wouldn't leave the law job because my mindset about money never changed. You know, it was always in my mind. Like, it was something that I was scarce and also something I feel like I had to hoard. So it even took me a very long time to get to the point of, okay, now I need to invest my money. Even though I have a background in finance. I know you shouldn't hoard your money, but when you grow up poor.

I know. I felt this for like a decade.

It's just, it's different. And people say, you know better. Right? I've got my series 7, my series 63. I could trade on the stock market. I know better.

But you just kept it insane.

It was like, it's like hiding it.

Under your mattress, not doing anything for you.

Nothing. Nothing.

This is dying for you.

Yeah. Isn't it sad?

So when did you start to shift and say, okay, I can't hoard this. I need to shift the mindset and actually, like, invest in myself or invest in. Not that you weren't investing yourself, but investing their money and being willing to spend some of it to really create more of it.

I think it was me just saying, hey, I've got to take a leap of faith.

When was this?

This was like six months ago. Wow.

Okay.

Yeah. I mean, I invested in my 401k and like, kind of. But to really say, hey, here's a big bulk of like, this. Here's the money that's in my savings account and I'm going to get a financial advisor. You know, I felt like I could handle it all. And so I finally said, I'm gonna get a financial advisor. And they were like, this money's been in your account this whole time.

Wow.

And it's embarrassing because I represent athletes and I teach them financial literacy. If I had an athlete that had that amount of money in their account, I would lose it. I would lose it.

But you weren't doing it for yourself.

Exactly.

Isn't that interesting?

It's crazy. And I know the financial advisor kept saying, I feel like I'm repping one of your athletes right now. He's like, you know better. I'm like, I know, but that when you grow up poor, your mentality, you have this fight or flight all the time. You know, this Fear. And so I always wanted to make sure I had resources available at all times. At all times.

I felt this way for so long after I was talking about this off camera. After playing arena football, I had this surgery and I was on my sister's couch for about six months. And for about a year and a half, I just wasn't making any money. So I was on my sister's couch for about six months, recovering. Then I live in my brother's place playing 250amonth, just trying to like, where am I going next? Hustling for a year and a half making nothing. Finally, at the end of the year and a half, making like maybe a couple thousand dollars a month. But it wasn't enough to like, really survive and live off of and thrive. And I started to make more over the next few years to where I was like, okay, I have money in the bank. I'm good for a couple years, but I would still, like, take, you know, Greyhound buses and like, southwest, middle seat, back of the plane, like, multiple connections. I would never get a hotel room.

Never.

Until maybe like four or five years ago.

That's too far. I don't do that.

I get a hotel room.

Well, as a guy, I was like, whose couch can I sleep on? I was just like, who do I know in what city who can pick me? Like, everything.

Yeah.

Who can I get some free food from? But it was like, I had the money.

Yeah, it's that your mindset never changed.

It's weird.

And I feel like I'm the same way. It's like I'm just now getting to the point where I'm like, okay, I have got to practice what I preach. Right, Right. I know. I know how this works. So I've got to actually put into action.

So what do you think is the biggest thing holding you back from going all in on that kind of abundance mindset?

Gosh. I mean, I think it's fear. I think it's fear. I think it's fear of going back, which is not going to happen. It's not going to happen. But for some reason, there's just this, like, what if I don't have a plan B? I don't have anything to lean on. I didn't grow up with a trust fund or parents with money. So it's. It's me or it's nothing, you know?

Wow. What would you think was the biggest myth about money that you were taught growing up or you saw in the world?

Oh, gosh, it was so weird to me because I used to think I had this code with my mom when I'd go to a friend's house and I'd say they have six chairs at their dining room table. That was our code, like to say they were rich.

Really?

Yeah, it was like, I'm staying the night of a friend's house and maybe she'd never been there. And I'm like, oh my gosh, they have six chairs. Not four, not two. They have six, you know. Or I'd see a friend that had a two story house and it's like, oh my gosh, they're millionaires. And so it was just these small things which were very common in society that for me felt like, wow, that's when you know you made it. You know, that's when you know you, you have money. But really, you meet millionaires, you meet people that are wealthy and they don't show their wealth. You have no idea.

Some of them might, but some of them don't. Yeah, it depends what type of person they are, how they got the money.

Is it new money or old money?

You got the money quick. Yeah, maybe, who knows? That's interesting. So your book's called agent. You show up, do the work, and succeed on your own terms. So how do you need to show up and do the work in your own life right now to get to the next level for yourself?

Oh, my God, this is like a therapy session. So many ways I need to show up. I mean, I think continuing to make good decisions financially. Right. So knock down the fear. Are you writing that down while you're.

Holding me accountable, taking notes?

Yeah, I'm not mad at that. Okay. Taking some risk. I'd say taking more risks, specifically financially.

But what's the risk you haven't yet fully taken yet?

I mean, I did, I just took the biggest risk six weeks ago leaving my law firm. So that was huge.

Just left.

So you finally went all the way on the main thing you want to.

Go on six weeks ago. So I took, I just took a huge risk. It was like, I'm going all in on sports and I'm going to do.

Just one job because that was bringing in, I'm assuming a nice six or plus figure salary. And it was like the security blanket, right?

Yes. Every two weeks. This is what you're getting in sports. It sees, they get a big chunk and then God forbid you lose a player and it's gone.

So how do you think that was holding you back from not going all in sooner?

Well, I think I wasn't able to give my entire time and my entire, you know, just, I don't know, mentality to this one job. I was split. Like, even my anxiety and stress was split.

Interesting.

And so being able to finally go all in on one, I feel like, I mean, that's what was holding me back from, I think, greatness. People see me now and say, oh, you're so successful. I'm like, well, imagine if I didn't have another job.

Like what I did with two jobs.

Yeah, exactly. So I feel like it really held me back from where I meant to go.

How many years have you been doing both jobs?

Seven.

Seven years. Both. Where do you think you'll be in the next two years? By being all in energy resources, strategy.

With this one thing, I'm probably getting two years. What took me seven is my guess.

Seven with both.

Seven with both.

You think in two years you've already totally.

I mean, I was working 70, 80 hours a week at a law firm. This is one wasn't a small law firm. It's a huge international law firm. We had billables, we had to meet. I was doing securities fraud litigation. Nothing to do with sports really. And so I'm over here preparing motions and going to trial. And then, oh, yeah, I'm a sports agent. So that time, if I can focus it all in, yeah, I think I can do what I did in 7 and 2.

How did you learn about goal setting growing up? Because it seems like you don't just accomplish what you accomplished by, I don't know, just accidentally. You had to have some type of framework or model or goal setting strategy. How did you think and then act to accomplish all these different things at this stage of your life?

I don't, you know, I just. I always had a different level of grit. People talk about grit. I didn't have foundation. Nobody taught me anything. I didn't have role models. It almost felt like it was in my DNA, really, because my brother who grew up with me went down a very different path. Right. We both. We grew up very poor in a dangerous situation, and he went down what the statistics would say. And so I don't know what made me go this way. And I, you know, I'm always asked that, and I kind of tried to dig deep. And I feel like it's just grit, which is something people have and some people don't.

Do you have, like, a framework for when you set and accomplish goals? Are you like, I'm gonna be a lawyer at this date and I'm gonna be a sport. I'M gonna get my first big athlete by this time. And then how do you either reverse engineer or strategize those goals to accomplish them?

Yeah, so I definitely, I think, do big picture first. Like, what's the big goal? I think a lot of people work on smaller goals first. You know, first I'm going to do this small goal and go up the steps. I'm like, I want to know what's at the very top of the steps and then go backwards. So if it's. I'm going to get a first rounder. Well, what is that going to take? Is that going to take five seventh rounders? Is that going to take getting a job at a top sports agency? Is that going to take making sure I'm certified in these certain states? I go big and then go backwards.

That's what you do with everything in terms of.

Yeah.

When did you know you wanted to be, you know, get the do law in the first place and then the financial services, like, how were those.

It was all to kind of reach the same purpose of working with athletes.

So you knew you wanted to work with athletes?

I always knew from the beginning. Yeah. Since I was probably a teenager.

Really?

Yeah.

You knew law was part of the path?

Not originally. I mean, I thought I wanted to be a lawyer and then I thought, okay, maybe I want to be a financial advisor for athletes. And that's why I went to Wall Street.

Wow.

And then when I got there, I interviewed some financial advisors and I realized it's really the agent that's kind of the day to day person. And so the minute I determined I was on the right path, the wrong path, I deviated and went to law school. Really, like three months later, I was taking the lsat. And you know, for me it was all about walking in my purpose. That was critical. Didn't matter what I had to do to get there. If I had to leave a six figure job after growing up poor, I was going to do it. Really? Yeah.

How do you teach people about discovering their purpose? They have no clue. They feel like they're stuck or in a rut, man.

Well, first it's making sure you realize how important it is to me.

Your purpose?

Yeah. And finding it. Finding your purpose needs to be the most important mission of your life. I always say if you're not walking in your purpose, you're just working and living to die. And I hope it shakes people to the core when they hear that if you're not walking in your purpose, you're just working and living to die. And so you've got to figure out what that purpose and calling is. And purpose should not be hard. Right. There's all these conversations about finding your purpose and podcasts and blogs, and it's this hard, really tough thing to figure out. It shouldn't be. Your purpose is your superpower. I talk about my book. I equate it to your superpower. What is the thing that you're naturally great at? The Hulk is strong. Right. Superman can fly. When people think about you, what do they say? What is your superpower? And so in my book, I kind of go down several factors of how to get to your purpose, but it shouldn't be. It's not hidden. Everybody has one. You just got to figure it out.

If someone is thinking, well, I don't know what that is still, like, I haven't been able to figure it out. I have. Or maybe I've got so many passions, I'm not sure which one to choose. I want to do it all, or I'm not sure what I'm good at. Do you suggest they ask their friends or family? Do you suggest they get feedback from someone and say, well, what do you see in front in me?

Yeah, absolutely. I always say, ask your friends and family. Ask the people closest to you. What am I great at? And what's the first thing you think of when you think of me? Right. And if you have. You want me to do a favor for you. Right. When you have a favor you need, you have different friends, you call for different things. What's the perfect favor for me? Am I the person that you're calling in a moment when you need help budgeting? Or am I someone that comes through in the clutch because I'm just. I'm always there? You know, purpose doesn't have to be your day job. You know, your purpose could be providing support to a spouse. You know, it could be a hobby. It could be a number of things.

Yeah. What about biggest, biggest myths on finding your dream job? And does that line up with figuring out what your purpose is? Or is that different in your mind?

Biggest myths. I think people see the dream job. People get the dream job, and they think of an overnight success, you know, especially, like, even with me, they're like, oh, you know, one day she was no. 1, and now she's got these top players, and she works for this top sports agency. Yeah, they don't. They don't see what happened in private to get there. You know, they see this overnight success, and you have to take sometimes a lot of jobs you hate to get to your dream job to figure out.

What you don't want. Yeah, figure out what you do want.

Exactly. Exactly. So there's a lot of grueling work and kind of saying, hey, I hate this, I hate this. You know, crossing off the list until you sometimes get to that dream job. I knew what I always wanted to do, but I think I'm the exception.

Yeah.

That's not the rule. Most people do not know.

I know. So you have to try stuff that you don't like for a while.

Exactly.

And then just don't stay there.

Exactly.

Keep course correcting. What about the biggest adversity you've ever faced? What was that in your life and how did you mentally and emotionally overcome it?

Oh, my gosh. I mean, my childhood just generally is a Lifetime movie, so I have a list of adversities. You know, I think even at 7, 8 years old, my biggest challenge was figuring out what I was gonna eat for dinner.

Really.

You know, and trying to be creative and taking home food from the school. Right. You know, okay, which milk won't spoil, that I can keep for a day or two, and navigating that for myself and my younger brother. You know, I think, yeah, the biggest adversities for me were staying alive as a kid and figuring that out. And, you know, it's just, it's so weird because I just. I felt like I was a parent so early. I grew up so quickly and so the adversities were there. But, you know, I treated it as if this is just a day job. It's like, okay, we've got to figure out what we're gonna eat.

Let's keep it pushing as an eight year old.

Yeah, yeah. It's crazy. It's crazy saying it now out loud.

Wow.

My husband's always like, you know, those stories you tell, they're not normal. You need to go to therapy.

What were your. Where were your parents at during this time? Or what was that experience like?

Not there. You know, some dealing with mental health and others, you know, they're just not around. Not really. We raised. Really raised ourselves.

Really. Were they in the home or is it. Were you staying with other people?

Yeah, we know we were. You know, we lived with my dad, but he was never around. And so we kind of were just there all day raising ourselves. And, you know, we didn't come home to people checking our homework and, you know, which is odd because we did well in school. So it's like, where did that.

How did you.

How did you say, where did the motivation come from? I don't know. I think just. Yeah. Something I feel like I always say it's my DNA.

Did you have teachers that were supportive or coaches or mentors at school that were kind of like looking after you?

I had a librarian. One librarian. I remember that with like, sneak stuff to me to take home because she was aware. So she'd say, like, oh, this is my granddaughter's sweatshirt. You know, why don't you have it?

That's nice.

And so. But besides her. No. I actually feel like the school system dropped the ball. Yeah.

Who was the most influential person in your life growing up?

You know, I didn't have anybody. I hate that question because I get asked dad or like, who's your role model? And I wish I. I almost thought about lying and picking someone, but there was just no one. Like, growing up, I didn't see people that were lawyers and doctors. I mean, based on where I grew up and, you know, it just. That wasn't there. We weren't exposed to that.

So there was no teacher, There was no family friend. There was no. No one that was really an inspiration for you.

Maybe when I got to high school, early on, you know, elementary and junior high. No.

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When I got to high school, I mean, I think the teachers there. I went to a magnet school and it was inspiring to see kind of how many students were able to make it out that had similar circumstances. Yeah.

What was the biggest lesson you learned growing up, then before you got into college and after, after high school, the biggest lesson? You were a teen in early years.

I mean. Oh gosh. All the lessons I learned were boring stuff like, you know, how to raise your credit, how to finance a car. I mean, those are the things I was doing. Pretty young to survive. Yeah. How to make a forged driver's license. How to make a fake tag for your car so you can drive it because you can't afford tag.

Forged driver's license.

It's a whole nother story.

So why did you have to forge this?

Because I was 14 and I had to get to my magnet school, which is across the.

So you were driving at 14?

I was. No way. Yeah, because I got into the magnet school, the number one school in the state, which is on the other side of town. And so I took city buses to get there. And finally I ended up getting a job at Chick Fil A, which is the only place that hires 14 year olds. Saved every check. Bought a dodge neon for $2,500 of 14. 14.

That's crazy. And then you made that much money at 14 and saved your money and bought a car?

Bought a car so I can go to the best school in the state.

That is nuts. No one was willing to drive you? There was no.

Like, we didn't have any. I didn't have anybody.

Holy cow.

I didn't have anybody, so. And then learned how to, you know, get your car insurance and.

Oh, my gosh. Wait, how did you not get. Can you buy a car at 14? Like, how does that even work?

Yeah, you just gotta have connections.

Hustling.

Hustling.

So how did you even learn to drive?

Yeah, I mean, that's gotta be.

I was scared at 17 when I got my license, like, on the highway.

I would start on the. I mean, I remember starting on the streets, just, like, going places to get, you know. My brother, he went to school around the corner, so learning to take him.

Did you take classes in driving or was it just. You just jumped in?

I was 14. You can't take classes at 14. But I didn't have a choice.

Like, no one taught you, like, okay, this is how you do it?

No.

Oh, my gosh.

That's crazy. No, no, but they didn't. I mean, that. That's not. That is the least shocking of the things I was not taught.

Wow.

Yeah.

Oh, my gosh. That's crazy. Yeah. I didn't know that about you. What is. What's the thing you're most proud of that most people don't know about you, that you've overcome or done?

What am I most proud of? That's a really tough question. You know, I'm proud of where I've gotten to in the sports industry. I'm proud of that. I worked on a. As an attorney, I worked on a bunch of pro bono cases. And so one of the cases we worked on someone that was on death row, and he actually ended up getting out.

That's cool.

So really proud to have worked on that team. I was a very small piece of the team, but giving back.

That's great. That's great.

Yeah.

And where's your brother now?

So my brother is of two brothers. One I talk about in the book, who actually was killed. Gang violence. And so that happened when I was in law school. And then my other brother, who was going down the same kind of track, I moved him to. Moved him in with me when I was in law school to kind of change his life after I lost One brother. Wow. And so now he's in, like, an aviation mechanic school. I've been putting him through, trying to really turn his life around. So he's on his way, but it took a while for him to get there. You know, we grew up in the same circumstances, and like I said, he went down the way that statistically you would think he would. And I went this way without any parental guidance. We just both went our separate ways. And so I easily could have been him. So I gave him a lot of grace. Yeah. Easily could have been him.

Yeah. One or two wrong decisions. Yeah.

Yeah.

What's your thoughts on risk taking? Because it sounds like you've taken a lot of risks from an early age and done things that maybe weren't the norm from where you're from. And it sounds like now you're taking even more risks, leaving this other career, going on in this mission and purpose of yours. What's your viewpoint on assessing risk? Taking risk? How much risk should we take as humans?

Yeah, I think risks are really important. You know, I actually talk about this in my book, the Hail Mary. You know what a Hail Mary is? You know, obviously it's a forward pass that is gut wrenching. I think everybody has professional and personal Hail Marys in their life that they have to take, like, really big moments that they have to just jump out on a limb. Like, for me, it was leaving Wall Street. Right. That was my Hail Mary. I think it's important that we do that, but that it's timed correctly. So when I took that Hail Mary or when I left my law job, which is another big Hail Mary, I was saving and paying down debt and making sure that the risk was calculated.

It wasn't just like, I'm broke and I'm going to go do this.

Exactly, exactly. It was very much. I planned in advance for it.

What do you feel like is your superpower?

Oh, man. I think I have more than one superpower, actually.

What are your multiple superpowers?

I'm invisible. I'm just kidding.

You're invisible?

I can see through people now.

Yeah.

You know, I think my superpower is that I'm able to. I have a weird ability to get people to kind of go to their full potential.

Really?

Right. Like, I can talk to you and figure out, okay, what is your purpose and somehow motivate you to move towards that, to take that first step.

How do you motivate people to do that?

Finding a way to make sure that they believe in themselves. Like, how can I believe in them? So that they believe in themselves. And I think, again, we talked about purpose. Everybody has a purpose. Everybody has a calling. And I don't think a lot of people realize that. They think I'm just here for no reason. So once I can convince you, yes, you have a purpose and you should be working towards it and it is achievable, I can get you to move.

Wow.

Yeah.

Have you always believed in yourself or did you doubt yourself a lot?

No, I've always believed in myself.

Really?

Yeah. I just, even in the circumstances I grew up in, I knew I would. I just always would say, no, I'm gonna be rich one day or I'm gonna be successful one day. I didn't know exactly what that looked like, but it was almost like I was a fed up kid. I'm like, I'm not doing this.

You're not living this life.

Not living this ghetto life.

Really?

Yeah. So I've always, I've always kind of known, and I think my confidence has helped me a lot.

How does someone build self belief when they've doubted themselves their whole life?

Yeah, I mean, it sounds like the imposter syndrome, right? Like, especially women deal with the imposter syndrome all the time. Although I'm confident in myself, it doesn't mean in isolated moments, I don't feel like an imposter. So for me, building belief is sometimes faking it till you make it. Right. It's like I may not be comfortable in the room, but I'm be the most prepared person in the room and I'm gonna fake it until I get to that point. So, I mean, I remember in football before I learned the game, like texting my husband, I mean, years ago at the time, he's like my boyfriend, like, tell me what to say. You know, literally putting, you know, faking it. And I was confident. And then at night I'm watching film like crazy and I'm learning the cba. And so, yeah, part of combating the imposter syndrome is just being over prepared.

Right. You know, the more prepared you are, the more competent you become.

Exactly. That takes time.

So you weren't big into football growing up?

No, not at all.

So why did you say, like, football is going to be my mechanism for delivering my purpose? Why that sport?

Mainly because the athletes in football, 75% or so, are black, many of which had a very similar upbringing as me. And I wanted to reach people with my upbringing, people that have an opportunity to make a lot of money. That I saw also sometimes go back. Like, how could I fix that and I felt like I could reach more people with that kind of upbringing and story if I was in football. So it was very strategic. I didn't grow up watching football. I'm not some huge football fan. I don't watch football in my free time. It was always about the athlete. And, you know, I represent some rappers. I mean, it's the same. It's the same human over and over and over.

That came from a certain.

Yeah.

Place that you can relate to, that I can mentor.

And you want to make.

You want to make sure they don't mismanage their money or. What's the stat with NFL players?

Like three out of four within two years.

Two years or something?

Yeah. Within two years, they'll have some type of financial hardship.

Isn't that crazy?

Yeah, it's ridiculous. And so in my mind, when I used to hear that, I'm like, how's that possible? It didn't make sense. And I used to think, oh, it's the agent's fault. It's definitely the agent fault. When I get in there, that's never going to happen. But that's not true. There's only so much you can do. You know, this is that human's money.

Yeah. They're going to spend it the way they want to do it. Whether you give them advice or not. They say, okay.

And then there's a lot of people you can influence, and it's not just athletes, but entertainers or whatnot. There's a lot that listen and you'll have the one or two that there's nothing you can do.

Why do you think it's so hard for people that maybe grew up in a certain mentality, it's hard for them to listen to that kind of sound advice or not take those impulsive decisions around money and finances and kind of spending it extravagantly. Why do you think that's the case?

I don't think there's a lot of sound advice to listen to. I mean, I think a lot of times that the people in their corner or their team are yes people, yes men, yes woman. And so I don't think there's the sound advice that you think there is. You know, it's. When financial literacy has never been taught to you, you're just doing what you think makes sense. You've never had money, so you're spending it in case it's gone. One day it's like this frantic, like, well, I'm gonna spend it.

What wisdom do you give to your athletes when they're getting you know, they're gonna get a lump sum, a big sum of money.

Like what do I tell them?

What do you tell em?

What advice would you tell them?

Well, first of all, to have a financial advisor. Yeah, right. Which I had to tell myself that fiduciary.

A financial advisor.

Yeah, yeah. Have someone that is certified and can help you in managing. You know, I think it's fine to treat yourself once. Right. I don't want to come in and say you shouldn't be able to spend your money. You've worked extremely hard. People have things that they like, maybe it's cars or shoes or whatever. It's when you overindulge is the problem. You can have a nice car, you can have nice clothes, but you don't need 10 nice cars. So that's where it becomes an issue. And so kind of finding that balance.

Okay, when you have an athlete, you don't have to name names or anything, but when you have an athlete who maybe is not taking your advice and you see them, you see them, ah, they shouldn't have done this, or I wouldn't advise them to do this, but they kept doing it over and over. Do you decide to. I'm going to stick with this person even if they're going to blow everything financially, or do you say, listen, we've got to start making some adjustments for us to keep working together because I want you to be successful long term. And if you go bankrupt in two years, it's going to make me look bad too, potentially. Do you, do you have those scenarios?

I never want to leave an athlete hanging for sure. And so that's something. I mean, I wouldn't walk from a player. But, you know, you have to have really tough conversations. And as an agent, it can get scary. Like a lot of agents are afraid because they don't want to get fired. You know, there's a fine line between, hey, I'm your agent, and then, hey, I'm bossing you around, trying to run your life. And some players are not, you know, open to that, as they should not be. So for me, it's, you know, I like to have those hard conversations early and if it continues on a trail that I'm like, oh, gosh, this is an avalanche that we can't stop intervention, I mean, I'll do anything I can. I'll do anything I can, you know, but sometimes there's, there's only so much you can do.

Right. And what's your greatest personal fear?

My greatest personal fear? Actual fear. A lot of my you know, I have bad anxiety, so a lot of my fears are irrational, you know, like, what.

What would they be?

I mean, basic fears. Like, I fly 100 flights a year, and every day I hold my. Every time I'm on a plane, I hold my breath because I'm like, oh, gosh, we're going down. You know, it's the safest form of transportation, but I panic every time. Or if my husband doesn't answer the phone, he's clearly in a ditch somewhere for sure. So it's really those kind of things that keep me up at night, the things that aren't likely to happen, but I still think about them not negotiating.

A multimillion dollar contract, funny enough.

Not that I can do that. More like the flying.

What are you doing to support overcoming those anxieties or fears?

Yeah, I mean, it's. It's tough. It's tough. I. I can't say that I've. I'm doing anything actively every single day. I wish I could say I was kind of living through them. I think having a little bit of fear is okay. It's okay to be afraid. It's when the fear stops you from doing something. So for me, it's like, still get on the plane?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, still there.

I'm holding my breath. I can't breathe. I'm panicking. Literally have an anxiety attack, but I'm there on the plane.

Yeah. It's not that you're living in fear and then staying at home.

Exactly.

Taking the action you want to do.

Yeah.

The fear is not crippling me.

That's good. And what's the big dream? What's the big mission for you?

I mean, for me, the big mission is inspiring future generations, especially women. You know, I really want women and young people to walk in their purpose and to figure out what their life calling is, and to do that every single day. I don't want them to get caught up in. I found a job that pays good money and I can have this type of lifestyle when it's really not what you're supposed to be doing. So the dream is to inspire and then to work with athletes and be able to mentor them where they can be successful on and off the field. 20 years plus.

Yeah. When should someone know it's time to walk away from a situation? Like, if you're trying these different jobs, you're like, okay, maybe it's a year or three years, but when do you know it's time to walk away?

Oh, it's tough. You know, I felt Like, I knew I needed to leave my law firm three years ago.

Really?

Yeah. But it's again, like, we talked about fear and my circumstances growing up and having this poor kid mentality. I stuck around longer than I needed to. I think we usually know it's about when do we actually act on it. It's not a question of do you know? You know, you just don't make the move.

Where do you think you'd be if you would have left three years ago?

Man, I think everything happens for a reason. So I don't know that I think I'm in the exact right spot I'm supposed to be. I don't think I'd be any more successful had I left three years ago. I got a lot of experience as an attorney. That is great. And I wouldn't trade for the world. So, yeah, I don't know where I'd be if I had left three years ago. I think I would be healthier as a human. I don't know if my sick. Yeah.

Just working so much.

Yeah. So much stress. Just not protecting my mental health. Physical health. Yeah. So I'd be healthier. I'd be maybe a little happier because I wouldn't be so anxious all the time. I mean, the two jobs really took a toll on me, and so I'm.

Still trying to, like, recovering from that little PTSD almost from just, like, the stress of the.

Yeah. And always being on. Right. Like, when you have two jobs, you're always on. Like, I'd be. When I leave here, I would normally. Okay. I've got a. In the Uber. I've got to work on emotion or I've got to. And so kind of retraining my mind that it's okay to have personal time. It's okay to not always be working. Yeah. So I'm not there yet.

You're honest. You're honest about it. That's good.

Yeah. Yeah.

How would you coach yourself around Agent U with where you're at right now?

So in Agent U, one of the chapters is about self care, and it.

Sounds like you didn't do much of that in the last seven years.

I'm the worst at self care. You know, for me, self care was always looked at as a reward. Right. I felt like it was a reward, and so I had to train myself, and I'm still training myself to look at it as a priority, not a reward. Like when you work out. Right. You work out really hard and you take a shower. Shower feels amazing. But the shower is not a reward. It's necessary. It's a necessary task after a hard task. Same thing as self care. And so trying to change my mindset to say this is a necessary task, not a reward, even if it feels great.

What would 30 days of uncomfortable self care look like for you? Where you did things that you know would give you more energy, more fulfillment, more joy, more love, more peace, less stress. If you did all these things, what would that look like?

What would they be?

What would that look like on a daily, weekly basis? If it was like, I can't believe I'm actually doing this much self care, but in the back of my head I know it's going to benefit me so much.

I mean, all I envision for myself is panicking the whole time that I'm wasting time, to be honest.

Yeah, you just said it's necessary to take the shower.

But I'm still working on it. I'm still working on it. Yeah. In the book I talk about this concept of existing and learning to be comfortable with just being alive. Like self care is saying, I'm okay. It doesn't have to be a massage or getting my nails done. It can be I'm okay with doing.

Nothing, existing, not having to be busy.

Yeah, I think Brene Brown calls it like white space or something. And so I try to teach myself, okay, it's okay. Take three minutes and just exist. Just be right here. You're not meditating, you're not spending time with God. You're literally just existing. That's really hard to do.

Just sitting, doing nothing, just being present.

And saying, I'm okay with this moment. For me, that's the hardest thing I do in the day. It's like, okay, don't check your phone, don't think about anything. It's like you're losing your mind right now. So for me, I feel like 30 days of just self care would be panicky for me. But I also think it would be necessary and amazing. Life changing probably.

Life changing.

I think so. I mean, I think the self.

What would that be on a daily basis if you were to give yourself a plan, if you were coaching someone.

Else at this moment, I would work out every day because I don't have time to work out much because I.

Travel seven days a week.

I would work out for 30 days every day. It doesn't have to be hardcore. It could be yoga. It could be. I would work out every day.

Okay.

I would read some type of like either self help book, even if it's like 10, 15 minutes, the Bible or For leisure. Switch it up.

What else would change your life?

What would change? Oh, my gosh. What would change my life? Eating healthy. Like, literally making sure that everything I put in my body is for fuel. Like eating to live, not living to eat, which is my problem.

Interesting, Interesting. Okay. What else.

Man? Doing something that you enjoy.

What are the things you enjoy?

Man, that's hard.

He just lives. I live to work, to save money, to make money, to help.

I know, it's terrible.

What are the things? When you think about the things that bring in the most joy, that's not work related.

What are the things? Giving.

What about for you?

For me? Okay.

For me, an activity, a hobby, a sport.

I know watching something like this. I love watching Grey's Anatomy. Okay, this is us. Those are two shows that are amazing. Best shows on the planet, clearly. So I'd watch those.

Okay, man.

What else would I do? This is ridiculous. I'd get my car cleaned out once a week at least.

Okay, but you'll feel like clean space. You'll feel like energy.

Yeah, clean space is critical.

What else?

I'd organize a part of my room, like my closet. Like, reorganize things so that everything's visible and really easy to access.

What else?

What else would I do? I'd get a massage at least once a week.

Yeah.

I might take a dance class. I like hip hop dance. Ooh.

Okay.

I'd do that. I'd probably sit outside and drink coffee in the morning while I read. If it's not too hot in Houston.

Houston is hot.

Yeah. That's probably what I would do.

This sounds like an amazing list.

Yeah.

What would it look like for you to integrate this for 30 days, man? And where. What type of agents, partner, friend, leader would you become after giving to yourself fully the things that will make you feel more loved and energized after 30 days?

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Wow.

What type of results would you create in the world? The impact with your purpose and probably.

Be off the charts. If I, you know, if I'm really showing up as my best self, if I'm not taking care of myself, I know I'm not showing up as my best self. I'm showing up as 80%. I feel like that gets you to 100.

Interesting. What could you create from that space.

Man? I mean, I think even just being around me would be better. Not even as an agent, but as a friend, as a wife. You know, less triggered, you know, you're less anxious, you're, you know, just nicer. Generally, I feel like when you take care of yourself, you just have an aura about you. You can kind of tell the people that take care of themselves and do yoga and drink smoothies and the people that don't, which are me. But yeah, no, I mean, I think I could. I don't know what that looks like because I never even done two of those things consistently, but I'm sure it'd be amazing.

I would love to see you take on this Challenge for yourself for 30 days.

That whole list.

The whole list. And see at the end of it, what this experiment. Do anything for 30 days. Not saying it's gonna be easy.

It's true. People always say that you can do anything for 10 years. I'm like, what?

You did a lot of stuff for decades.

It's fair. 30 days.

30 days to take care of you. I wonder. I wonder the magic you'd create in the world by implementing this for 30 days. All these things. As you were listening to them, I was like. I could sense, like, it sounds like a relief and anxious. You're like, if I sat and read and had coffee, but what if someone's calling me in this?

I know.

What if I was getting massage? I'd be thinking about my clients on.

The to do list.

What about working out daily? I'd be on my phone checking. It's like, you'd have to create a structure in your day where the phone wasn't there and you focused on the workout. You had a trainer train you, so they kept you in check. You had someone help you with them. Like, you got to have support in this.

Accountability would be critical.

Absolutely. You got to have the accountability for me. I hire trainers. I have food delivered to me that's healthy. Like, I set myself up in order to that. And that's why I think investing in yourself in this way could be the. The greatest thing to do as you transition from one career.

Yeah.

Into all in on this. This would be incredible. I would love to see you do this.

Yeah. Okay.

I don't know if you're down for the challenge.

No, I'm not.

I'd love to challenge you.

I'm always down for a challenge.

I would love to challenge you for 30 days to do each one of these things. I'm gonna send you this list.

Okay, I'm down.

30 days.

I'm down.

You're the one who said that it'd be, like, exponential results.

Yeah, I feel like it would be, because I'm always. You know, I'm like. Even when you don't take care of yourself, you're sluggish and tired. And, you know, I pour into so many people. You gotta. You can't pour from an empty cup.

What is agent?

You.

What is the definition of agent?

U.

What does that mean?

It's being your own agent. It's advocating for yourself.

Interesting.

Knowing how to get a seat at the table. It's unapologetically living in your purpose. You know, I'm a sports agent. I represent players I negotiate their deals. I'm in rooms that they're not in. If a regular human had an agent, imagine how successful they could be in their normal life. Now imagine if that agent was you. You are your own agent, Your own agent downloading that inner agent in you. This book is not about how to be a sports agent. It's how to be your own agent, your own advocate, your own best self. How to do your 30 day self care plan.

Right.

Yeah. Because what would your agent say?

Do you feel like this is the biggest challenge for you in your life? 150 taking care of you 100% as opposed to taking care of everyone else.

Oh yeah, that is definitely number one.

And you've never really done any of.

This, like not consistently. There's no way.

Why is there no way? Why is there no way you haven't been able to do that?

Time was number one. Now I've got more time.

Was time. Was the excuse fair?

Yeah, because it's like, man, I travel so much and like trying to work out. I'm in hotels, I'm on planes, I have to eat fast food. Food. I, you know, when do I have time to watch tv? Like I don't have a lot of time to do that. I have so much to do.

What if you scheduled this first on your calendar every day for 30 days? As this is a non negotiable.

Yeah.

For however long this takes. Maybe it's two, two and a half hours a day. Maybe it's three hours.

That's scary.

Non negotiable.

Three hours a day on myself.

And you're focused on the other things. Laser focus from a full place. Not maybe like a 80% place.

I'm up for the challenge.

I think it'd be crazy to see what you create at the end of it.

Yeah, I'm up for the challenge.

I'm gonna send this to you afterwards.

Please do.

Because as I'm. As I'm.

Please do.

Interacting with you.

I need it.

I need it.

As I'm interacting with you. This is our first time meeting, seeing the book. It's about showing up, doing the work and succeeding on your own terms. It sounds like you've been in this process your entire life and you continue to take the steps in the process. And it also seems like there's other stuff that's available for you missing, but that's available for you to even go to another level for yourself, personally, for your clients, for your mission, for your purpose and everything.

I agree.

And I think personally this is my one Human being's opinion. When we discount our needs and our self care and our love for ourself. When we abandon those things, we abandon our creator. We abandon our greater purpose. We abandon the people around us because we're, we're. We're not fully giving what we need for ourselves. And we're coming from a place of 80 or 60 or 50 and that's an abandonment of our gifts. It's my one human being's opinion.

This is a sermon.

I may be wrong. I may be wrong, but I know.

That I need to hear that.

I know that in the last couple months I've been fully going in on a lot of these things you've been talking about.

Really?

I went back into. I'm a big salsa dancer. I went back and started taking private lessons again. I started boxing classes one on one. I got hired a trainer to come work with me again. I started getting better foods.

But what was the moment like? Why, Why'd you say, okay, now I'm gonna go get the trainer again?

I went through a relationship transition that freed up some time and had me think a little clearly about what I needed to start doing for myself more as opposed to abandoning certain things, aspects to like give to other people.

So it's like a big life event.

Yeah. I mean, it was a moment where I was like, okay, why? And it wasn't like I was never doing these things. I was pretty good. But I think I was just abandoning certain things. And since I've been doing it the last couple months, I just feel like, wow, I'm feeling more of myself. I'm feeling more clear and focused. I'm eliminating distractions in my life that I don't need to do. I'm saying, wow, why am I spending so much time on these activities that aren't actually supporting me or my mission? I was doing them because I feel like I needed to or because I wanted to be busy. But now that I'm scheduling the things that fill me up.

Yeah.

First.

And making those. I've got private Spanish lessons I'm doing. I just did a class a couple hours ago. Now I have an interview in the morning. Yeah, I did a Spanish class and I was like, yesterday. And I'm trying to improve my brain health. So I did it yesterday. I did Spanish lesson in a hyperbaric chamber. So it's like, how can I improve my self care, wow. And learn something that's important to me? And then I went right to a workout after and I had an interview in the morning and I'M working on emails afterwards and I'm connecting with friends. But it's scheduling it in and making all these things a priority throughout the week. It's like, how are you to schedule it in? How are you to find the time and not negotiating with a circumstance or an excuse of, well, I've got a travel day. Well, how are you going to schedule it in?

Really?

How you get to schedule it in when you travel? What does it look like? Is that a hotel workout today? Is that someone Skype calling with you? That's like coaching you. Is that in the airport? Is that 10,000 steps today? I don't know what it is, but it's pre planning for yourself for the week and having it scheduled in. And that's the non negotiable. I think if we all started living from that place, I'm not saying there's going to be challenging days that are hard to do them all.

Yeah.

But when you say this is a non negotiable for 30 days, I fully believe your life's gonna transform.

I'm gonna do it.

And your business, everything is gonna be exploding and your heart is gonna be so full. Full. Because you've never experienced this.

I've never. Yeah, I'm gonna do it. And I like what you said about really outsourcing. Like, if you have the resources, use.

The resources, and this is what goes back into an abundance mindset. I know it's hard when you've. You're like, I don't want to spend that money on this.

Yeah. But it's worth it.

It fills you back up and it creates more from you.

Yeah.

You down for the challenge?

I'm totally down because I'm gonna.

I'm gonna text you and I'm gonna stay. I'm gonna stay on you and say where you're at. I'm gonna get a weekly check in.

I want to be this person because I am the person that's telling everyone, work hard, get your goals, be successful in your career. You know, never stop working. I want to be the person that has the balance, that's not worried about overworking, just hard work. They're not the same.

Right?

Ooh, Overworking, not hard work.

They're different. Yeah, they're different. What's the difference? I mean, working hard is something that you need to do to be successful, but overworking is pushing your body and your mind in places it was not supposed to go. And I have always done that. I want to be the human that works hard but has the balance, you know? Balance, but balance is so, it's so tough. I'm so black or white. It's like I'm either on a diet, killing it, working out every day or I'm binge eating, haven't seen the gym in a year. The gray, like every year, my new year's resolution is be gray. What is gray? You know, don't be black and white. Be gray. It's okay to have, give yourself some.

Grays, but make sure you're consistent.

But yeah, how, how do you do that when you're so type A? Type A, it's like you're one way or the other.

Yeah.

So I would love to be able to do that.

And I'm not saying you'll be able to do this for, you know, a whole year, but I think Kickstarter with 30 days and then, okay, can I do this 80% of the time, you know, and then it's going to be, sometimes I travel and, you know, whatever. There's going to be some gray.

Agreed.

But I think if you could create this, it's going to set you up for an incredible next couple of years. Personally.

Yeah. Help me live longer. You know, if you live longer, work out. I mean, taking care of yourself. Number one.

What is the, what's the greatest lesson you learned in the last year of working at these two jobs? As you transition out of this job, what was the greatest lesson of overworking? What it sounds like you were doing.

That success does not equal happiness. I remember when, I think it was three years ago, I had signed my highest draft pick ever. I had won like woman of the year, you know, had a number one overall pick in softball. All these amazing things happening, made more money than I've ever made. And I remember looking back, I had made a birthday post actually, like, oh, here's all the great things I did this year. I remember being like, man, this is the least happy I've ever been. And so I think I learned really quickly that success and happiness, I mean, people try to conflate, those terms are very different. You can be successful and not be happy. And so for me, the milestones don't make me happy. I'm very much a journey girl. Right. The journey, it's all about I want to get there, I want to get there. When I finally hit the goal, it's real anti climatic for me. It's almost depressing. It's like, okay, I did it, now what? So it was really a wake up call. And what I'm trying to do is learn how to be Present in the moment when I hit the goal, Be okay with the, okay, I hit the goal. Let's celebrate it. Like, instead of it going kind of being like, well, what's next? Like, taking a moment to really take it in.

Celebrating the success and the accomplishment of the years of hard work is so important.

It is. But for me, it's always, okay, well, what's the next goal? What's the next step? And that's unhealthy. You know, you need to be able to be okay with celebrating what you've done and taking a moment to live in that moment before going to the next.

Yeah, I think success doesn't equal happiness. But also, I think also you can still be happy and successful.

You can. Exactly. But it doesn't, you know, it's different. And people think once I hit success, then I will be happy. You've got to find happiness separately before you become successful.

Be happy and success will add to it as more fun.

Exactly. It's really joy. Right? Happiness is about what's happening. Joy is eternal.

How much joy do you feel on a daily basis?

It's something I'm working on. It's something I'm working on. You know, I feel it. But my mom, I watch her. She doesn't have much. She never had much, but she's always just so joyful. Right. She doesn't have two pennies to rub together, but there's no one I've met who just is happier to be alive than her. And so I look at her and I'm like, she doesn't have anything, and I have everything in her mind.

Interesting.

And our outlooks on life are just so different. And so. Yeah, I mean, it's something I'm working on. It's not like I'm not happy all day.

What's the greatest lesson your mom's taught you?

I mean, she instilled in me my faith. You know, I'm really blessed to have learned about Jesus from my mom. You know, she gave me nothing else except, you know, how to worship Jesus and how to be a giver. Those are the two things, but I feel like they were the most important gifts of my life.

That's cool. What about greatest lesson from your dad?

That's a tough one. He's an immigrant. You know, he came over here with nothing and, you know, had to hustle. He definitely taught me, you have to survive no matter what the circumstances are. He kind of taught me to survive. You know, I knew how to survive as a kid. I think now that I'm older, I'm trying to go from survival surviving to thriving. You know, stop living in a survival mode. Because I can do that. I can do that well. Learned how to do that. So it's like, okay, now how about thriving and like you said, living in abundance and being okay with spending your money and enjoying the moment versus just surviving. Getting to the next point, right? Yeah.

It seems like you've done an amazing job of building your personal brand.

Yes.

How? What's your thoughts on and your strategies on building personal brand? Because you weren't like an influencer or content creator. You were, like, working at a law firm and, you know, like, representing other personal brands and essentially other athletes and influencers. So how did you learn to build your own personal brand? And why is it important for every individual to build their personal brand, whether in a corporation or not?

Actually, I have a whole chapter on this in my book about building a brand. I believe every professional is a brand. Lawyers, doctors, et cetera. I think we always look at entrepreneurs and influencers as the people that have brands. Once I learned that we're all brands, it really changed my career. You know, I decided to build a brand because I wanted to get athletes to come to me. I didn't have time to recruit, like, other agents because I had another job. And so I had to get creative. And I thought, okay, if I have a brand where I'm a household name, where when somebody thinks of a sports agent, I'm the first name or one of the first names that comes to mind, then I've done it. Right.

How'd you do that, man?

It starts with picking out your pillars of your brand. Right. I think every brand has a few pillars, and everything you do falls under those pillars. Like, for me, it's sports, and it's women empowerment and mentorship. And so when I'm posting on my social media or on my website, anything that is on that page is under one of my pillars.

Yeah.

And so finding what that brand kind of parameters are and then being consistent with it. You know, your followers and your fans, they sign up for something, giving them what they signed up for.

When did you start really going all in on kind of content and building a brand online?

I would say it's been about three or four years. When I first started, you know, it was a slow start, but I just. I remember making a decision like, I'm gonna be the first agent everyone thinks of. I'm gonna make a decision. Like, it was very intentional. I'm about to build a brand as a sports Agent, and it has not been done. And I think most people probably know of Jerry Maguire, the fictitious agent, maybe one or two agents, but you can't name a sports agent just naturally. Right? And so I made the decision. I said, you know what? When people think of that, they're gonna think of me.

That's cool.

But everyone should feel that way. If you're a baker, you want people to think of you first if they need a cake.

And do you think of, like, okay, there's, I don't know, 20,000 sports agents. I'm just making up. How many are there?

900 NFL agents.

Oh, 900. Yeah. Okay. I'm way off, but there's a thousand, let's say agents. How do you. Do you think of, like, I'm gonna lean into my uniqueness, like, use the differences or the uniqueness and the talents that I have and not try to be like the other agents, but just go all in obnoxiously on who I am. Is that what you think of?

100%. Living in my authentic self every single day. I decided to show up exactly who I am every day. You know, And I think I wouldn't be on this podcast, I wouldn't have a book if I didn't make that decision day one that I was going to be me. You know, I got a lot of advice early on to blend in, and I was like, you know what? I'm not taking that advice. I'm gonna be who I am.

Yeah. There's a quote from a woman named Sally Hogshead who says, different is better than better, and being different is better than better, because you're gonna be unique. You're gonna be stand out. You're gonna be a one of a kind. And you may not be better than the best sports agent at this moment, but you're different. And that's better for you than being better.

I agree.

And I think if. If people can approach that and say, what makes me unique and how can I lean into that more and more? Like, for me, I'm a big salsa dancer, and I wasn't posting salsa stuff until recently, and it's getting the most engagement and comments, and people are like, post more of this.

Yep.

You know, playing guitar with my brother, who's an amazing jazz violinist, and they're like, post more of this. Like, these are unique things for me that I haven't always shared, and I'm trying to lean into it more and more. And I think that's.

You are the secret sauce.

Exactly. No one else can do the Talents that you have, the experience you have, the life you grew up from, the lessons, whatever.

Even if you give them the recipe, if I give you my spaghetti recipe, the exact instructions, your sauce is still going to taste different.

Different.

I'm the secret sauce. You're the secret sauce.

Exactly. Exactly. And people are going to be attracted to you. I love this. What's a question you wish more people would ask you that they don't ask?

Oh, man, that's a good question. What do I wish they asked me, but that they don't ask? How are you? How are you feeling?

How are you feeling?

I'm feeling pretty good. Feeling okay. I'm a little tired. I get a lot of questions about how to get in the business. And I meet people, how to be a sports agent, and I think people forget, like, hey, I'm a human. And, you know, more of the, like, checking in, like, how are you doing? Like, where, you know, how's your mental health? How's your physical health? How's Nicole Lynn doing? Not agent Nicole Lynn. How's Nicole Lynn doing?

Personal Nicole Lynn? Yeah.

Yeah. So I think people kind of forget about that.

That's what I'm gonna do for the next 30 days, every day.

How are you?

Once a week.

No, once a week. Once a week. I'm gonna check in with you. I'm gonna. We're gonna create a list.

Oh, my gosh.

Send it to you.

August 1st.

August 1st.

Yeah.

We'll give it to August 1st and start of the month.

Gotta have the August one. You can't start it.

Yeah, exactly. And we'll do that August 1st. I'm gonna text you. I can do it every week. I'm have you text me on the weekends when you've completed the week.

Okay.

And I'm gonna check in on you for four weeks.

I'm gonna be like an NFL training camp and I'm gonna be working out in the hotel.

Work out with the guys. You know, it's just like, I'll jump in there. Exactly.

Kill them.

I love this. You've got this book we've been talking about called Agent. You show up, do the work, and succeed in your own terms. People can get it online, they can go to bookstores. Where's a place they can connect with you personally? And where's the website for more about you?

Agentnicolin.com or Agent Nicolin on Twitter, Instagram.

Where do you hang out more? Twitter, Instagram or both?

I'd say both. You know, Twitter, it's heavy, heavy sports. So if you like sports Instagram. You'll get mostly sports, but you know, mentorship. I like to post kind of this, the blueprint of how I am a sports agent. You know, if you ever want to get into sports, I put all the tips on my page.

That's cool. Yeah, it's fun. And I see my guy Emanuel and Sarah both on the back praising for you both, both friends of mine. So it's inspiring to see.

Gabrielle Union wrote the forward.

That's awesome.

Yeah.

Where's her name on there?

I know.

She said you gotta put her name on the front. I know. Forward by Gavin Yoon. Yeah, you got to get to leverage that. That's good marketing. This is a question I ask everyone at the end of our numbers called the three truths question. So I'd like you to imagine a hypothetical scenario.

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It's your last day on earth. Many years away from now.

It's really sad. It's the most depressing.

You live as long as you want to live.

Okay. 200 years.

You live 200, clearly. And then it's your last day.

Okay.

Eventually you got to call it quits, right?

Okay.

On this, this life. And you've accomplished all your dreams. You've lived the life that you want to live. You do self care every day. You're helping athletes, you're doing all these whatever your dream life is and you actually create it from here until whenever you pass. But for whatever reason, you've got to Take all of your materials with you, or it's got to go somewhere else. So your book, your content, the things you've said. No one has access to this anymore. It goes to the next place, somewhere else. But you get a piece of paper and a pen. You get to write down three things you know to be true. Three lessons. And this is all. We would have to be reminded of you from your. All of your work and all of your material of these three lessons that you would share with the world.

Wow.

That they would have to use and whatever they wanted to use. What would you say are those three truths for you?

God is real. The second truth is that finding your purpose is the most important mission of your life. And the third? Marry the right person. Marry the right person?

Yeah. Why does that seem to be so hard for so many people?

It's tough. People are always like, how are you so successful? What's the number one thing you can tell me to do? Marry the right person. I couldn't do what I do if I had married someone else.

It'd be draining.

Yeah. It's a support system. You're a team. You know, it's a partnership. And that partnership is critical to your success. That's a whole nother book.

Right, Right. How long have you been married for?

9 years.

How did you know that it was the right person?

Man. I just knew. Isn't that crazy? I just knew. I was one of those. I mean, we dated for, like, 10 months and then were married. Wow. I'm one of those stories. It's like, we dated and like, six weeks in, it's like, I guess you're probably my husband. I think you are. You know, and just here we are. People thought we were nuts. We're now on our 10th year.

Wow.

So I was like, I think it worked out.

What's been the key to knowing it's a great fit or it's aligned, and then the key to also sustaining it and making sure it stays that way.

Yeah. The sustaining is that love is not enough.

I've been saying that so much lately. Love is not enough.

And you have to make a decision every day to stay married.

Wow.

Marriage is very hard. People don't talk about that. People like to make it look like it's all roses. And it's hard. You show up every day. It's like going to work every single day and choosing to love someone. You know, it's an action. But, yeah, love is not enough. You know, compatibility, chemistry. I mean, there's so many different factors here that that are important. And I wish I could say it's just all about love, and it's not. It's bs.

You guys had all that other stuff, though. You had.

You know, some of it grew over time.

Right.

We're very different. Some of it grew over time, some of it was. We're very different in these things, and we've got to learn how to live with these differences, because no one's changing.

Right. You accept each other. If you don't accept each other, it's gonna be miserable. So you accept it or leave.

Right. And so we made the choice. Okay. We're gonna stay. So what. As we make that choice every day, what does that look like? What does it mean when you wake up every day to make the choice to fight for your marriage? You're fighting for your marriage even when the marriage is great. Right. Every day you wake up, you're fighting for your marriage. Love's not enough.

Love is not enough. I've been saying that. That's a good sign. I want to acknowledge you, Nicole, for a moment, for your gifts, for everything you've done to overcome from.

Thank you.

I mean, getting food at 8 and 9, that's helped you and your brother to forging a driver's license, to just doing whatever it takes.

Yeah.

To survive and to thrive and to be an example for other people. I acknowledge you for making the big risk, taking the risk to leave something that you've been comfortable with for a long time, which is probably not harder to leave.

Yeah.

And to go all in on something that you're really passionate about. I acknowledge you. Even though maybe you wanted to do it sooner, you did it at the right time for you.

Yeah.

And I acknowledge you for not beating yourself up. It's like a lot of us beat ourselves up for things we didn't do we should have done, and you're just like, you know, it's the right timing. It needed to happen this way. I acknowledge you for allowing me to try to bring out of you the things that might be lacking that could support you, that could take you to the next level, because that's part of my mission, is to help serve people get to their next level. So I acknowledge you for saying you're committed to this, and I'm going to check in on you.

Please do.

And, yeah, everything you're up to, I'm really excited about it. And it's been great to meet you. Yes.

I'm so happy to be here.

Yeah.

Thank you for having me on your show.

Of course. Of course. My final question is, what's your definition of greatness?

Oh man. Definition of greatness, man. Wow. I could just write an essay on what does it mean to be great. You know, I think about greatness. I think about not whether you have what it takes. I believe almost everybody has what it takes. I think people don't think that. I think everybody has what it takes, but it's will you do what it takes? And that's the difference. A lot of people listening, you have what it takes, but will you do what it takes to be great? Greatness is doing whatever it takes to get there. Yeah.

Cool. Thank you so much. Appreciate you very much.

Thank you for having me.

Of course.

Amazing.

Thank. Good stuff.

Thank you so much for listening to this episode. If you did enjoy this, please share this with a friend. Spread the message of greatness, text a few people, post it on social media. Make sure to follow Nicole Lynn as well and message her over on Instagram. If you enjoyed this and please subscribe to the School of Greatness on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Leave us a review as I'll be.

Sharing more of these reviews in the coming weeks as well. So share with me your thoughts over on the review section on Apple Podcast and I want to leave you with this quote from Roy T. Bennett, who said, no one has ever achieved greatness without dreams.

That's right.

What are your dreams? Are they activated? Do you have them in your mind.

On a daily basis?

Or do you not have any dreams right now? What are you cultivating to create those dreams on a daily basis? For me, dreams are a big part of my life. It's something that leads me. It's something that pulls me to towards a greater direction than what I'm currently at. And it helps me develop new skills. It helps me overcome challenges, it helps me overcome insecurities or fears. Because in order for me to achieve those dreams, I must become something I've.

Never been to create those.

So what are your dreams? Are you thinking about them consistently? Let me know. And I want to remind you if no one has told you lately that you are loved, you are worthy, and you matter. And you know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great.

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