Aisha Foy is an NIL Coach who support athletes in building their brands, achieving their goals, and positioning them for NIL opportunities through her NIL Consulting Program, Major NIL Success. She is the author of the book, “Success is My Major”.

Aisha began her coaching career as a graduate assistant coach at Southeast Missouri State University in 2016, She was also the Director of Recruiting for Kentucky Women's Basketball from 2018 – 2023.

Aisha played her college basketball at Radford University where she was an NCAA Woman of the Year Nominee, Female Senior Leader of the Year & earned the Established Leader Award.

On this episode Mike & Aisha delve into the intricacies of branding and personal marketing for athletes in a compelling conversation. With her extensive background in collegiate basketball and a keen understanding of the evolving landscape of athlete representation, Aisha emphasizes the importance of seeing oneself beyond athletic identity. She advocates for the idea that athletes must cultivate their personal brands to maximize their NIL opportunities. This episode highlights Aisha's journey from a player at Radford University to a successful NIL educator and consultant, where she helps athletes navigate the intersection of sports and personal branding. Through workshops, boot camps, and one-on-one coaching, she trains athletes to articulate their stories, build confidence, and engage with their audiences authentically. Aisha’s insights reveal that effective branding is not just about social media presence but involves a deeper understanding of self-worth and marketability, fundamentally reshaping how athletes can leverage their platforms for personal and professional growth.

Follow us on social media @hoopheadspod on Twitter and Instagram and be sure to check out the Hoop Heads Podcast Network for more great basketball content.

Get ready to take some notes as you listen to this episode with Aisha Foy, NIL Coach and Founder of Major NIL Success.

Website – https://successmajor.kartra.com/page/9qJ175

Email – aishafoy@gmail.com

Twitter/X - @NIL_CoachIsh

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Ayesha Foy: 00:00:13

The Hoop Heads podcast is brought to you by head start basketball.

Ayesha Foy: 00:00:21

I teach athletes a skill.

Ayesha Foy: 00:00:23

I teach them how to believe in themselves.

Ayesha Foy: 00:00:25

I teach them how to see themselves outside of their sport.

Ayesha Foy: 00:00:28

And to be successful in IO and to really maximize it, you're going to have to be able to see yourself outside of your sport.

Host/Advertiser: 00:00:35

Ayesha Foy is an NiL coach who supports athletes in building their brands, achieving their goals, and positioning them for Nil opportunities through her NiL consulting program, Major Nil Success.

Host/Advertiser: 00:00:48

She is the author of the book Success is my Major.

Host/Advertiser: 00:00:51

Missouri State University in: 2016

Host/Advertiser: 00:00:57

tucky women's basketball from: 2018

Host/Advertiser: 00:01:03

Aisha played her college basketball at Radford University, where she was an NCAA Woman of the year nominee, female senior leader of the year, and earned the established Leader award.

Host/Advertiser: 00:01:17

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JP Clark: 00:01:56

Hi, this is JP Clark, former NBA assistant coach with the Celtics and Clippers, and you're listening to the Hoop Heads podcast.

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JP Clark: 00:02:55

Get ready to.

Host/Advertiser: 00:02:55

Take some notes as you listen to this episode with Ayesha Foy, Nil Coach and the founder of major Nil Success.

JP Clark: 00:03:04

Hello and welcome to the Hoopets podcast.

JP Clark: 00:03:07

It's Mike Clensing here with my co host Jason Sulk tonight.

JP Clark: 00:03:10

And we are pleased to welcome in Nil coach Ayesha Foy.

JP Clark: 00:03:15

Ayesha, welcome.

Ayesha Foy: 00:03:17

Hey, thank you for having me.

JP Clark: 00:03:19

Thrilled to have you on.

JP Clark: 00:03:20

the J Bill is skills camp in: 2018

JP Clark: 00:03:25

Hard to believe.

JP Clark: 00:03:26

At that time, she was working for Kentucky women's basketball, which we'll talk about a little bit as we dive into her background.

JP Clark: 00:03:33

But we want to start just by giving her a chance to share exactly what she does in her role as an NiL coach.

JP Clark: 00:03:42

And we're going to kind of just tease what the rest of the podcast is going to be about.

JP Clark: 00:03:46

So just, Ayesha, give us the elevator pitch of what it is that you do, and then we'll dive a little bit more into your basketball background.

Ayesha Foy: 00:03:54

Absolutely.

Ayesha Foy: 00:03:55

My favorite subject, nil.

Ayesha Foy: 00:03:56

So I'm an NiL coach.

Ayesha Foy: 00:03:58

I run an NiO education and training program called Major Nil Success.

Ayesha Foy: 00:04:02

I do workshops, master classes.

Ayesha Foy: 00:04:05

I host a bootcamp every year, virtual to help student athletes prepare to maximize their nioh value.

Ayesha Foy: 00:04:12

Helps student athletes develop their brand, because what most people don't get is that you have to have a brand before you can successfully participate in nil.

Ayesha Foy: 00:04:21

And that's the piece, you know, you kind of, you train that in the same way you train going to workouts and working on a.

Ayesha Foy: 00:04:27

Working on your jump shot with a trainer.

Ayesha Foy: 00:04:29

So I help student athletes work on their brand like they work on our game.

JP Clark: 00:04:32

Awesome.

JP Clark: 00:04:32

So we are going to dive into that more in a few minutes.

JP Clark: 00:04:35

Before we do that, let's just start by going back in time to when you were a kid.

JP Clark: 00:04:41

Tell me a little bit about some of your first experiences with the game of basketball, what you remember about it and what made you fall in love with the game.

Ayesha Foy: 00:04:50

Yeah.

Ayesha Foy: 00:04:50

So my first real memory was when I was, I was six and my sister was playing on a ten and underau team.

Ayesha Foy: 00:05:01

And while they were practicing, I would get up on the sideline and I would run with them.

Ayesha Foy: 00:05:07

And two years later, that coach had asked my mom to be her assistant coach.

Ayesha Foy: 00:05:15

And this is on the ten and underau team.

Ayesha Foy: 00:05:17

And at this time, I'm eight.

Ayesha Foy: 00:05:19

And I really wasn't good enough to make the team, but my mom agreed to coach under one condition, to let her baby play.

Ayesha Foy: 00:05:27

And so I was on that team really small, no business on the team.

Ayesha Foy: 00:05:33

The bag was bigger than me.

Ayesha Foy: 00:05:35

And that was my experience with AAU basketball and how I got started playing and how I just got that competitive spirit, wanting to prove myself.

Ayesha Foy: 00:05:45

It pretty much symbolizes the life that I live now that story, getting into basketball.

JP Clark: 00:05:52

So when you think about yourself as a player and trying to improve and get better, and once the game becomes really important to you, how did you go about trying to become a better player?

JP Clark: 00:06:05

What did that process look like for you in terms of, are you in the gym by yourself?

JP Clark: 00:06:11

Are you playing and finding pickup games?

JP Clark: 00:06:13

Are you working out with a teammate all the time?

JP Clark: 00:06:16

Just what was your process for getting better as a player?

Ayesha Foy: 00:06:20

Yeah, I did a lot of training.

Ayesha Foy: 00:06:22

I did a, had a shooting coach, I had a strength and conditioning coach.

Ayesha Foy: 00:06:27

Just always pushing myself.

Ayesha Foy: 00:06:29

Anytime there was extra workouts with a coach that I liked, the way they trained, I would always go to different workouts, work out with boys, you know, I love training.

Ayesha Foy: 00:06:39

Yeah, I didn't really, and I wish I would have did more of this, would just go to the gym and just work on the game by myself.

Ayesha Foy: 00:06:45

But I always had a train.

Ayesha Foy: 00:06:46

I always love, I guess, structure.

Ayesha Foy: 00:06:49

And so, you know, anytime, I guess I was spending my parents money on training instead of just going to.

Ayesha Foy: 00:06:55

But, yeah, just train and work hard and push yourself.

Ayesha Foy: 00:07:00

And one thing I really like to do is be conditioned.

Ayesha Foy: 00:07:02

So I really went them out, trash more and ran miles and things like that because I wanted to be in the best shape.

JP Clark: 00:07:10

Yeah, it makes a lot of sense.

JP Clark: 00:07:12

I think that's a very, very underrated skill in the game of basketball, because I know that for myself that I was never fastest player, I was never the quickest player.

JP Clark: 00:07:23

I couldn't jump very high, but I know that in the fourth quarter, I could still be running.

JP Clark: 00:07:29

And even though my fastest might not have been as fast as your fastest, if I could be in the best shape of that I possibly could be, that gives me an advantage in the fourth quarter.

JP Clark: 00:07:38

So I can completely relate to that part of your story.

JP Clark: 00:07:43

As a high school basketball player, do you have a favorite memory?

Ayesha Foy: 00:07:47

Hmm.

Ayesha Foy: 00:07:48

As a high school basketball player, I would say I win in the state championship.

Ayesha Foy: 00:07:54

I mean, that was a good memory, but I'm hesitant to say that because I was hurt half of the season.

Ayesha Foy: 00:08:01

So, you know, that was cool.

Ayesha Foy: 00:08:03

But, you know, getting a scholarship and signing, you know, that's not part of the game.

Ayesha Foy: 00:08:07

But that was a good memory of signing and taking official or unofficial visits.

Ayesha Foy: 00:08:12

That was.

Ayesha Foy: 00:08:13

That was my best memory, really is taking my official visit to Radford University.

JP Clark: 00:08:18

What was the recruiting process like for you?

JP Clark: 00:08:20

When you think back to that time, what did you like about it?

JP Clark: 00:08:23

Maybe what was fun, what was stressful?

JP Clark: 00:08:26

Just what was the process like for you?

Ayesha Foy: 00:08:29

I really enjoy building relationships with coaches.

Ayesha Foy: 00:08:33

You know, you got all these coaches texting you and you kind of, you know, I was the type of person I would soak it all in and I would kind of play the game and stuff like that.

Ayesha Foy: 00:08:43

You couldn't text back then you could message on social media.

Ayesha Foy: 00:08:47

So I would be up, like just messaging a whole lot of coaches and stuff, going back and forth with them, setting up visits.

Ayesha Foy: 00:08:53

So I thought that was pretty cool.

Ayesha Foy: 00:08:55

I always think that if I couldn't imagine myself now the way it is, like, I will be eating it up.

Ayesha Foy: 00:09:02

But it was stressful because I actually got hurt.

Ayesha Foy: 00:09:04

Like I said, I didn't play my junior year in high school and then the AU season because I tried to rush back.

Ayesha Foy: 00:09:10

I wasn't fully recovered, so I barely really played the AU season.

Ayesha Foy: 00:09:13

That's a critical point in your recruiting.

Ayesha Foy: 00:09:15

So a lot of coaches actually backed off of me in a really crucial point, and I didn't have much of the interest that I had initially going down to the wire, so it was stressful, but I ended up being confident in my decision.

Ayesha Foy: 00:09:31

I committed kind of early.

Ayesha Foy: 00:09:33

It was July going into my senior year, which some people may think that's early, but some people may think that's late.

Ayesha Foy: 00:09:40

But I wanted to get it out of the way and I wanted to go ahead and go with the coaches that were recruiting me heavily, you know, based off of what they saw, you know, already, even though I wasn't fully recovered.

JP Clark: 00:09:53

Was it hard to say no to some of the other coaches that you didn't pick that you had built relationships with?

JP Clark: 00:10:00

As you said, you like talking to all the coaches, and I don't like my son, for example.

JP Clark: 00:10:05

He had like five schools that he was talking to, ended up playing division three basketball, but he built relationships with all five of those coaches, and in the end, he only chose one.

JP Clark: 00:10:15

And then he made the difficult phone calls when it was all over to say, hey, coach, I'm going to go somewhere else.

JP Clark: 00:10:21

And I know that was really a difficult process for him.

JP Clark: 00:10:24

Just how did you handle that piece of it?

JP Clark: 00:10:26

Of, hey, you're building this relationship, you build this relationship, then all of a sudden now you got to say no?

Ayesha Foy: 00:10:31

Yeah, the good thing about my situation was it wasn't good at all, but I went with the coach that was recruiting me the hardest, you know, so it would have been hard for me to tell her no.

Ayesha Foy: 00:10:44

It wasn't hard for me to tell the others no because they weren't recruiting me as hard.

JP Clark: 00:10:48

Makes that makes sense.

JP Clark: 00:10:50

All right.

JP Clark: 00:10:50

So as you go to school, what are you thinking about from an academic standpoint?

JP Clark: 00:10:55

Did you have, are you a typical 18 year old kid in that you don't really have any idea of what you want to do?

JP Clark: 00:11:01

Are you already thinking maybe you want to you see your path as being a coach or where were you from an academic standpoint as you entered college?

Ayesha Foy: 00:11:11

Yeah, I definitely knew I wanted to coach.

Ayesha Foy: 00:11:13

I actually had a moment before I went to school, I think it was before I went to school, where I seen a high school player.

Ayesha Foy: 00:11:20

Well, she played high school when I was in high school, in my area, not at the same time, but she was a graduate assistant coach and she had been out of college maybe a year.

Ayesha Foy: 00:11:31

So me and my mom had saw her on the tv and we were like, oh, man.

Ayesha Foy: 00:11:35

Like, we knew her.

Ayesha Foy: 00:11:36

Actually, she's at Odu right now.

Ayesha Foy: 00:11:38

Her name is Danielle Bell, and she was the graduate assistant coach at Georgia.

Ayesha Foy: 00:11:43

And she was, it was her first year out of college, so that stuck in my head the whole time.

Ayesha Foy: 00:11:48

I was like, that's what I want to do.

Ayesha Foy: 00:11:50

Like, soon as I graduate, I want to be on the bench.

Ayesha Foy: 00:11:52

So.

Ayesha Foy: 00:11:53

And that's what happened.

Ayesha Foy: 00:11:54

So I did know that I wanted to coach, but while I was in college, I had a lot of different career paths that I was interested in.

Ayesha Foy: 00:12:03

Marketing, social media, branding, leadership, business things that I'm kind of doing now.

Ayesha Foy: 00:12:11

But I did know I wanted to coach, but I picked up a lot of different interests while I was in school.

JP Clark: 00:12:16

Did you talk to your coaching staff while you were at Radford about the coaching sort of professional route and what it would take in order to get into coaching?

JP Clark: 00:12:26

Were those conversations that you were having while you were playing?

Ayesha Foy: 00:12:30

Absolutely.

Ayesha Foy: 00:12:31

I actually did an internship my last, my last season, so I was in the office with the coaches like two, three days a week watching film, like, but not as a player, like cutting film, like I'm staff and organizing the recruiting mail.

Ayesha Foy: 00:12:47

And I was even, like, I was a senior.

Ayesha Foy: 00:12:49

And, you know, I think of all that as a senior, but because of the internship, like, I was fixing the bags and carrying the bags of the manager and stuff like that because I was really, I really wanted to be prepared for a GA position, so I took it seriously.

Ayesha Foy: 00:13:03

So, yes, I was having those conversations and I got signed up for the so you want to be a coach?

Ayesha Foy: 00:13:09

Program.

Ayesha Foy: 00:13:10

So that's something that you got to apply to kind of early in the school year, so we were on it.

JP Clark: 00:13:15

People who may not be familiar with that program, what that's all about.

Ayesha Foy: 00:13:20

So as a.

Ayesha Foy: 00:13:21

So you want to be a coach program, and it's put on by the WBCA during the final four convention.

Ayesha Foy: 00:13:26

It's a really good program.

Ayesha Foy: 00:13:28

It's basically for current women's basketball players who want to get into coaching.

Ayesha Foy: 00:13:33

You got to be nominated by your coach, and you basically go through a training, like two, three days of learning from coaches and going to a conference.

Ayesha Foy: 00:13:45

You know, a lot of people, a lot of coaches come talk to you, tell you what to expect.

Ayesha Foy: 00:13:50

And the good thing about it as well was that, you know, when you make.

Ayesha Foy: 00:13:54

When you get invited to be in the program, you get your resume sent to, you know, all the coaches.

Ayesha Foy: 00:14:00

And that's how I got my Ga position was that, you know, the person that was actually grade in the pack is ended up hiring me as her Ga.

Ayesha Foy: 00:14:07

So she, my resume stood out to her from that program.

Ayesha Foy: 00:14:11

So it's definitely valuable.

JP Clark: 00:14:14

What was that interview process like for that first job?

JP Clark: 00:14:17

Were you nervous going into it?

JP Clark: 00:14:19

What were some of the questions that you got asked?

JP Clark: 00:14:21

What do you remember about that whole process?

Ayesha Foy: 00:14:24

You know, it's crazy.

Ayesha Foy: 00:14:26

Like, my career or my path took a bunch of different turns.

Ayesha Foy: 00:14:29

So as bad as I wanted to be a GA, right?

Ayesha Foy: 00:14:33

And like I said, while I was in college, I got a bunch of different interests, so I started thinking about other opportunities, and I wanted to go to New York City so bad.

Ayesha Foy: 00:14:42

So I was like, okay, I want to go to New York City.

Ayesha Foy: 00:14:45

I'm applying for WTG and St.

Ayesha Foy: 00:14:47

John's, and that was the only position I applied to.

Ayesha Foy: 00:14:49

I didn't talk to any other coaches.

Ayesha Foy: 00:14:51

I'm the type of person that, when I moved.

Ayesha Foy: 00:14:55

So as crazy as it sounds, like, I didn't apply for no other jobs like all these coaches that I would be around.

Ayesha Foy: 00:15:00

Like, you know, I had a good network of coaches.

Ayesha Foy: 00:15:03

I was not asking them if I could be their GA because I wanted to go to St.

Ayesha Foy: 00:15:06

John's and St.

Ayesha Foy: 00:15:08

So, you know, I ended up getting accepted.

Ayesha Foy: 00:15:11

I went through the process of getting accepted, but I didn't get the job.

Ayesha Foy: 00:15:14

We interviewed and everything didn't get the job.

Ayesha Foy: 00:15:17

But at this point, I'm like, well, I'm still gonna go.

Ayesha Foy: 00:15:20

So, you know, I was applying just like a regular student had my loan set up.

Ayesha Foy: 00:15:24

I was just gonna go.

Ayesha Foy: 00:15:25

I had no money.

Ayesha Foy: 00:15:26

I was gonna live in, but I was going to go to school in St.

Ayesha Foy: 00:15:29

John's.

Ayesha Foy: 00:15:30

And then Rika Patterson, she was the head coach at CMO.

Ayesha Foy: 00:15:34

She called me about a week before school started, and first she sent me an email, and I'm like, southeast Missouri state.

Ayesha Foy: 00:15:42

I'm not going to Missouri.

Ayesha Foy: 00:15:45

I think I might have even, like, deleted the email.

Ayesha Foy: 00:15:47

And then, like, I told my mom at this point, I'm about a week out before school starts.

Ayesha Foy: 00:15:53

So I told my mom, like, you know, the head coach at CMO reached out, Rika Patterson, and, you know, I'm a caller and say thank you.

Ayesha Foy: 00:16:03

And, yeah, I think I said, yeah, I'm a caller and say thank you, but, you know, I already got my plans.

Ayesha Foy: 00:16:07

And my mom, she's looking at me like I'm crazy.

Ayesha Foy: 00:16:08

She thinks I'm crazy all summer because, you know, I'm going to.

Ayesha Foy: 00:16:14

So then I end up calling coach p back, and, you know, I really enjoyed our conversation.

Ayesha Foy: 00:16:18

She was a blackhead coach.

Ayesha Foy: 00:16:21

You know, it just.

Ayesha Foy: 00:16:22

It felt very natural.

Ayesha Foy: 00:16:23

It felt like somebody I want to work for.

Ayesha Foy: 00:16:24

I'm like, hmm.

Ayesha Foy: 00:16:27

And then, you know, I'm telling her that I'm going to St.

Ayesha Foy: 00:16:30

John's, already enrolled.

Ayesha Foy: 00:16:31

You know, bags basically pack.

Ayesha Foy: 00:16:32

But she still kinds of, you know, pursuing a situation like, hey, call my assistant coaches.

Ayesha Foy: 00:16:37

Let's talk next week.

Ayesha Foy: 00:16:39

And then by the time, you know, next week came talk to our assistant coaches.

Ayesha Foy: 00:16:45

I'm liking it.

Ayesha Foy: 00:16:45

I'm liking the coaches.

Ayesha Foy: 00:16:47

And I was supposed to sign a lease in New York city, and I was like, man, I'm signing this lease.

Ayesha Foy: 00:16:52

I don't care what.

Ayesha Foy: 00:16:54

She signed this lease, and I got the lease, and I didn't sign it.

Ayesha Foy: 00:16:58

And then the next day, I got offered the position, and then I.

Ayesha Foy: 00:17:01

And then I took the position.

Ayesha Foy: 00:17:03

So that was my situation.

Ayesha Foy: 00:17:05

Then a week later, I'm in.

Ayesha Foy: 00:17:07

I'm headed to Missouri.

Ayesha Foy: 00:17:08

Kick Gerardo.

Ayesha Foy: 00:17:09

Missouri.

Ayesha Foy: 00:17:09

I've never been there.

Ayesha Foy: 00:17:11

And dropped off, you know, in some form 13 hours away from home.

Ayesha Foy: 00:17:16

So that was my Ga job experience.

JP Clark: 00:17:20

There you go.

JP Clark: 00:17:21

So what did you like about the college coaching start to your career?

JP Clark: 00:17:27

What about the coaching piece of it?

JP Clark: 00:17:29

Did you really enjoy in that first season?

Ayesha Foy: 00:17:32

It was rough.

Ayesha Foy: 00:17:33

That's hard to answer that question.

Ayesha Foy: 00:17:34

Cause it was hard.

Ayesha Foy: 00:17:35

I'm not even gone.

Ayesha Foy: 00:17:36

I'm not even a lie.

Ayesha Foy: 00:17:36

I said it was so much fun.

Ayesha Foy: 00:17:38

You know, I like the idea that I got there.

Ayesha Foy: 00:17:40

You know, I made it.

Ayesha Foy: 00:17:41

I achieved my goal of getting there, but I had a lot of responsibility, you know, like we all do.

Ayesha Foy: 00:17:48

But it was taxing on me, for sure.

Ayesha Foy: 00:17:52

So it was just a grind.

Ayesha Foy: 00:17:54

Like, it was a grind.

Ayesha Foy: 00:17:55

I did enjoy learning.

Ayesha Foy: 00:17:56

I always loved learning and learning from the coaches that I was working with, and it was a cool experience.

Ayesha Foy: 00:18:02

But it was definitely a grind.

JP Clark: 00:18:05

So as you get into that year and you're going through it and obviously you're going to school, you're coaching, you have all those responsibilities, what are you thinking that at that point, is it something where you're like, wow, I didn't necessarily realize that college basketball coaching was all of this, or was it something that you kind of knew?

JP Clark: 00:18:29

That's what it was like, but then living it was maybe different from thinking about it.

JP Clark: 00:18:34

Where was your thought process at that point in terms of career path?

Ayesha Foy: 00:18:41

Well, I still was definitely all in.

Ayesha Foy: 00:18:44

You know, I was.

Ayesha Foy: 00:18:45

I enjoyed watching the assistant coaches go out recruiting and I would help prepare their recruiting books, and I'll be like, man, I can't wait until I'm on, you know, I get on the road and go recruit and stuff like that.

Ayesha Foy: 00:18:57

So it was, it was a lot, but it still was what I signed up and what I wanted to be doing.

Ayesha Foy: 00:19:05

I do remember, like, it was like, maybe my first two weeks there.

Ayesha Foy: 00:19:09

And I remember thinking to myself that I've thought about basketball more in this last, let's say it's a month, my first month on a job than I have my entire four years of playing.

Ayesha Foy: 00:19:22

So I do remember thinking like, yo, I'm really thinking about basketball all day long.

Ayesha Foy: 00:19:30

I'm thinking about basketball more as a coach than I did to player.

Ayesha Foy: 00:19:34

It was crazy.

Ayesha Foy: 00:19:37

So the commitment level to dedication, it was interesting.

Ayesha Foy: 00:19:42

Well, yeah, it wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be, but as far as the job functions, it was what I thought it was going to be.

JP Clark: 00:19:49

Got you completely understand.

JP Clark: 00:19:51

What did you like about it?

JP Clark: 00:19:52

What's the one thing that, when you think back to that time, what's your fondest memory of, of that year at CMO?

Ayesha Foy: 00:20:01

I love learning.

Ayesha Foy: 00:20:02

I love learning.

Ayesha Foy: 00:20:03

I love watching the coaches interact because when you go from player to coach is a whole new world, and it's a world that you think you've been a part of the whole time, but you really have no idea what's been going on behind the scenes.

Ayesha Foy: 00:20:15

So I enjoy kind of like, it was like you stepping into adulthood or stepping into this, like, world of unknown that you never knew was going on behind the scenes, realizing how much time going to a scout, you know?

Ayesha Foy: 00:20:29

So I enjoyed it, for sure.

Ayesha Foy: 00:20:31

I enjoyed learning and seeing everything that went on.

Ayesha Foy: 00:20:36

And then I also enjoyed, like, pouring into the players, watching them grow.

Ayesha Foy: 00:20:40

I would say it's difficult, in my opinion.

Ayesha Foy: 00:20:43

I think it's difficult to help somebody else grow.

Ayesha Foy: 00:20:46

If you feel like you're kind of stuck or struggling, but that did, you know, bring me joy, like watching them grow and then watching them get better and work as a team and things like that.

JP Clark: 00:20:57

It is so interesting to hear you say that.

JP Clark: 00:21:00

Pulling back the curtain on coaching from a player perspective, you really do honestly have no idea.

JP Clark: 00:21:07

I mean, I think about a lot of coaches that maybe they even went from being a player in their own program and then got a coaching job with the same program that they played in.

JP Clark: 00:21:19

And I always find that to be endlessly fascinating because, again, now look, I played a long, long, long time ago, but I do think that to step sort of behind the scenes and see what those coaches meetings look like.

JP Clark: 00:21:33

And again, I had no idea as a player, just like you were describing, like, the things that the coaches did.

JP Clark: 00:21:39

ike, okay, my practice was at: 03:00

JP Clark: 00:21:53

To your point, like, I thought, I thought about basketball a lot as a player, and then you realize that as a coach, especially a college coach, on the level that we're talking about, like, that's a, that's a 24/7 you're not just, you're not just thinking about basketball when you're awake.

JP Clark: 00:22:08

You're dreaming about basketball and when you're sleeping and I don't, I think a lot of people, again, players, unless you've had some connection to the coaching profession, a parent who coached Orlando, you're really, really focused on being a coach while you're still playing.

JP Clark: 00:22:25

I think a lot of players are in the same situation that you or I were in where you kind of don't necessarily realize the amount of time that that goes into being, being a successful coach.

JP Clark: 00:22:35

It's, it's really, I mean, as you well know, the amount of time it takes to, to be successful is crazy.

Ayesha Foy: 00:22:42

So, yeah, it was mind boggling.

Ayesha Foy: 00:22:45

Mind bottling.

Ayesha Foy: 00:22:47

Yeah.

Ayesha Foy: 00:22:48

I just slept in the office a few times.

Ayesha Foy: 00:22:52

Dream about it.

Ayesha Foy: 00:22:52

I slept in the office plenty of times as a ga.

Ayesha Foy: 00:22:55

Yeah, absolutely.

JP Clark: 00:22:56

Absolutely.

JP Clark: 00:22:57

Sometimes I sleep in my podcast office here.

JP Clark: 00:22:59

get done with the podcast at: 02:00

JP Clark: 00:23:01

My wife sound asleep.

JP Clark: 00:23:03

I'm like the couch.

JP Clark: 00:23:04

I think I'm just going to stay up here and not go down and disturb her.

JP Clark: 00:23:07

So it's a similar theory.

JP Clark: 00:23:10

All right, so tell me how you get to Kentucky?

Ayesha Foy: 00:23:12

How did I get to Kentucky?

Ayesha Foy: 00:23:14

So, you know, while I was, you know, I believe in, as a professional, I believe in specialization, and I really like to kind of have my own twist of things.

Ayesha Foy: 00:23:30

So one thing that I saw in the coaching world was that coaches weren't really good on social media.

Ayesha Foy: 00:23:37

So I knew that I could add a lot of value to any program by teaching social media.

Ayesha Foy: 00:23:44

So Kentucky was looking for director of recruiting and we had a mutual connection.

Ayesha Foy: 00:23:52

And the mutual connection that I had thought I would be a perfect fit and kind of, you know, send my information to them and things like that.

Ayesha Foy: 00:24:00

And, you know, like I said, like what I wanted to specialize in, which is branding, marketing, recruiting, that's exactly what they were looking for.

Ayesha Foy: 00:24:10

So it's kind of like when the preparation meets opportunity type thing.

Ayesha Foy: 00:24:15

And it wasn't a coaching position, wasn't an on court position, but it was the perfect position that I was looking for because like I said, I like to do those professional things.

Ayesha Foy: 00:24:25

I like marketing, I like figuring out how to be the best at something.

Ayesha Foy: 00:24:29

And I knew I wasn't going to be the best coach, but I could be the best director of recruiting in the country, you know what I'm saying?

Ayesha Foy: 00:24:36

So it was like the perfect timing of me looking for opportunity and then what they were looking for as well in the way that the recruiting was turning as far as being very heavily social media driven.

JP Clark: 00:24:50

So tell me how you learned the social media side of all this stuff.

JP Clark: 00:24:55

Is this something where you were self taught, just kind of going on and experimenting with things?

JP Clark: 00:25:00

Did you take some coursework?

JP Clark: 00:25:02

Did you learn from a mentor?

JP Clark: 00:25:05

How did you go about becoming an expert in those areas?

JP Clark: 00:25:09

Because again, it's not something that you just one day roll out of bed and you're like, okay, I know exactly how to do all this stuff.

JP Clark: 00:25:17

How did you learn it?

Ayesha Foy: 00:25:19

Yeah, I mean, one was my age, you know, I grew up in the social media.

Ayesha Foy: 00:25:24

It's kind of like I was at young person, but still old enough to be a professional at the right time, you know.

Ayesha Foy: 00:25:34

But I did grow up with social media and then, so it was like fun, cool and things like that.

Ayesha Foy: 00:25:40

And then actually, while I was a student athlete, I used social media to fundraise.

Ayesha Foy: 00:25:46

So, like the same nio things that athletes are doing now, like posting about their collective fundraising and raising money for training.

Ayesha Foy: 00:25:52

I did that as a, as a student and I will use social media to raise money.

Ayesha Foy: 00:25:59

And then I also got into blogging.

Ayesha Foy: 00:26:01

I actually took a social media marketing course as well.

Ayesha Foy: 00:26:04

And then from there, I really just started getting to learning about different courses, branding, social media, marketing, personal branding, things like that.

Ayesha Foy: 00:26:12

So I'm a learner.

Ayesha Foy: 00:26:15

So once I like something, I like to soak up all the information about it.

Ayesha Foy: 00:26:18

So the first experience was doing fundraisers as an athlete and then it was like, okay, doing social media in my class and then just learning more and more about personal branding because it was something I just was personally interested in.

JP Clark: 00:26:32

So walk me through what your process was for building.

JP Clark: 00:26:38

Let's start with your brand first.

JP Clark: 00:26:39

How did you build your brand?

JP Clark: 00:26:42

What strategies did you use?

JP Clark: 00:26:44

What tools did you use to kind of build your brand, both first as a player and then eventually as you got to be a professional coach and that into your, into your business that you're running today?

Ayesha Foy: 00:26:56

Yeah, that's a great question.

Ayesha Foy: 00:26:58

I don't think I've ever been asked that question on the podcast, but I would say, you know, you pick up on things.

Ayesha Foy: 00:27:04

So like I said, when I was a student athlete, I started to get serious about my future and, you know, just learning about, like, building a brand for your future.

Ayesha Foy: 00:27:17

You start thinking like, how do I want to present myself?

Ayesha Foy: 00:27:20

And so I started not even just learning about branding, but learning about personal growth, learning about reading books, success books, learning about leadership.

Ayesha Foy: 00:27:30

And I started to transform myself and then I wanted to document that journey.

Ayesha Foy: 00:27:35

So as I'm documenting that journey and putting out positivity and putting out, you know, growth, success things, or whatever the case may be, you know, people are looking at it, watching it.

Ayesha Foy: 00:27:47

And then I actually started a blog talking about success and leadership.

Ayesha Foy: 00:27:52

So that was part of my brand.

Ayesha Foy: 00:27:53

That was part of how I built my name and things like that.

Ayesha Foy: 00:27:57

And then while I was a Ga, I did a social media at the WBCA, I did a roundtable, and at this point, I'm a Ga.

Ayesha Foy: 00:28:07

And it was super packed and I had a lot of good things to share.

Ayesha Foy: 00:28:12

People really enjoyed it.

Ayesha Foy: 00:28:14

So that's a way to build your brand as well.

Ayesha Foy: 00:28:16

It's like sharing knowledge and things like that.

Ayesha Foy: 00:28:19

So it was just different things.

Ayesha Foy: 00:28:22

And then at Kentucky, once I got to Kentucky, I wanted to help build their brand or build the, Kentucky already had a strong brand, but I wanted to build the voice from the coach's perspective or the staff's perspective and the recruiting perspective, you know, just realizing what you're about and what you want to be confident in sharing and really just sharing that, you know, build a brand is a relationship with the public.

Ayesha Foy: 00:28:49

So asking yourself, what do you want to be about being confident in it and then documenting the journey.

JP Clark: 00:28:55

What platforms did you use, both for yourself and for Kentucky?

JP Clark: 00:29:00

Did you spend more time on a particular social media platform or a particular, I guess, method for kind of getting those images and those.

JP Clark: 00:29:11

The things that were eventually going to establish the brand, establish who you were?

JP Clark: 00:29:16

Did you have specific platforms that you used?

Ayesha Foy: 00:29:20

Just the normals.

Ayesha Foy: 00:29:22

Twitter, Instagram, and then when I was a student athlete, I was on LinkedIn a lot, and I use LinkedIn now.

Ayesha Foy: 00:29:29

Not as much, but, you know, Twitter and Instagram, the main two, probably.

Ayesha Foy: 00:29:35

Twitter started off as the most impactful one.

Ayesha Foy: 00:29:38

Instagram was more friends.

Ayesha Foy: 00:29:41

I use Instagram more now as a professional, but not during that time when I was actually, like, building my brand was more on Twitter.

JP Clark: 00:29:49

Yeah, it felt like coaching, that there's a lot of coaches on Twitter and a lot of coaching material started out on Twitter.

JP Clark: 00:29:56

For sure.

JP Clark: 00:29:57

That was the least of, I think, kind of that's where we started.

JP Clark: 00:29:59

When we were doing the podcast, we kind of started on Twitter.

JP Clark: 00:30:02

We probably spent more of our time there.

JP Clark: 00:30:04

Again, I'm not sure we know what we're doing in any way, shape, or form, but we certainly, we certainly try.

JP Clark: 00:30:10

We probably spend more of our time on Twitter than.

JP Clark: 00:30:12

Than anywhere else.

JP Clark: 00:30:14

So is there a point when you're at Kentucky where you start to think about, maybe I want to step out on my own and take some of these things that, you know, you've mentioned several times about just sort of your, you know, your growth mindset, your ability to want to grow and be a leader and sort of take control of the things that, you know, are important to you in your life?

JP Clark: 00:30:41

When was there a point where you started to think about, hey, maybe there's a.

JP Clark: 00:30:45

Maybe there's something I could do around here and be.

JP Clark: 00:30:48

And be my own boss?

JP Clark: 00:30:49

Do you remember, like, a light bulb moment of that, or was it more of a slow burn to kind of get to that point?

Ayesha Foy: 00:30:55

I mean, both.

Ayesha Foy: 00:30:56

I mean, it was always in me.

Ayesha Foy: 00:31:00

I actually, when I was saying I wanted to go to St.

Ayesha Foy: 00:31:02

John's and I was going without any money or whatever the case may be, like, my plan was gonna write my book and sell my book and speak to pay my rent, you know, that was kind of my idea.

Ayesha Foy: 00:31:15

But while I was in college, I had the idea for the book while I was in college.

Ayesha Foy: 00:31:19

So while I was still at C mode, I started writing the book.

Ayesha Foy: 00:31:23

So I knew that I wanted to write a book and, you know, sell a book.

Ayesha Foy: 00:31:30

And to sell a book, you have to build a personal brand.

Ayesha Foy: 00:31:34

But, you know, being offered an opportunity, like, being at Kentucky, you're like, oh, man.

Ayesha Foy: 00:31:39

Like, I'm gonna do this full force.

Ayesha Foy: 00:31:41

But it was always, like, in the back of me, like, you know, and then even when I put the book out and I was, you know, at Kentucky, it still was kind of like, you have to do more to sell a book.

Ayesha Foy: 00:31:53

You know what I'm saying?

Ayesha Foy: 00:31:54

So, okay, I got a book, but it wasn't like, oh, I'm an author.

Ayesha Foy: 00:31:57

Because, you know, I'm amongst people who are amazing, and I'm part of the program, and I got to do my job and things like that.

Ayesha Foy: 00:32:05

But it was always in me.

Ayesha Foy: 00:32:07

I just didn't know when that pivot would happen.

Ayesha Foy: 00:32:10

And thankfully, the nil space made the pivot perfectly.

Ayesha Foy: 00:32:16

But I will say this.

Ayesha Foy: 00:32:18

Like, I've always.

Ayesha Foy: 00:32:20

When I'm always thinking about, like, dang, should I be on the staff right now?

Ayesha Foy: 00:32:24

Did I make the right decision?

Ayesha Foy: 00:32:25

I've always had instances where, even starting at C mode, where I would be given coaching responsibility, I got a lot of responsibilities.

Ayesha Foy: 00:32:33

So I kind of had to pick and choose which ones you want to do.

Ayesha Foy: 00:32:36

Right.

Ayesha Foy: 00:32:37

You have things that you have to do, and you have things that you can do, so, like doing scouting reports or, you know, participating in practice.

Ayesha Foy: 00:32:46

Right.

Ayesha Foy: 00:32:47

It was something, I didn't have to do that, but I could do that, you know, but it would be times where I had this full range to do this basketball stuff, and I chose not to.

Ayesha Foy: 00:32:56

I chose to focus on the career development for the athletes.

Ayesha Foy: 00:32:59

I chose to making sure I was doing, you know, the business and the branding stuff.

Ayesha Foy: 00:33:05

Right.

Ayesha Foy: 00:33:06

And then even once I got to Kentucky, you know, saying, you know, those coaches were uplifting me and trying to make sure.

Ayesha Foy: 00:33:11

Grooming me for the next stage.

Ayesha Foy: 00:33:13

And I had opportunities to, hey, do this scouting report or which I, which I would do that, but I always went back to let me help the athletes off the court.

Ayesha Foy: 00:33:23

So I've always had opportunities to be a coach or to go into coach and learn what the coach need to learn, which I still did.

Ayesha Foy: 00:33:31

Like, I learned those things.

Ayesha Foy: 00:33:31

I did the sky reports, but then I always chose.

Ayesha Foy: 00:33:35

It was always within me, like, there's a bigger thing that you should be teaching people or teaching athletes, and that is teaching them how to be the best version of themselves.

Ayesha Foy: 00:33:45

And then once the Ni Nio law passed, it kind of merged perfectly, because that's what Nio is, is teaching you how to be the best version of yourself outside of your sport and then also gain the confidence to communicate that as well.

Ayesha Foy: 00:33:59

So it just kind of aligned perfectly.

Ayesha Foy: 00:34:01

But it was always, I always felt conflicted.

Ayesha Foy: 00:34:04

That makes sense.

JP Clark: 00:34:05

No, it does.

JP Clark: 00:34:05

It absolutely does.

JP Clark: 00:34:06

I think what I hear you saying is that you had two passions, but between those two passions, the one always pulled a little stronger than the other one.

JP Clark: 00:34:16

And that's why I think eventually you walked away from the coaching to go to this side of things.

JP Clark: 00:34:23

So when that nil law is passed, are you immediately onto the idea of, hey, this is a space I want to be in?

JP Clark: 00:34:35

Did you get this idea of, hey, I could be a personal branding coach?

JP Clark: 00:34:41

I could be the nil coach for athletes?

JP Clark: 00:34:44

Was that something that you thought of right away?

JP Clark: 00:34:46

Was it something that you sort of looked at the landscape as the Nil situation started to develop?

JP Clark: 00:34:54

How did you come up with this idea so immediately?

Ayesha Foy: 00:34:58

Right.

Ayesha Foy: 00:34:58

So, you know, this is, it had always been so in our preference with this as a college, being on a college staff, you can't work with high school students, but you can work with middle school students.

Ayesha Foy: 00:35:09

I can do a camp or stuff like that.

Ayesha Foy: 00:35:11

My first year at Kentucky, I did a camp.

Ayesha Foy: 00:35:14

school athletes, and this is: 2018

Ayesha Foy: 00:35:24

But it wasn't called Nio.

Ayesha Foy: 00:35:25

Washington called leadership development.

Ayesha Foy: 00:35:27

But so, and even with my approach to recruiting, it was all like, use Kentucky to, you know, launch whatever.

Ayesha Foy: 00:35:38

Right?

Ayesha Foy: 00:35:38

I always use big blue madness.

Ayesha Foy: 00:35:39

For example, I would show recruits videos of Big Blue Madness, like, yo, look at all these people you're going to be in front of.

Ayesha Foy: 00:35:45

What type of brand can you make for yourself?

Ayesha Foy: 00:35:48

And this is before nil, you know what I'm saying?

Ayesha Foy: 00:35:50

Like, you being on this platform can help elevate you in life.

Ayesha Foy: 00:35:54

And then, you know, the Nil law.

Ayesha Foy: 00:35:57

d been talking about it since: 2019

Ayesha Foy: 00:36:03

So I had been on webinars.

Ayesha Foy: 00:36:04

I had been on, you know, all the workshops and any type of town hall or all the coaches, not even coaches.

Ayesha Foy: 00:36:13

We don't coaches there, but all administrators and nil professionals were starting to talk about it.

Ayesha Foy: 00:36:18

I had been attending all those workshops and kind of putting a plan together.

Ayesha Foy: 00:36:22

Like, how, how did our athletes that came through this program elevate their brand while they were here?

Ayesha Foy: 00:36:28

You know, that was kind of part of my recruiting pitch.

Ayesha Foy: 00:36:30

Anyway, so once the kind, once the law passed and, like, all the administrators are going crazy and trying to figure out what to do and say they players.

Ayesha Foy: 00:36:37

You know, I'm like, well, we gotta educate them on their brand.

Ayesha Foy: 00:36:40

So, you know, I became the person.

Ayesha Foy: 00:36:42

Thankfully, it had been something that I had been passionate about and talking about my whole.

Ayesha Foy: 00:36:48

At this point, I'm at Kentucky for about three years, so my, in my meetings, I'm talking about coaches building their brand.

Ayesha Foy: 00:36:56

So it wasn't any surprise.

Ayesha Foy: 00:36:57

Like, Isha's talking about branding because I had already been talking about branding and encouraging the coaches to work on their brand and things like that.

Ayesha Foy: 00:37:05

I would make our coaches post on social media.

Ayesha Foy: 00:37:07

That was part of my job, was to get them on social media.

Ayesha Foy: 00:37:10

So it fell right into my line of work.

Ayesha Foy: 00:37:17

workshop with the players in: 2021

Ayesha Foy: 00:37:23

I used my own money and went to the Nio summit.

Ayesha Foy: 00:37:28

You know, it wasn't sponsored or, you know, part of professional development.

Ayesha Foy: 00:37:32

I went because I wanted to learn.

Ayesha Foy: 00:37:34

So once I went to that summit, you know, I really had the full picture of what it really takes to be successful in IO.

Ayesha Foy: 00:37:41

But like I said, it had been part of my curriculum.

Ayesha Foy: 00:37:43

It's in my book about building a personal brand.

Ayesha Foy: 00:37:46

Again, it's not called Nil, but about building a personal brand.

Ayesha Foy: 00:37:49

k that I was working on since: 2018

Ayesha Foy: 00:37:54

No,: 2016

Ayesha Foy: 00:37:57

So it was always in my wheelhouse.

Ayesha Foy: 00:37:59

So when the law passed, like I said, I was a person, like, let me educate the players.

Ayesha Foy: 00:38:05

Come to me if you need help, XYZ.

Ayesha Foy: 00:38:09

And then my mindset was thinking, I still didn't think I was gonna be on my own doing it.

Ayesha Foy: 00:38:13

I thought I was gonna transition into the Nio person on staff, like, officially in that role, which, it was an opportunity for me to do that before I left.

Ayesha Foy: 00:38:24

But, yeah, I thought I was gonna be doing it for Kentucky.

Ayesha Foy: 00:38:28

And I just felt one day, literally, I just felt one day, like it's time to move on.

Ayesha Foy: 00:38:36

So you can really immerse yourself, because, you know, being on a basketball staff, you may have a title, and I don't know how it was gonna play out at Kentucky, but you can have a title, but you still have basketball responsibilities.

Ayesha Foy: 00:38:49

Like, I'm not, you know, you could be an IO director, but you probably do Nio about 30% of the time.

Ayesha Foy: 00:38:56

And I already knew I had curriculum and I had process laid out to help athletes.

Ayesha Foy: 00:39:01

So I was like, you know, as scary as it sounds, I have confidence in my messaging that something that I've been preaching on and kind of championing for at this point about ten years.

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JP Clark: 00:40:07

Has the implementation of nil gone the way that you anticipated it would have when the law first was passed?

JP Clark: 00:40:19

So as you're talking about that with other people who are in that space leading up to the passage of the law is what people were talking about before it passed.

JP Clark: 00:40:33

How does that compare to kind of where we are now in the landscape of nil, if that question makes any sense?

JP Clark: 00:40:40

Because I'm not sure that, like, for me, and again, I don't claim to be anywhere near as educated on the entire process of what it was thought to be versus what it is.

JP Clark: 00:40:51

But in my own mind, what I thought it was when the law passed versus what it's become now, to me at least, feel like two different things.

JP Clark: 00:41:01

So I'm just curious to get your perspective.

Ayesha Foy: 00:41:03

Yeah, nobody predicted collectives to be what it is, and people was going to figure out ways to pay athletes under the table or maybe pay them way more money than what they're actually doing, you know, as far as quid quo quo, whatever it's called.

Ayesha Foy: 00:41:23

But as fast as collectives form, it's kind of insane how fast they formed and how quickly it was able to organize.

Ayesha Foy: 00:41:32

So I don't think that people predicted, or anybody really predicted how that collectives would dominate the conversation of nioh.

Ayesha Foy: 00:41:41

As far as the commercial, the true nio, I think, is exactly where people thought it would be.

Ayesha Foy: 00:41:46

But the collective aspect of it is something that I don't think anybody was necessarily ready for or thought that it was just going to dominate the entire conversation.

Ayesha Foy: 00:41:56

Or, you know, now people think that nil is collective.

Ayesha Foy: 00:42:00

Like, that's how, you know, dominant the collective conversation has become.

Ayesha Foy: 00:42:06

And, you know, I did not think it would be something where recruits are demanding money.

Ayesha Foy: 00:42:14

You know, I still think that as an nil coach, I don't coach that.

Ayesha Foy: 00:42:17

I don't advise that, I don't agree with that the bidding, the negotiation.

Ayesha Foy: 00:42:23

Like, not negotiation.

Ayesha Foy: 00:42:24

Negotiating is fine.

Ayesha Foy: 00:42:25

Right.

Ayesha Foy: 00:42:26

But the bidding wars, like, to me and women's basketball is weird.

Ayesha Foy: 00:42:31

I, and as a, as a coach, when I get back into coaching, I'm not doing that.

Ayesha Foy: 00:42:37

Like, I'm not bidding on, you know what I'm saying?

Ayesha Foy: 00:42:40

Like, I know exactly what you're saying.

Ayesha Foy: 00:42:42

Yeah.

Ayesha Foy: 00:42:42

To, to get the money that I want to get for my athletes, but I'm not bidding on you and a recruiter.

Ayesha Foy: 00:42:49

I don't care.

Ayesha Foy: 00:42:50

Unless you, you know, number one, number two in the country, maybe if you, like, you, you could change this whole program and be like a page beckers or juju, but if you had that, then, no, no, no.

Ayesha Foy: 00:43:02

So, like, I think that's weird, but everything else is kind of what was predicted.

Ayesha Foy: 00:43:09

Kind of.

Ayesha Foy: 00:43:10

You know what I see the only, I think football, I do think football players, as much money as football generates, I understand the bidding process and the football players having this type of entitlement.

Ayesha Foy: 00:43:20

But as far as basketball, just the dynamic of the team doesn't work that way.

Ayesha Foy: 00:43:27

You know, and again, I'm for getting your money, having a conversation, the coaches doing what they need to do to generate funds or whatever coaches are doing to find money, I'm for that.

Ayesha Foy: 00:43:39

But the bidding and the undermining, you know, I think that's weird.

Ayesha Foy: 00:43:44

That's the way I can.

JP Clark: 00:43:46

That is a very appropriate word to describe it, and I think it describes it very well, because, again, if I think about the experiences of myself when I was playing, I think about the experiences of people that I know that have played in the more recent past than me, but who are not growing up in this nil, collective era, the idea of sort of being able to push yourself out there to the highest bidder or to play a year at one school and then think, okay, now I've built up my nil value and I can go out and market myself to schools at a higher level where possibly I can get more collected money.

JP Clark: 00:44:30

I think weird is a very, it's a very good word to describe what's happening, especially if you were in the system prior to nil.

JP Clark: 00:44:41

ut all the stories going back: 2030

JP Clark: 00:45:03

And now were paying players hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars in some cases.

JP Clark: 00:45:09

And its hard to believe if youd have told me five years ago that this was where it was going to end up, I think weird is a very good word choice when it comes to describing that.

JP Clark: 00:45:21

So lets take the focus off the nil collective piece of it and lets go towards more of the personal brand building and sort of what your business has been built around.

JP Clark: 00:45:33

So tell me about the genesis of your business, how you put it together.

JP Clark: 00:45:40

What the, I guess for lack of a better way of saying it, what's the business plan?

JP Clark: 00:45:44

What's the mission of your business as you put it together?

JP Clark: 00:45:48

And then we'll kind of walk through what you do for your individual clients.

Ayesha Foy: 00:45:53

Yeah, so my business is based off of education, education and consulting.

Ayesha Foy: 00:45:59

You have to train building a brand in the same way that you train, you know, shooting a basketball and it's a skill set.

Ayesha Foy: 00:46:06

I mean, business is needed, businesses paid to marketing people, marketing consultants.

Ayesha Foy: 00:46:11

So it's not something that is just going to one day you gonna wake up and you know how to brand yourself.

Ayesha Foy: 00:46:18

You can look at the athletes that have been successful in Nio and they're masterful at branding and putting themselves out there.

Ayesha Foy: 00:46:25

So, you know, I teach athletes a skill, I teach them how to believe in themselves, I teach them how to teach how to see themselves outside of their sport.

Ayesha Foy: 00:46:34

And to be successful in IO and to really maximize it, you're going to have to be able to see yourself outside of your sport.

Ayesha Foy: 00:46:41

You know, unless you're paid your juju, you know, other than them too.

Ayesha Foy: 00:46:45

Everybody else, like, you have to, you know, bring something to the company outside of like your game.

Ayesha Foy: 00:46:52

And then it's not even about bringing it to the company, it's just about, it's about seeing it within yourself first.

Ayesha Foy: 00:46:57

So, you know, in the same way you may go to a tutor for SAT prep, you could come have a session with me or be a part of my academy and learn about self awareness, branding, how to tell your story, what to say, how to present yourself, how to build up the emotional intelligence, even put yourself out there, because putting yourself out there is scary.

Ayesha Foy: 00:47:20

And I'll be the first to tell you because when I was writing my book, it was very nerve wracking to put myself out there in that way.

Ayesha Foy: 00:47:30

So, I mean, I get it.

Ayesha Foy: 00:47:31

I understand the vulnerabilities, understand the fear.

Ayesha Foy: 00:47:34

I understand why you may not post as much as an athlete because you're too worried about your performance and just understanding that it's a difference, it's a difference between your personal value and your player value.

Ayesha Foy: 00:47:49

Yes, your player value will improve your personal value, but your player value doesn't diminish your personal value.

Ayesha Foy: 00:47:56

So just helping athletes understand that mentally.

Ayesha Foy: 00:48:01

So, yeah, in the same way, you'll go to learn math or you go to learn, you know, how to dribble, you learn branding in my program.

JP Clark: 00:48:12

So if I'm a player that wants to hire you and I call you up and I say, ayesha, I want to come and be one of your clients, what's the process for onboarding somebody new into the process?

JP Clark: 00:48:28

What's that first meeting like with the athlete?

JP Clark: 00:48:31

What are some of the things that you talk about initially out of the gate with somebody who wants to improve their personal brand and take advantage of nil?

Ayesha Foy: 00:48:40

Yeah.

Ayesha Foy: 00:48:40

So the first thing I would do, I would assess their brand, and I would kind of see what.

Ayesha Foy: 00:48:47

What vision I can have for them.

Ayesha Foy: 00:48:49

Like, what you could be doing, right.

Ayesha Foy: 00:48:51

What are some marketable things that you may have just based off what I see?

Ayesha Foy: 00:48:56

Like, I could see you talking in the video, and then I could see, oh, man, you're good on camera.

Ayesha Foy: 00:49:01

In the same way, like in basketball, like, if somebody want to get a basketball evaluation, you may say, you need to work on your left hand.

Ayesha Foy: 00:49:07

You need to be able to work on your pull up jump shot.

Ayesha Foy: 00:49:11

I do.

Ayesha Foy: 00:49:12

In the same way, Brandon, I assess their strengths, assess their weaknesses.

Ayesha Foy: 00:49:16

I assess their recruiting.

Ayesha Foy: 00:49:19

What type of relationship could they have with the fan base?

Ayesha Foy: 00:49:22

So I just kind of give them a brand assessment, and that's kind of what the first meeting is and just give them this vision so they can figure out what Nio is.

Ayesha Foy: 00:49:32

Cause really, when athletes come to me, when parents come to me, they don't know what it is.

Ayesha Foy: 00:49:35

Right.

Ayesha Foy: 00:49:35

And that's good.

Ayesha Foy: 00:49:36

That's why they should come to me.

Ayesha Foy: 00:49:38

But I kind of give them this vision of what you.

Ayesha Foy: 00:49:41

What you could be, what your marketability could be, what I see that you are good at.

Ayesha Foy: 00:49:47

Right?

Ayesha Foy: 00:49:47

Are you photogenic?

Ayesha Foy: 00:49:48

Do you have a nice smile?

Ayesha Foy: 00:49:49

Like, I talk to these athletes and parents about these things.

Ayesha Foy: 00:49:54

Do you have interesting hair?

Ayesha Foy: 00:49:57

Visually, mentally, just assessing their marketability.

Ayesha Foy: 00:50:03

So that's what that first meeting is like.

Ayesha Foy: 00:50:05

But there are different ways you can work with me.

Ayesha Foy: 00:50:07

You don't have to work with me.

Ayesha Foy: 00:50:08

One on one, you can join the academy, and it works the same way Netflix works, right?

Ayesha Foy: 00:50:13

You join the academy, and now you have access to a bunch of different learning videos and training and things like that.

Ayesha Foy: 00:50:20

Or you can come through the boot camp, and that's just purchasing the ticket to the boot camp and then watching the lessons and the guest speakers and the boot camp is something I'm super proud of because the type of guests that I've been getting is beyond me.

Ayesha Foy: 00:50:35

Right.

Ayesha Foy: 00:50:36

They had some amazing people come through and speak at the boot camp.

Ayesha Foy: 00:50:41

And, you know, it's just, I call it elite education.

Ayesha Foy: 00:50:45

And, you know, I go back and forth, do I want to be an agent?

Ayesha Foy: 00:50:48

Do I want to represent athletes?

Ayesha Foy: 00:50:50

Do I want to source deals where I have sourced some deals?

Ayesha Foy: 00:50:53

But to me, it's about education and teaching them a skill set that they're going to be able to, that's going to pay the dividends for them for the rest of their life.

JP Clark: 00:51:06

So how do you approach this process with athletes who are at different stages of their athletic career in terms of a player who is a star player versus a player who maybe isn't playing very much?

JP Clark: 00:51:28

And again, we could talk about various sports and whatever.

JP Clark: 00:51:31

Obviously, there's higher profile sports.

JP Clark: 00:51:33

There's lower profile sports.

JP Clark: 00:51:35

I know that most of the people, probably who are in our audience have read or seen about the players at the very top of the pyramid, who everybody knows.

JP Clark: 00:51:45

They hear about their deals.

JP Clark: 00:51:47

We know some things about them.

JP Clark: 00:51:49

But then there's also the stories of division three athletes who are in sports that are pretty obscure, who have built a personal brand that's enabled them to take advantage of nil, maybe not to the same financial degree as somebody who's a football player at Ohio State, might be able to, but has been able to take advantage of it in their realm of where they are, which you might not think they were capable of.

JP Clark: 00:52:17

So how do you look at that in terms of the athletes on field accomplishments and recognition versus maybe somebody who doesn't have as much of that or is in a less pronounced sport, for lack of a better way of saying it?

Ayesha Foy: 00:52:31

Yeah, yeah, no, that's a great question.

Ayesha Foy: 00:52:33

So I say nil is a individual sport.

Ayesha Foy: 00:52:38

So I look at the individual and I see their individual strengths.

Ayesha Foy: 00:52:43

I see the individual marketability.

Ayesha Foy: 00:52:45

So if I have somebody that is, um, let's say they're a power five recruit or power five player, I look at the people.

Ayesha Foy: 00:52:55

I more so look at their audience and what their reach could be more so than what their personal value is, because the level of play doesn't determine their personal value, but it does determine their audience.

Ayesha Foy: 00:53:06

So, um, you know, personality is a big part of it.

Ayesha Foy: 00:53:11

So I look at their personality.

Ayesha Foy: 00:53:13

But like I said, if you are a top recruit, collectors may be part of the conversation, whereas if you're not a top recruit, collectors may not be part of the conversation.

Ayesha Foy: 00:53:27

But as far as, like, your marketability, the only thing that changes is the people that you play in front of.

Ayesha Foy: 00:53:32

So let's say if I'm evaluating a South Carolina recruit, her visibility is already going to be there.

Ayesha Foy: 00:53:42

So what I would say to her is that you're gonna be playing on national television every week.

Ayesha Foy: 00:53:48

And this is actually some information that I prepared for a South Carolina recruit that I was gonna meet with.

Ayesha Foy: 00:53:53

I never met with her, but we were planning to meet.

Ayesha Foy: 00:53:56

So I'm like, you gonna be playing on national tv?

Ayesha Foy: 00:53:58

You already one of the best point guards in, you know, nationally.

Ayesha Foy: 00:54:03

Obviously, you signed with South Carolina.

Ayesha Foy: 00:54:06

Your game, like, you good on that.

Ayesha Foy: 00:54:09

What you need to be focused on is how can you tell your story to draw people into you to make more people like you, right?

Ayesha Foy: 00:54:16

So you have the platform already because of the school that you're going to now.

Ayesha Foy: 00:54:20

You need the engagement and you engage people through your story and your personality, right?

Ayesha Foy: 00:54:25

So that is how.

Ayesha Foy: 00:54:27

And, like, everybody's different.

Ayesha Foy: 00:54:29

Like, everybody's different.

Ayesha Foy: 00:54:32

So a player that maybe they're going to a.

Ayesha Foy: 00:54:36

A mid major school, right?

Ayesha Foy: 00:54:39

I will have them lean on, like, local deals.

Ayesha Foy: 00:54:42

Like, I would encourage them to get out in the community, and I will also encourage them to utilize their fan base because they're going to be, if you are high, if you are probably a mid major recruit going to a mid major school that's not as popular, you're probably more popular in high school than you are going to be in college.

Ayesha Foy: 00:55:00

Right?

Ayesha Foy: 00:55:00

So I would tell them to, you know, lean on those relationships that you built as a high school student athlete and then also get in the community, because if you get in the community now, you have that local fan base, and you may not have the national fan base, but you have the local fan base.

Ayesha Foy: 00:55:18

And a local fan base is very, like, brands could see that.

Ayesha Foy: 00:55:22

Right?

Ayesha Foy: 00:55:23

So, I mean, everybody has a different story and different playing.

Ayesha Foy: 00:55:28

Like, everybody gets individualized playing.

Ayesha Foy: 00:55:31

And, you know, the only time where it's you, you aren't marketable or you, there's no plan for you is if you don't have any personality.

Ayesha Foy: 00:55:41

Like, you don't have any personality, you don't want to interact with people, or if you don't see the value that you have in yourself, that's the only time where it's like, oh, it's nothing I can really do for you, you know what I'm saying?

Ayesha Foy: 00:55:51

And then sometimes it's just sometimes maybe somebody need to speak some life into you, right?

Ayesha Foy: 00:55:59

But it's so individualized.

Ayesha Foy: 00:56:00

And somebody that's going mid major can have a lot more potential than somebody that's playing at a power five school if they don't have the personality or the fans or the engagement.

JP Clark: 00:56:14

Well, let's take it from, again, two perspectives.

JP Clark: 00:56:18

Let's say that an athlete comes to you who has already developed a social media following.

JP Clark: 00:56:25

So they already have a decent amount of fans, a decent amount of people that are aware of them, that are following them.

JP Clark: 00:56:32

And let's talk about the plan for someone like that.

JP Clark: 00:56:35

And then let's talk about somebody who's kind of coming in, who maybe they have some of those personality traits or they have something like you described that makes them marketable, but they really, at that point, have no following.

JP Clark: 00:56:48

They haven't developed any of sort of that fan base, that social media following.

JP Clark: 00:56:54

How do you approach those two sort of different starting points for each of those two athletes?

Ayesha Foy: 00:57:03

Yeah, I mean, if the athlete has a lot, has a big following, you know, at that point, they're at.

Ayesha Foy: 00:57:11

So the five steps are building your brand, building your audience, building your product, building your pitch, and building your plan.

Ayesha Foy: 00:57:22

Right.

Ayesha Foy: 00:57:23

So at that point, if they already have a strong audience, then we talk about how to productize yourself.

Ayesha Foy: 00:57:31

So what products can you be using?

Ayesha Foy: 00:57:34

And I don't really skip these steps, even if you are, if you do have a big fan base, I still train all of it, but we're more focused on how can you put products in front of these fans that you have.

Ayesha Foy: 00:57:47

And now it may be a situation where we can just start reaching out to companies, you know what I'm saying?

Ayesha Foy: 00:57:52

Because you have the numbers that can make you money right away.

Ayesha Foy: 00:57:55

So that's how I approach an athlete with already, like, let's say the magic number is 10,000 followers.

Ayesha Foy: 00:58:03

They have 10,000 followers.

Ayesha Foy: 00:58:04

They are ready to financially benefit off their social media.

Ayesha Foy: 00:58:09

And that doesn't mean you can't benefit if you don't have 10,000 followers.

Ayesha Foy: 00:58:12

But that's just, that's just a milestone that in any industry, you can make money as an influencer with 10,000 followers plus.

Ayesha Foy: 00:58:23

So if they're at that mark, we talk about productizing yourself.

Ayesha Foy: 00:58:27

And, you know, now we're asking, like, what companies do you want?

Ayesha Foy: 00:58:32

Do you want to reach out to?

Ayesha Foy: 00:58:33

How can we formulate a pitch to reach out to these companies?

Ayesha Foy: 00:58:36

What's your pricing going to be?

Ayesha Foy: 00:58:39

You know, and then just developing a plan for constantly reaching out to companies, because you already have the storytelling down.

Ayesha Foy: 00:58:45

You may already have the confidence to put yourself out there.

Ayesha Foy: 00:58:48

If you don't have those things, let's say you're just starting out, no followers or a little bit of followers.

Ayesha Foy: 00:58:54

Nobody really knows about you.

Ayesha Foy: 00:58:56

Now, a lot of that is really confidence thing.

Ayesha Foy: 00:58:59

So people may say, what should I post?

Ayesha Foy: 00:59:02

What should I post?

Ayesha Foy: 00:59:03

Well, we gotta figure out why you don't even feel like you're worthy of posting anything.

Ayesha Foy: 00:59:07

Right?

Ayesha Foy: 00:59:07

And this the part that is very underlining that people don't get.

Ayesha Foy: 00:59:12

They wanna skip to, oh, I got my scheduled post, or I need to make a fancy video.

Ayesha Foy: 00:59:17

Like, no, we need to find out, like, why you don't think, like, why are you only posting your offers?

Ayesha Foy: 00:59:23

Why you don't think your life is important enough for you to share it.

Ayesha Foy: 00:59:27

Or maybe you don't have a reason to share, you know, different things that's going on in your life.

Ayesha Foy: 00:59:32

And that doesn't mean put all your business out there.

Ayesha Foy: 00:59:34

I don't teach that, but it could mean, you know, just understanding how to document your journey.

Ayesha Foy: 00:59:42

So now I'm more so coaching an athlete on self awareness, confidence, storytelling, so that they do develop a regular cadence of posting slash sharingan.

Ayesha Foy: 00:59:54

And it's not all about posting.

Ayesha Foy: 00:59:56

It's more just about having a relationship with the public.

Ayesha Foy: 00:59:59

But posting is an easy way to kind of, you know, picture that.

Ayesha Foy: 01:00:03

But, you know, let's work on your relationship with the public.

Ayesha Foy: 01:00:06

Let's work on your shyness.

Ayesha Foy: 01:00:08

Let's work on your personality.

Ayesha Foy: 01:00:12

Right?

Ayesha Foy: 01:00:13

No, change your personality.

Ayesha Foy: 01:00:14

But, like, what parts of you can you show that you're not, that you afraid of showing?

Ayesha Foy: 01:00:20

During the money game, episode three, they talked about Shaquille O'Neal, went to his, his professor and asked him, you know, I'm gonna be a good basketball player.

Ayesha Foy: 01:00:32

I probably need to develop a brand.

Ayesha Foy: 01:00:34

Can you help me?

Ayesha Foy: 01:00:35

And I love the fact that they showed that, because that's a big piece.

Ayesha Foy: 01:00:38

And why should Keller Neal's brand is where his brand is right now.

Ayesha Foy: 01:00:41

And that's exactly what I do.

Ayesha Foy: 01:00:43

Right?

Ayesha Foy: 01:00:43

Like, I help athletes.

Ayesha Foy: 01:00:45

Like, okay, I may be a good player, but how can I maximize my brand?

Ayesha Foy: 01:00:51

You know, what ideas can I think about?

Ayesha Foy: 01:00:55

And some of it is just showing them ideas.

Ayesha Foy: 01:00:57

Like, a lot of people don't know what is possible.

Ayesha Foy: 01:01:00

They just see headlines of somebody getting paid money to go to a school.

Ayesha Foy: 01:01:05

And that's probably the furthest thing from what real nil should be.

Ayesha Foy: 01:01:09

So some of it is giving them ideas, giving them confidence, and then showing them what's possible.

JP Clark: 01:01:15

Talk to me a little bit about the back end of it.

JP Clark: 01:01:18

So when an athlete, we start talking about productizing.

JP Clark: 01:01:23

Right.

JP Clark: 01:01:23

And trying to find you.

JP Clark: 01:01:24

So I have this following now.

JP Clark: 01:01:26

I'm trying to look for products.

JP Clark: 01:01:27

I'm trying to look for companies that I can work with, that I can partner with.

JP Clark: 01:01:31

How do you, in your role, how do you develop relationships with the companies?

JP Clark: 01:01:37

Or once you have the athlete ready for that spot, what's your process for reaching out to potential companies that an athlete could work with?

JP Clark: 01:01:46

How do you go about that side of the business?

Ayesha Foy: 01:01:49

Yeah, so I'm not an agent, and I don't.

Ayesha Foy: 01:01:55

I don't say, if you work with me, I'm gonna get you deals.

Ayesha Foy: 01:01:58

Right?

Ayesha Foy: 01:01:59

I'm.

Ayesha Foy: 01:02:00

Right now as of what?

Ayesha Foy: 01:02:03

te the recording of this, but: 2024

Ayesha Foy: 01:02:10

Like, I'm not.

Ayesha Foy: 01:02:11

I'm not an agent.

Ayesha Foy: 01:02:12

Like I said, I have source deals, but that's not something that I'm like, yeah, work with me.

Ayesha Foy: 01:02:15

I'm gonna get you deals.

Ayesha Foy: 01:02:16

Like, I'm not.

Ayesha Foy: 01:02:17

I'm not doing that because I know there's a process where you can learn how to do this and, or you can get a family member to learn how to do it.

Ayesha Foy: 01:02:25

And at the end of the day, I do think nil is an individual sport, and the education is the most important piece.

Ayesha Foy: 01:02:31

However, I'm constantly reaching out to companies as if I'm an agent.

Ayesha Foy: 01:02:36

So I reach out to companies like, hey, you know, would you be interested in working with any athletes?

Ayesha Foy: 01:02:41

I'm building up my database, and it may be a situation where, for my elite level clients, like, I'll share my database with them.

Ayesha Foy: 01:02:51

So I'm constantly.

Ayesha Foy: 01:02:53

I promote myself to businesses like, I'm an agent so they can give me the content, you know, or they can put me in the right direction.

Ayesha Foy: 01:03:00

I got a conversation with the person that may be choosing who they're going to work with.

Ayesha Foy: 01:03:05

Or maybe a situation like it was last year, where I had an athlete that I'm close to.

Ayesha Foy: 01:03:12

She's not my client, but I'm close to her.

Ayesha Foy: 01:03:13

She had a really good game in NCAA tournament, and I'm reaching out to companies like, hey, this kid is blowing up in an NCAA tournament.

Ayesha Foy: 01:03:21

If you want somebody to market your company at this level, you should take a look at her.

Ayesha Foy: 01:03:27

And we close the deal.

Ayesha Foy: 01:03:29

So that happened by chance, but I don't.

Ayesha Foy: 01:03:33

That's not part of my business model.

Ayesha Foy: 01:03:35

But, yeah, I'm always promoting myself to companies as if I'm an age old, as if I'm gonna bring them people to work with, and then I share that information with athletes who are my programming parents, because honestly, the hardest part about this whole nil thing is finding contact information.

JP Clark: 01:03:53

Yeah, I can imagine.

JP Clark: 01:03:54

I mean, I know that even just thinking about from a very low level point of view when it comes to the podcast and reaching out and trying to find podcast advertisers, you go and you're like, oh, that company looks like it would be essentially a really good fit.

JP Clark: 01:04:12

And then you go to their website and there's no contact information.

JP Clark: 01:04:16

Or the worst is when you get to the page where there's not even an email, it's just you have to fill out the, the form fields.

JP Clark: 01:04:23

Then you fill that in there and you click send and you're like, I don't know.

JP Clark: 01:04:27

I don't have any record of that thing being sent.

JP Clark: 01:04:29

I don't know who it went to, where it got to.

JP Clark: 01:04:32

And so, yeah, I can completely relate to the ability to find the decision maker.

JP Clark: 01:04:37

Right.

JP Clark: 01:04:37

That's always the story of you got to find the person who has the ability to say yes or the ability to say no.

JP Clark: 01:04:43

And oftentimes I know in my own experiences, I never even get to that point where I actually talked to someone who could at least tell me no.

JP Clark: 01:04:53

To your point, it's very difficult sometimes to find all that contact information.

JP Clark: 01:04:58

So as you build that database, obviously that gives you more resources that you can then share with your clients.

JP Clark: 01:05:05

So you talked a little bit there for just a brief moment about the parents of athletes, which is sometimes, again, we think about the athletes building their brand.

JP Clark: 01:05:15

But especially when we're talking about college athletes, especially in the way that the sports landscape is today, where parents are way more invested in their kids athletic careers, probably than they were 20 or 30 years ago.

JP Clark: 01:05:32

tball player at this point in: 2024

JP Clark: 01:05:53

They've been immensely involved in their career.

JP Clark: 01:05:56

So as you're talking to athletes, what are the conversations like that you're having with parents?

JP Clark: 01:06:02

As you're explaining sort of the value add that you can bring to their son or daughter?

Ayesha Foy: 01:06:09

You know, the value add that I explain is that I'm going to teach them be the best version of themselves.

Ayesha Foy: 01:06:15

Right.

Ayesha Foy: 01:06:16

That's always my message.

Ayesha Foy: 01:06:18

You know, I'm not, I'm not, I don't position myself to be like, hey, pick me, pick me, work with me.

Ayesha Foy: 01:06:24

I don't know if you see, you know, my marketing and stuff.

Ayesha Foy: 01:06:26

I'm not, I don't try to be arrogant or anything, but, like, either you want this training or you don't.

Ayesha Foy: 01:06:33

But at the same time, I do encourage the parent to get involved.

Ayesha Foy: 01:06:36

I do encourage the, the parent to learn.

Ayesha Foy: 01:06:41

And I teach them how, you know, what role can the parents play in this situation?

Ayesha Foy: 01:06:48

Because, you know, like I'm saying, like, I'm reaching out to companies pretty much all year long to get contact information.

Ayesha Foy: 01:06:54

A parent could be doing that.

Ayesha Foy: 01:06:57

So I try to teach the parents how they can get their athlete participating in Nil.

Ayesha Foy: 01:07:06

The benefits of it, right?

Ayesha Foy: 01:07:08

I don't necessarily say the benefits of working with me.

Ayesha Foy: 01:07:11

I say the benefits.

Ayesha Foy: 01:07:12

I just want them to participate in Il, I don't care if they're in my program or not.

Ayesha Foy: 01:07:16

I just want them to be working toward their future.

Ayesha Foy: 01:07:20

You know what I'm saying?

Ayesha Foy: 01:07:21

So I like to educate athletes and the parents on, like, if you participated in nil successfully, this is what you're, this is what can happen in your future.

Ayesha Foy: 01:07:30

If your athlete wants to get into law school or they want to be a lawyer, they can do an NIO deal with a local law firm and build a relationship with them throughout their four years as a student.

Ayesha Foy: 01:07:41

And guess what?

Ayesha Foy: 01:07:43

You could do a deal with them and maybe they'll pay for your law school or maybe they'll give you a first internship, or maybe they'll, you know what I'm saying?

Ayesha Foy: 01:07:49

Maybe they'll write some recommendations for you.

Ayesha Foy: 01:07:51

Like, that's what I care about.

Ayesha Foy: 01:07:52

So I more so encourage athletes and parents to just get involved.

Ayesha Foy: 01:07:58

If they work with me or not, you know, that's completely up to them.

Ayesha Foy: 01:08:04

You know, they see the product.

Ayesha Foy: 01:08:06

If you want your kid to be, to be coached and mentored in this way, then, you know, join the program.

Ayesha Foy: 01:08:12

If not, then I want you to participate in nil and I want you to watch the money game because that's going to give you all the information that you need on Prime Video.

Ayesha Foy: 01:08:21

Watch the money game on Amazon prime video highlighting unless you in IO.

JP Clark: 01:08:26

All right, give me one major do and one major don't.

JP Clark: 01:08:32

For an athlete who is trying to figure out how to deal with social media, what's the biggest mistake you see athletes making?

JP Clark: 01:08:39

So that's the don't.

JP Clark: 01:08:41

And then if you could tell kids who are trying to build their brand, give them one tip.

JP Clark: 01:08:46

What would be the one tip that that you would give them.

JP Clark: 01:08:49

I know your chores were trying to simplify your whole business down to one tip, but just one do it.

JP Clark: 01:08:54

One do and one don't.

JP Clark: 01:08:55

For athletes out there who are trying to build their brand.

Ayesha Foy: 01:08:58

I say don't.

Ayesha Foy: 01:09:00

Don't just post your sport.

Ayesha Foy: 01:09:03

Don't just post your sport.

Ayesha Foy: 01:09:05

Ado.

Ayesha Foy: 01:09:08

Now, I'll take it back.

Ayesha Foy: 01:09:09

A don't is don't wait.

Ayesha Foy: 01:09:12

Get started.

Ayesha Foy: 01:09:12

Now.

Ayesha Foy: 01:09:14

Ado is post more than just your sport.

JP Clark: 01:09:18

Post makes sense.

JP Clark: 01:09:19

Aspects of me got you so that somebody can see your whole personality.

JP Clark: 01:09:23

You're not just posting things about, here I am.

JP Clark: 01:09:26

I'm an athlete.

JP Clark: 01:09:27

Here's my statistics.

JP Clark: 01:09:28

Here's some highlights.

JP Clark: 01:09:29

Here's me in uniform.

JP Clark: 01:09:31

It's, hey, here I am off the court.

JP Clark: 01:09:33

Here's who I am.

JP Clark: 01:09:35

I'm getting to show you a little bit of my personality.

JP Clark: 01:09:37

And then that's what can sort of broaden the opportunity that you have to be able to take advantage of nil.

JP Clark: 01:09:43

Is that sort of summarize accurately kind of what you're getting at?

Ayesha Foy: 01:09:47

Absolutely.

Ayesha Foy: 01:09:48

Not as perfect.

Ayesha Foy: 01:09:49

That's perfect because athletes are so used to marketing themselves to college coaches, and it's like, for nil, you don't need to market yourself to college coaches because the brands don't care that you play the sport.

Ayesha Foy: 01:09:59

You know what I'm saying?

Ayesha Foy: 01:10:00

Like, you need to market yourself to your fans, not, you know, the college coaches.

Ayesha Foy: 01:10:04

They gonna see you.

Ayesha Foy: 01:10:05

And yes, you do promote yourself as an athlete to a certain extent until you get the attention of the college coaches.

Ayesha Foy: 01:10:13

But once you already have a few offers, they're gonna start flocking to you.

Ayesha Foy: 01:10:16

Like, they're gonna be following you around.

Ayesha Foy: 01:10:18

So you don't need to at that point.

Ayesha Foy: 01:10:20

That's where you kind of flip it.

Ayesha Foy: 01:10:21

And that's what I teach athletes is like, you market yourself as an athlete to a certain point, and then you flip it.

Ayesha Foy: 01:10:29

Like, now you have the power right?

Ayesha Foy: 01:10:31

Now it's your movement, right.

Ayesha Foy: 01:10:35

But yet people still continue to have 25 power five suit, power five offers, but they still, you know, promoting their offers and promoting the fact that they play basketball.

Ayesha Foy: 01:10:45

I was like, you passed that.

Ayesha Foy: 01:10:47

You need a fan base at this point because you already going, you know, far in basketball.

Ayesha Foy: 01:10:53

So, like, bring some people with you at that point.

JP Clark: 01:10:56

Absolutely.

JP Clark: 01:10:57

All right.

JP Clark: 01:10:58

You mentioned off and on throughout the last hour some of the different programs offerings that you have as part of your business.

JP Clark: 01:11:07

So why don't you go ahead and just share some of those different programs that you have and give us the 32nd summary of each one and how people can interact with you in different ways and in the different tiers that kind of make up your business.

Ayesha Foy: 01:11:23

Yeah.

Ayesha Foy: 01:11:24

So the main, you know, the main offering is major in IO success academy.

Ayesha Foy: 01:11:30

Again, it works just like going to basketball training two, three times a week.

Ayesha Foy: 01:11:34

But, you know, it's.

Ayesha Foy: 01:11:35

It's two sessions, two learning opportunities each week, each month.

Ayesha Foy: 01:11:40

Excuse me.

Ayesha Foy: 01:11:42

And you treat like a Netflix account.

Ayesha Foy: 01:11:44

You have access to it, and you get the.

Ayesha Foy: 01:11:47

You get the lessons sent to you.

Ayesha Foy: 01:11:49

You do your homework, you send that to me.

Ayesha Foy: 01:11:52

And there's.

Ayesha Foy: 01:11:52

There's another tier to that where it's personal one on one coaching.

Ayesha Foy: 01:11:55

So you get the group coaching, plus the one on one coaching, and that'll be the next tier of that.

Ayesha Foy: 01:12:00

So that's a.

Ayesha Foy: 01:12:00

That's the academy.

Ayesha Foy: 01:12:01

That's my main offering.

Ayesha Foy: 01:12:02

And then the bootcamp, which is a one off, like a conference.

Ayesha Foy: 01:12:06

It's a virtual conference, and that's something that you could attend and watch it be a part of it.

Ayesha Foy: 01:12:13

For last year, I did it for two days, so probably two days again, you know, moving forward.

Ayesha Foy: 01:12:18

So be a part of it for two days and learn everything you can, and then just, you know, go on your own to implement, or you can join the academy to continue getting coaching and support and guidance.

Ayesha Foy: 01:12:30

Other ways to interact with me is I do live workshops, I do master classes.

Ayesha Foy: 01:12:37

I do a lot of free stuff.

Ayesha Foy: 01:12:40

If you go on my website right now, my academy is closed.

Ayesha Foy: 01:12:43

But if you go on the website right now, you can download or access a free training, and they'll get you started in the right direction.

Ayesha Foy: 01:12:51

So those are different ways.

Ayesha Foy: 01:12:52

I post videos on Instagram, post videos on social media to learn.

Ayesha Foy: 01:12:59

But, like, you know, look at me as a coach, a consultant, a teacher education.

Ayesha Foy: 01:13:05

I'm not trying to represent your athlete, and I'm not trying to get any athletes NiO money.

Ayesha Foy: 01:13:11

I'm trying to teach them what they need to do to be successful in life and also teach you how you can help assist them and possibly get some NIO opportunities.

Ayesha Foy: 01:13:20

So, yeah, learning, education and being inspired, really.

JP Clark: 01:13:28

All right, final two part question.

JP Clark: 01:13:30

Part one.

JP Clark: 01:13:30

When you look ahead over the next year or two, what do you see as being the biggest challenge?

JP Clark: 01:13:36

And then the second part of the question is, when you think about what you get to do every day, helping athletes to build their brand and take advantage of nil, what brings you the most joy?

JP Clark: 01:13:45

So, your biggest challenge first and then your biggest joy.

Ayesha Foy: 01:13:50

Okay, so my biggest challenge.

Ayesha Foy: 01:13:53

Hmm.

Ayesha Foy: 01:13:55

My biggest challenge is, like, people not getting that nil is something that needs to be learned.

Ayesha Foy: 01:14:04

Like, building a brand is something that needs to be learned.

Ayesha Foy: 01:14:06

And it's such a big learning curve, right?

Ayesha Foy: 01:14:09

So people coming to me too late or when they finally think they're ready, they think they're ready to make money, when your athlete has zero confidence in themselves or zero awareness of who they outside of their sport.

Ayesha Foy: 01:14:25

So that's my biggest challenge, is getting people to realize that this is something that you have to learn.

Ayesha Foy: 01:14:30

It's a learning process, not, she's ready, come help her make money.

Ayesha Foy: 01:14:35

Like, no.

Ayesha Foy: 01:14:36

So that's pretty annoying, but it's just part of when you are teaching something that's innovative.

Ayesha Foy: 01:14:45

So that's my biggest challenge.

Ayesha Foy: 01:14:46

My biggest joy is when I work with athletes and I see the confidence, I see the glow in their eye.

Ayesha Foy: 01:14:53

I see them think about themselves in ways that they never thought about themselves.

Ayesha Foy: 01:14:57

That's why I do what I do.

Ayesha Foy: 01:14:59

That's why I do this.

Ayesha Foy: 01:15:00

You know, could be coaching basketball, making a whole lot more money, you know, on a college staff, but.

Ayesha Foy: 01:15:07

But, you know, just that glow in them, in that confidence and them believing in themselves, like, oh, maybe I'm not the best player.

Ayesha Foy: 01:15:15

Maybe I'm not at a power five school, but I can get deals, or I could.

Ayesha Foy: 01:15:20

I could use this to build up my.

Ayesha Foy: 01:15:23

The business that I have in mind, you know, once I graduate, you know, so I love just seeing that confidence.

Ayesha Foy: 01:15:30

And when athletes just have ideas and just have a vision for themselves, that brings me a lot of joy.

JP Clark: 01:15:38

All right, before we get out, I want to give you a chance to share how people can connect with you, share your website, share all your social media stuff, every way that people can reach out to you.

JP Clark: 01:15:49

And then after you do that, I'll jump back in and wrap things up.

Ayesha Foy: 01:15:53

Absolutely.

Ayesha Foy: 01:15:54

If you go to majoriniosuccess.com, majoriniosuccess.com, you'll be able to get a free workshop right away.

Ayesha Foy: 01:16:03

You can sign up for my email list, things like that.

Ayesha Foy: 01:16:06

You can follow me on social media.

Ayesha Foy: 01:16:07

Ayesha foy on Twitter and on Instagram.

Ayesha Foy: 01:16:12

Also, nil coach ish on social media.

Ayesha Foy: 01:16:15

But it's easy just to type in my full name.

Ayesha Foy: 01:16:17

Ayesha Foy.

Ayesha Foy: 01:16:18

I post videos, updates, inspiration, all types of things when it comes to nil and learning.

Ayesha Foy: 01:16:26

And again, that website is major Nio success.

Ayesha Foy: 01:16:30

That will always be where you can find any nil things that's happening or going on or anything like that.

JP Clark: 01:16:37

Ayesha cannot thank you enough for taking the time out of your schedule tonight to join us.

JP Clark: 01:16:43

Really appreciate it.

JP Clark: 01:16:44

It's been a pleasure to talk to you.

JP Clark: 01:16:47

It's been a pleasure to learn some of the things that you're sharing with your clients about Nil.

JP Clark: 01:16:51

It's always an area that I think is probably going to continue to evolve.

JP Clark: 01:16:56

It's one that I'm trying to better understand so I can have more intelligent conversations with coaches.

JP Clark: 01:17:02

And so I thank you for enlightening me and hopefully our audience on some of the things that you've been able to learn over the course of your time, working with athletes, working with nil and trying to help people to take advantage of that.

JP Clark: 01:17:15

So thank you and to everyone out there, thanks for listening and we will catch you on our next episode.

JP Clark: 01:17:21

Thanks.

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Ayesha Foy: 01:18:14

Thanks for listening to the Hoop Heads.

JP Clark: 01:18:16

Podcast presented by Ed Start Basketball.