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How to become #Sponsored Athlete
Episode 48 • 20th March 2021 • Success Inspired • Vit Müller
00:00:00 00:46:49

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My guest today is a sponsored athlete, tech and operations manager and author of the book #sponsored

As a child, she pursued her athletic aspirations by playing basketball despite being a mere 5'5”. Spurred on by the love of sports and discipline, she transitioned to swimming, cycling, and running, claiming age group podiums and racing in the renowned Ironman World Championships.

Her book #Sponsored looks to explain the exciting and highly competitive world of sports sponsorships, including the sponsor-sponsee relationship. Through stories of other athletes and brand liaisons as well as her own journey as an amateur athlete, author Jasmine Chou discusses the sport sponsorship world from the athlete’s standpoint as well as the brand’s perspective.

jaschou.com

Get the book #Sponsored

How Brands & Athletes Can Leverage Each Other

Available via Amazon and Barnes & Noble

Highlights:

  • (00:02:48) - What inspired Jasmine to be so active
  • (00:05:58) - What obligations one has as a sponsored athlete?
  • (00:14:53) - We talk about Ironman, Jas's experience and what goes into preparing for one.
  • (00:21:09) - What is the experience like getting through the finish line of an IronMan
  • (00:28:46) - What inspires certain individuals to do an IronMan triathlon
  • (00:30:42 - How does Jas balance her lifestyle
  • (00:32:51) - Key lessons Jasmine has learned from the process of writing a book

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Transcripts

Speaker:

Welcome to the success inspired podcast, a business and personal development podcast to help you accomplish more in life and realize your true potential.

Speaker:

And now here is your host Vit Muller

Vit Muller:

Hello, everybody Vit here from Success inspired podcast.

Vit Muller:

Welcome to another great interview.

Vit Muller:

And today I've got a great guest.

Vit Muller:

she's a sponsored athlete.

Vit Muller:

She's a Tech & Operations manager and author of the book #Sponsored.

Vit Muller:

As a child, she pursued her athletic aspirations by playing basketball, despite being a mere 5.5 feet.

Vit Muller:

Spurred on by the life of sport and discipline, she transitioned to swimming, cycling, and running, claiming age group podiums and racing in the renown ironman world championships.

Vit Muller:

Please welcome to the show Jasmine Chou.

Jasmine Chou:

So glad to be here.

Vit Muller:

Great to have you on the show at Jasmine.

Vit Muller:

Great to be in the show.

Vit Muller:

Now you're from New York, right?

Vit Muller:

Yes.

Vit Muller:

With the lockdown and everything.

Vit Muller:

Have you had a chance to to attend any events since since it all started?

Jasmine Chou:

No.

Jasmine Chou:

I mean, we joke that governor Cuomo, which is like the New York governor the cap is 10 people.

Jasmine Chou:

So you can't have any gathering with more than 10 people.

Jasmine Chou:

So, I've been happily quarantined and biking and running as much as I can because those are solo activities.

Vit Muller:

Yeah, absolutely.

Vit Muller:

So when, when do you think that you'll be able to do your next Iron man?

Jasmine Chou:

Oh, I mean, iron man has.

Jasmine Chou:

Given the green light to hold the 70.3, which is the half Ironman and the full Ironman this year, a couple of their events got canceled the end of last year.

Jasmine Chou:

So I personally am not going to be racing until the end of 2021 at best, most likely 22, I think.

Vit Muller:

Yeah.

Vit Muller:

Right.

Vit Muller:

Well, that's a, that's a, that's a fair bit of time to wait.

Vit Muller:

How are you going to keep up with your fitness and, and preparations when it opens up again?

Jasmine Chou:

So that's a great question because with lockdown full lockdown in the U S and a lot of other countries pools have been closed it's been very hard motivationally to.

Jasmine Chou:

Keep on the grind with no races to break up your schedule.

Jasmine Chou:

So for me, it's been a lot more using sports as a way to add to my life, to be a meditative practice, to be a discipline practice, rather than chasing PR's and hitting all these races.

Jasmine Chou:

So consistency is key and that's what I've been focusing on for this last year.

Vit Muller:

Awesome.

Vit Muller:

Awesome.

Vit Muller:

And what inspired you like, I mean, you've done, you've done a couple of trials, many triathlons and multiple Ironman events.

Vit Muller:

Tell me what inspired you to, you know, to get into this whole athleticism.

Jasmine Chou:

Yeah, so sports, has played a big role in my life.

Jasmine Chou:

My parents thankfully knew the power of team sports growing up.

Jasmine Chou:

It taught a lot of collaboration.

Jasmine Chou:

You dealt with failure, you dealt with wins and losses and a lot of different people dynamics.

Jasmine Chou:

So I grew up playing team sports.

Jasmine Chou:

Absolutely loved it, but wasn't athletically gifted enough to really play through a university or college.

Jasmine Chou:

And I transitioned more into individual sports when I was at School in college and really found my calling in a multi-disciplinary approach

Jasmine Chou:

So, the only way that I can really compete is to combine all three together or more.

Vit Muller:

Well, it's always about finding finding what you're good at, what could be, what was the saying work with your strengths and work on your weaknesses.

Vit Muller:

Right.

Vit Muller:

So you've, you've done that and it's worked out for you now, this whole wall of sponsorships.

Vit Muller:

You, you wrote it in your book about sponsorship, how amateur athlete is going to get sponsored.

Vit Muller:

how did, what was the first time that you were approached to be sponsored and and what did that do for you?

Jasmine Chou:

Yes, so I actually was.

Jasmine Chou:

Very nascent to this industry.

Jasmine Chou:

I didn't really understand how non-professional people could get sponsored.

Jasmine Chou:

I saw brand ambassadorships, but didn't really understand them.

Jasmine Chou:

So this book was actually a way for me to use myself as a Guinea pig to see, okay, let's go out and discover and find all of these different

Jasmine Chou:

So I was actually not approached.

Jasmine Chou:

I applied and I want to walk through the process a little bit more clearly because it's not exactly the same for a lot of different sports, but for triathletes, a very distinct process.

Jasmine Chou:

So for triathlon teams, for amateur triathlon teams, the application process usually runs from around fall, which is the end of the triathlon season into winter.

Jasmine Chou:

And there's a bunch of triathlon teams that sponsor amateurs us.

Jasmine Chou:

Athletes just because they want to get their brand out there.

Jasmine Chou:

They want to provide value for their affiliate sponsors.

Jasmine Chou:

And so there's a big network that's still growing.

Jasmine Chou:

I would say a medium size, too big.

Jasmine Chou:

That's still growing.

Jasmine Chou:

and really just to create a very virtuous cycle for amateur athletes to get into the sport and also for brands to reach these amateur athletes.

Jasmine Chou:

So I applied.

Jasmine Chou:

but before I even applied, I did a lot of research on the different teams.

Jasmine Chou:

I looked at the current roster and saw these athletes that were representing these amateur sports brands on the race field.

Jasmine Chou:

And so had a really good idea of which one was my top.

Jasmine Chou:

I am currently sponsored by water, Inc.

Jasmine Chou:

I am on their elite team and I race for them at all the triathlon events and the multi-sport events.

Vit Muller:

Just to give an idea to somebody out there, listening to this podcast who is an athlete or a mature athlete, just becoming more

Jasmine Chou:

Yes.

Jasmine Chou:

So.

Jasmine Chou:

There is a, almost a non-compete.

Jasmine Chou:

So if I raise for Whitey, Inc, and they have one by a bike spine sponsor, or one clothing sponsor, or one, a recovery tool sponsor, you can't

Jasmine Chou:

So that's an automatic that's, that's something you do commit to you do commit to representing the brand at every single instance and opportunity that you can.

Jasmine Chou:

So when you're racing, you're wearing the kit, you're not promoting other brands that are conflicting interests, or it could be a slip of Montre.

Jasmine Chou:

So those are the very hardcore commitments and.

Jasmine Chou:

On top of that, a lot of amateur spot sponsored athletes actually go above and beyond and they find other opportunities to really promote the brand.

Jasmine Chou:

So for example, I was going to do a book launch last year before COVID hit.

Jasmine Chou:

And I was thinking of creative ideas to incorporate the bar sponsor that I'm a part of into unique recipes so that I could use these recipes and give people snacks while they're at my book launch.

Jasmine Chou:

So you find really creative kind of overlapping ways to like promote the brand.

Vit Muller:

Right?

Vit Muller:

Right.

Vit Muller:

So they, they give you the freedom to get creative and create content, whether it's on social media video or through book.

Jasmine Chou:

Yes.

Vit Muller:

With, with the sponsorship being in a way restrictive with, you know, whatever brand you commit to that.

Vit Muller:

I guess that brings an important point of making sure that you decide correctly, who you want to be sponsored by.

Vit Muller:

Right.

Vit Muller:

Cause it goes both ways.

Vit Muller:

Right?

Vit Muller:

I mean, initially if you're, I don't want to say nobody, but initially when you, when you don't have any sponsors, you might feel like you might jump on the first opportunity.

Vit Muller:

Right.

Vit Muller:

But then I guess it's important to really assess whether that's the brand that you want to go with, because if you do go for a particular brand, do

Vit Muller:

Or is there some part of some sort over a, a period of time that you have to commit to?

Vit Muller:

Or how does that work?

Jasmine Chou:

Yes.

Jasmine Chou:

So most amateur sponsorships go in one year, year cycles.

Jasmine Chou:

So you reapply a per year.

Jasmine Chou:

I cannot say for professional contracts, evidently, but that I did want to go back to a point that you touched upon, which is very important and very core

Jasmine Chou:

The brand has the free gear.

Jasmine Chou:

The brand has a free product, and therefore I need to do whatever the brand says and promote their stuff.

Jasmine Chou:

And kind of like, I am at a disadvantage because I don't have the monetary means to subsidize my sport, but that's actually incorrect because you have to be very,

Jasmine Chou:

Because if you don't believe in the brand or you don't believe in the product, it's going to make your job a lot harder.

Jasmine Chou:

And.

Jasmine Chou:

Suddenly you, you start to meaning your own credibility as a athlete or as someone that is, you know, an amateurish sponsoree, because you're promoting brands or

Jasmine Chou:

so I, you, you do have to be very thoughtful about how you engage and with the one-year contracts, it's very nice that you have like one

Jasmine Chou:

Depart the relationship amicably.

Jasmine Chou:

and there's no hard feelings because at the end of the day, we're trying all to promote the sport and like get more people in the sport and the brands.

Jasmine Chou:

So I think there's, it's not very binary.

Jasmine Chou:

It's not just like, you don't pick a brand and therefore you hate the brand.

Jasmine Chou:

And like, you know, the brand comes after you.

Jasmine Chou:

It's not like that.

Jasmine Chou:

It's, it's an evolving relationship with all the brands that you engage with.

Vit Muller:

Absolutely.

Vit Muller:

I mean, there's so many brands, right?

Vit Muller:

You have to also, I guess, think about how the relationship or how, how you know, particular brand like, for example, red bull, because it's so prestigious can actually help you

Jasmine Chou:

Yeah, exactly.

Jasmine Chou:

It's, it's a two way street.

Vit Muller:

Red bull in particular is something that you talk about in your book about their success and how they've been able to do it so well over the sponsorships.

Vit Muller:

Can you unpack that a little bit?

Jasmine Chou:

Yeah, absolutely.

Jasmine Chou:

So this is actually one of my favorite stories.

Jasmine Chou:

So red bull has a long history and kind of a guerrilla marketing tactic.

Jasmine Chou:

They've actually leveraged these more.

Jasmine Chou:

I would say, not like tier one names of athletes and sports to, to basically seep into everyone's imagination.

Jasmine Chou:

Right?

Jasmine Chou:

So in the book I talk about their first big feat of the Stratus project, where they basically send one of their athletes into the stratosphere to do the highest base jump off of the international

Jasmine Chou:

And.

Jasmine Chou:

It garnered like 5 million streams while it was live streaming and had basically a fallout of like 20 million engagements, like millions and millions of engagement afterwards.

Jasmine Chou:

It's a little hard to pinpoint the exact kind of monetary income that the brand gained afterwards.

Jasmine Chou:

But you can see that, like people were talking about the Stratus project, like many, many years afterwards, and that did this, had a big push to really elevate the red bull

Jasmine Chou:

And so it's, it's really cool to see red bull kind of like attacked all of these other mediums.

Jasmine Chou:

And you can see that after the success of like this guerrilla marketing tactic, that they're, they still are very core to their, their value that they.

Jasmine Chou:

They pull in athletes from a little bit more of the non-mainstream.

Jasmine Chou:

Right.

Jasmine Chou:

So a couple of years back, they started sponsoring an e-sports team to target that market.

Jasmine Chou:

they still sponsor a lot of sports that you wouldn't think is like mainstream, right?

Jasmine Chou:

So like X games, style sports, and they invest in their red bull media house, which basically does a lot of the videography and photo journalism and whatnot.

Jasmine Chou:

And you see that the athletes that are part of the red bull brand, like really, really, really do love the, like gives you wings kind of thesis of red bull.

Vit Muller:

Absolutely.

Vit Muller:

Absolutely.

Vit Muller:

And that they're into a TV now as well.

Vit Muller:

And the formula one and so many.

Jasmine Chou:

Yeah, exactly.

Vit Muller:

One of the great things about Red bull.

Vit Muller:

Like when you, when you see the red bull for me anyway, on any event, it just like, it gives you the sense of excitement because of what their brand represents.

Vit Muller:

And so this is important conversation because Red bull aside, whatever brand you decide to go with, once again, like, like we said before, it is important to realize that it's not just

Vit Muller:

It depends on the brand I guess.

Vit Muller:

Right?

Vit Muller:

Depends on the deal.

Jasmine Chou:

Yeah, it depends on the brand for amateur sports sponsorship.

Jasmine Chou:

Specifically income is usually not part of the negotiations.

Jasmine Chou:

If you become an influencer or if you become, you know, an professional athlete, that is definitely part of the contract.

Jasmine Chou:

there are set up differently depending on how the contract is negotiated, but for amateur sponsorships, particularly a lot of the compensation is through race

Vit Muller:

Which is still a immense value, like for example, you mentioned entry fees that can be quite high for, for big events, like Ironman, right?

Jasmine Chou:

Yeah.

Jasmine Chou:

So it's about 500, 600 us dollars for a half Ironman and up to 900 us dollars for a full Ironman.

Jasmine Chou:

so yeah.

Vit Muller:

Right.

Vit Muller:

And that's just the registration.

Vit Muller:

We're not even talking about how you're going to get there.

Vit Muller:

All the logistics, all your expenses, accommodation, all that.

Jasmine Chou:

Yeah.

Jasmine Chou:

It racks up.

Vit Muller:

Yeah.

Vit Muller:

So , some sponsors would actually cover some of that for you as well?

Jasmine Chou:

Yeah.

Jasmine Chou:

So for my team specifically they have partnered very well with our man to release some lottery tickets.

Jasmine Chou:

So you could basically win race entries depending on the year.

Jasmine Chou:

And I definitely know teammates that have really, really, really loved that.

Vit Muller:

Awesome.

Vit Muller:

So let's talk about Ironman just a little bit as well.

Vit Muller:

And yourself, your own experience with iron man.

Vit Muller:

How many Ironmans have you done so far in your life?

Jasmine Chou:

I've done four iron mans and to put it into contexts.

Jasmine Chou:

I've only, this would be my third season in a triathlon.

Vit Muller:

What is the preparation like for an Ironman event?

Vit Muller:

What was your first preparation for the first iron man?

Vit Muller:

Like do you still remember?

Jasmine Chou:

I think everyone's first Ironman is, is you, you're just such a rookie.

Jasmine Chou:

to give context, the distance of a full Ironman is a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bike ride, and then a marathon and to put into metrics because we're we're metrics led right here.

Jasmine Chou:

it's a 3,000 meter swim.

Jasmine Chou:

It's a 180 kilometer bike ride, and then it's a 42 kilometer run at the end.

Jasmine Chou:

And so professionals finish this in about.

Jasmine Chou:

Sub eight hours.

Jasmine Chou:

amateurs can take up to 17 hours to complete the course and that type of endurance event.

Jasmine Chou:

I just don't think you can fathom because any sensible human being would not put themselves through that.

Jasmine Chou:

Unless there, there is some, you know, reason.

Jasmine Chou:

so my first one was very interesting because I picked one that was a little bit off the beaten path.

Jasmine Chou:

I went to race and punk who Taiwan, which is a small Island off of the small Island of Taiwan.

Jasmine Chou:

And there are North Gale winds during that time.

Jasmine Chou:

And so that has been the race where I have dealt with the most cross winds ever in my life.

Jasmine Chou:

the swim was canceled because of how.

Jasmine Chou:

Bad the wind was, so it was actually drastically shortened to 400 meters.

Jasmine Chou:

And that was basically the start of the race where we're tumbling in water just to get in and get out because they had to shorten the swim by that much.

Jasmine Chou:

And then you're getting completely beaten by the cross winds on a bike where one fourth of the athletes actually got undercut.

Jasmine Chou:

And so they like fell off their bike.

Jasmine Chou:

and then you ran still in the wind on this tiny Island.

Jasmine Chou:

So I don't think it could have gotten any worse.

Jasmine Chou:

and that really kind of prepared me for the next three, I would say.

Vit Muller:

Yeah.

Vit Muller:

Right.

Vit Muller:

Wow.

Vit Muller:

Why, why Taiwan?

Vit Muller:

Why did decide Taiwan to be the first one?

Jasmine Chou:

So it was two reasons actually, so yeah.

Jasmine Chou:

Ironman racing is basically segregated by your age group is what we call it.

Jasmine Chou:

And that's an age bracket that your race in.

Jasmine Chou:

I happened to be in the 18 to 24 age group at that time.

Jasmine Chou:

And that is the least competitive age bracket because most 18 year olds would not even want to do an Ironman.

Jasmine Chou:

And I happen to have family back in Taiwan.

Jasmine Chou:

And so my mom made it this big family reunion and I was racing because I knew that that was the best location and age group to race in to get a Kona qualifying slot.

Vit Muller:

So you've done your first Ironman in Taiwan.

Vit Muller:

And what are the other three that you've done?

Jasmine Chou:

So after Taiwan, I then raced New Zealand and I then raced in Australia actually.

Jasmine Chou:

And then I raced Ironman world championship in Kona, Hawaii.

Vit Muller:

Wow.

Vit Muller:

So that would have been completely different experience in Hawaii.

Jasmine Chou:

It was, it was a totally different experience.

Jasmine Chou:

I want to say.

Jasmine Chou:

Ironman world championship is what we call the Mecca of Ironman.

Jasmine Chou:

So it is the place that every single triathlete wants to get to.

Jasmine Chou:

You can only qualify if you get a Kona slot in your age group.

Jasmine Chou:

So you usually have to finish within like the top three of your age group, or you can qualify through legacy, which is basically brand loyalty to the Ironman.

Jasmine Chou:

You have to complete 12 iron mans in your lifetime.

Jasmine Chou:

And then you get put on the lottery list to get an entry into world championships.

Vit Muller:

Yeah.

Vit Muller:

Right.

Vit Muller:

So that's how it works.

Vit Muller:

So you have to earn your rights to get into the World championship.

Jasmine Chou:

Yes.

Jasmine Chou:

And yeah.

Jasmine Chou:

And with that said, because you have to earn that slot.

Jasmine Chou:

Every brand, every sponsor, every team basically is out in full force because it is the Superbowl of Ironman.

Jasmine Chou:

Like it is a super bowl of like full distance racing.

Vit Muller:

Now, how many Ironmans do you think is realistic to do in a year?

Vit Muller:

Because you've got eight to go, right?

Jasmine Chou:

Yeah.

Jasmine Chou:

If I want to, if I want to return back to the Big Island is what we call it.

Jasmine Chou:

Yes.

Jasmine Chou:

I have another eight to go.

Jasmine Chou:

So realistically, I would say the, the, the concensus is that you shouldn't do more than two iron mans a year.

Jasmine Chou:

So you do one qualifying to Kona.

Jasmine Chou:

If that's what your goal is, and then you race Kona three is pushing it for is basically a rookie mistake.

Vit Muller:

Right?

Vit Muller:

Right.

Vit Muller:

Yeah.

Vit Muller:

Cause I mean, you need time to recover.

Vit Muller:

Yes.

Vit Muller:

Now as a side note, for those of you guys listening, if you know the topic of Ironmans really interest you there's another episode that I've had on this podcast with Michael.

Vit Muller:

If you go one of the earlier episodes, Michael is somebody that has done Ironman in a very unique, not way, but he's he's unique person for doing Ironman.

Vit Muller:

And that is, he decided to do an Ironman when he was 60.

Vit Muller:

So, check that episode out for you guys, listening on the SuccessInspiredPodcast.com website it's I think it's episode number six.

Vit Muller:

you'll be able to find it there.

Vit Muller:

He talks about his journey or, you know, preparing for Ironman and what that experience is like, which we'll get Jasmine to talk about in a second.

Vit Muller:

but he also shares how he did Ironman and like Placid in how, while he was training for it.

Vit Muller:

One day he was swimming in the Lake and it was.

Vit Muller:

Raining and the leg gets struck by lightning.

Vit Muller:

And so, he, yeah, very interesting story there.

Vit Muller:

So, something to check out later now, back to you, Jasmine, what is that experience like getting through iron man preparing for it and what does it give you?

Vit Muller:

What does it do for you when you do get through that finish line?

Jasmine Chou:

So I am going to take a small, to kind of a large time lens.

Jasmine Chou:

So day-to-day leading up to Kona race.

Jasmine Chou:

You are basically heading your training plan from.

Jasmine Chou:

That's usually about like one to three hours a day.

Jasmine Chou:

If it's a long training block, you might be training for six hours of the day in the month time stand, basically, you're going through a build phase and a recovery phase, and that's

Jasmine Chou:

So you're getting stronger.

Jasmine Chou:

And then you dip down to make sure that your body can actually take the load in the like months preparing up to the race.

Jasmine Chou:

You are doing logistics.

Jasmine Chou:

You're figuring out exactly how your travel plans are.

Jasmine Chou:

You're figuring out how far your, your accommodations are from Ray star and what check-in looks like.

Jasmine Chou:

When are you getting your bike in?

Jasmine Chou:

When are you getting your wristband?

Jasmine Chou:

When are you getting all your feed stuff in?

Jasmine Chou:

And so.

Jasmine Chou:

The week leading up to a race, you usually go a little earlier to make sure that you have enough time to prepare, to do part of the course, to understand

Jasmine Chou:

You basically wake up at 4:00 AM and you mill in the darkness with 2000 other athletes who are also milling around in the darkness, you know, and, and their Spanx and their little tri suits.

Jasmine Chou:

you are very concerned that you like ate enough that you have enough nutrition that you ate enough, right before the race that you, you know, you to go to the bathroom, to, to put

Jasmine Chou:

And you basically just are very anxious.

Jasmine Chou:

In the midst of a bunch of people until your race wave or your wave start happens.

Jasmine Chou:

And the race itself is you go through the whole spectrum of human emotions.

Jasmine Chou:

people race for 10 plus hours.

Jasmine Chou:

And in that 10 plus hours, you have your highs, you have your lows and I have not experienced more highs or more lows than racing iron mans.

Jasmine Chou:

But when you do finally hit that finishing gauntlet, it is magical.

Jasmine Chou:

You're usually hysterical because you have only been fueling with Coke and gummies and pure sugar.

Jasmine Chou:

But when you do hit that, cross-line that finish line.

Jasmine Chou:

You're sweaty, you're gross.

Jasmine Chou:

You most likely have peed yourself.

Jasmine Chou:

You most likely had, you know, Coke spilled all over you.

Jasmine Chou:

but you do feel a big sense of accomplishment and you will, your body will most likely punch you in the gut the next day for a how sore you are, but it's, it's a very special experience.

Vit Muller:

That's amazing.

Vit Muller:

That's awesome.

Vit Muller:

And two things that come out of it, the first one Out of as a result of accomplishment as a result of getting through that, it's obviously you have to put yourself, put

Vit Muller:

How does that translate then when you've done, when you've gone through it, when you've crossed that finishing line, does that help you in any way, shape or form do better in life and certain things?

Jasmine Chou:

Yes, I am a true believer that you really can understand and tackle life's problems through an athletic lens.

Jasmine Chou:

the coaching organization that I am coached by also has that lens.

Jasmine Chou:

And if you can get your mind in the right order, when you're racing an Ironman, when you're going through a very hard athletic event, you

Jasmine Chou:

When you're in that fight or flight space, again, for anything else or a career for your career projects or for your interactions, with your loved ones, you understand exactly.

Jasmine Chou:

Kind of like the mental state that you should be in to really tackle this question.

Jasmine Chou:

Very head-on and very logically.

Jasmine Chou:

and I, I do think that that training of like being in a very difficult space and having to go through it is great training grounds for everything else in life.

Vit Muller:

Time and time again, we've mentioned on this podcast, we hear it, not just on this podcast, but in general, that, you know, when you put yourself

Vit Muller:

That's when the magic happened.

Vit Muller:

That's, that's how the diamonds are made.

Vit Muller:

That's set up through hard, tuff situation, that it just makes you tougher and makes you more resilient.

Vit Muller:

Right.

Vit Muller:

What are some of the stories that you hear from your fellow, your fellow Ironman competitors what does it do for them?

Vit Muller:

Any, any, any unique stories there?

Jasmine Chou:

Yeah, I mean, I get a lot of inspiration from my teammates and that is why I continue to be on the same sponsor team.

Jasmine Chou:

There's a very big community aspect.

Jasmine Chou:

I remember iron man cork, which was an Ireland.

Jasmine Chou:

It was a debut year and 20, I want to say like 20, 19, 20, 20, I forgot the exact year, but I remember watching and following along

Jasmine Chou:

It would, it was storming the whole Ironman race.

Jasmine Chou:

And you saw people completely drenched climbing up like a Hill.

Jasmine Chou:

And there were crowds and crowds of people out cheering them on in this thunderstorm.

Jasmine Chou:

And I'm just like, wow.

Jasmine Chou:

If I was put in that position, I'm not sure I would have finished that race.

Jasmine Chou:

but you then hear kind of more my Nuestra details as to.

Jasmine Chou:

We have a professional, we have professional athletes that are on the team and they go through a very different experience because of just how the competition is stacked in the professional field.

Jasmine Chou:

And you have, you have very lows that you experienced with them, right?

Jasmine Chou:

So one of the professional athletes that is on our team basically finished dead last and it was a very tough experience for him.

Jasmine Chou:

And he just got, he just took his professional card.

Jasmine Chou:

He has a family and has different obligations, and it's very cool to see the community and the team really, really, really peel back and say like, what are the core values?

Jasmine Chou:

Like we understand that this was a big failure in a lot of objective minds, but.

Jasmine Chou:

He, he got to spend time with his family during this year.

Jasmine Chou:

And he got to spend time with his family when they really needed him.

Jasmine Chou:

And so professionally, yes, that, that was a big blow to a lot of his other sponsorships and whatnot, but are there core values that are

Jasmine Chou:

Just like this one sport frame?

Jasmine Chou:

so it, it, it gives, it gives perspective to a lot of things.

Vit Muller:

Absolutely.

Vit Muller:

And everybody starts these Ironman for all sorts of different reasons as well, right?

Jasmine Chou:

Yes.

Jasmine Chou:

Yes.

Vit Muller:

What are some of the reasons that you hear people for deciding to do Ironman?

Jasmine Chou:

My, my favorite one is actually that people just.

Jasmine Chou:

Had the wrong friends or fell into the wrong group of friends.

Jasmine Chou:

but the more inspirational ones, which I think you're getting to is that people have a very high bar of personal growth.

Jasmine Chou:

So a lot of my teammates, you know, getting first in their age group is not enough.

Jasmine Chou:

They want the next bar and they just start ticking at the next bar.

Jasmine Chou:

And a couple of years later, they are hands down one of the best amateur athletes in the world.

Jasmine Chou:

Like they could be professional, but they know that their work is not done in day in and day out.

Jasmine Chou:

They basically just keep ticking at this, at this personal growth in this improvement.

Jasmine Chou:

And you see the results.

Jasmine Chou:

Other people really have the, I would say the more archetype story of they were addicts or they were, they had bad habits and they.

Jasmine Chou:

Found themselves through the sport.

Jasmine Chou:

So they went, got sober or they lost a lot of weight or they got strong and they really found themselves in the sport and the community.

Jasmine Chou:

And they continued to follow this line that they paved for themselves because they knew that this community would keep them on track.

Jasmine Chou:

And so you see a lot of those stories and those are always very, very, very, very touching for me.

Vit Muller:

Absolutely.

Vit Muller:

No, that's amazing.

Vit Muller:

Thank you for sharing.

Vit Muller:

And I can imagine if somebody who's living you know, love of addiction or something that they really want to change doing a standard you're running standard swimming, starting to

Vit Muller:

Now, Back to you, Jasmine, how do you balance it all out?

Vit Muller:

Because you also have a full-time job.

Vit Muller:

I was looking at your LinkedIn profile, so I can see that you work at Walmart.

Vit Muller:

You're doing some management at Workday you know, doing these iron mans, obviously not now, but you know, in a normal, normal circumstances and writing a book, how do you balance?

Jasmine Chou:

I don't have a really good answer for this.

Jasmine Chou:

I, I say, I say, I actually don't watch any TV shows or movies or follow a lot of things that take a lot of time.

Jasmine Chou:

And I know that's blasphemy in this day and age when Netflix is basically the social currency, but I.

Jasmine Chou:

TV shows for me is a opportunity that I would rather swap out for my training and my writing and making sure that I am still a highly productive

Jasmine Chou:

I would say that if anyone is interested in starting a book they usually find that there's a couple ways that they can complete the book, right?

Jasmine Chou:

So either they wake up every single day and they put two hours in every single day to write and they finish it, you know, and whatever timeline is appropriate.

Jasmine Chou:

And those are the more like meticulous, like every day, day in and day out.

Jasmine Chou:

I, on the other hand, am I, what I call when inspired type of personality.

Jasmine Chou:

So I cannot slot in an hour or two hours every single day, because I end up not being productive in those one hour or two hours or every day and said, I.

Jasmine Chou:

Do what is more similar to kind of like hackathons where I'll put in 20 hours within a day and a half, or I'll put in 50 hours within a week

Jasmine Chou:

So that's the only way that I completed a book with a full-time job and also Ironman training, but you're always going to have competing priorities.

Jasmine Chou:

It's just what you really, really want to finish and get across the line.

Vit Muller:

Absolutely.

Vit Muller:

And if there's desire, there's a will as well.

Vit Muller:

Right?

Vit Muller:

So you find a way now, when you, when it comes to writing the book, what are some of the key lessons that you learned from the experience of writing that book?

Jasmine Chou:

You just have to put one step in front of the other.

Jasmine Chou:

So saying that you're going to write a book first and foremost is a scary thing.

Jasmine Chou:

And then telling your friends and family that you're going to write a book suddenly holds you accountable to your goals and, and every

Jasmine Chou:

If you have a voice that is interesting that you have a story to tell, but flip it on the other side, right?

Jasmine Chou:

How many books are there about making money or figuring out what to do in your career?

Jasmine Chou:

How many books are there about self-help?

Jasmine Chou:

How many books are there about different successful entrepreneurs?

Jasmine Chou:

Right.

Jasmine Chou:

There are many, many books out there and that's fine.

Jasmine Chou:

And that's the way it should be because then people have choices.

Jasmine Chou:

So if you are very passionate about a subject, and for me, it was amateur sports sponsorship because it stuck with me for multiple years as I was writing the book and has to this day, like I

Jasmine Chou:

Recently just finished her sponsorship with Specialized bicycles, which is like one of the biggest brands in the industry, and she's going to have a new sponsor.

Jasmine Chou:

Right.

Jasmine Chou:

So I always click to these articles as to like different new structures of how amateur sports sponsorship is going to be, how re how, you know, professional sports sponsorship is going to be.

Jasmine Chou:

so I love the topic and it was that for how much I love the topic that kept me going through really finished the book, because that was always still relevant to me.

Jasmine Chou:

That topic was interesting.

Jasmine Chou:

I was like constantly learning about new paradigms.

Jasmine Chou:

Now when

Vit Muller:

you decided to write the book, did you sort of just, you know, just go for it or did you seek some help or to gain some structure around it?

Jasmine Chou:

Yeah, so I have a pretty interesting story about this.

Jasmine Chou:

I went through a book program is the short answer.

Jasmine Chou:

But the only reason I went through a book program was I actually met an entrepreneurship professor when I was in college.

Jasmine Chou:

And he was very disillusioned because he would teach hundreds and hundreds of students every single year.

Jasmine Chou:

And he was an industry guy.

Jasmine Chou:

So he was very frustrated that he wasn't getting the outcomes that he intended to maybe one or two of his students every single year might try a venture or do their own thing.

Jasmine Chou:

But none of them would be that successful.

Jasmine Chou:

And he was really, really stumped as to how to make a bigger impact and actually outcome oriented kind of lens as to his success.

Jasmine Chou:

His friend actually challenged him to flip it on this ad and see like, Hey, why don't you just ask your students to produce a product, right.

Jasmine Chou:

And a product can be anything, right?

Jasmine Chou:

A website launch your website, launch a podcast onto video.

Jasmine Chou:

He was like, why don't you do a book?

Jasmine Chou:

And he thought about it and he tested it with his, then.

Jasmine Chou:

Cohort of students, which is about 30 a couple of years back.

Jasmine Chou:

And then he started iterating on this structure and started piloting this program to a larger and larger audience.

Jasmine Chou:

And now he's very successfully run their creator Institute, which is a book program for students and young professionals, anyone that has something to

Jasmine Chou:

And he's really, really crowdsourced different ways to make the process a lot more efficient and really democratize the way that people can hybrid publish.

Jasmine Chou:

And so not just self-publishing, but be able to have a publisher backing and to have the support and community needed to really start and then like finish a book.

Jasmine Chou:

So that's how I successfully completed the book was really kind of like getting on this journey and having a really good relationship with my professor and.

Jasmine Chou:

I've recommended people through the process.

Jasmine Chou:

I know you've had other guests on the podcast that went through the process and it's a great learning experience just because you

Jasmine Chou:

You have to really double down on like, how much, like, how committed are you because you are just going, you're going to spend the next year and a half, if not, two

Jasmine Chou:

and having days when you really don't want to do anything about it, but it's a great program to really kind of get the community backing

Vit Muller:

And one thing that I love about your book is that it has a clear market.

Vit Muller:

It has a clear distinctive, you know, who is this book for?

Vit Muller:

Right.

Vit Muller:

It's for beginner athletes looking to get sponsored in a nutshell.

Vit Muller:

So I guess that's really important when you deciding to write a book, not just, I mean, I haven't.

Vit Muller:

To be honest, I haven't wrote a book, but just going off what I'm hearing, you know what you're saying?

Vit Muller:

And what one of my other guests that I had on the podcast Jackie Lane on episode 14, what, what she says, she actually does the same thing.

Vit Muller:

She helps people write books.

Vit Muller:

Just that the same thing, you know, you have to, it's not just about putting stuff.

Vit Muller:

That's in your head into a book to have something that you can say that you've got a book.

Vit Muller:

but you have to really decide what do you want the book to do and who is the book for right.

Vit Muller:

To have a clear purpose, create a clear goal?

Vit Muller:

Like in your case, it was to help people understand the role of sponsorship in, in any sport, right?

Jasmine Chou:

Yeah, absolutely.

Vit Muller:

Awesome.

Vit Muller:

Now, what else do you do Jasmine.

Jasmine Chou:

What else?

Jasmine Chou:

What else, what else do I do?

Jasmine Chou:

Well, I mean, in book, right?

Jasmine Chou:

I am launching my audio book really soon.

Jasmine Chou:

And that was a very interesting experience because it was very, it was a very different experience when you're putting pen to paper, you know,

Jasmine Chou:

And I loved the process just because you.

Jasmine Chou:

You realize how hard it is for voice actors and you realize how hard it is for podcast hosts to really thread a story through, to sound animated, but not very pitched, you know?

Jasmine Chou:

And it's, it was a very enlightening experience for me.

Jasmine Chou:

just because I do have friends that, you know, are voice actors and act on Broadway and I just had no whatsoever exposure to what their day-to-day looked like.

Jasmine Chou:

so it was a, it was a fun experience.

Vit Muller:

Yeah, no, you're absolutely right.

Vit Muller:

Mentioning the podcast.

Vit Muller:

that is so true.

Vit Muller:

Cause I'm always like, and I'm, and I'm not perfect.

Vit Muller:

I'm still, this is a, for me personally, this is still a growing journey, learning journey, how I can be a better interviewer.

Vit Muller:

And sometimes I do ask questions that just, you know, shoot off the heat kind of thing.

Vit Muller:

for the most part you know, I, I try to obviously always prepare.

Vit Muller:

With with, with my guests, you know, research my guests.

Vit Muller:

And and it gives me an idea of which area or which, you know, which way I want to go, what theme I want for the podcast today.

Vit Muller:

Today's theme was all about, you know, the sponsorships and your journey and, and, and hopefully inspire somebody out there that's listening that is trying to change their

Vit Muller:

but yeah, it is, it is definitely very interesting.

Vit Muller:

And like you said voice clarity it's, there's so much more to it.

Vit Muller:

Like it's just never ending because you listen to like, Comedians and I'll listen to sounded comedians and the podcasts, and they talk about, you know, how, how you

Vit Muller:

Just, just by, you know, just by going claws to microphone or we're changing, changing the depth of your voice when you want to, you know, highlight something.

Vit Muller:

It is, yeah, it is incredible.

Vit Muller:

What w what can be done.

Jasmine Chou:

Yeah, absolutely.

Jasmine Chou:

I mean, if you think about like humanity too, we have a very strong oral tradition.

Jasmine Chou:

And so like sound kind of triggers a different way that our brain processes versus visual.

Jasmine Chou:

And, you know, obviously in the modern age, we rely much more on visual than sounds.

Jasmine Chou:

And I.

Jasmine Chou:

When I was younger, I spent a lot of time in choir and band and choir.

Jasmine Chou:

You understand annunciation a lot better.

Jasmine Chou:

You understand consonants and vowels and certain how you put them together so that the actual word is registered.

Jasmine Chou:

And not just you, you, you speak it and you think you actually said it clearly, but when someone else registers it, especially in like

Jasmine Chou:

And so it was, it was.

Jasmine Chou:

It was hard in some aspects for the audio book, because I was like, I'm speaking very fast already.

Jasmine Chou:

I am making enunciating and then you, you get it back and you're like, Whoa, like that sentence did not sound like how it was supposed to then you, you, you do the process again.

Vit Muller:

Yeah.

Vit Muller:

That's the beautiful thing about it.

Vit Muller:

You can always delete, edit, start again.

Vit Muller:

Now, when is this audio book coming out?

Jasmine Chou:

I am.

Jasmine Chou:

I am at the wind of the audio book gods.

Jasmine Chou:

I submitted it right before Christmas.

Jasmine Chou:

And so I am just getting that final approval when it's launched, but I am very excited for people to purchase it.

Jasmine Chou:

and especially for my target audience, to be able to listen to it while they're training, while they're running, you know, cycling, et cetera and hearing the great stories that are in the

Vit Muller:

Excellent.

Vit Muller:

And while waiting for this to come out, the real book the re readable option is all already available.

Vit Muller:

That's on Amazon, correct?

Jasmine Chou:

Yeah.

Jasmine Chou:

So it's through most of the major book distributors.

Jasmine Chou:

So on Amazon, on Barnes and noble is if you want to get it from Kobo it's, it's released on the major retailers.

Vit Muller:

So the book's called #Sponsored.

Vit Muller:

So for those you looking for the book #Sponsored by Jasmine Chou I'm going to put the link in the show notes.

Vit Muller:

and I look forward to the audio book because I'm not much of a reader.

Vit Muller:

When I, when I do read books, I do start fall asleep.

Vit Muller:

For some reason, my eyes get watery and I start yawning.

Vit Muller:

It's just wheat thing that happens when I try and read books.

Vit Muller:

so I'm very much looking forward to the audio book.

Vit Muller:

And do you think that it will be available on Audible as well?

Jasmine Chou:

Yes

Vit Muller:

it will be awesome.

Vit Muller:

Yes, that's great.

Vit Muller:

That's great because that's where most of the audio books are right on Audible.

Vit Muller:

Yeah, I think that's the main one.

Vit Muller:

Awesome.

Vit Muller:

Well, Jasmine, we're at the end of this, of this journey together, we had a really good conversation for a good 15 minutes, and I think we've

Vit Muller:

So I appreciate you being on the show.

Vit Muller:

I appreciate you sharing your story, sharing the insights about what goes into sponsorships and I'm sure there's much more and for that, obviously people go and get your book and they learn more.

Jasmine Chou:

Yeah.

Jasmine Chou:

Thank you so much.

Jasmine Chou:

I really enjoyed this conversation.

Vit Muller:

Awesome.

Vit Muller:

Well, one more thing.

Vit Muller:

I hope that, you know, everything clears up for, for all of us around the world soon.

Vit Muller:

especially for you guys in the U S over here in Australia, we don't have it as bad.

Vit Muller:

but it really, I really wished that that it clears up really quickly for you guys, so that you can come back to, you know, doing all the regular things that you enjoy doing,

Vit Muller:

And I look forward to, yeah.

Vit Muller:

Hear more about your your success in the sport world.

Vit Muller:

And by the way, you've got a, you've got a link, you've got a Strava link right?

Vit Muller:

So can people follow you?

Vit Muller:

Like if they want to see how you perform and maybe like challenge you?

Jasmine Chou:

Yeah.

Jasmine Chou:

I mean, I am all about people picking up the sport and engaging in the community.

Jasmine Chou:

So please follow me, please comment on my Strava and I will be happy to follow anyone else through this podcast.

Jasmine Chou:

And it's all about the community.

Jasmine Chou:

I mean, sports sports is great just because like everyone can come together and really cheer each other on.

Jasmine Chou:

Right.

Jasmine Chou:

And that's, that's just what I love about it.

Vit Muller:

Mm, absolutely.

Vit Muller:

All right.

Vit Muller:

Well, I'll put a link down into the show notes as well.

Vit Muller:

And perhaps that could be a cool little fine Avenue while we're still, you know, most of us in the lockdown that you get challenged by somebody for a run to, to hit it at X, Y is at pace or whatever.

Vit Muller:

Awesome.

Vit Muller:

All right, Jasmine take care.

Vit Muller:

Great to have you on the show once again.

Vit Muller:

Thank you.

Vit Muller:

And you have a great rest of your day and thank you everybody for listening, you are listening to Jasmine Chou and me, your host, Vit Muller on the Success Inspired Podcast.

Vit Muller:

If you enjoyed this episode, if you enjoyed this interview plays do me a favor, share it with your friends.

Vit Muller:

There's always somebody there shoot, listen to these.

Vit Muller:

And that might, you know, there's always that somebody that this could inspire them to take action to better themselves, to better their life in

Vit Muller:

we're also on Instagram, we're on Twitter, we're all across the social media.

Vit Muller:

One same handle @successinspiredpodcast.

Vit Muller:

so feel free to follow and for anything else in terms of the show notes the details about his interview, I put quite a lot of details into the show notes.

Vit Muller:

you can access that on the actual official website, success inspired podcast.com.

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