Brittany Gilman: Innovation in the Sports Industry (Full Transcript)
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Ronen Ainbinder 0:32
Our next guest might be one of the most accomplished ones we've ever hosted on the Halftime Snacks.
Her background is insanely unique – professional athlete, entrepreneur, trainer, fitness model, designer, marketing director, and more.
She is the CEO & founder of BG Sports – an agency that provides various services such as representation, PR, event production, branding, digital marketing, and much more to organizations and individuals.
She has managed and worked with over 500 professional athletes worldwide in NFL, the Premier League, La Liga, snowboarding, boxing, and UFC.
I can assure you guys, without a doubt, that this episode will be like nothing you've heard before.
So buckle up, ladies and gentlemen, for my conversation with; Brittany Gilman!
Brittany Gilman 1:19
That was quite the intro!
Ronen Ainbinder 1:23
Well, it was quite the background. So we gotta step up the intro! Welcome to the Halftime Snacks. It's a pleasure to have you want to kick off a conversation with a fun icebreaker. And I want to ask you, okay, so imagine, let's say you had this superpower, okay, that you can, you can only use it once. You can use this power to learn one language, one new language, in two hours. Okay, this is something you can only do once; which language would you choose? And why?
Brittany Gilman 1:57
I would choose Latin because it's the base of so many different languages and just the knowledge that has come from that language and all the difference, the history and the time that it's been around. And I think it's just definitely, definitely Latin.
Ronen Ainbinder 2:16
I like that answer. I like that. I wasn't expecting that I was. I thought he was gonna say Mandarin because it's kind of like one of the most popular ones today. But I liked Latin. Very, very nice. As I mentioned a little bit before, your background is quite unique. You've been everywhere. You've done almost everything from professional experience and also being a competitive athlete. So there are so many things around you and your background. But I want to ask you as best specifically, in what do you consider yourself the top point 00 1% of the world, what is the best side or what you're most successful at, or what you consider yourself the best that from, from all the things that you've you've done so far?
Brittany Gilman 3:10
I would have to say my dedication to when I set a goal, dream, or objective. I am just determined to accomplish what I'm passionate about. And that has, I think it's pretty clearly displayed in terms of what I've achieved thus far. And in my life and in my career. And it's not even I think it's those things that I said, I'm very passionate about that, I think, okay, I want to launch this sports branding agency. Nothing's gonna stop me no matter what. And same with I have a tech startup platform called BPOP. And the same exact thing. I'm going to, I'm going to accomplish this regardless of what happens, any adversity that I face, I will figure out a strategy to get around it. And that's even I took coding lessons last year during COVID and built the first beta version of my platform myself. So just my determination to accomplish what I set out to achieve. By far, it is pretty, pretty rare.
Ronen Ainbinder 4:22
Yeah, that's a very interesting one. I think that especially now, as we are witnessing the Olympics. And it's crazy to see how, like, all of the people that we see in every competition, they're like the best of their kind in their countries, the most talented or the most qualified to be there, but they're still the best among the best if that makes any sense. So I guess that you are also an example of that you're in the Olympics of life. And just your determination has been taking you to where you are and where you're going. So that's super fascinating. And it's a great lesson for all of us. What was your favorite mistake you've ever made? What's, what's something you messed up and you learn so much from it? That is, you go back and say, this was the best thing I, I messed up. So is there anything that you want to share with us? Maybe what may be a story?
Brittany Gilman 5:21
Yeah. So, when I was doing my undergraduate degree, I was a film major for the first few years. And my goal at that time, that's when I was competing on the professional snowboard circuit. And so I had to be, let's see, 17-18. And I would miss three days out of those, the workweek Education Week, because I would have to compete in my competitions during the winters. So I leave like on Wednesday, and I'd miss class Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, come back Monday, Tuesday, and I'm an absolute perfectionist. And this is the one class you had to take was film history.
When I tell you, this was probably the worst class I've ever taken. Because it was a four-hour class. And we watched because this was more of an avant-garde film school. It wasn't your modern-day. So we learned Super 816 millimeter, we had to edit the films by hand. And film history was one of those you had to take for our class where you would watch black and white silent films, like Citizen Kane, and do these classics, which are very difficult to sit through. And I remember that I didn't care about that class. And I didn't put as much effort in as I should have. And I ended up getting a C plus. Now I am an academic, I always have pride. I have, like, taking pride in my academic endeavors. And I've always gotten great grades and whatnot. So C plus was bad for me. But I didn't care. But what ended up happening a year later is that I had to apply to get into film school. So you do two years, two years of prerequisites. And then, you apply to get into film school, which requires a film that you submit and a GPA. And what ended up happening was because of this C plus and not a b minus that I got because I didn't like the class and didn't go to class was that my GPA was point 01 too low to get into the film school, which, in retrospect, I look back on. And this was a very crazy time because that completely shifted my life and career trajectory. Because I think in film school, and then I was like, Well, now what, what do I do now. And so then I had to change my major. Because I didn't want to have to retake the class. And I'm like, this is Bs, like, I don't want to deal with this. And then, I changed my major to kinesiology, which was the science of human movement. And that then opened up my passion into a different field, the passion of strength conditioning in training athletes. That completely shifted my world, which ended up being the path that I took, leading me to where I am today. And so that by far, and I don't know if that's a mistake, because I kind of could have fixed it, but I didn't want to fix it. But in retrospect, it's pretty interesting when you look back on your life, and I think that that's probably, yeah, the one that stands out.
Ronen Ainbinder 8:35
Yeah, I mean, it sounds like the butterfly effect, how, like, a small action or small thing in your past ended up making or causing super great changes in your present or in your future. It's crazy. It's crazy to think, think that that's the way things work. But it's also quite humbling, right? How, like things that happen to you every day and encounters or conversations, will those eventually take you. So, I think it's a great example; in your career, I think it was awesome to hear it firsthand from you, Brittany; thank you so much for sharing, let's talk about big sports, the agency that you currently run, want to know if you want to share one or two key experiences that you had that, first of all, made you realize that there's a pain and an opportunity for it, to serve clients as a service. And also like, what inspired you, what I mean, from what we're, we've been listening and learning about you. You've been in the sports world quite consistently, you've been an athlete, you've been working there throughout your life since you were very young. So I guess you have this passion for sports, but what else is there to be that person to put the name out there and help different companies, brands, and athletes achieve their best get to places where they can't go without you. So share with us a couple of stories or tell us what inspired you to start PG sports?
Brittany Gilman 10:20
Well, it's a very in-depth question. I'll refer back to another story when I was, strength conditioning coach, graduate assistant for Auburn University. And at that time, this was after I graduated, and I was now getting my master's degree. And at that time, I was taking a break from snowboarding. And I was pursuing the next goal after I decided not to do the film was to be the first female strength conditioning coach in the NFL. Now, this is back in. I'm going to date myself here. 2006 seven. So this was a while ago, and there were even fewer women in sports. So that was, that was the goal. And I've never been the type of person to set a goal. That's just, that's average. There's nothing wrong with average goals or common goals, but mine are always just ridiculous. And like, sometimes they're like, wait, what you want to do what, um, but that was the goal at the time. And this was after I'd worked at USC football as a strength conditioning coach in turn for the football team, which was insane. And I was one of two women in the weight room with hundreds of athletes and coaches. And it was just an incredible experience. But like in retrospect, nuts what I did, but I remember very specifically when I was at Auburn, I didn't want to. I realized I didn't want to be a strength coach because I didn't like the lifestyle. I didn't like sitting in the weight room all day playing video games on my computer when athletes weren't in the weight room. Like, I didn't like that. It was boring. I wanted more. I wanted more excitement. And I loved working with athletes. So I was like, Okay, well, I don't, I don't want to be a strength coach anymore, but I want to do something else. But I didn't study sports marketing. I didn't study PR event planning or anything. I studied Kinesiology and biomechanics, which is the physics of the human body and movement. And so I had kept in touch with one of the athletes from USC, well, a couple, a couple of football players. And a few of them signed with a sports marketing agency in Santa Monica. And I asked the player, `` Well, can you put me in touch with someone at the agency? I want to do an internship because then I can learn. And I have a call. I was on the phone with the vice president. And I remember this moment in my life so vividly. And it's interesting, because I was sitting at my desk in my room, and he was the vice president. And he's just asking me questions about this, that, and he's like, what do you want to do? And I just sat there, and I just, I had no answer for him. I didn't, I was like, I don't know. I have no idea. It's like, well, you need to figure out what you want to do. But in the meantime, you can come back to LA and do this internship. So that was interesting because I had no, I had no idea. And so that's what's it's hard to answer your question because it wasn't like one thing inspired me to go out and create a sports agency. I went and did an internship for a couple months, and they didn't give me any work. And this is interesting. And basically, this, I guess, answers your question, which led to the inspiration that I was there at the sports agency. I was just kind of sitting in the office twiddling my thumbs, like, I was so hungry, I'm like, put me to work, give me a task. And they just, they're like, we can come to the office and watch. And month two or three, I was like, You know what, I'm just gonna start my own agency. And that was then, that was 2007. And then I basically called up the one NFL player I knew. And I was like, hey, Roman, let's work together. Let me do your marketing. And he just laughed. He was like, What are you gonna do?'' and like, Just trust me, just give me a chance. And literally, I learned as I went, like, I'm not gonna lie. I learned everything as I went. And it was just you, you realize, and at that time, there weren't many sports marketing agencies. Anyway, there was no, there's maybe one sports PR agency. most agencies did not have marketing and PR and all these services that they offer today. They just got the players their job on the team. So it was interesting because I've looked back. My agency was one of the ad agencies that innovated the entire industry. It helped create the strategies and services that now all these agencies do, like PR for athletes, which never happened back in the day. We were one of the first agencies to offer that. And event planning and digital monetization and e-commerce and all these different things like we were one of the most innovative agencies. That created those strategies, and then everyone else copied us. So, yeah, that's kind of what it was, though it was kind of like this constant, like surfing you're right, you're right in front trying to not get knocked over by the wave, and it's chasing you. And that's kind of how it feels to work in this industry, especially present day.
Ronen Ainbinder 15:21
Well, so many things to take away from that initial learning, from how your determination is making you or pushing you to set higher goals and more interesting things to do. Which leads you to the next couple of steps. I wonder if you have a specific goal in mind. Now, that is as big as this one was back in the day. Are you thinking about something, becoming someone, or doing something in the next, say, five to 10? saved more? The highest high ceiling would be like 15 years, is there any goal that determinant Brittany Gil Gilman is pointing at right now? And that we're sure that we're gonna see her there eventually?
Brittany Gilman 16:09
Oh, yeah, definitely. So as I mentioned earlier, I launched a sports startup, a technology in the exact same space. It's called BPOP, which stands for brand promotional opportunities platform. And I thought of it eight years ago. And when I came up with the concept, I literally sat down, and I was like, okay, technology is taking over almost everything. Every industry is becoming optimized. And I thought, Okay, well, if a technology existed that would put my existing agency out of business, what would it be? And that's what BPOP came from. And so this is,
Ronen Ainbinder 16:48
so you're trying to put yourself out of business? That's, how ambitious is Brittany Gilman? That's, uh,
Brittany Gilman 16:57
yeah, I mean, you're always your greatest competitor. But what happens with that thought process, though, is simultaneously you create the most incredible tool that you could ever imagine, right? Because, right, you're now creating a tool that is interesting, dynamic. And, yeah, so that's been ongoing for, well, more consistently, probably the past 334 years. And now we're in beta, and we have hundreds of users around the world. But that's definitely the company's future like I love representing athletes and working with brands and everything. And I don't foresee myself stopping doing that. But I'm trying to make it. Basically, I'm trying to create a platform to simplify unnecessarily complicated processes in the sports industry, save everybody time, empower athletes, and just make things quicker, more direct. And that's what BPOP is. So it's definitely the future, the vision, and it'll be interesting. We'll come back on the show in a year or two. And you could be like, what's going on now? But, uh, yeah, that's the future.
Ronen Ainbinder 18:07
We have the audience, we have investors, we have marketers, we have foundered, we have engineers and students who should reach out to learn more, or who should go and learn more about BPOP? Who is exactly who are you trying to attract? And what kind of like a thing we need to learn about it if you can just summarize it in a few sentences.
Brittany Gilman 18:38
Well, BPOP is the exclusive opportunity platform for the business of sports. So it's not a public platform. You have to be one of our customer channels to access the platform. Right now, we are in beta, and we're gaining momentum quickly. So we are looking for investors, as well as building out our team. So we do have internships, we are looking for some salespeople. And this is a very unique time because it's still so early, and so we're at that early adopter stage where now's the time to get into a platform like this. Because it's still fairly new. But if you cannot tell how determined I am by this interview, this is the future, and this will not fail. So if interested people want to learn more, now's the time, and we're I'm definitely open. I'm yeah, I have several different positions that I'm looking for partners to help because this is a massive platform and a massive concept. I'm sick of doing it; I'm sick of doing all the work.
Ronen Ainbinder 19:51
Yeah, well, I hope some audience listeners come and give you a hand because it's worth it. You guys working and speaking with Britney is a hell of an adventure and an experience. I'm enjoying it so much. I don't want this to end. Brittany, you mentioned something very, very interesting while explaining the technology, and that was that you were trying to empower athletes. Now, here's a fun fact that I came across a couple of days ago, and I thought it was super fascinating. And that is that the average NFL career, for instance, is three years. Okay, so yeah, of course, you got extreme outliers, like Tom Brady, or Adam Vinatieri, who are kind of like goats. And they last more than 15 years, but not everyone does.
Most of them not don't make it past three years. So also combining that idea with the fact that not everyone is paid as much as the top athletes and making enough money in their careers in sports. I know I'm focusing here on the NFL because it's the simplest example. But not everyone gets all-star level salaries or bonuses. They don't. It's not enough money to make a life out of it if you're not essentially smart about it or if you don't know how to manage your money. So I want to, I want to get your takeaways, and your insights on what do you think about that side, the thing that the challenges that athletes face, whenever they're ending their sports careers, in that in the NFL, at least they have some degree, and they're prepared, but not in every sport, of course, not in, in like around the world, not everyone finishes sport has a degree. It can go on and have a career. So, I want to know your takeaways on this. I want to know if you give athletes any advice before encountering all these challenges and share your thoughts with us. And maybe also, if you want to share the idea of how your technology or your agency is trying to solve these different ideas and problems and challenges there, then I think we learned a lot from that.
Brittany Gilman 22:11
So if you think about an athlete, a professional athlete, and even a collegiate athlete, and the amount of dedication it takes to get to that level, if you look at sports, like a pyramid, where we all start out in new sports, and slowly gets less and less, right less opportunity as you get near the top. And then people just start to fall off because of whatever the case may be. To be at that elite level, you have to dedicate your life to the sport. So although you might be in school a lot of the time, you're not necessarily paying attention or not putting in all that effort. Because if your passion and your goal is to be a professional athlete, you have to have your head and your mind, your soul. Everything has to be dedicated to that. So you don't spend a lot of time developing other skill sets. And you don't necessarily have to take a class, and you might be passionate about something, but your focus has to be the sport. So one of the things that I always try to educate my clients and people I work with is why we do what we do. So instead of my athletes just hiring us to do their PR to launch their online digital brand and their e-commerce, my goal is to empower them and give them the tools so that they're not going to have to work with us forever. And that's where BPOP comes in because we're putting the tools in the hands of the athletes so that they can now manage and monetize and build their brand without having to pay a publicist without having to pay a marketing manager. And that's the goal of how we can educate them?
First and foremost, what does it even take to build a brand? What are the different components? How do you do that? How do you get in touch with someone from ESPN? How do you even begin to think about launching an online store? So as we go through the notions, we teach our clients, okay, hey, this is a platform that we used to build your website. It's pretty easy to drag-drop the system. And this is a fulfillment company that we use to create the clothes that will be sent out to your fans. And this is how the system works. So that's one of the main things that we try to do because there are so many athletes. They have to dedicate themselves to their sport to get to that level. And then I've seen it happen time and time again, where either they'll get cut, they'll get injured, their career is now over, they'll decide to walk away, and a lot of times guys are lost. So what we also try to do what we're working with them when they're still professional athletes, or even now collegiate athletes because we're now working with different younger athletes, because the name image likeness has recently passed. It's okay. I understand that you have to focus on football. Great, do that. But don't you forget to pay attention to the other things in life that bring you joy, pay attention to things that you have fun doing that are interesting to you, and keep that on the back burner. Because that's something that maybe when you're done playing football, you could potentially make your career. And what can we do now while you're in the league to fully capitalize on the fact that you have a massive audience, you have this influence, and you have all these people watching you and paying attention to you, that we can now plant seeds that we'll be able to grow while you're playing? And we'll be even growing more in the future when you're done playing, and then you'll have something else to do. And even if you don't go that direction, at least you'll kind of be able to test it out. And they'll give you something to do because a lot of times guys get done playing, and they're like, well, now what they've had all this structure their entire life, they've been in titled and enabled their entire life. They're like, well, I don't even know how to work out by myself. Because I've always had someone tell me what to do and take me through the workouts. So it's a very in-depth process. But I think the key is to educate and empower them. And that's one of the things that BG sports have focused on doing. And BPOP even simplifies that even more.
Ronen Ainbinder 26:13
Yeah, I love how you explain it very simply. And I guess that it also goes back to your example of how you were busy doing something else where you didn't want to take your history, view your history class, right? This happens to everyone at every level, mostly. And it's very simple to understand how the sport is your priority, but don't forget that there's a direction in life. Don't forget that there's a vector that you most likely will follow after you finish your career. And, I mean, now it's, it's great, it's like the greatest time to be an athlete. Why? Because platforms are huge. Social media is the biggest. Where has it been in history, right? There was no social media 10 years ago. And now you have the opportunity to have access or be in touch with people like Brittany, that is there to help you. And that will make things easy for you. Right? So it's not the button now. There's no better time to be an athlete. So I would think so. And so that's why I think that it's just a matter of learning, being aware of this problem. And giving it kind of like a priority is not as important as your sport, but probably second or third, maybe after family or something. Is there anything else that you'd like to add Britney to that? Because I think that's kind of like the most important thing that we've talked and discussed. And, of course, if there's anyone who is also listening, maybe if, if, if let's say you can point them towards the right content, or the right direction, where should these people go? and learn more? How can these people or these athletes be better prepared? After finishing this episode? What would you suggest?
Brittany Gilman 28:10
Well, I mean, there's a tremendous amount of online resources for athletes, especially today, and especially targeted towards collegiate athletes that educate you because the most important thing is to educate yourself. And understand that if you are an athlete in the present day, and especially if you're a high profile athlete, up and coming or even if you're already established, you're always gonna have people in your ear telling you, they can do this, they can do that. And I think that it's important to give yourself the tools to be successful by educating yourself in the space that you're trying to be in, be that your sport, be it another passion. So I don't have a specific site or place to tell you to go because there are so many different directions that someone can choose. But I would say that just take advantage of the world that we live in today and the accessibility of technology at your fingertips. We have everything, every bit of human history, literally at our fingertips on the world wide web. And that's incredible. We have technology that allows us to do this, a zoom meeting and record. It's amazing. And I think people, because you grew up in it, you don't even realize how incredible it is. But just realize the time that we're living in and the opportunity available to you and empower yourself by educating yourself first and foremost.
Ronen Ainbinder 29:36
Yeah, I love that. I love that, Brittany, why it has been so fun to talk to you. So many insights, so many things to learn. I can't leave without asking your last and more personal question. Who's someone you admire? Who's someone that you're inspired by or someone you'd like to follow steps from?
Brittany Gilman 29:54
Oh, man, that's so hard. I think what's hard for me to answer that question is that first and foremost, I would say my mom. My sister, my brother, my dad, my family, my grandmother, those are just the way that they live their lives and what they've done. My family inspires me more than anybody. But if we think of a person I don't know, it's always very difficult, right? Because if I say someone like Mark Cuban. I highly respect what he's done professionally and how diversified he is in sports and technology, and Ashton Kutcher, same thing, but I don't know these people personally. So it's hard to look up to someone that I don't know, personally, because my character is one of the most important factors in all of us. And I don't know these people's character. So I can't say all they inspire me. Yeah, they inspire me, like Richard Branson just flew out of orbit on a very large, interesting-looking rocket ship and got a lot of negative feedback because they spent so much money doing that. But yeah, so it doesn't answer your question very specifically. But um, that's a couple of people.
Ronen Ainbinder 31:13
I feel like also mentioning your family speaks a lot about you and your values. And I'm sure that they appreciate that. As I appreciate you coming to the show. Brittany with us. I can't thank you enough for coming to the halftime snacks. It has been a super fun time. Great experience. And I've learned so much about you that I can't wait to do it again. So hopefully, in a couple of months, we'll be here sitting down talking about the success of BPOP. I can't wait to see that happening, Brittany. But yeah, thank you so much for coming through the Halftime Snacks.