Leveraging NIL for the Future

NIL: A World of New Possibilities

NIL rights open up an entirely new world of possibilities for student athletes. While things like autograph signings, personal appearances and trading cards are fun new opportunities, I’m even more excited about the hard skills student athletes can learn.

In my conversations with student athletes, they’re far more interested in learning about content creation and speaking than anything else. As someone who transformed my career through blogging and public speaking, I’m thrilled any time I get to help inspire the next content creators.

Social Media Marketing

Many of the earliest NIL opportunities have involved paid social media promotions, and no doubt it will continue to be a fruitful avenue for student athletes. More than just making a buck or two though, it gives student athletes a fantastic chance to develop content creation skills, from storytelling to shooting and editing photographs and videos.

Blogging

Some student athletes were already blogging even before they had the right to monetize their NIL. Fitness, food, beauty…blogging gives student athletes a creative outlet to pursue their interests. And, as someone who landed book deals and transformed my career through blogging, I can’t wait to pass along my knowledge.

Podcasting

Podcasts are one of the fastest growing forms of media, and they offer opportunities for student athletes both as hosts and as guests. As the host of my own podcast, and a frequent guest on others, I can teach student athletes how to successfully start their own podcast or how to pitch themselves to be a guest on existing podcasts.

Public Speaking

It should come as no surprise that student athletes are interested in public speaking, as so many have gained important leadership skills through their pursuit of athletic achievements. As I was once quoted in Forbes as saying, “Learning how to effectively communicate your message will never go out of style.”

Book Kristi

Kristi found out about our Women in Sports group at the University of Tennessee and offered to speak to us. Having been limited to speakers who had an affiliation with Tennessee, we were thrilled about Kristi’s visit. From the moment we walked into the room, we could feel Kristi’s energy and genuine excitement. During both the presentation and Q&A portions of the meeting, Kristi shared industry-wide information and experiences, as well as anecdotes and advice specific to women in sports. She stayed until everyone had all of their questions answered, and she even offered her contact information in the event anyone in the group had questions or needed professional advice.

Sarah Rodts

University of Tennessee, MS Sports Management, Class of 2012

Wanting to stress to our student body the importance of networking and the use of social media in pursuing a career in athletics, I reached out to Kristi so she could share her experience with our students. Kristi was wonderful to work with and her conversation with our students was engaging, topical, and provided all our participants with a strategy for utilizing the aforementioned tools in the sports business industry. Shortly after Kristi’s speaking engagement, I put her advice to work and found a great job within the industry in a matter of weeks! I highly recommend Kristi as an engaging and knowledgeable speaker in the realm of sports business.

Kent Richard

Student Board, Northwestern University, Masters in Sports Administration

We invited Kristi to campus this past spring to be part of our sport management symposium, an event geared toward college students aspiring to break into the business of sports. We could not have had a better person as part of our event; she was absolutely fantastic. Kristi has a great story to tell about what it takes to break into the tough sport industry and she shares it with great enthusiasm. She is a terrific example of the hard work, determination, networking, and self-marketing it takes to succeed in the business of sports, which is exactly what we encourage our students to do in their personal career hunt. Kristi was definitely willing to go above and beyond in meeting with students before and after the event, including continued follow-up dialogue weeks and months afterward. She is really a superb person with which to work and has captivating stories about working on the front lines as a sport business reporter for ESPN’s multiple platforms. I would recommend her without hesitation for any sport business-related speaking engagement.

Nels Popp

Assistant Professor – Sport Management, Illinois State University

I highly endorse Kristi Dosh as a guest speaker. The students in our master’s sport management program thoroughly enjoyed her talk on searching for jobs in sports and the importance of networking. Based on her advice, many students attended professional conferences and started using social media (especially Twitter) to build their personal networks.

Brian A. Turner, Ph.D.

Associate Professor and Program Coordinator, Sport Management, The Ohio State University

Kristi was a featured speaker in this year’s University of South Florida MBA Speakers Series. In a word she was outstanding. The breadth and depth of her knowledge of the business of college athletics is very worthwhile – but her insights are priceless. She is an excellent communicator and had my graduate students completely engaged throughout her presentation. I hope she considers Tampa a place to spend some time every year.