Ep. 199 Tyrre Burks, Founder and CEO at Player's Health, explains how his personal experiences as a collegiate and professional athlete inspired him to create a platform that prioritizes athlete health and safety, revolutionizing risk management and insurance solutions for sports organizations.
On this episode, Tyrre speaks with AfroTech’s Will Lucas about his mission to create safer environments for athletes, including the role of technology in modernizing the sports insurance industry, addressing abuse prevention in youth sports, and fostering greater transparency in risk management.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
I'm Will Lucas and this is black Tech, Green Money.
Tyree Berks is the founder and CEO Players Health, where
he's transforming how sports organizations approach health, safety, and accountability
for athletes. As a former collegiate and professional athlete, ties
journey was shaped by personal experiences with injuries and lack
of proper support, inspiring him creative platform that insures athletes
(00:24):
at all levels can play and safer and more secure environments.
Through players Health, he's raised over one hundred million dollars,
developed innovative risk management tools, and redefine sports insurance by
focusing on transparency to use, prevention, and the overall well
being of athletes. So I was doing research on you,
and it talked about how you saw players Health like
(00:46):
as a personal calling rather than just like a business.
And you know, you realize your experiences as an athlete
could help shape the future for youth. And I think
about particularly my son who plays football, wants to play football,
you know, and my wife is like, you know, we
could play flag. You know, he's eleven years old, but
not tackle yet. And so he talked about how you
(01:06):
see this as you know, a calling versus just a business. Opportunity.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Yeah, no, I really appreciate it. Well, thanks for having
me man. Man.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
When when I first started out, I never intended to
start this business. I never intended it for it to
be as big as it is. In the beginning, my
my roots have been in sports, and I recognized early
on that, you know, the decisions that I make will
impact my life. And you know cliches, old timers always
(01:37):
tell you that. But I had a couple of decisions
that I needed to make. I grew up in Chicago Southside,
and you know, I had a choice, and you know,
sports was one of them on the streets, and luckily,
you know, I chose football.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
I chose wrestling.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
I chose every sport that I could choose to keep
me out of the streets, and that kept me safe.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
It kept me out of the streets, kept me out
of trouble.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
But in that layer to college to professional football, there
was a whole journey that was began because I made
the right choice. When I look back over that career
and how all of this led to me creating this company,
I think about every tyree Birks that is faced with
a decision that is looking for positive reinforcement.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
In their life.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
And if we can be a positive force for making
sure that these organizations are thinking about that well being
day one, then you know there's a massive impact we
can make. Another point of that is, I recognize the
transaction between kids in sports can have a positive or
negative impact on them. So we can make a depositive
to our kids things like positivity, things like inspiration, team building,
(02:50):
that's what you get from sports.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Or you can take something from them.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
You can take motivation from them, you can take their
innocence from them.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Depending on the trauma, depending on.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
The incident that they have to endure, that could be
a withdrawal that you can take from them that could
change their life forever. And so our focus at playerselves
has been we want to make sure that we're only
depositing good kids, good things into our kids, and we
want sports to be a positive force for their lives
and not a negative one.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
How you just go more into that last point there,
you know, if we're to be a positive or not
a negative force, like in what ways do we think
about how it can be negative or I'm sorry, does
players help It could be absolutely.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
There's a couple of stories I tell what we had
an incident where this is probably two years ago high
school for I mean a ten U ten football team
in Texas. A coach gets shot at a game by
someone in the stands, and that incident dramatically impacted these kids' lives.
(03:53):
Something was taken away from them, whether that be innocence,
whether that be a bunch of things was taken away.
But because the environment that these kids come into are
now bringing in all of these external factors, we need
to do our best to make sure that we control
it and put them.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
In the best environment.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
That's an example of the transaction between sports and kids.
Another transaction with negative thing would be like, you know,
maybe a coach is not a positive coach. Maybe the
coach is telling the kid that they're never going to
be good. And we respect our coaches, my coaches. I
still talk to my high school football coach to this day.
(04:30):
He was like a father to me. And this was
the first guy I s out of my mom and
told me you can be somebody. He deposited something into
me and that led to me where I'm at today.
So that's the dynamic. And I think sports is not
just one area of kids life that do that. But
I think it's a massive one because it's such a
big part of our lives.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Yeah, that first, you know instance you gave there where
you know, the parents got involved and you know it
went real bad.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
You know.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
I think about, you know, go on to a lot
of kids games because I have kids in sports now,
and you see how emotional the stands get because in
so many ways, the parents live through their kids and like,
this is their shot. This is little Billy's shot at
the league and it's like he's nine, you know what
I mean. So but this is little you know, Jane's
shot at the Olympics, And I think about what opportunities
(05:22):
are there or how is players health thinking about? It's
not just the kids who need this support, but it's
the ecosystem around them to where you again, you've got
people living through them and you know, why is my
kid not getting enough playing time? It's all of these
different things. How does players help think about that?
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Well, I think there's a couple of things that we've
been focused on, specifically around how do we go about
creating safe spaces. Want any adult that's coming in contact
with a minor, we're making sure that they're properly qualified
to do that. Have they gone through a background check,
Have they gone through the proper training to respond in
the right way when they see something when an injury happens.
(06:04):
You know, how are they responding to when things do happen,
because you know, you could de escalate a situation really
well to a parent that may be arraging someone if
you respond differently.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
And I think it's a great way for us.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
To model how our kids are going to have to
deal with adversity in their life as well. And so
we do a lot with training the coaches, the staff
and making sure that they respond properly when things do happen.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
And then, of course things will happen, and how do
we make.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Sure that when they do, where it's properly documented and
that we're doing everything we can to make sure that
there's a protocol that allows us not the color outside
of the line, so to speak.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
So your company, Play your Self came in at a time,
you started to grow at a time where you know,
safety protocols, changes in safety protocols and rising insurance costs
is a big conversation and discourse. What gaps in the
mart did you see that allowed space for this company?
Speaker 3 (07:03):
So I was actually at the time, I was actually
volunteering on a youth and amateur sports organization here in Minnesota,
and our insurance premiums double. Now youth organizations, as you
probably know, they don't have a ton of money. You know,
these are nonprofit organizations. And there are a couple of
factors that led to the increase of those costs. One,
(07:27):
the insurance companies were paying out tons in liability lawsuits,
specifically around concussions and abuse. Most of it was abuse,
so your your boy Scouts that was a six hundred
million dollar lawsuits. You know, USA Gymnastics a billion dollar lawsuit.
So just those two incidents, loans over one point five
(07:47):
one point six billion dollars was paid out, and the
carriers are sharing that cost with we all have to
share that cost as a risk, and so they're doing
some actuarial analysis that says we now have to charge
X to offset you know what we're paying out. And
we just saw that there were some huge gaps in
being proactive about the risk because prior to those incidents,
(08:11):
those organizations were considered good risk and the way that
insurance companies used to look at sports organizations were as
long as you haven't had any claims you were a
good risk, but they had no internal visibility around what
was happening day in and day out to reduce the
likelihood that a USA Gymnastis could happen or boy Scouts
could happen.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
And that's the that's the gap that we saw.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
We thought there was a huge need for risk management
and visibility of what was actually happening on the boots.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
On the ground.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
And then we want to incentivize organizations to do the
right thing, and the best way to incentivize them is
to give them discounts on what is their largest expense,
which happens to be insurance. And so when when our
insurance premiums doubled, I'm asking our broker, hey, why are
we paying all of this?
Speaker 2 (08:56):
And he's telling me that this.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Is happening in the marketplace, and I have this aha
moment around, well, we need to bridge the gap, provide
visibility of risk to our clients, give them tools to
manage it, and then give them affordable insurance when they
do the right things.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
You know, you use the visibility there A couple of
times I think about transparency, which is another way to say.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
That, and.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Is it more that the insurance companies don't really know
what's happening at practice, at the games, et cetera. Or
is it that the transparency from what goes into the
insurance premium is not clear to the consumer.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
That's a really good question.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
Well, the bigger issue specifically around that is that the
carrier is so removed from the athlete the insurance There's
there's a broker which sells the product, and then there's
the insurance carrier that really just access the bank paying
the claims. They're there, they have the contract and they're
managing the insurance coverage. The broker actually has boots the ground,
(10:00):
they're interacting with the sports organization.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
They're there as the risk advisor.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
But what we've identified is there are a number of
brokers that are just a pedal policies. They're there to
sell an insurance policy and then when the incidents happen,
because brokers, they're not penalized if there is a claim.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
They only get paid.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
When they sell a policy, so they're not incentivized to
ensure that organizations are implementing these policies and protocols. And
I think that's the different business model that we have
and that we've taken a more comprehensive approach around how
we sell the insurance because we are a broker, but
we are also a market. We underwrite and price our
(10:44):
own risk, and we have our own insurance capacity that
we have to protect, so we have the same responsibility
as a carrier to make sure that.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
We're not paying out a lot of claims.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
And we also are broker and we have boots on
the ground to work with these organizations day in and
day out.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Unique value did your background as an athlete give you
when you started this business?
Speaker 3 (11:07):
Honestly, it got me in the room. Like when I
first started the company. I really I didn't know anything
about business, Honestly, I came fresh from playing football and
I was just all passion. I had this idea to
create safe spaces for kids to play sports. It was
really simple and injuries because I had so many injuries,
I'm like, you know what, we need to create a
(11:30):
documentation system and a policy and protocol about how we
manage injuries bright youth athletes. That was the simple version
of what we were thinking about doing. And I was
able to get into rooms that you wouldn't normally be
able to get into you know, I was talking with
you know, the chief medical officer or the NFL. You know,
I got a chance to get a ton of insight
(11:51):
from executives in sports and athletic directors at universities and
high schools and other organizations because I was a professional
and because I can talk to Lango and all of
those other pieces. So it got me. It gave me
a huge opportunity to get in the door. But it
also gave me the resilience on the thousands of no's
(12:13):
that I would get, you know, to you know, to
keep fighting and keep making this thing happen when it
got tough.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Also, let mean ask a different question with that same foundation,
is like when you started talking to investors, you know,
they saw an athlete who's like ready, all passion, you know, Pitbull,
China Shop. I'm just ready to go, let's go. Like
what makes them rite to check when they see just
the passion? But to your point, not a whole lot
of professional experience.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
Yeah, that's a super Honestly, in the beginning, I can't
tell you. I think people just saw my commitment in
the beginning. I've always been a hustler. I wear my
heart on my sleeves.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
So when I do.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
Something, I'm committed, and I think people feel that when
they come in contact with me. And so my first introduction,
my first investor was my agent. He was my sports agent.
So these are people that knew me. They knew how
committed I was. He knew that, you know, I wasn't
a big name athlete. I used to pay to go
to tryouts, you know where there's three four hundred guys
(13:15):
and I'm the last guy there, you know, making the team.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
And so he believed in me.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
And he was my first investor, you know, and the
first other call it big investors that I had. Really
I think a lot of them just I didn't take
the first known personal. Most of the time I talked
with investor that first the first time, it was like, yeah,
we'll talk in six months. But I always followed up.
My follow up game was strong. And then every time
(13:42):
I followed up everything I told him I was going
to do at the time I met him, I had done.
And so I think that that helped me, you know,
get get in the door, so to speak, because I
was consistent with my message and I held myself accountable
to to be who I said.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
I was going to be.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
You know you talked about you guys are into more
than just preventing physical injuries, but also the emotional and
psychological state in creating safe spaces for these athletes. When
you think about the landscape of social media, video cameras,
and like, we see so much more now negative going
on in our world that was already here because we
(14:20):
now have cameras and because we now have social media,
it's a lot. Is the growth of these issues or
is it real as it's really growing, or is that
it's more visible to us that the issues that we
deal with are in existence.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
I think there's a hybrid above. They are very real
and they are growing because what was pure about youth
in amateur sports is becoming.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
Very business like.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
Where Like the passion for me playing sports as a
sixteen year old looks dramatically different. And now it's not
just yes, I want to play professional football, but even
before I wanted to play pro football, I just I
wanted to play Division one football, I just wanted to
just play in general. Now, in order for me to
(15:13):
be playing at sixteen, I got to try out. My
mom has to have, you know, has to pay you know,
thousands of dollars just for me to be a part
of a team. And we've now it's youth sports is
becoming really much of a business, and I think without
call it the pure nature of it of sports, where
(15:36):
you know, kids are being motivated differently, which they feel
like they have to post content, they have to build
a brand and all of this with Nils, it's forcing
them to have to be a part of the engine
as opposed to just play for the love of it,
and they feel the pressure to become a business, which
(15:57):
is what I think is the biggest problem that you know,
that pressure is going to be is really strong for
these athletes. And you know, I don't know if we're
going to be able to put the genie back in
the bottle, so to speak, but I'm hoping that we
have some brave young athletes that want to do it
differently and that difference is what's going to help them
stand out.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Yeah, I've seen you talk about how prevention and awareness.
Prevention spikes after issues, especially very public issues, but we
do have an issue in our community globally in our
discourse where we it's our state away over time. How
does players health emphasize and create sustainability with awareness for
that prevention effort.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
Well, for the first time I think in twenty four
we leaned into advocacy and legislation for the first time
in year serve of our company. Well, we actually started
to take a more practive role to make sure that
these policies, protocols, the environment that we want to provide
to our customers, that we at least want to motivate
our custom was to lean in on the same mission
(17:01):
that we have that it was that was a requirement
that it was a new standard of care of how
organization did it.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
So we did this with the.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
State of Colorado one of our clients and this actually
didn't start with us. One of our clients reached out
to US Inner City to Tackle Football program, one of
the largest in Denver, and he's been an administrator for
ten years now and for the first time in his
and him doing this and this is more of a
mission for him and just helping kids. He didn't want
(17:31):
to have a season because he was just afraid of
what was going to happen next, you know, is there
going to be another fight, is somebody going to get shot?
Speaker 2 (17:40):
What's going to happen? Like it was just so much happening.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
And so he was wondering what policies and protocols could
we draft to require organizations to implement all the things
that he was implementing with us, And so we talked
with Senator Exem Senator Coleman. These are two African American centers.
They come from the inner city. Senator Xham, he's been
(18:03):
coaching high school basketball for forty years. He's seen everything,
and so these were the folks we experienced this stuff.
We see it every day, and we developed through our
policies protocols. We co offer the bill that requires organizations
to do background checks, ab use awareness training like implement
these protocols, and it's a requirement now in the state
(18:25):
of Colorado. That bill was passed in July, and it's
the first of what will be many. You know, I
think we have a responsibility now with our influence in
the marketplace, where we can now galvanize and bring the
right peoples around the table to create new legislation and
do things, you know, the way we think the future
should be.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
So let's say you have a son he wants to
play tackle football. At what age are you letting your
son tackle football. So Masa, you know the status, you
know the numbers and.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
What we talk about this all the time. So my
son is five, he's playing flag.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
He'll be playing flag probably up until he'st twelve thirteen.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
Twelve thirteen is a good Why is that a good number?
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Honestly?
Speaker 3 (19:12):
I think the developmental skills depending on how big he is.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
And that's the thing that's one I draw a line
under staying and that you some big.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
Some kids are big, and once they get to a
certain size, there is no there's no flag for an
offensive lineman or d lineman. And so you want them
to be competitive enough. If that's the sport that they love,
they need to break into it somewhere in that like
middle school where they got to go from you know, tackle,
(19:42):
I'm going to go from flag to tackle. You want
you want a couple of years before they get into
high school and they're really hidden before before they really
you know, take that transition if football is going to
be a sport that they really want to play.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
Yeah, you know it was another line I heard from
use a quote where you're talking to injuries and you're
saying it's not happening at the collegiate level as much
because you have a medical staff supporting you as an athlete.
It's definitely not happening at the professional level, but it's
happening often at the youth level. What happens in our
(20:14):
community systemically pervasively that make youth sports more vulnerable when
it comes to safer play.
Speaker 3 (20:25):
It's honestly, there are no there's no rules or regulations
around how often these kids are playing. I think that's
that's the biggest change that happened from high school to
college and pro. At college and pro, they can't practice
only certain so many times, so many games. At high
(20:47):
school level, we're younger, you got travel, you got school
like they're playing sports literally all year long.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
And like my son, we got caught into it.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
My son, he plays a freshman at Northern State, is
the Division two basketball player just do play twelve months
out of the year, like we'll call it eleven months out.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
Of the year. We forced them to sit one month.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
But he went from basketball, call it October to March.
Au starts in March, March to August, he gets a
month off, he's back in in October again.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
And that's just basketball hockey.
Speaker 3 (21:28):
Every other sport has that same cycle now because you
now have spring flag football, where now kids are going
from fall to flag and then they got summer travel
that they're doing. And so it's just the amount of
miles that these kids are putting on their bodies at
a very young age without very little rest.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
They're probably eating like crap.
Speaker 3 (21:52):
Two are increasing the number of the number of injuries
that they see.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
I read and I don't know if this is the
latest number, but you know, I will say, congratulations on
the twenty eight million in financing. Is that the latest
that the real is that the number?
Speaker 2 (22:09):
No, Well, the latest route we closed was sixty million.
That was we were closed that at the end of November.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
So the latest is sixty So that sixty plus the
twenty eight.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Yeah, we've raised over one hundred million in the history
of the company today.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
Congratulations, brother, congratulations. How do you how do you say
this is the target? This is the number that we're right?
Speaker 3 (22:32):
So that's a really good question. Honestly, we wrestled with
that this year and there's a couple of things that
we've identified when it comes to like, one, are we
going to go for this number? And for the first
the previous first three years with the company for the
previous three years that we've done and we've been focusing
(22:52):
on really getting clear on our strategy. What are we
going to do, what are we going to be, where
we're going to play, and so we have this playing
to win strategy that helps us understand what our winning
aspiration is, where we're going to play, how we're going
to win, what capabilities do we need to have in place,
and then what systems do we need to have to
support those capabilities.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
I think when we finished.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
That whole process, and we've done multiple iterations, it's been
fine tuning over the years. We realize that we have
a right to win in this space. You know, the
market's big enough, and the incumbents haven't evolved as we've evolved.
We've changed the industry and they haven't evolved. And so
we see the opportunity for M and A. We've seen
(23:36):
the opportunity for just talent acquisition.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
And that's you buying companies, not the boss.
Speaker 3 (23:43):
Correct, But we see these growth opportunities that are green
grass for us because of our value proposition and how
differentiated we are in the marketplace, and so it you know,
how aggressive you want to grow is going to come
down to the amount of capital, but you have to
know exactly what you want to do with that capital,
and we do and so it wasn't something we just
(24:06):
like picked a number. We went through that analysis, understood
our strategy. We did a competitive landscape, understanding what our
competitors are doing.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
How they're growing, how fast we're growing.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
How consistent can we be at this growth, and then
what are the Fosse multipliers that are going to help
us accelerate that? And then how much is it going
to cost? So it's a top down approach. You really
get to, all right, if we you know, we could
be a five hundred million dollar premium company. Insurance premium
is kind of a sales metric for US right now.
You know, we do seventy eighty million dollars this year.
(24:40):
Our focus is to be, you know, five hundred million
XYZ or the next number.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
Of that means what that means you're covering that you
have that much risk.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
Insurance premium is basically what you pay for your insurance
and so you may have a thousand dollars premium you
have to pay for your liability policy.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
That's one thousand dollars.
Speaker 3 (24:59):
In prem for US, and so our role, our focus
is to generate you know, you know over a five
hundred million Well what will it take for us to
get to that point? What tools and resources do we
need to have in the people. So that's how we
came up with that. But it takes courage to go
after it, and you got to believe in yourself. And
(25:21):
I think coming from where I came from, and there's
a lot of self doubt that I had going into this,
going ca can I do it?
Speaker 2 (25:27):
But can we do it?
Speaker 3 (25:29):
And yeah, you know, you just got to you know,
don't believe the lies and you know, take the plunge
and make it happen.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
Technical question about you know, the business is does that
mean if you've got five hundred million in premiums, you're
potentially if I was like one million dollar policies, how
does that work? Does that mean you have to have
you know, hundreds of millions also in the make in
case somebody.
Speaker 3 (25:54):
So one of the things that we've done and players health,
we're a brokerage and we're what we're calling in MGA
or think of us as like a quasi carrier. We
don't have any balance sheet risk with our with our
market We work with a number of carriers that support
us and for every So the average premium for youth
(26:15):
and amateur sports is you know, small organization is probably
a thousand bucks, so that could be thousands of organizations.
But we also write very large organizations, right, We write
some of the largest organizations out you know US youth soccer,
you know USA football. We write some really large organizations,
three step sports. These are all really big accounts. Those accounts,
(26:38):
those large organizations could be millions of dollars in premium.
Very few people know that just in youth and amateur
sports alone is over three billion dollars and insurance produced
a year. That's how big the insurance market is in
youth and amateur sports. You at college, you ad pro,
you at you add all of those pieces, you looking
(26:59):
at eight to ten billion dollar market. So the market
is massive and our focus is you know, to be
to be the number one in the US.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
You might have just answered this question, but is there
verticals that you could you might consider expanding into.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
Yeah, so our core of players health of the past,
we've been an insurancewntionship for about five years now, has
been you the amateur sports and fitness fitness has been
a really big division for US has been growing newer
for US. We launched our collegiate division. It'll be a
year in February we launched the collegiate division. We do
all the NIL policies and stuff now for the college
(27:41):
NIL market, and we will be launching pro in twenty six.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
There is you know again, we talked earlier about parents
in the family, around the friends, even of these young
people who are playing, and how their behavior and their
actions at these games means almost as much as the
people on the court or on the field. What what
steps do you encourage those families, those parents to take
(28:13):
to create safer sports environments in their communities, even in
their households and at the games.
Speaker 3 (28:19):
Yeah, well, I think we gotta we gotta build and
raise comprehensive kids. Sports is not there, end all, be all,
and I think we we want to motivate our kids
to be the best at what they do. But I
think one of the biggest things that I've I've come
I've had to wrestle with this with my son. You
see potential in our kids, we see what they could be,
(28:43):
but they have to develop into that and there's a
there's a hap. There's a very fine balance between us
pushing and and allowing them to figure it out along
their way, and they're gonna we have to do both.
And so I think I don't have a call it
the We don't have the magic bullet in terms of
what that looks like. But I think my advice that
I would give to parents as they are developing and
(29:06):
raising their kids is that recognizing.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
That sports as a tool.
Speaker 3 (29:10):
That's how we should That's how I've that's how I've
raised my son to believe that sports as a tool.
Yes there's opportunities where, yes, you could play professionally if
that is a dream that you have, but that dream
will also one day in because you can't play professionally forever.
So see it as a tool, and we want to
make sure that we look at what sports brings to
(29:32):
us comprehensively. Are you being a good leader, are you
learning how to problem solve? Are you learning how to
overcome adversity? These are the skills, These are the these
are these are the lessons that we want our kids
to learn through sports. And so I'd encourage us to
focus more on those lessons and those skills than we
do whether they made it to division one or division two.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Yeah, you know, I have this philosophy about my own businesses,
in my own business, you know, thinking in that like
I'm not romantic about business, Like if something is working,
is working. If it's not, no matter how much I
like it or love it, it's not working. And I
was reading this quote from you where you said, you know,
(30:15):
in the beginning, you always have hopes and dreams of
what you want the mission to be, and then it
ends up coming to you more as a calling than
it does just building a business. I don't know if
you remember saying that, but so so with that thought
I have of like, if it's working, it's working. If
it's not, it's not, You got to cut it off
and move onto something else. Expand on how that sense
(30:36):
of calling that you feel shapes your leadership and approach
to entrepreneurship in business.
Speaker 3 (30:44):
Well, I think in the beginning, man, I was so
focused on external perceptions I want to I was looking
for examples of what success look like. When what changed
everything for me was that I'm a one of one.
You are one of one. Your businesses will look dramatically
(31:08):
different when you running them. Then they'll look dramatically different
when I'm in them, even if we're in the same industry.
And so, yeah, there are blueprints and people that have
done successful things, but man has change, and your ability
to adapt to those changes.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
Are going to be up to you and the team
you have around you.
Speaker 3 (31:25):
And so I had to develop a confidence in myself
but to be a great listener, not being so focused
on me being right. But I wanted to get it right.
And so like the original idea that I had to
play yourself. You ask anyone that's been a part of
this journey with me for past ten years.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
They know I'm okay with being wrong. So anytime that
I had an.
Speaker 3 (31:47):
Initial idea round what was what I thought something was
going to be, I was super quick to recognize that
that wasn't the right path and we pivoted. And I
really embrace courage.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
In our company.
Speaker 3 (32:01):
We have to put ourselves in a position with failures
as a possibility, and the only way we can do
that is if we take risks. And so of course
as the company matures, your risk get more calculated. But
in the beginning, you got nothing to lose because you
don't have there's nothing really there. You're building it from
the ground up, and the only way for you to
(32:22):
learn is to make mistakes, learn from those mistakes, and iterate.
And I think that has really driven how I lead people.
Another thing that I'm really focused on within our company
is that player Sealth is a calling for me because
it is my mission. Everyone in our company has their
own personal mission statement, and people talk about mission statements.
(32:45):
This seems like a cliche, but I am here today
because I've had this mission to create a word of love, acceptance,
and safety. Everything about my life represents that. When you
come in contact with me, you should feel that because
that is who I say I am, that is that
is what I want to be held accountable to. So
everyone in our company has their own personal mission and
(33:07):
every week we check in on it.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
Are you on mission or are you not? And so?
And if you consistently be on mission, You're gonna wake.
Speaker 3 (33:15):
Up ten years from now and you are going to
have started to materialize what you set out to do.
And that's exactly what has happened with me. I had
a vision and a mission to create a world of love, acceptance,
and safety through this business. This is one way that
I go about doing that. Outside of my family and
all of these other things. But being mission driven is
(33:37):
really important because it allows you to have focus and
it just keeps you It keeps you motivated when things
get tough, because things will get tough.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
Man, that was a great place to end. But I
got one more question. I'm like, shoot, I should ask that,
ask I got one more You know, I think about
urban areas and they're often underfunded and many families struggle
with insurance already. Many of these teams, you know, they
(34:07):
just may be neighborhood teams put together because you know,
we wanted to keep the kids off the street. So like,
what position does players have have to ensure that all communities,
especially those that are in underserved, underfunded communities, have access
to resources to keep kids safe on and off the field.
Speaker 2 (34:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (34:26):
Man, That's something I've leaned into over the years, and
that specifically within urban communities, especially communities where I grew up,
we have to approach sports differently and that the challenges
that an administrator face on a.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
Day in and day out running a sports organization and.
Speaker 3 (34:46):
Inglewood, Chicago is going to be dramatically different than someone
running a program here in you know, Eton Prairie, Minnesota,
and so even just how we even look at.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
Staff a background check, a background in Eden Prairie.
Speaker 3 (35:01):
I can run a background check on every coach, their
dads and may not have any issues.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
I run a background check on volunteers.
Speaker 3 (35:10):
And members in the urban community, and they may they
may have a history that if we treat if we
use the same way we adjudicate background checks for all
of these organizations the same, we won't have any coaches
in those urban communities. So we got to get creatives.
And that's what we've done. We've leaned in with our
inner city programs going, you know what, you guys got
to got coaches, but you guys have to have coaches,
(35:33):
but we still need to make sure we credential them.
If they've had a history, how long has it been,
are they truly have they rehabilitated their life and are
they passing a story back to our kids around how
they need to do what they need to do differently
and so we've leaned in differently in that way, and
that our background check adjudication has to look dramatically different
for inner city program where we have way different you know,
(35:56):
demographic of pearans or volunteers that are leaning in the
for their kids cost savings like we do. We do
we have our foundation. We do a single Mother's give
back between Mother's Mother's Day and Father's Day where we
give six hundred and ninety five dollars back to single
mothers for their kids to play sports. So that's a
(36:17):
big part of accessibility. My mom, she's a lunchroal manager.
She made thirty thousand dollars a year. There's no way
she would have been able to afford.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
With these parents paying today.
Speaker 3 (36:27):
And so these are just a couple of ways that
we you know, it's my it's my journey. You know,
I have not forgotten where I come from, and you know,
I just want to make sure that we reduced to
have and to have not and we make sure that
all kids, regardless of where they live, have a great
opportunity for them to experience the goodness that sports can
(36:50):
bring to their life and give them an opportunity where
a coach like Coach Ward tell me, man, you can
be somebody, and they for the first time they believe
that and go and do something with it.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
Tech Green Money is a production of Blavity Afro Tech
on the Black Effect podcast Networking Night High Media and
it's produced by Morgan Debonne and me Well Lucas, with
the additional production support by Kate McDonald, Sayah Ergan and
Jada McGee. Special thank you to Michael Davis and Love Beach.
Learn more about my guests and other tech this shop
as an innovator's at afrotech dot com. The video version
of this episode will drop to Black Tech Green Money
(37:22):
on YouTube, so tap in, enjoy your Black Tech Green Money,
share us to somebody go get your money. Peace and love,
I'm Will Lucas and this is black Tech, Green Money.
Tyree Berks is the founder and CEO Players Health, where
he's transforming how sports organizations approach health, safety, and accountability
for athletes. As a former collegiate and professional athlete, ties
journey was shaped by personal experiences with injuries and lack
of proper support, inspiring him creative platform that insures athletes
(00:24):
at all levels can play and safer and more secure environments.
Through players Health, he's raised over one hundred million dollars,
developed innovative risk management tools, and redefine sports insurance by
focusing on transparency to use, prevention, and the overall well
being of athletes. So I was doing research on you,
and it talked about how you saw players Health like
(00:46):
as a personal calling rather than just like a business.
And you know, you realize your experiences as an athlete
could help shape the future for youth. And I think
about particularly my son who plays football, wants to play football,
you know, and my wife is like, you know, we
could play flag. You know, he's eleven years old, but
not tackle yet. And so he talked about how you
(01:06):
see this as you know, a calling versus just a business. Opportunity.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Yeah, no, I really appreciate it. Well, thanks for having
me man. Man.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
When when I first started out, I never intended to
start this business. I never intended it for it to
be as big as it is. In the beginning, my
my roots have been in sports, and I recognized early
on that, you know, the decisions that I make will
impact my life. And you know cliches, old timers always
(01:37):
tell you that. But I had a couple of decisions
that I needed to make. I grew up in Chicago Southside,
and you know, I had a choice, and you know,
sports was one of them on the streets, and luckily,
you know, I chose football.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
I chose wrestling.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
I chose every sport that I could choose to keep
me out of the streets, and that kept me safe.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
It kept me out of the streets, kept me out
of trouble.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
But in that layer to college to professional football, there
was a whole journey that was began because I made
the right choice. When I look back over that career
and how all of this led to me creating this company,
I think about every tyree Birks that is faced with
a decision that is looking for positive reinforcement.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
In their life.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
And if we can be a positive force for making
sure that these organizations are thinking about that well being
day one, then you know there's a massive impact we
can make. Another point of that is, I recognize the
transaction between kids in sports can have a positive or
negative impact on them. So we can make a depositive
to our kids things like positivity, things like inspiration, team building,
(02:50):
that's what you get from sports.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Or you can take something from them.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
You can take motivation from them, you can take their
innocence from them.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Depending on the trauma, depending on.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
The incident that they have to endure, that could be
a withdrawal that you can take from them that could
change their life forever. And so our focus at playerselves
has been we want to make sure that we're only
depositing good kids, good things into our kids, and we
want sports to be a positive force for their lives
and not a negative one.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
How you just go more into that last point there,
you know, if we're to be a positive or not
a negative force, like in what ways do we think
about how it can be negative or I'm sorry, does
players help It could be absolutely.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
There's a couple of stories I tell what we had
an incident where this is probably two years ago high
school for I mean a ten U ten football team
in Texas. A coach gets shot at a game by
someone in the stands, and that incident dramatically impacted these kids' lives.
(03:53):
Something was taken away from them, whether that be innocence,
whether that be a bunch of things was taken away.
But because the environment that these kids come into are
now bringing in all of these external factors, we need
to do our best to make sure that we control
it and put them.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
In the best environment.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
That's an example of the transaction between sports and kids.
Another transaction with negative thing would be like, you know,
maybe a coach is not a positive coach. Maybe the
coach is telling the kid that they're never going to
be good. And we respect our coaches, my coaches. I
still talk to my high school football coach to this day.
(04:30):
He was like a father to me. And this was
the first guy I s out of my mom and
told me you can be somebody. He deposited something into
me and that led to me where I'm at today.
So that's the dynamic. And I think sports is not
just one area of kids life that do that. But
I think it's a massive one because it's such a
big part of our lives.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Yeah, that first, you know instance you gave there where
you know, the parents got involved and you know it
went real bad.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
You know.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
I think about, you know, go on to a lot
of kids games because I have kids in sports now,
and you see how emotional the stands get because in
so many ways, the parents live through their kids and like,
this is their shot. This is little Billy's shot at
the league and it's like he's nine, you know what
I mean. So but this is little you know, Jane's
shot at the Olympics, And I think about what opportunities
(05:22):
are there or how is players health thinking about? It's
not just the kids who need this support, but it's
the ecosystem around them to where you again, you've got
people living through them and you know, why is my
kid not getting enough playing time? It's all of these
different things. How does players help think about that?
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Well, I think there's a couple of things that we've
been focused on, specifically around how do we go about
creating safe spaces. Want any adult that's coming in contact
with a minor, we're making sure that they're properly qualified
to do that. Have they gone through a background check,
Have they gone through the proper training to respond in
the right way when they see something when an injury happens.
(06:04):
You know, how are they responding to when things do happen,
because you know, you could de escalate a situation really
well to a parent that may be arraging someone if
you respond differently.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
And I think it's a great way for us.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
To model how our kids are going to have to
deal with adversity in their life as well. And so
we do a lot with training the coaches, the staff
and making sure that they respond properly when things do happen.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
And then, of course things will happen, and how do
we make.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Sure that when they do, where it's properly documented and
that we're doing everything we can to make sure that
there's a protocol that allows us not the color outside
of the line, so to speak.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
So your company, Play your Self came in at a time,
you started to grow at a time where you know,
safety protocols, changes in safety protocols and rising insurance costs
is a big conversation and discourse. What gaps in the
mart did you see that allowed space for this company?
Speaker 3 (07:03):
So I was actually at the time, I was actually
volunteering on a youth and amateur sports organization here in Minnesota,
and our insurance premiums double. Now youth organizations, as you
probably know, they don't have a ton of money. You know,
these are nonprofit organizations. And there are a couple of
factors that led to the increase of those costs. One,
(07:27):
the insurance companies were paying out tons in liability lawsuits,
specifically around concussions and abuse. Most of it was abuse,
so your your boy Scouts that was a six hundred
million dollar lawsuits. You know, USA Gymnastics a billion dollar lawsuit.
So just those two incidents, loans over one point five
(07:47):
one point six billion dollars was paid out, and the
carriers are sharing that cost with we all have to
share that cost as a risk, and so they're doing
some actuarial analysis that says we now have to charge
X to offset you know what we're paying out. And
we just saw that there were some huge gaps in
being proactive about the risk because prior to those incidents,
(08:11):
those organizations were considered good risk and the way that
insurance companies used to look at sports organizations were as
long as you haven't had any claims you were a
good risk, but they had no internal visibility around what
was happening day in and day out to reduce the
likelihood that a USA Gymnastis could happen or boy Scouts
could happen.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
And that's the that's the gap that we saw.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
We thought there was a huge need for risk management
and visibility of what was actually happening on the boots.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
On the ground.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
And then we want to incentivize organizations to do the
right thing, and the best way to incentivize them is
to give them discounts on what is their largest expense,
which happens to be insurance. And so when when our
insurance premiums doubled, I'm asking our broker, hey, why are
we paying all of this?
Speaker 2 (08:56):
And he's telling me that this.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Is happening in the marketplace, and I have this aha
moment around, well, we need to bridge the gap, provide
visibility of risk to our clients, give them tools to
manage it, and then give them affordable insurance when they
do the right things.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
You know, you use the visibility there A couple of
times I think about transparency, which is another way to say.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
That, and.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Is it more that the insurance companies don't really know
what's happening at practice, at the games, et cetera. Or
is it that the transparency from what goes into the
insurance premium is not clear to the consumer.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
That's a really good question.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
Well, the bigger issue specifically around that is that the
carrier is so removed from the athlete the insurance There's
there's a broker which sells the product, and then there's
the insurance carrier that really just access the bank paying
the claims. They're there, they have the contract and they're
managing the insurance coverage. The broker actually has boots the ground,
(10:00):
they're interacting with the sports organization.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
They're there as the risk advisor.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
But what we've identified is there are a number of
brokers that are just a pedal policies. They're there to
sell an insurance policy and then when the incidents happen,
because brokers, they're not penalized if there is a claim.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
They only get paid.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
When they sell a policy, so they're not incentivized to
ensure that organizations are implementing these policies and protocols. And
I think that's the different business model that we have
and that we've taken a more comprehensive approach around how
we sell the insurance because we are a broker, but
we are also a market. We underwrite and price our
(10:44):
own risk, and we have our own insurance capacity that
we have to protect, so we have the same responsibility
as a carrier to make sure that.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
We're not paying out a lot of claims.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
And we also are broker and we have boots on
the ground to work with these organizations day in and
day out.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Unique value did your background as an athlete give you
when you started this business?
Speaker 3 (11:07):
Honestly, it got me in the room. Like when I
first started the company. I really I didn't know anything
about business, Honestly, I came fresh from playing football and
I was just all passion. I had this idea to
create safe spaces for kids to play sports. It was
really simple and injuries because I had so many injuries,
I'm like, you know what, we need to create a
(11:30):
documentation system and a policy and protocol about how we
manage injuries bright youth athletes. That was the simple version
of what we were thinking about doing. And I was
able to get into rooms that you wouldn't normally be
able to get into you know, I was talking with
you know, the chief medical officer or the NFL. You know,
I got a chance to get a ton of insight
(11:51):
from executives in sports and athletic directors at universities and
high schools and other organizations because I was a professional
and because I can talk to Lango and all of
those other pieces. So it got me. It gave me
a huge opportunity to get in the door. But it
also gave me the resilience on the thousands of no's
(12:13):
that I would get, you know, to you know, to
keep fighting and keep making this thing happen when it
got tough.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Also, let mean ask a different question with that same foundation,
is like when you started talking to investors, you know,
they saw an athlete who's like ready, all passion, you know, Pitbull,
China Shop. I'm just ready to go, let's go. Like
what makes them rite to check when they see just
the passion? But to your point, not a whole lot
of professional experience.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
Yeah, that's a super Honestly, in the beginning, I can't
tell you. I think people just saw my commitment in
the beginning. I've always been a hustler. I wear my
heart on my sleeves.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
So when I do.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
Something, I'm committed, and I think people feel that when
they come in contact with me. And so my first introduction,
my first investor was my agent. He was my sports agent.
So these are people that knew me. They knew how
committed I was. He knew that, you know, I wasn't
a big name athlete. I used to pay to go
to tryouts, you know where there's three four hundred guys
(13:15):
and I'm the last guy there, you know, making the team.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
And so he believed in me.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
And he was my first investor, you know, and the
first other call it big investors that I had. Really
I think a lot of them just I didn't take
the first known personal. Most of the time I talked
with investor that first the first time, it was like, yeah,
we'll talk in six months. But I always followed up.
My follow up game was strong. And then every time
(13:42):
I followed up everything I told him I was going
to do at the time I met him, I had done.
And so I think that that helped me, you know,
get get in the door, so to speak, because I
was consistent with my message and I held myself accountable
to to be who I said.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
I was going to be.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
You know you talked about you guys are into more
than just preventing physical injuries, but also the emotional and
psychological state in creating safe spaces for these athletes. When
you think about the landscape of social media, video cameras,
and like, we see so much more now negative going
on in our world that was already here because we
(14:20):
now have cameras and because we now have social media,
it's a lot. Is the growth of these issues or
is it real as it's really growing, or is that
it's more visible to us that the issues that we
deal with are in existence.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
I think there's a hybrid above. They are very real
and they are growing because what was pure about youth
in amateur sports is becoming.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
Very business like.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
Where Like the passion for me playing sports as a
sixteen year old looks dramatically different. And now it's not
just yes, I want to play professional football, but even
before I wanted to play pro football, I just I
wanted to play Division one football, I just wanted to
just play in general. Now, in order for me to
(15:13):
be playing at sixteen, I got to try out. My
mom has to have, you know, has to pay you know,
thousands of dollars just for me to be a part
of a team. And we've now it's youth sports is
becoming really much of a business, and I think without
call it the pure nature of it of sports, where
(15:36):
you know, kids are being motivated differently, which they feel
like they have to post content, they have to build
a brand and all of this with Nils, it's forcing
them to have to be a part of the engine
as opposed to just play for the love of it,
and they feel the pressure to become a business, which
(15:57):
is what I think is the biggest problem that you know,
that pressure is going to be is really strong for
these athletes. And you know, I don't know if we're
going to be able to put the genie back in
the bottle, so to speak, but I'm hoping that we
have some brave young athletes that want to do it
differently and that difference is what's going to help them
stand out.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Yeah, I've seen you talk about how prevention and awareness.
Prevention spikes after issues, especially very public issues, but we
do have an issue in our community globally in our
discourse where we it's our state away over time. How
does players health emphasize and create sustainability with awareness for
that prevention effort.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
Well, for the first time I think in twenty four
we leaned into advocacy and legislation for the first time
in year serve of our company. Well, we actually started
to take a more practive role to make sure that
these policies, protocols, the environment that we want to provide
to our customers, that we at least want to motivate
our custom was to lean in on the same mission
(17:01):
that we have that it was that was a requirement
that it was a new standard of care of how
organization did it.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
So we did this with the.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
State of Colorado one of our clients and this actually
didn't start with us. One of our clients reached out
to US Inner City to Tackle Football program, one of
the largest in Denver, and he's been an administrator for
ten years now and for the first time in his
and him doing this and this is more of a
mission for him and just helping kids. He didn't want
(17:31):
to have a season because he was just afraid of
what was going to happen next, you know, is there
going to be another fight, is somebody going to get shot?
Speaker 2 (17:40):
What's going to happen? Like it was just so much happening.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
And so he was wondering what policies and protocols could
we draft to require organizations to implement all the things
that he was implementing with us, And so we talked
with Senator Exem Senator Coleman. These are two African American centers.
They come from the inner city. Senator Xham, he's been
(18:03):
coaching high school basketball for forty years. He's seen everything,
and so these were the folks we experienced this stuff.
We see it every day, and we developed through our
policies protocols. We co offer the bill that requires organizations
to do background checks, ab use awareness training like implement
these protocols, and it's a requirement now in the state
(18:25):
of Colorado. That bill was passed in July, and it's
the first of what will be many. You know, I
think we have a responsibility now with our influence in
the marketplace, where we can now galvanize and bring the
right peoples around the table to create new legislation and
do things, you know, the way we think the future
should be.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
So let's say you have a son he wants to
play tackle football. At what age are you letting your
son tackle football. So Masa, you know the status, you
know the numbers and.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
What we talk about this all the time. So my
son is five, he's playing flag.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
He'll be playing flag probably up until he'st twelve thirteen.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
Twelve thirteen is a good Why is that a good number?
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Honestly?
Speaker 3 (19:12):
I think the developmental skills depending on how big he is.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
And that's the thing that's one I draw a line
under staying and that you some big.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
Some kids are big, and once they get to a
certain size, there is no there's no flag for an
offensive lineman or d lineman. And so you want them
to be competitive enough. If that's the sport that they love,
they need to break into it somewhere in that like
middle school where they got to go from you know, tackle,
(19:42):
I'm going to go from flag to tackle. You want
you want a couple of years before they get into
high school and they're really hidden before before they really
you know, take that transition if football is going to
be a sport that they really want to play.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
Yeah, you know it was another line I heard from
use a quote where you're talking to injuries and you're
saying it's not happening at the collegiate level as much
because you have a medical staff supporting you as an athlete.
It's definitely not happening at the professional level, but it's
happening often at the youth level. What happens in our
(20:14):
community systemically pervasively that make youth sports more vulnerable when
it comes to safer play.
Speaker 3 (20:25):
It's honestly, there are no there's no rules or regulations
around how often these kids are playing. I think that's
that's the biggest change that happened from high school to
college and pro. At college and pro, they can't practice
only certain so many times, so many games. At high
(20:47):
school level, we're younger, you got travel, you got school
like they're playing sports literally all year long.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
And like my son, we got caught into it.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
My son, he plays a freshman at Northern State, is
the Division two basketball player just do play twelve months
out of the year, like we'll call it eleven months out.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
Of the year. We forced them to sit one month.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
But he went from basketball, call it October to March.
Au starts in March, March to August, he gets a
month off, he's back in in October again.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
And that's just basketball hockey.
Speaker 3 (21:28):
Every other sport has that same cycle now because you
now have spring flag football, where now kids are going
from fall to flag and then they got summer travel
that they're doing. And so it's just the amount of
miles that these kids are putting on their bodies at
a very young age without very little rest.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
They're probably eating like crap.
Speaker 3 (21:52):
Two are increasing the number of the number of injuries
that they see.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
I read and I don't know if this is the
latest number, but you know, I will say, congratulations on
the twenty eight million in financing. Is that the latest
that the real is that the number?
Speaker 2 (22:09):
No, Well, the latest route we closed was sixty million.
That was we were closed that at the end of November.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
So the latest is sixty So that sixty plus the
twenty eight.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Yeah, we've raised over one hundred million in the history
of the company today.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
Congratulations, brother, congratulations. How do you how do you say
this is the target? This is the number that we're right?
Speaker 3 (22:32):
So that's a really good question. Honestly, we wrestled with
that this year and there's a couple of things that
we've identified when it comes to like, one, are we
going to go for this number? And for the first
the previous first three years with the company for the
previous three years that we've done and we've been focusing
(22:52):
on really getting clear on our strategy. What are we
going to do, what are we going to be, where
we're going to play, and so we have this playing
to win strategy that helps us understand what our winning
aspiration is, where we're going to play, how we're going
to win, what capabilities do we need to have in place,
and then what systems do we need to have to
support those capabilities.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
I think when we finished.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
That whole process, and we've done multiple iterations, it's been
fine tuning over the years. We realize that we have
a right to win in this space. You know, the
market's big enough, and the incumbents haven't evolved as we've evolved.
We've changed the industry and they haven't evolved. And so
we see the opportunity for M and A. We've seen
(23:36):
the opportunity for just talent acquisition.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
And that's you buying companies, not the boss.
Speaker 3 (23:43):
Correct, But we see these growth opportunities that are green
grass for us because of our value proposition and how
differentiated we are in the marketplace, and so it you know,
how aggressive you want to grow is going to come
down to the amount of capital, but you have to
know exactly what you want to do with that capital,
and we do and so it wasn't something we just
(24:06):
like picked a number. We went through that analysis, understood
our strategy. We did a competitive landscape, understanding what our
competitors are doing.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
How they're growing, how fast we're growing.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
How consistent can we be at this growth, and then
what are the Fosse multipliers that are going to help
us accelerate that? And then how much is it going
to cost? So it's a top down approach. You really
get to, all right, if we you know, we could
be a five hundred million dollar premium company. Insurance premium
is kind of a sales metric for US right now.
You know, we do seventy eighty million dollars this year.
(24:40):
Our focus is to be, you know, five hundred million
XYZ or the next number.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
Of that means what that means you're covering that you
have that much risk.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
Insurance premium is basically what you pay for your insurance
and so you may have a thousand dollars premium you
have to pay for your liability policy.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
That's one thousand dollars.
Speaker 3 (24:59):
In prem for US, and so our role, our focus
is to generate you know, you know over a five
hundred million Well what will it take for us to
get to that point? What tools and resources do we
need to have in the people. So that's how we
came up with that. But it takes courage to go
after it, and you got to believe in yourself. And
(25:21):
I think coming from where I came from, and there's
a lot of self doubt that I had going into this,
going ca can I do it?
Speaker 2 (25:27):
But can we do it?
Speaker 3 (25:29):
And yeah, you know, you just got to you know,
don't believe the lies and you know, take the plunge
and make it happen.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
Technical question about you know, the business is does that
mean if you've got five hundred million in premiums, you're
potentially if I was like one million dollar policies, how
does that work? Does that mean you have to have
you know, hundreds of millions also in the make in
case somebody.
Speaker 3 (25:54):
So one of the things that we've done and players health,
we're a brokerage and we're what we're calling in MGA
or think of us as like a quasi carrier. We
don't have any balance sheet risk with our with our
market We work with a number of carriers that support
us and for every So the average premium for youth
(26:15):
and amateur sports is you know, small organization is probably
a thousand bucks, so that could be thousands of organizations.
But we also write very large organizations, right, We write
some of the largest organizations out you know US youth soccer,
you know USA football. We write some really large organizations,
three step sports. These are all really big accounts. Those accounts,
(26:38):
those large organizations could be millions of dollars in premium.
Very few people know that just in youth and amateur
sports alone is over three billion dollars and insurance produced
a year. That's how big the insurance market is in
youth and amateur sports. You at college, you ad pro,
you at you add all of those pieces, you looking
(26:59):
at eight to ten billion dollar market. So the market
is massive and our focus is you know, to be
to be the number one in the US.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
You might have just answered this question, but is there
verticals that you could you might consider expanding into.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
Yeah, so our core of players health of the past,
we've been an insurancewntionship for about five years now, has
been you the amateur sports and fitness fitness has been
a really big division for US has been growing newer
for US. We launched our collegiate division. It'll be a
year in February we launched the collegiate division. We do
all the NIL policies and stuff now for the college
(27:41):
NIL market, and we will be launching pro in twenty six.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
There is you know again, we talked earlier about parents
in the family, around the friends, even of these young
people who are playing, and how their behavior and their
actions at these games means almost as much as the
people on the court or on the field. What what
steps do you encourage those families, those parents to take
(28:13):
to create safer sports environments in their communities, even in
their households and at the games.
Speaker 3 (28:19):
Yeah, well, I think we gotta we gotta build and
raise comprehensive kids. Sports is not there, end all, be all,
and I think we we want to motivate our kids
to be the best at what they do. But I
think one of the biggest things that I've I've come
I've had to wrestle with this with my son. You
see potential in our kids, we see what they could be,
(28:43):
but they have to develop into that and there's a
there's a hap. There's a very fine balance between us
pushing and and allowing them to figure it out along
their way, and they're gonna we have to do both.
And so I think I don't have a call it
the We don't have the magic bullet in terms of
what that looks like. But I think my advice that
I would give to parents as they are developing and
(29:06):
raising their kids is that recognizing.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
That sports as a tool.
Speaker 3 (29:10):
That's how we should That's how I've that's how I've
raised my son to believe that sports as a tool.
Yes there's opportunities where, yes, you could play professionally if
that is a dream that you have, but that dream
will also one day in because you can't play professionally forever.
So see it as a tool, and we want to
make sure that we look at what sports brings to
(29:32):
us comprehensively. Are you being a good leader, are you
learning how to problem solve? Are you learning how to
overcome adversity? These are the skills, These are the these
are these are the lessons that we want our kids
to learn through sports. And so I'd encourage us to
focus more on those lessons and those skills than we
do whether they made it to division one or division two.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Yeah, you know, I have this philosophy about my own businesses,
in my own business, you know, thinking in that like
I'm not romantic about business, Like if something is working,
is working. If it's not, no matter how much I
like it or love it, it's not working. And I
was reading this quote from you where you said, you know,
(30:15):
in the beginning, you always have hopes and dreams of
what you want the mission to be, and then it
ends up coming to you more as a calling than
it does just building a business. I don't know if
you remember saying that, but so so with that thought
I have of like, if it's working, it's working. If
it's not, it's not, You got to cut it off
and move onto something else. Expand on how that sense
(30:36):
of calling that you feel shapes your leadership and approach
to entrepreneurship in business.
Speaker 3 (30:44):
Well, I think in the beginning, man, I was so
focused on external perceptions I want to I was looking
for examples of what success look like. When what changed
everything for me was that I'm a one of one.
You are one of one. Your businesses will look dramatically
(31:08):
different when you running them. Then they'll look dramatically different
when I'm in them, even if we're in the same industry.
And so, yeah, there are blueprints and people that have
done successful things, but man has change, and your ability
to adapt to those changes.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
Are going to be up to you and the team
you have around you.
Speaker 3 (31:25):
And so I had to develop a confidence in myself
but to be a great listener, not being so focused
on me being right. But I wanted to get it right.
And so like the original idea that I had to
play yourself. You ask anyone that's been a part of
this journey with me for past ten years.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
They know I'm okay with being wrong. So anytime that
I had an.
Speaker 3 (31:47):
Initial idea round what was what I thought something was
going to be, I was super quick to recognize that
that wasn't the right path and we pivoted. And I
really embrace courage.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
In our company.
Speaker 3 (32:01):
We have to put ourselves in a position with failures
as a possibility, and the only way we can do
that is if we take risks. And so of course
as the company matures, your risk get more calculated. But
in the beginning, you got nothing to lose because you
don't have there's nothing really there. You're building it from
the ground up, and the only way for you to
(32:22):
learn is to make mistakes, learn from those mistakes, and iterate.
And I think that has really driven how I lead people.
Another thing that I'm really focused on within our company
is that player Sealth is a calling for me because
it is my mission. Everyone in our company has their
own personal mission statement, and people talk about mission statements.
(32:45):
This seems like a cliche, but I am here today
because I've had this mission to create a word of love, acceptance,
and safety. Everything about my life represents that. When you
come in contact with me, you should feel that because
that is who I say I am, that is that
is what I want to be held accountable to. So
everyone in our company has their own personal mission and
(33:07):
every week we check in on it.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
Are you on mission or are you not? And so?
And if you consistently be on mission, You're gonna wake.
Speaker 3 (33:15):
Up ten years from now and you are going to
have started to materialize what you set out to do.
And that's exactly what has happened with me. I had
a vision and a mission to create a world of love, acceptance,
and safety through this business. This is one way that
I go about doing that. Outside of my family and
all of these other things. But being mission driven is
(33:37):
really important because it allows you to have focus and
it just keeps you It keeps you motivated when things
get tough, because things will get tough.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
Man, that was a great place to end. But I
got one more question. I'm like, shoot, I should ask that,
ask I got one more You know, I think about
urban areas and they're often underfunded and many families struggle
with insurance already. Many of these teams, you know, they
(34:07):
just may be neighborhood teams put together because you know,
we wanted to keep the kids off the street. So like,
what position does players have have to ensure that all communities,
especially those that are in underserved, underfunded communities, have access
to resources to keep kids safe on and off the field.
Speaker 2 (34:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (34:26):
Man, That's something I've leaned into over the years, and
that specifically within urban communities, especially communities where I grew up,
we have to approach sports differently and that the challenges
that an administrator face on a.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
Day in and day out running a sports organization and.
Speaker 3 (34:46):
Inglewood, Chicago is going to be dramatically different than someone
running a program here in you know, Eton Prairie, Minnesota,
and so even just how we even look at.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
Staff a background check, a background in Eden Prairie.
Speaker 3 (35:01):
I can run a background check on every coach, their
dads and may not have any issues.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
I run a background check on volunteers.
Speaker 3 (35:10):
And members in the urban community, and they may they
may have a history that if we treat if we
use the same way we adjudicate background checks for all
of these organizations the same, we won't have any coaches
in those urban communities. So we got to get creatives.
And that's what we've done. We've leaned in with our
inner city programs going, you know what, you guys got
to got coaches, but you guys have to have coaches,
(35:33):
but we still need to make sure we credential them.
If they've had a history, how long has it been,
are they truly have they rehabilitated their life and are
they passing a story back to our kids around how
they need to do what they need to do differently
and so we've leaned in differently in that way, and
that our background check adjudication has to look dramatically different
for inner city program where we have way different you know,
(35:56):
demographic of pearans or volunteers that are leaning in the
for their kids cost savings like we do. We do
we have our foundation. We do a single Mother's give
back between Mother's Mother's Day and Father's Day where we
give six hundred and ninety five dollars back to single
mothers for their kids to play sports. So that's a
(36:17):
big part of accessibility. My mom, she's a lunchroal manager.
She made thirty thousand dollars a year. There's no way
she would have been able to afford.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
With these parents paying today.
Speaker 3 (36:27):
And so these are just a couple of ways that
we you know, it's my it's my journey. You know,
I have not forgotten where I come from, and you know,
I just want to make sure that we reduced to
have and to have not and we make sure that
all kids, regardless of where they live, have a great
opportunity for them to experience the goodness that sports can
(36:50):
bring to their life and give them an opportunity where
a coach like Coach Ward tell me, man, you can
be somebody, and they for the first time they believe
that and go and do something with it.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
Tech Green Money is a production of Blavity Afro Tech
on the Black Effect podcast Networking Night High Media and
it's produced by Morgan Debonne and me Well Lucas, with
the additional production support by Kate McDonald, Sayah Ergan and
Jada McGee. Special thank you to Michael Davis and Love Beach.
Learn more about my guests and other tech this shop
as an innovator's at afrotech dot com. The video version
of this episode will drop to Black Tech Green Money
(37:22):
on YouTube, so tap in, enjoy your Black Tech Green Money,
share us to somebody go get your money. Peace and love,
Host
Will Lucas
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