Megan Reyes on building better brands for athletes
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Megan Reyes is a social media & athlete branding consultant, and built her experience working at places like Blue Wire, The Athletic, 2K, and the Golden State Warriors. Brian and Megan chat about what makes a strong brand for an athlete, how athletes can start building their brand pillars, what athletes can do to differentiate themselves, and how brands can better work with athletes.
Follow Megan Reyes on Twitter and Instagram and check our her website.
Full Transcript:
Brian Bosche: (00:16)
Welcome to the podcast!
Megan Reyes: (00:31)
Hi Brian. Thank you for having me. Thanks for, uh, coming up with a good,
Brian Bosche: (00:35)
Exactly. Yeah, we'll refine it. You can look on your personal brand. It'll it'll be great. You've worked at so many fun companies, so let's just start there. Do you want to go? You don't have to go over your whole resume. Um, but you know what I think I started following you were at the, at the athletic then blue wire pods. You've worked for the warriors are all over the place. Um, in terms of companies that I would dream to work for. So you just want to cover kind of your experiences and your professional background a little bit.
Megan Reyes: (01:11)
Yes. Um, how can I best condense this without just pulling up my LinkedIn and being like add on 2009? Um, yeah, it started in college. I got, um, a marketing internship when I was a student at my university's athletic department, very small school, a university Idaho, which many people probably have not heard.
Brian Bosche: (01:32)
I went to Bozeman high school. So I knew a lot of people that went to Idaho, Alex Brekke track team. Do you have any idea who that is?
Megan Reyes: (01:38)
Never talk about this? I didn't know. You're from Montana.
Brian Bosche: (01:41)
Yeah. Alex Brekke. Does that ring a bell? He was like the fastest person I ever met. All right. That's okay. That's like, oh my God. It's like 10 years ago now. All right. Continue before I realize that I'm getting.
Megan Reyes: (01:53)
Yeah. So I started in the athletic department and, um, small school, small program, but you know, the, the experience, the game day roles are still the same. And I didn't know, career in sports was possible. This was 2009. So there wasn't social media. You weren't able to see some of the careers that people had outside of like your standard corporate marketing or HR job. Um, I fell in love with it and I wanted everything in anything to do with it. So from the time I was 18 to now, I've been fortunate to work on the team side on the media side. I mean, between internships and full-time jobs. I've had the pleasure of working at the Portland timbers, the golden state warriors, Oregon ducks on the media side. Um, a little adjacent there. I spent some time at two K, so I got a little bit of video game and entertainment.
Megan Reyes: (02:42)
So I got a little bit of that and then went to the athletic, like you said, and blue wire. And now I made the crazy and brave choice to be self-employed. So I am very fortunate though, because those experiences were unintentionally. I think maybe I'm just speaking for myself, but at that point, a lot of people, if you want to be in sports, you kind of will take any opportunity that's given to you and early in my career. So long as each transition wasn't lateral, I was going to take it because I believed that that would help me grow in hindsight and unintentionally. It did, but, you know, I went from ticket sales to ticket services, to the nitty-gritty cold calling to partnerships, the social. And so it all sort of grew and snowballed and culminated into a spot where I'm at now, where I feel like I've been able to see so many different facets of the industry that I'm more comfortable kind of going out on my own. So that is my condensed cliff notes version.
Brian Bosche: (03:43)
That's great. And was the athletic the first, first time where you really went into the social side of things and really focused on that area? Yes.
Megan Reyes: (03:50)
Yeah. So before that, it was kind of, again, sort of unintentionally building my own personal social presence, and I had more of an opportunity to get tangible professional hands-on experience in social while at the athletic. Um, when I was there in 2018, still a small 20, 19, still a small company. So lots of different hats if someone was gone and needed the account managed for a day or two, I jumped in there. So that's when I really got to learn and see from the outside. And then an opportunity came where I got to transition full-time and work with and for my dear friend, Olivia with it. Right. And, uh, yeah, she taught me a lot and I learned a lot and that's where I got my first like real social professional social experience. Yeah. And then was blue
Brian Bosche: (04:39)
Wire more athlete focused? What was kind of your role at blue wire?
Megan Reyes: (04:42)
It was a lot again, so it was actually really
Brian Bosche: (04:47)
Fast-growing startup stage.
Megan Reyes: (04:49)
Yes. Which, you know, more than anything and blue wire, like when I got to the athletic at that point, it was more hypergrowth. Yeah. Systems were in place. Um, it was more just kind of starting to take things from ideation to execution. And my time at blue wire was all of it through startups. Yeah. Yeah. True. True. Like some building processes while also trying to ideate and execute. So what was really cool is they brought me on based on that snowball of experience that I mentioned before. So I got to kind of touch different projects and areas of the business that made sense that maybe they needed me or I wanted to work on. So some of that was helping with social. Some of that was a lot of it was branding. I worked under our head of marketing and together we were working on, uh, a whole brand refresh and strategy and then trying to take our mission and our values and create smaller campaigns and moments throughout the both sports and the culture calendar that still can funnel up to what blue wire's overall brand is. Um, and then I did get to do some really fun calls, prospecting content, athletes, influencers, entertainers, really just trying to bring people on and make cool stuff with blue wire. So it's so funny because I would make this joke all the time. But depending on who asked me and what day I was asked my answer at what I did there changed, um,
Brian Bosche: (06:14)
Well that's most startups. And so I've, I've done really well on my interview style. If I usually answer my own question while I asked the question, so I'll try not to do that in this one, but athletes sports entertainment, it's a really exciting industry. Their brands are becoming more valuable than ever before. So what kind of excited you to pursue opportunities with sports and without these, cause you do have a broad experience and you decided to go freelance and kind of focus on this specific area. What excited you about this specific area of brand sport athletes,
Megan Reyes: (06:47)
Particularly when it comes to athlete, branding, we, those in the industry, you know, we're not dense to the fact that this has been a untapped potential for a very long time. And we see a lot of athletes that have been doing it. And we see a lot more now within, I would even say I'd argue in the last maybe even year and a half, um, venturing out and doing their own branding and their own.
Brian Bosche: (07:15)
I kind of focused on them. Yeah, it's all gotta be virtual. They want to communicate and they can't do it in person.
Megan Reyes: (07:20)
Exactly. And so we see this happening, we know that NISL is happening and where I saw an opportunity and a passion for even just in conversations with friends or people that I've had introductory calls with, they want to get to whatever this end point is, point B, where they can make the investments or have the partnerships and start to build this brand. Um, and they don't know how to get there. And we know that this point B just like any company we can consider the, like the activation in the sales part of the brand where I think it gets overwhelming for a lot of athletes. And where I got excited is they have not yet start started to even think about just who they are and what they want their brand to be. And so I know, even since I mentioned going freelance, I've had some really cool calls or people being like, Hey, we help with the actual monetization point.
Megan Reyes: (08:21)
And a lot of our athletes just don't know where to start, but that's because they want to jump to point B and they want to start getting the partnerships and they don't know how, or they're like companies aren't reaching out and I'm getting overwhelmed. And I understand it it's because I feel like there's a hole that hopefully I can help fill space in where a lot of people are helping with a monetization standpoint. Um, and a lot of athletes, especially maybe not the Patrick Holmes or the Tom Bradys don't know what they want their brand to be. And by helping them develop that part, hopefully they can then the experts in the monetization space can help them from there. So I saw that opportunity that really excites me because even just beyond sports, that's really just helping people figure out who they are. Yeah. And I really liked that part. Yeah.
Brian Bosche: (09:06)
Yeah. I, we just had our, I just had Jesse chew on the last podcast where he went from professional basketball player to now millions of followers on TikTok. He does like all these comedy sketches and everything he's British. So he does a lot of British in America type jokes. And he talks about like, he'd always been creative, but he felt the stigma of creating content and being himself while he was an athlete, because he felt like he would be judged. And that if they lost three games in a row, people would be like, why are you doing this, you know, ball wall type content when you need to be focused on the game. And I think you're right though, he's kind of realized that like, no, I can be a human being outside of being an athlete. And that's important, especially if you want to build your brand. So that segues perfectly into my next question is what kind of things do you find make a really strong brand for an athlete? And then maybe if there's any athletes that stand out to you that you really appreciate and know that they have a strong brand as examples of that.
Megan Reyes: (09:58)
Yeah. You know, I, and I think this also just comes down to humans, you know, kind of outside of sports too, is just that authenticity factor is really, really important. Um, when I even just have initial calls, even with friends, even with non-athletes, even with creators or people that want to grow as a professional, cause everybody has a brand and everybody should have a brand. I always just ask people like, who do you want to be? And what do you wanna be known for? And it's so funny cause I always get either laughed at, or they get frustrated because it's a deep question. And, uh, this is a whole other tangent, but years and years of therapy, I've kind of become numb to the fact that sometimes I ask really deep questions because anytime I asked this again to a friend to athletes, they're like, I don't know, that's what you're supposed to help me with.
Megan Reyes: (10:53)
I'm like, I understand, but who do you as a person want to be known for outside of being an athlete. And then from there we can start. And so the authenticity factor I think is really important. Um, and I think there's also a level of making sure that each athlete or person we can insert, you know, again, whoever wants to have their own personal brand is portraying who they are and who they want to be and not who they think others want them to be. And so authenticity, I think is really, really important. And because of that, some athletes that really stand out to me with a strong personal brand are people like Naomi Osaka, people like A’ja Wilson and Liz Cambage. And honestly, a lot of these women athletes that are, have stood for and are vocal about causes that they care about outside of sports, social justice, social justice, mental health, other passions, other causes anything in the community because that's who they are. That's what makes them authentic. And I kind see different buckets. There's so many other, very good personal brands. I mean, you can look at again, the Patrick mutt homes and the LeBron James that's also because they're worth so much money. And so that's, there's different
Brian Bosche: (12:06)
LeBron. Yeah.
Megan Reyes: (12:07)
That's also because they're able to make investments and they're able to really grow their portfolio. So I look at it in different buckets, but when I'm looking at someone's, you know, even on a, on what we would consider a micro level and we can also go into a whole other probably conversation as to why women athletes probably are best at personal branding because they know it's a shorter opportunity to leverage their name and they have to create something for themselves outside of sports, given inequity and pay and all of that. But it's because I know that we can look at Naomi Osaka, A’ja Wilson, and Liz Cambage. If we want to use those three examples, and we know they care about social justice, they care about mental health outside, off the court. We know what they stand for. And so those personal brands stand out to me a little bit more when someone asks me, because I know that anything they do, any partnerships I do, they do will probably be true to some of those really deep rooted passions.
Brian Bosche: (12:58)
Yeah. And it's so hard. You're right. Cause I, I was speaking to a friend who is playing college basketball and he was trying to take advantage of name, image, likeness. And it was like, so what do you enjoy doing outside of the sport? And you know, this is an 18 year old. So it's like, I like going to the lake. I let you know. I like the initial you're right. A lot of these athletes haven't really thought about it to that level and totally agree. Therapy really helps you learn how to communicate about yourself. So if you haven't tried therapy, it's extremely helpful and communication. What kind of things do you ask these athletes? Or how do you get them to actually figure out what they like to do outside of their sport or who they are outside of their sport? Are there things you found tricks, tips on bringing that out of them?
Megan Reyes: (13:40)
It's those, the experience of therapy, the probing questions, the almost just kind of pushing them on it. And again, this comes to which I'm very fortunate or I'm very glad to see the shift in how companies, universities, individuals are viewing the importance of athlete branding, but they've just never been asked this question probably even from youth level, collegiate level, before going professional,
Brian Bosche: (14:11)
The coaches are not asking this question. This is not something in this. Yeah. It's not happening on the quarter on the field.
Megan Reyes: (14:18)
And you know, a lot of times too, if they get asked and they don't want to do it, they're not going to do it. And a lot of people like, okay, I'm not going to push you on it, but it's really just, I have yet to find a perfect trick, but it's just really respectfully probing. I kind of have learned which again, I guess I've subtly picked up in therapy because my therapist does it to me. I kind of learned those roundabout ways. Like, okay. You know, you don't know what you want to be known for. Like, do you have hobbies? Yeah. Okay. Like really like photography. Okay. You really like hanging out with your family. So you'd yourself, family oriented and artistic. Really cool. Would you want to be a photographer after, you know, you retire? What are things you like to shoot? Oh, so you really care about nature.
Megan Reyes: (15:01)
So I've kind of learned to ask those probing questions where I feel like they get frustrated with me because I know they're in a therapy session and they're being forced to look in the mirror, but oftentimes they start to realize, okay. Yeah, I guess I do like that. I guess I do have interests outside of sports. Maybe I do have a brand I've just never really thought about it that way, but I really just start to ask. And maybe even before I come straight into the, what do you want to be known for like the, tell me about yourself. Cause I try and just mentally take notes and see if they align later when I asked that question. Yeah. Because oftentimes it probably does. They just, aren't realizing that those are their passions and values that they could probably create a brand.
Brian Bosche: (15:39)
And I know you said stay very authentic, but do you ever go first of like, what brands do you really like? And what's their audience like, is that the wrong way to go about it? Like I love, you know, maybe it's a fishing outfitter or maybe it's Patagonia. I, I wanted gland to deal with them. What's their audience. Like how can I fit within their audience the right way? Is that the wrong way to go about? Or does that kind of maybe help them develop who they are kind of what their interests are.
Megan Reyes: (16:03)
That's a good question. I don't think it's a wrong way to go about it. I think it's a good supplementary question. Um, I'm trying to think probably if I was having a call with someone, I would probably ask that a little bit later so that they don't start to formulate their answers around,
Brian Bosche: (16:19)
Based on the target audience.
Megan Reyes: (16:21)
Yeah. Based around the company they want to work with and trying to appeal to that, to that target audience. So I think I try and get them to think about themselves first to remain that ought to remain that authenticity and then ask, you know, what are some ideal partners? What are some ideal brands who are other people you find inspiring to start to put the pieces together without ever falling short sided on who they are and not who they want, who they think of them.
Brian Bosche: (16:50)
Yeah. Who they are, who their like character needs to be maybe to fit that brand or something
Megan Reyes: (16:55)
That's not sustainable. Yeah.
Brian Bosche: (16:57)
Yeah. And it's, it gets, you get burned out, you know, if you have to create content around that all the time and it's not you, then it's an awful experience. Yeah. Uh, so let's say you've figured out what their pillars are, what their, you know, their, their pillars of personality or whatever branding terms you want to use for let's say pillars. Yeah. So let's say you, you figured out their pillars, how do you start to kind of conceptualize that brand or start to build that plan with them? What does that process look like for athletes to start kind of creating around those brand pillars?
Megan Reyes: (17:26)
Yeah. So, I mean, let's say let's okay. Maybe this is, this is certainly apples to oranges. Cause I am not a professional, but like I'll use my personal experience as an example because like I can confidently point to that. And then if people want to draw parallels, please, so be it. But you know, mental health, which I've actually been wearing a shirt about, it's something that I care so deeply about, so passionately about. And I would consider it a, a pillar and kind of going back to holding that thought, going back to that, that's exactly what I have them do is I literally asked them, you know, every brand, every person should have pillars. What do you want yours to be? So that is the buzz term I use. Um, and I would consider mental health, one of mine. And so I started to think, similarly, what content can I create?
Megan Reyes: (18:17)
Like I'm not a licensed therapist. I don't want to act like I know what I'm talking about from, but from my own experiences, what content can I create? And for me, it was, um, a podcast. It was short form content as far as reels and tick talks around things that I have learned. And I was able to create that space. So if some, if a person or an athlete has a passion that they really care about and they have platforms and there's maybe, um, a hole in that channel, for example, it's quite easy. I'm sure I could easily land on mental health tech talk, but maybe someone that's talking about it in the sports landscape, I can probably think off the top of my head a few. So if there's an opportunity and maybe they already have a large tech talk following or have yet to create one, we know what growth is like on TikToK.
Megan Reyes: (19:07)
It's unreal. Um, there's an opportunity there for them to fill that void and create content. So I think it really just depends on the pillar and it depends on the cross channel following they have where they maybe feel the most comfortable. Because again, it's all about authenticity. Um, some people, they were really bullish on Tik talk, but they knew that there was a good opportunity because again, as we know, anyone can become an overnight sensation. Um, so long as they are comfortable actually creating that content. I think there's so many different, different areas. And again, it's not just social, there's other digital platforms. If someone wants to become a writer, you know, start writing content, putting it, publishing it. Um, I actually had on, on my podcast, a college women's basketball player who loves writing and we talked about it and she loves writing. And while this wasn't a branding conversation, it was a interview style.
Megan Reyes: (20:04)
Similar to this. I learned a lot about her and I asked her what made you want to start writing? A lot of it was a therapeutic form for her. And I asked her what made you want to put it on the internet? And it was because she wanted to share her story. But if I were to then take that conversation and want to work with her on her brand, it's like, okay, you really enjoy writing. You have it on the internet. That's a form. That's a way for you to create content. If you want it to become a writer or anything in that space, you have that platform now and you can go, go with it. So I, the point saying is that there's more to, than just social, you know, dancing on TikToK or, or doing the things you can create. Podcasts. You can create shows people that want to be on, on camera, anybody for better, for worse. Anybody can get a mic and a green screen and start making YouTube content, whatever it may be. There's so many different opportunities. Um, it's getting creative, it's being authentic and it's really using the platforms that they have in the moment.
Brian Bosche: (21:00)
Do you find it helpful to actually have like a content plan that you put together for an athlete or is that overkill for a lot of them? So it's not as authentic. Like if we get into the weeds, how much do you like structure? Hey, you know, you got to go, you're gone. Your channels are Instagram tick-tock and you know, you're going to have a podcast. You need to do this many a week, this many a day. Do you get that granular with them? Do they respond well to that?
Megan Reyes: (21:22)
Um, I like to have it loosely in place. The only reason being is in my experience, they get really overwhelmed,
Brian Bosche: (21:32)
Give so many other things to manage,
Megan Reyes: (21:34)
Given practice training games, travel. I I've found some have like, uh, a fear of committing to some of these projects, not knowing whether they'll burn out, if their schedule a little loud, you know, they're putting their name out there so they don't want to commit to something. And then if they have to pull back or people start to wonder what happened to this person's Ted talk series or what happened to this person's YouTube series. Um, so I like to have it in place just as, as goals, you know, this is what we should be arguing, or this is in my mind trying to guide them gently towards like, Hey, we should do a tech talk this week or we should do, um, you know, you should do a post this week without forcing it on them because I think it becomes overwhelming. Yeah. And I can only imagine I get overwhelmed and again, professional athlete and I don't have the schedule. They do. So I, I personally don't like to put those guard rails up. Cause I feel like then it becomes not as exciting for them anymore.
Brian Bosche: (22:36)
Yeah. It can. And it can really hurt your confidence when you start like a bubble or wobble series and you're behind the scenes and then you don't make another tech talk for, you know, months and months. And people are like, where are you? It can be kind of, you know, it kind of hurts your ego a little bit or you're, or you're like, oh, I've waited too long to do the next one. I can kind of stop you. So yeah, it's, it's, it's hard to be an athlete managing that, especially when there might be expectations for you and you don't want to start a road to the championship, if you lose or, you know, that's maybe focusing on the wrong thing. So does emphasizing the goals help, I guess, like what becomes the north star for them to stick to that type of schedule? Is it the brand deals? Is it kind of landing thing opportunities outside of the sport that helps? What should athletes focus on to maybe get them through those more difficult times of producing content at that scale?
Megan Reyes: (23:23)
Yeah, I think it's whatever their end goal is, whether it's a brand deal monetization, um, whether it's just establishing who they are for that post plane career, um, some might be more qualitative. So I might be more quantitative. Um, I think just keeping that in mind as that north star will help because for example, if somebody wants to become a broadcast or after their post playing career, it's a little, it's a little more tricky to measure that success as it would with like, Hey, we've closed three brand deals this quarter, but I mean, you can see the growth as far as like podcast appearances or maybe creating their own content. And just knowing people are watching, don't think people are watching. Maybe we don't have, we can't point to like we did X brand deals and you brought in X amount of dollars, but know that people are watching and start making those connections so that when the time comes, you have already established yourself as someone that can be on both sides of the mic and somebody that is comfortable talking about the sport or whatever the off the field passion may be.
Megan Reyes: (24:34)
So that's where it gets a little bit tricky, but if they can always keep that goal in the back of their mind and know that maybe because again, I know athletes are competitive. I know they want to see results. That's what drives them inherently by nature. So it can be very discouraging, probably not to see some of that results out there in the world. But I think what a lot need to know is people are paying attention and maybe quietly, I, again, different experience have seen that where I've gotten messages, even since I went freelance where people like it's so cool, like I've been watching in the curtains, you know, in the wings this whole time. And it's so cool to see what you've done. I didn't know. And that I could have and have been discouraged along the way. So it's important for athletes to know that people are definitely paying attention and when a time comes from, maybe whether it's a brand deal or I also, I like to really, part of the reason I got wanted to get into this was to help them succeed for post plane. But, um, to know that sometimes people are just waiting for that moment. And maybe one that, that retirement announcement comes, it's like, let's go, let's go get that person it's time. And so you, again, you may not be seeing those results now, but people are definitely paying attention. Yeah.
Brian Bosche: (25:51)
Setting yourself up for it. Yeah. You see it with like the Richard Jefferson road trip and pod, and you see what dream on's doing now. Like, you're like, oh, there that's the path to being a broadcaster. You can see what they're doing.
Megan Reyes: (26:02)
Okay. Mom's going to be on T and T he retires.
Brian Bosche: (26:06)
Um, and we have a question first audience question from Abby Lowe. Who's a professional basketball player in, for the Newcastle Eagles here in the UK in the WBBL, how, and she incredible’s incredible on TikTok. She's all over TikToK on every trend. She's an incredible content creator. And her question is how do we make our posts reach the right target audience? So she's putting out all this content. I'm sure. She's wondering how do I actually get this in front of the right people
Megan Reyes: (26:42)
She's talking about on TikTok? I think if we're talking
Brian Bosche: (26:44)
On TikToK, hard question,
Megan Reyes: (26:48)
We all know I was going to say, I don't even think TikToK knows how to crack that algorithm.
Brian Bosche: (26:53)
You're like, oh, I just went viral in Indonesia. Or I just went viral in Saudi Arabia. Great. I'm glad they're paying attention to this photo tip.
Megan Reyes: (27:01)
I mean, I just laughed cause like my most viral quote unquote TikToK was just like something about me being Filipino. I'm like, come on guys. Like I'm trying to build, I'm trying to, yeah. I'm trying to talk about sports and branding and you wanted to take this TikToK. Yeah. Yeah. I mean,
Brian Bosche: (27:20)
These are very hard questions, but off the cuff, let's just, let's just give her a, give her a good response.
Megan Reyes: (27:28)
That is a tough question because there, yeah, as we know, there's a lot of nuance to it. Um, it's knowing the audience. So if her audience is, how old is she?
Brian Bosche: (27:38)
Probably early twenties. Okay.
Megan Reyes: (27:39)
So if her audience is like millennial to gen Z, we know what channels they live on, likely to talk maybe a little less Instagram. Maybe it is Snapchat, which I still can't really wrap my brain around that. So many people still use Snapchat, but there is, you know, Snapchat subscription. So it's really just knowing, like looking at some of that high-level data, knowing who that target demo is and, um, any potential gender and putting it in front of the right channels. Because if let's say her audience is gen Z, but she's trying to get the content in front of people on Twitter. I don't know if that's where their audience lives. Probably, probably not. And then there's also the nuance of what channels people use in different countries versus, you know what I know here in the states. So it's really,
Brian Bosche: (28:29)
This book is huge here. Did you feel that? Yeah. They love Facebook here. Facebook, Facebook, not Instagram. Facebook is huge and I'm still wrapping my brain around it.
Megan Reyes: (28:40)
Ah, no that see, these are nuances that I don't know. And so while a lot of us here probably use Facebook in the states for like the business manager aspect and having the page and maintaining some presence for what a lot of us would agree is like the older demographic. Yeah. If that's huge over there, then you should be putting the content on Facebook. So it's really just knowing your audience. And I would also say taking even just a business lens off of it, I would assume she is her own target demo as a consumer. Where would you want to see your content as a consumer? What content would you want to see? How often would you want to see it? What would you care about? Remove yourself, consider yourself the target demo. If you're not watching content on Instagram, maybe it's not supposed to go there. Yeah.
Brian Bosche: (29:27)
That's a great off the cuff response. I think the first one was like, yeah, who, who is it? What channels do they live on? And then really just kind of experiment with the types of content that they might want to see. That's a great answer. Um,
Megan Reyes: (29:37)
Like a business class getting
Brian Bosche: (29:38)
Noticed, like how do you target your right customer? Great question. That'd be thank you for the question. Um, okay. This is kind of going along the, um, the authenticity and uniqueness, but there's a lot of athletes that try their hands at like ventures outside of the sport, the sneaker deals, you know, it would be with you at two K. A lot of them are streaming. They're creating wine labels, clothing merge. So kind of once they define their brand pillars, which could be more generic, you know, it could be, you know, mental health, basketball, uh, I stream two K and then I love, you know, whatever the, you know, uh, this brand, this particular type of fashion, how do they make themselves unique? Like what things do you pull out of those pillars? Or how can an athlete understand what makes me unique and distinguishable versus everyone else who might also like video games and basketball?
Megan Reyes: (30:23)
Yeah. I think to your point, it does come to that authenticity, the personality, the voice and tone. You can have one person, like we can have three athletes in front of us, uh, named, I can't think of one off the top of my head that you said, maybe they all sh maybe they all get onto Twitch. They all stream themselves playing video games and they're drinking a glass of wine. Why would I watch person a stream over B oversee it, it comes to the authenticity. It comes to the personality, the tone. Is it someone you just want to like, hang out with, again, if we're using the example of Twitch, if I'm going to sit here and watch your stream, I should feel like I'm hanging out with you and I want to hang out with you. And I like your personality. And you're someone I would align with someone I'd want in my circle, um, would help that person stand out more than
Brian Bosche: (31:08)
Putting on a character.
Megan Reyes: (31:09)
Hasn't quite yet figured out their yeah. Their tone and their voice in and who they are. And I think sometimes too, we can maybe subconsciously get a, a feel for some of these brand partnerships that don't seem as authentic and that maybe, or are just a tool, a true monetization, like exchange of, uh, of money shake hands. Cause that, that authenticity, you just kinda it's it's there. You notice it or you don't notice it. And so if you, if you can tell that the person really has figured out their personality, their tone, it makes sense. That will always stand out to me. And I'll, I'll always come back to that. I mean, we use the example, you kind of mentioned it earlier. It's, it's a different, it's kind of going on a tangent, but, um, Juju is who Juju is. It's who he will always be.
Megan Reyes: (31:57)
People will love him and hate him for his tic talks. He does not care. He shouldn't care because he set himself up for success. Well, after he stopped playing football, but his personality, he just keeps, you know, people coming back and you know, who else has a wonderful personality that I love on their social content, Alfonso Davies. I'm obsessed with him. He has the best personality. He always makes me laugh. So if a soccer player or a football player wanted to, you know, he cares about video games, soccer, if he's streaming FIFA versus maybe a different person, you know, same on paper, um, qualities and qualifications. I know that Alfonso Davies like a hilarious personality, I would sit and watch his stream. Yeah. Cause he's just being who he is. Yeah.
Brian Bosche: (32:45)
Yeah. Uh, I'm going to switch gears to more of the brand side, but I there's a lot of soul searching that needs to happen with personal branding. I think that's why it's so hard. Like there's, it's so much about being authentic, knowing yourself kind of diving into yourself, which is, which is really hard. That's why this is not an easy thing.
Megan Reyes: (33:02)
No, it is really difficult. And so that's why when people get discouraged, like don't get discouraged because it's, it's not something it's, it's, it's deep rooted. It's really asking someone who are you. And that is a difficult question.
Brian Bosche: (33:14)
And I found even like, starting this process of becoming a content creator, you're starting to post more about yourself. You kind of figure out who you are as you do that, you know, you'll post some things and you're like, ah, that's not really what I want to do. Or like, I'm going to post these things. Oh, that felt right. So you can almost kind of figure it out as you go too. You don't need to have it all.
Megan Reyes: (33:32)
Yeah. Yeah. And that's a really, really good point. Um, I've actually have spoken about that also in some other like presentations of it's trial and error, you don't know, you might think like, my audience really cares about this. You can put out a, a post or a piece of content and it doesn't land. And sometimes that's disappointing. Cause you're like, dang. I thought that was good. Yeah. But now, you know,
Brian Bosche: (33:53)
And that Olivia just did that trend on tick-tock, which I love is like, why do you keep making tick talks if no one watches them? And it's like, I watch them. I like, yeah,
Megan Reyes: (34:03)
I saw that one. Yeah. Like you didn't know. And if they're, if the purpose is like, cause I know Olivia just does it for fun. That's for her purpose. She's not trying to get in front of anybody or, you know, grow a massive TikToK audience. But if you are, and maybe sometimes a post or a piece of content or a campaign, maybe not hits your expectations. That's okay. It's trial and error now, you know?
Brian Bosche: (34:24)
Yeah. Olivia to shout outs on the spot, by the way. I know. All right. So if we switched to more of the brand side, what have you found are some best practices for brands to work with athletes and that can be, open-ended contacting them, working with them. Um, you know, I know you've you remote, mostly focusing on kind of building the athletes side of it, but what have you found brands have done really well when they work with athletes,
Megan Reyes: (34:52)
The really natural, organic integration, you know, I actually, this is really off. I'm going to go around about way. Um, do you fall, we're on a whole, a whole tick tock thing here. Do you follow corporate Natalie on TikToK? I feel like everybody follows corporate Natalie. Yes. Um, her most recent piece of content was her Dell partnership. And I don't know if he saw it's like her bringing her laptop everywhere because like we work from home and nobody can unplug, it took me almost to the end of the tech talk to realize it was a branded piece of content because it literally is just the type of Ted talk she would create. It was, I wasn't even paying attention to the computer until actually I went to the comments and somebody was like, that was the most natural brand partnership I've ever seen. And then I read her caption was like, oh my God, that was a Dell partnership. So I think where brands can best work with athletes is really, really allow them to create content that is so authentic and organic to them. And to not as much as possible. Cause I know it can be difficult, especially with some certain larger brands to not control the copy and the messaging and the tone too much, because that's where it really comes across as like just a monetization play.
Brian Bosche: (36:14)
That's where you got like the sell out comments, like ah, don't sell out. Yeah.
Megan Reyes: (36:18)
Yeah. And so just like a real, my top of mind, general thought is like really just allowing the creator, whether it is an athlete, just the creator to be really, really true to them. I loved that partnership because again, it was just so on brand for Natalie and I didn't even notice the partnership. It was. So
Brian Bosche: (36:40)
That's a great example and that's such good advice too, because you do see, you'll see just like normal post normal post normal posts, then there'll be like, here's the makeup I use. And it's just like an overhead shot of makeup or it's an overhead shot of ties or whatever the partnership is. And you're like, oh, like this, isn't your type of content. Why am I just getting an ad now? Yeah.
Megan Reyes: (36:57)
And I, and I've been in just even professional experiences where we try and then the brand will come back and just completely change the copy for so many different reasons. Especially with the really, really large corporations. You get it, you can't really control that. But then they're like, okay, well now it's a little less authentic and organic, but yeah,
Brian Bosche: (37:16)
Well that is a perfect segue. Yeah. That's a perfect segue into Christine. [inaudible] amazing questions. Another audience question here. I'll just ask you one. Cause she had three great ones. We don't have enough time to fully cover all of them. But with that note of, of allowing the creators to be authentic, how have you been able to cultivate and differentiate or how have you been able to, uh, cultivate all of these differentiated voices of these creators that represent the overarching brand? So allowing the creative to be themselves while still having them all aligned to maybe a specific campaign theme or a brand theme?
Megan Reyes: (37:50)
Yeah. So I can like use an example at blue wire. So again, overarching brand messaging is inclusion diversity, you know, really trying to do something outside of sports, meet something outside of what traditional sports media are doing, especially when it comes to underrepresented communities and voices. So any of these cultural or sports moment campaigns we were doing, whether it was, you know, women's history month or pride or even just tent pole sports moments, you know, as we all know, um, when we were creating these campaigns, a lot of it because our main, um, communication tools are social again, a push and pull because we're trying to grow while also trying to create content another, another, uh, another Ted talk on how that can be difficult, but making sure that if we are a company that stands for amplifying underrepresented voices, let's make sure that within our whole pool of creators and talent, that we are representing each community and that we can get as much representation as possible so that everything is organic.
Megan Reyes: (39:01)
Um, there, you know, what we would not want to do is put out a campaign and say that we are a company that represents and creates a safe space for people to be who they are, regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, you know, sexual orientation, and then have a campaign that speaks completely opposite to that. We see that all the time, all the time, even outside of sports. Um, so a lot of it is just having that lens and that really intentional lens is what I really try and do. And what, why would a company, how do I best say this basically like the individual, the creator, what they care about is what the company should care about. So making sure that we have those voices included in the campaign, um, and part of the creation process is something that I always, always, always try and push for. Yeah. Because, um, we can act and pretend like we know what our target audience wants, but unless we give that individual, the space and the voice to be a part of the campaign and tell us what is important to them and their target audience, like it's, at that point, it would only be one way communication tool. So the point being is I try and cultivate all these differentiated voices by including them in the first place. And by having that really intentional lens of making sure, like, do we have good representation,
Brian Bosche: (40:24)
But it's like a really authentic partnership and there are the right creator for the campaign or for the brand. Then they'll kind of help you. They might know that better than you do, you know, include them early on, can really help and not just mandating. This is what you will present or this is the message you need to get across. Yeah. Yeah. That's really good feedback. Okay. Last question here. Another audience question. You've come up with a ton of great examples already, but I'm gonna ask for one more or Max's this is max Simpson throughout your career with all of your different perspectives and experiences. What has been your favorite part about how athlete personality is expressed?
Megan Reyes: (41:00)
Oh
Brian Bosche: (41:01)
Yeah. I've, I've interpreted this a couple ways in my head. It's like the favorite way they've done it. Like maybe favorite channels. Favorite ways. How are you interpreting that from max?
Megan Reyes: (41:11)
I don't know. Wait, what are
Brian Bosche: (41:13)
The different routes in your career? This is a great one. Max, throughout your career, all of your different perspective experiences, what has been your favorite part about how athletes express their personality or how athlete personality is expressed? Is it Judy jumping on a Fortnite stream with ninja? Is it, you know, doing a charity golf tournament at launching a clothing line? Cause they can go so many different directions and get so creative. What are some of your favorite ways they've expressed their personality? I think that's what he's getting at.
Megan Reyes: (41:43)
I think that's how I interpret it also. Um, but I'm gonna answer in two ways. Okay. My, my favorite part is even just seen the athletes are starting to express their personality. Um, because kind of like what you mentioned earlier at the top, a lot of people that maybe don't understand the content creation space, the industry that we work in really feel it's that I really hate to say, but it's that stick to sports audience that are like, you shouldn't be doing this. You lost, did you, why are you dancing on the court? Why are you dancing in the locker room? Like you just lost a playoff game. So to see them even express their personality with no regrets, without fear of what people think I love honestly, to even begin in the first place. Yeah. Because a lot of people are afraid to, and a lot of people just like employees, they're kind of afraid to be an extension of the team they work for.
Megan Reyes: (42:37)
I get it millions of dollars on the line. They don't want to cost themselves, um, their job and their paycheck maybe because of a piece of content that they thought was good. So even just seeing them step out and take that bravery to express who they are, because for so long, the, the norm was that you just don't do that. You show up and you play your sport and you go home and you, you don't dance on Tik TOK or rebels. Yeah. It's the robots that we still see. A lot of people argue all the time, but to even see them express their personality is my favorite part in my experiences. And in my years of doing this has evolved so much and we're seeing so much more of it. So yeah, maybe it is, uh, Jude, you dancing on logos. It gets kind of cool because now he has like, he has created a brand and there was so much discourse around that.
Megan Reyes: (43:26)
And I jumped in on it last year. Yeah. Who cares? Like, okay, he lost the playoff game. He has so many brand partnerships coming in from side tick talks. He really doesn't care. Um, yes, he doesn't want to be an embarrassment towards his organization, but to see people really start to just own their narrative is my favorite part. And also with that, another answer came to mind to see athletes use their own personal channels to announce their own news. Yeah. Like what Richard Sherman did using his own podcast to announce where he was signing. Um, rather than allowing other people to tell that story or own that narrative or, you know, we saw at JJ watt last year, I think that is incredible. And it's smart. Um, and it's so much more impactful than, um, I don't know, a media outlet where the breaking news tweet. That's a great day.
Brian Bosche: (44:16)
Yes, sir. All right. That's all the time we have, let's get some plugs. Where can people find you? Where should they contact you?
Megan Reyes: (44:23)
Uh, Twitter's probably Twitter, Instagram, listen, I'm on my phone all day. We know this at Meg Reyes underscore my website is linked on my social. And so there is a contact form if people want to reach out with professional business inquiries. So I'm always checking. I may not always be the best at replying, but that doesn't mean I didn't see it. I'm getting back to it, but definitely connect. This was fun.
Brian Bosche: (44:46)
Yeah. Thanks for coming on. Yeah, this is great. I've got to nerd out on corporate Natalie. Olivia got some shout outs was not expecting that, but very much enjoyed it.
Megan Reyes: (44:55)
Natalie. Follow me if you hear this,
Brian Bosche: (44:58)
Maybe we'll see. All right. Thanks so much for coming on.
