Name, image, and likeness has shed light on how important it is for young college athletes to start creating a brand for themselves while in school. Doing so can not only create more opportunities for athletes to profit off of their popularity, but it can help them gain more interest from professional teams. It is important to know the best ways to build your brand and what can affect it. Here are a couple of key tips to get started.

Deep Clean

The first step in building a brand is cleaning up all of your social media accounts. Social media has become a way for people to communicate and see what everyone else is doing, so as a college athlete with many followers it is important to filter your content. 

Another important thing is to think about how you carry yourself on campus. Reggie Geary, former NBA player and employee at the University of Arizona, guest lectured in one of my classes and said that he received many of his job offers and especially ones at the University of Arizona because when he was a college athlete he always smiled and worked extremely hard. In a twitter thread by Miller Kopp of the Indiana Hoosiers basketball team, he wrote that creating a brand is all about being authentic, telling your own story, engaging with the people around you, and aligning yourself with people and brands that you love and feel passionate about.

Related: Rate the University of Arizona

Beef Up Your Personal Brand

Strong brands draw audiences. I think Dalen Terry, former Arizona Wildcat and current Chicago Bull, is a perfect example of what a strong brand does for you. During his time on campus at the University of Arizona, Terry was known for his extremely hard work, his fun and outgoing personality, and his ability to network with others. Whenever you saw Terry around campus he was smiling and looked happy to just have an opportunity to play basketball at such a great school. It may seem like I am Dalen Terry superfan, but the reason I am bringing all of this up is because he not only was able to make a large amount of money in college with endorsement deals and his own clothing company, but he was able to significantly improve his draft stock and became to what was an unexpected first round pick. He was even picked before his own teammate Christian Koloko who was objectively the better basketball player this season. So lean into your strengths, whether on the court or off, and make them your brand.

Related: Rate your Coaches, Facilities, and Campus Visits

Building a brand is an essential part of being a college athlete now that NIL has been introduced. It can create opportunities for young college athletes to express themselves and see and get a first look as to how to handle attention from big corporations. Remember to always work hard, smile, do whatever your team needs of you, and to be authentic.
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* Originally published on October 17, 2022, by Royce Linder