Athletes to Entrepreneurs: The Alumni Journey

On this episode of Alumni Direct's show "ATHLETES TO ENTREPRENEURS: The Alumni Journey," we talk to Josh Copeland, former college football player, youth tutor, and motivational speaker. Talk about playing sports growing up, and share how it helped to shape your life. "Sports played a big part in my life. I have 4 brothers, and we're a big baseball family. As a way to keep us...

On this episode of Alumni Direct's show "ATHLETES TO ENTREPRENEURS: The Alumni Journey," we chat with Tim Wright, Superbowl champion, multi-passionate entrepreneur, and co-founder of Dome Audio. Talk about playing sports growing up and how that shaped your youth. "Sports was very important to my foundation. That's where you learn how to win. That's where you learn how to...

On this episode of Alumni Direct's show "ATHLETES TO ENTREPRENEURS: The Alumni Journey," we chat with Juan M. Fernandez, a former professional basketball player turned life and transition coach. Juan has dedicated his life to helping others overcome challenges and maximize their potential. Born in Argentina, Juan followed his passion for basketball and earned an athletic scholarship...

On this episode of Alumni Direct's show "ATHLETES TO ENTREPRENEURS: The Alumni Journey," we chat with Liz Valade, former college soccer and lacrosse player, former Army combat veteran, and MLB agent. Looking at it as an athlete and an agent, what is your perspective on NIL? "As an athlete, I would have loved for NIL to existed...however, some of this stuff, I think, is a little...

On this episode of Alumni Direct's show "ATHLETES TO ENTREPRENEURS: The Alumni Journey," we chat with Eileen Shanahan, former softball player at New York Tech, former television producer, and Founder and President of the Warrior Ranch. Eileen talks about growing up in Queens, NY playing all kinds of sports, including stick ball, stoop ball, basketball, soccer, volleyball and softball...

On this episode of Alumni Direct's show "ATHLETES TO ENTREPRENEURS: The Alumni Journey," we chat with Scott Gibbs, former college basketball player, executive leader, business coach and founder of Acres of Diamonds. When you were in college, did your school make an effort to educate the athletes about the transition out of sports? "No, not to my knowledge. I think that's a g...

On this episode of Alumni Direct's show "ATHLETES TO ENTREPRENEURS: The Alumni Journey," we chat with Ken Dunek, former professional football player in the NFL and the USFL, publisher, author, and film producer. Ken talks with us about the mindset, hard work and beliefs that helped him achieve success in sports and beyond. Growing up, did you dream of being a professional athlete? "I did. My paren...

On this episode of Alumni Direct's show "ATHLETES TO ENTREPRENEURS: The Alumni Journey," we chat with Kristoffer Doura, former professional football player, investment advisor, and wall-street journal best-selling author of "Let's Get It!". Kristoffer talks with us about his journey growing up in sports and his transition into business and finance.  When you were in school, was there a moveme...

On this episode of Alumni Direct's show "ATHLETES TO ENTREPRENEURS: The Alumni Journey," we chat with Trent Clark, former college baseball and tennis player, MLB coach, and entrepreneur.  Trent talks with us about his journey growing up playing sports, overcoming "not-enough-ness", and going on to coach 3 winning baseball games in the World Series.  Trent's thoughts on athletes' transfer...

On this episode of Alumni Direct's show "ATHLETES TO ENTREPRENEURS: The Alumni Journey," we chat with Scott Brunner, former college football player at the University of Delaware, former NFL player, and Wall Street executive.  Anytime I can bring a fellow Blue Hen onto the show, it's fantastic! Scott played college football at the University of Delaware. There have been quite a few quarterback...

On this episode of Alumni Direct's show "ATHLETES TO ENTREPRENEURS: The Alumni Journey," we chat with Jordan Parise, former Hockey player at North Dakota, NHL player, medical device salesperson, and founder and coach at Parise Hockey.  Jordan on the value of the skills you gain through sports: "I didn't realize that businesses are looking for guys that are coachable, that have worked with tea...

On this episode of Alumni Direct's show "ATHLETES TO ENTREPRENEURS: The Alumni Journey," we chat with Jim Cederna, former college football player at Central Michigan University, businessman and CEO of multiple companies, and founder & CEO of Cederna International. Tell people about growing up playing sports and how that shaped you, ultimately.  "Well first of all Rob, thank you for involv...

On this episode of Alumni Direct's show "ATHLETES TO ENTREPRENEURS: The Alumni Journey," we chat with Gary Rogers, former football player at Vanderbilt University and in the Canadian Football League, and current podcaster and founder of Check Your Game.  Tell me about playing sports growing up. How did that shape you? "Well, when I think about sports as a kid...I loved sports. I'm not sure wh...

On this episode of Alumni Direct's show "ATHLETES TO ENTREPRENEURS: The Alumni Journey," we chat with Stephen Clarke, former professional hockey player,  advertising agent, entrepreneur and founder & CEO of RTG group, a group of for-profit Social enterprises with a purpose on making a positive impact in the world. What efforts are you seeing, back when you were playing and now, in educati...

On this episode of Alumni Direct's show "ATHLETES TO ENTREPRENEURS: The Alumni Journey," we chat with Keith Hammond, former college football player, project manager, and the founder of Hammond Solutions, LLC.  Talk about your transition out of sports. "So, like everyone, after my last game, I bawled like a baby. And it wasn't that I was going to miss the game as much I as I was going to miss...

On this episode of Alumni Direct's show "ATHLETES TO ENTREPRENEURS: The Alumni Journey," we chat with Myriam Glez, former Olympic swimmer and coach, CEO of USA Synchronized Swimming, entrepreneur and founder of the nonprofit Athletes Soul.  Tell everybody about Synchronized Swimming and how that works. "Synchronized swimming would be like gymnastics or ballet in the water. It's been around fo...

On this episode of Alumni Direct's show "ATHLETES TO ENTREPRENEURS: The Alumni Journey," we chat with Mark Moyer, former college athlete, author, founder and CEO of the Win Again Academy. Mark on the difficulty of athlete transitions:  "I always thought that retired athletes are living the dream. Then I started speaking to them and I found that almost none of them are living the dream when th...

On this episode of Alumni Direct's show "ATHLETES TO ENTREPRENEURS: The Alumni Journey," we chat with Cory Camp, former D1 swimmer, podcast host, founder and CEO.  Tell me about your experience growing up playing sports. "I started taking swim lessons when I was 4 years old, and continued that throughout my childhood. I really took to the water and really enjoyed it. I wouldn't say I was a na...

On this episode of Alumni Direct's show "ATHLETES TO ENTREPRENEURS: The Alumni Journey," we chat with Bernard Robinson, former college basketball and NBA player, strategic consultant and founder of ES&E consulting and management. Bernard on networking while you're still in college: "Some of the greatest advice I ever got was to not ever forget about the students that you're going to class with...

On this episode of Alumni Direct's show "ATHLETES TO ENTREPRENEURS: The Alumni Journey," we chat with Phillip "Phenom" Robinson, former collegiate runner, ESPN + Producer, Youth Success Coach, and successful Podcaster.  Have you seen some of the challenges that athletes are facing when they get hurt or when they are done with sports? "Most definitely. There are always going to be challenges....

In the latest episode of “ATHLETES TO ENTREPRENEURS: The Alumni Journey” hosted by Alumni Direct, we speak with Chantelle Lott, former elite collegiate runner, literacy advocate, and the CEO and Founder of Bounceless.  Tell me about growing up playing sports and how that shaped your personality, leading up to college and beyond.  "Track was my thing. I started running track in middle sch...

In the latest episode of “ATHLETES TO ENTREPRENEURS: The Alumni Journey” hosted by Alumni Direct, we speak with Corrine Milien, former golf and basketball player, graduate assistant for the Tennessee Lady Vols, co-founder and entrepreneur. Did the University of Tennessee do anything as far as developing programs to help athletes think about what comes next after sports? "Yeah, I really got a chanc...

In the latest episode of “ATHLETES TO ENTREPRENEURS: The Alumni Journey” hosted by Alumni Direct, we speak with Darrell Devaul, founder of the PoweringU Foundation.  Darrell on the importance of teaching young athletes about financial literacy and NIL:  "That's where I come in. I'm just really educating these high-school kids on how to build their brand, how to say the right things. Beca...

In the latest episode of “ATHLETES TO ENTREPRENEURS: The Alumni Journey” hosted by Alumni Direct, we speak with Keith Sconiers, former college basketball player, podcaster, speaker and entrepreneur.  Did sports have any affect on shaping how you approach life? "The thing that really shaped who I was and who I am as a person today really had to do with the relationship I had with my high schoo...

In the latest episode of “ATHLETES TO ENTREPRENEURS: The Alumni Journey” hosted by Alumni Direct, we speak with Patrick Venzke: former NFL player, real estate entrepreneur, and motivational speaker. Patrick is the first ever German-born athlete to make it into the NFL.  Was the school doing things to guide athletes into life after sports when you were a student athlete? "It's funny you s...