From Teacher and Coach to Attorney | Ep. 42 Tommy Cannella

From Teacher and Coach to Attorney: Tommy Cannella on Protecting What Athletes and Families Build

The transition from educator to legal advocate might seem unusual, but for Tommy Cannella, it represents the natural evolution of a lifelong mission to serve and protect others. After 17 years as a high school Constitutional law teacher and collegiate baseball coach, Tommy witnessed firsthand how proper estate planning and asset protection helped his own family navigate difficult transitions, inspiring him to pursue legal practice.

Now licensed to practice in both New York and Connecticut, Tommy specializes in estate planning, asset protection, elder law, and sports and entertainment contracts. His practice serves homeowners, business owners, investors, and professional athletes who need comprehensive legal guidance to protect what they've worked hard to build.

Tommy's unique background gives him a distinctive perspective in the legal field. His teaching experience allows him to explain complex legal concepts in clear, understandable terms, while his coaching background helps him guide clients through difficult decisions and long-term planning strategies.

In this episode of The Standard Podcast™, Tommy shares:

• How his family's experience with estate planning inspired his career transition
• Why college athletes in the NIL era are now professional athletes requiring legal guidance
• The biggest legal mistakes people make when building and protecting wealth
• His "Act Now, Relax Later" philosophy for proactive legal planning
• Why he personally handles every case without AI or legal assistants

Whether you're an athlete navigating contracts, a family planning for the future, or a business owner protecting assets, Tommy's insights provide valuable guidance for anyone who has built something worth protecting.

This isn't motivation. This is a movement.

Connect with Tommy: Website: lawofficesoftommycannella.com Email: tommy@protectyourstuff.info Phone: 347-366-8546

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:02

Alrighty team. Welcome to the Standard Podcast where we raise the bar, we rebuild the culture, and call out the lies or misconceptions that nobody else will. This isn't motivation, this is a movement. I'm Thomas Rowe, and I'm joined with my host, Aaron Charles. And today we're sitting down with Tommy Canella. This is awesome. Tommy is an attorney, former high school constitutional law teacher and collegiate baseball coach who transitioned into law after seeing firsthand how estate planning and asset protection helped his own family cope with life's transitions. After 17 years of service helping students and athletes navigate crucial stages of the lives of their lives, Tommy is continuing his life's mission to serve and empowering homeowners, business owners, investors, and professional athletes with legal knowledge they need to protect what they've worked so hard to build. Tommy is entering his first year as an attorney, licensed both in New York and Connecticut. He specializes in estate planning, asset protection, elder law, Medicaid preparation, and entertainment with sports contracts, particularly helping the new generation of college athletes who are now professional athletes navigating the complex contract structures of NIL and the transfer portal. Based in Westchester County and serving areas from New York City to Connecticut, Tommy brings a personal approach to legal services, personally analyzing every issue, drafting documents and reviewing contracts without AI or legal assistance. We're diving into the truth behind it, what it really takes to build identity, discipline, and lexi, and in sports and in life. So let's get into it. Tommy, you're an absolute rock star. Thanks so much for joining us. We really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00 1:52

Thank you very much for having me, Tom. Thank you, Aaron.

SPEAKER_01 1:54

Of course. Tommy, let's start here. You spent 17 years as a high school constitution, constitutional law teacher, and collegiate baseball coach before transitioning into law. You're now helping homeowners, business owners, investors, professional athletes protect what they build. What does raising the standard mean to you in the in your legal practice?

SPEAKER_00 2:17

It means to tell the truth. I feel that there's been a lot of misnomers over the years, whether you're dealing with athletes and you're a coach, you're dealing with students and you're a teacher, you're dealing with parents as an administrator, you're dealing with clients as an attorney. You got to remember, as an attorney, you're dealing with real people, no matter how you want to classify them as client, as clients, students, student athletes, parents, they're all the same, right? They're all real people, just like you and I, and they need to be told the truth. And I think some of that, when he when you're determining about raising the standard, are you going to be a BS artist like everybody else, or are you going to be the one that tells the truth? Because the bottom line is people don't want to necessarily hear things that are going to make them uncomfortable. And sometimes it is the truth. And I think that's part of raising the standard, whether it's as a coach or as an attorney. You have to tell your team, you have to tell your clients things that are going to make them uncomfortable. But 100% of the time, it is the truth. No question.

SPEAKER_01 3:19

And you transitioned in a law after seeing how estate planning and asset protection helped your own family cope with life's transition. Tell us about do you think that the NIL transfer portal, do you think it's long overdue? And how are you going to navigate working with collegiate athletes as well in relationship to working with pro athletes?

SPEAKER_00 3:41

Yes, absolutely. So I'm a capitalist that nature, kind of the minority in this opinion, especially when you're dealing with major league baseball with no salary cap. The NIL is in the same position as of right now. They really haven't done a fantastic job identifying how much each player is going to be getting per position. They haven't really put a cap on it as far as if the University of Tennessee wants to offer a player, especially their quarterback, a certain amount of money. And then the University of Alabama wants to challenge that and up the offer. They haven't done a great job with doing those things. And I think that until they do, this is going to be the wild, wild west. And one of the things that have now come about is that players need representation. And a lot of the players do not have a contract attorney that is on their side. They may have a sports agent, they may have somebody in their family that's representing them, but they do not currently have a licensed contract attorney as part of the party, right? And I think that person needs to start getting involved here. Because what you're seeing, especially with the contracts that have come about from players that are transferring, is that it's a one-sided contract. It's basically unconscionable, it's basically one-sided on the university's position. The players owe money supposedly back to the schools after they've completed their employment contract. And once we get their our hands on those contracts, we're going to be able to represent these players perfectly. That's badass.

SPEAKER_01 5:04

So what would you tell uh a collegiate athlete? I mean, we see the lion share of the money going to football and basketball. What would you tell athletes that play in other sports, like you know, anything from baseball to golf to swimming to diving? You hear about these gymnastics or some softball. Do you still think there's some uh uh profitable or NIL opportunities for other athletes other than basketball and football?

SPEAKER_00 5:30

Well, absolutely. It's important to realize that these players can get paid three different ways. They can get paid in their NIL, right? With a name, image, and likeness, um, endorsing products, building a brand, making appearances. They can also get paid from NIL collectives, uh, which is where those boosters will actually fund the program and they get paid uh via a private contract. So, for example, a school may uh may opt it out of the original NIL agreement, but they have a booster program that is a private LLC that pays the players, and then there's very revenue sharing. Sports like gymnastics or swimming or diving may not actually fit into that criteria of offering the players an opportunity because of revenue sharing, because maybe they don't pack the stadiums, arenas, fields, things like that. But what they can do for themselves is brand themselves, and I think that's what Blueprint has done a really good job of is increasing the visibility of being ethically and morally acceptable as a student athlete. That will help build your brand. That brand will then give you marketing opportunities down the road. So those athletes are going to work a little bit harder because the visibility and the exposure isn't there. They're not walking into a football stadium with 110,000 fans right 12 times a year. Um, so those super athletes have to work a little bit harder on the branding side of things. But as we've seen, especially with social media, when things go viral, people can get a nice amount of money off of that. So I think they have to figure out a way to do that. Awesome.

SPEAKER_01 7:02

And what do you tell an athlete, like a football player or a basketball player, that has transferred two or three times and then they're a fifth-year senior and they only have compiled 90 units, right? And they're still two to three years away from graduation. That's what Aaron and I are starting to see now as these athletes. Remember, when you transfer, not all your units or credits go with you. So, how do you advise an athlete to be cognizant of their of their academics as well as the NIL money pot?

SPEAKER_00 7:31

I think the student athlete has to really decide what they're chasing. Are they chasing the national championship? And I'm talking about the major sports like football and basketball, or are they chasing their education? In this NIO world, if players are going to get paid millions of dollars to play a sport, well, they're they're clearly chasing the national championship. They're not chasing their education. And the amount of money that they're making on the back end, well, if they wanted to complete their education after the four or five years are over and they still didn't finish because they don't have their 120 credits, well, then they can just stay at the school, not play at the sport, and pay out of pocket for it. There you go. And that's just the blatant truth of the scenario. But if they're going to transfer two or three times, and I want to remind you, the players are now getting a bad stigma because they're transferring two, three, four times. But this is nothing new. The coaches were doing this the entire time. The players are just evening the scales here. A coach can bring in 10 players to their team, then in the summer announce that they're leaving for a more lucrative contract. The players were stuck there with a new coach that didn't want them in the first place. Sure. I think the transferability is fine. I think the transfer portal is great. What I don't think is great is the timing that is going on here, especially what happened with college football. You can't have coaches trying to leave right before the quarterfinal start. There should just be a period of no communication amongst the coaches at administrations of universities. Let the coaches finish what they have to do, let the players play out their contracts, and then everybody can renegotiate after the national championship game.

SPEAKER_01 9:08

Yeah, for sure. I think you're kind of assuming or you're referring to Lane Kiffin, right? I mean, he's kind of getting a bad rap, but you know, he's not the only one doing it. He's just kind of the high profile one. We're going to turn it over to segment two, which is identity and legacy. Aaron's going to take it away. Go for it, Aaron. It's all yours.

SPEAKER_02 9:25

Okay. I'm excited to jump in on this conversation. So I would love for you to share with our audience, you know, a number one, who are you, Tommy? But two, how did you get to the space of wanting to work with athletes just based on everything that we've shared so far?

SPEAKER_00 9:42

Yes, absolutely. So I was a high school baseball coach starting when I was 22 years old. I played high school baseball, played collegiate bowling. I've always been around sports and I've always felt that sports were an avenue to real life. That yes, you were training to play the sport, you were training to win the game. But if you didn't learn how to lose the game, you wouldn't know how to lose in life. If you didn't learn how to win the game properly, you wouldn't know how to have wins and gains in life and not be a show-off about it, right? We don't want to pat ourselves on the back when we achieve something, but we want to celebrate it appropriately. And I think sports allows that avenue to happen. And especially when you're dealing with low end, I'm not talking about Division I. I was a barely a Division III baseball player if I would have chose to play college baseball. I was a B Division high school player, so there was never what there was never any high-end high stakes here that were involved in the sport. But every coach that I had, they were preparing you for later on. It wasn't just that particular game, it wasn't just the fifth inning, it wasn't just the big at bad, it wasn't just because there was bases loaded. Because bases loaded in your life is going to happen very often. Whether it's passing that last test, it's handing in that last paper, uh, whether it's getting that job interview, whether it's going to work five days a week, eight to five, clocking in and clocking out, week in and week out. Those are moments where bases are loaded. And the sports help you to achieve your goals in those moments.

SPEAKER_02 11:17

Yeah, I love that. I think sports is such a great teacher. And I think we need to remember kind of that that in life, you know, especially with I think the younger athletes, so they continue and continue to enjoy it. Whether it's to your point, you become division one or you're playing division three. Do you just have a love of the game? And can you extract everything out of it that you possibly can as long as you can? So, with that, you know, you have a saying 10 minutes of thinking about tough topics prevents years of costly mistakes. So I would love for you to translate that into what we're currently seeing with the student athletes at the collegiate level. How can they start slowing down in order to essentially speed up?

SPEAKER_00 12:05

Yeah, absolutely. So 10 minutes of tough topics will save you countless amounts of money and costs and mistakes down the road. That originally starts with estate planning, for example. When a person doesn't have estate planning and something was to happen, the the course of getting them what they deserve and getting their families, family members of what they deserve is going to be very costly, sometimes anywhere between 7 and 12% of their estate. Now, how you translate that to what these student athletes are experiencing is their decisions are pretty much made way, way, way too fast. Everything's too hastily, everything's too based on social media impressions and where the next top dollar is coming from. Where I think if the athletes slow down just a little bit and really use their branding and their negotiation skills, the situation that they're in, the previous school that they just came from, and start weighing a little bit of these, I'll call them leverages, things that the players have in their advantage, their NIL, whatever it may be, the position that they play, which schools are recruiting them? Do they have a list of five or six, or is it just one, or is it just two? Are we just going to send the student athlete or take the opportunity at the highest bidder? Are we doing that? Or are we slowing down and looking at the pros and cons of every decision that have to be made? And then what is the end goal? Is the end goal to be going to the NBA? Is the end goal the MLB? Is the end goal the NFL? Or is the end goal going to be we have to get a job when we're done playing, which is the largest percent of the student athletes that are going to be playing in college? Do they sit there and say, okay, I have these three schools that are interested, one is going to give me the most money, the second one's giving me the second best money, but the third one's going to give me the best opportunity to survive in life. Maybe I should choose that third option. I think that's where we can slow these student athletes down just a little bit if we give them the proper guidance and help them make that decision. It doesn't have to be in 10 minutes, but it has to be done at a slower pace.

SPEAKER_02 14:13

Totally agree. I could not agree more. And I think that's why, you know, we've all gravitated, and I think we're all working in this space, is to help that next generation of athletes out. So, with that being said, you went from teaching constitutional law, which I absolutely love, and coaching baseball to practicing estate law and working with professional athletes. I would love for you to walk us through kind of the connections or kind of kind of connecting the dots between education, athletics, and legal protection. And what is really kind of your mission to teach people?

SPEAKER_00 14:50

Yes, absolutely. So at 22 years old, when I decided to be a high school teacher, it wasn't for the money. The salaries in teaching across the country, whether it be in public school or private school, are not high enough based on what the teacher is able to instill into his classroom, into their minds. It's you're a very impressive student, it is very impressionable. Everything the teacher says and does, anything the coach says and does, can transcribe to something that happens down their life and it has an impact. A lot of my close friends and life friends, as I call them, come from those jobs, came from me going to the same high school that I originally started working at. Um, all of those things come into play, and you find yourself giving advice. The students will sit in front of you and listen. They have to listen to you for 90 minutes at a time, most times. How this translates to legal services. Well, we had a private scenario in our family. My mom was diagnosed with early onset dementia about eight years ago, and our family experienced one of those life transitions where things are going to get a little tougher for the family. Finances need to be ironclad, and we have to make the correct decisions going down the road. And we saw an attorney who helped us through the process. And I said, you know what? I could do that. You know, that was really helpful for our family. It's the same sort of service, it's the same sort of mission. It's educating and it's guiding and it's giving good advice to a family that needed it. So whether it's giving advice to your baseball team or giving advice to your classroom, giving advice to your client. I think they're the same. Uh, it's just you're doing it in a different role. If you wanted to use role-playing as an example, it's just in a different perspective, but the same thing is happening, and the truth has to be told in all three of those scenarios.

SPEAKER_02 16:39

I love that. Yeah, the truth that's the resonating part for me. I think that in every interaction we've had with you, and is is we need truth, we need honesty, we need transparency in order to, I think, I think really up level our society and serve each other. So, with that, what is one truth you wish every young athlete and their parents understood about legal planning and protection protecting their future before they need it?

SPEAKER_00 17:11

I think you just hit on it actually. It's before you need it, it's prevention. All of these different things that we offer in the legal side of things, especially with the estate planning and the asset protection, it's all about preventing bad things from happening, right? A lot of the times when a person is Googling an attorney, it's because something bad has just happened, no matter what it may be. So a problem has just came about. A mail, uh, you know, an envelope in the mail just was bad news or anything of the three options that I just you know threw out there, there's a problem. Now they call the attorney to try to fix the problem. Well, sometimes we can't fix the problem, sometimes we can only mitigate the problem, sometimes we can only make it less. But if the student athletes took the time to meet with us as a contract attorney, for example, or as an asset protection attorney, and sat there when everything was going great for them, and we were able to map out these are the good things that are going to happen, these are the potentially bad things that are gonna happen, here's how we can plan. I call it a 30-minute strategy session. Whether it's going great or going bad, we can still make a plan going forward. We have to have that type of strategy. And I love to use the sports analogy because it's understandable to the sport the student athletes and their families. You need to have a strategy, you need to have a game plan. What is our game plan moving forward? What if the student athlete was to drop out of college but has enough money to start a business? How are we going to help them do that? Do they understand business structure? Do they understand how an LLC can protect them? Do they understand how they have to have their personal assets protected from the LLC? Well, we didn't talk about football, we didn't talk about basketball, but we talked about what potentially can happen down the road. So I think prevention is the or preventative measures is probably the number one thing that we focused on when we deal with those types of clientele.

SPEAKER_02 19:08

That's awesome. I love that. Yes, prevention. And it gives you peace of mind because you've already probably worked through some of those scenarios and it's not, to your point, reactionary. You're ready, you're ready for what's coming at you. So with that, we're going to turn it back over to Thomas to take us into segment three.

SPEAKER_01 19:28

Awesome. Thanks, Aaron. Tommy, you kind of touched on everything that we want to get into in the segment three, but walk us through what would how you and your firm would handle an athlete who just signed a big contract, whether it's an NIL contract at college or whether it's a professional athlete. For some of these athletes, they come from pretty much nothing. And so they literally, let's just say they become a millionaire overnight. And, you know, we always hear, you know, from you know, the movies and TV shows where they go out and buy five houses, four cars, three this, two, that, and all that other stuff. Walk us through how you would structure an athlete's timeline if they just signed a big contract.

SPEAKER_00 20:09

Yes, absolutely. And I'm glad you brought that up. You know, at PYN Sports Agency, what we focus on is building a team. So we have contract attorneys that are on staff to help them with legal issues. And then we bring on wealth management advisors, we bring on CPAs, we bring on therapists that will help them with what just happened to me. I just became a millionaire overnight. I want to help all these people, I want to buy all these things that I never had. And we have to slow them down, like Erin was saying before, more than 10 minutes. This session will be a couple of hours. And what we do is we build a team around the student athlete or professional. We build this, we call it like collaboration, obviously, but all the professionals they stay in their lane. That is so important. Because as an attorney, I would give legal advice on asset protection. I don't want to have to give advice that I'm not qualified to give advice on tax ramifications of what we're about to do. But the accountant that we bring on board, Ken. Right. There are strategies like having life insurance policies. There are strategies like going out and buying annuities, besides just your standard 401k that I would be familiar with, but yet the wealth management advisor is more qualified to speak of that. So when a student athlete or professional will sign on with PYN Sports Agency, which stands for Protect Your NIL, we bring a team to the table. And that's what we've really prided ourselves on is making this a one stop shop so that way the player is completely informed what the process is going to be. They have to meet with each professional that we bring to the table so that they understand exactly what just happened to them and what we're going to do to protect their future. We also do a lot. With getting the student athlete to understand that we're limited with how much money we're actually going to make off the player. Because obviously, when you see a client make a couple million dollars, then all these creditors and predators start coming out of the woods trying to pry out whatever or drain a little bit of the funds, or you know what, let's charge a certain percentage because we know we just got a lot of money and he'll pay us for it. But as contract attorneys, we're limited to how much we can actually charge. Our bar associations have rules set up so that way we can play the role of referee without playing the role of the snake in the scenario. And the student athlete or professional really has to understand that sometimes there are people in their inner circle that may actually be that snake. Whereas us dealing with the professionals at the table that we bring, we bring the uh comfortable ability to say to them, we are the ones that you can trust because our licenses are on the line. And there's nothing that we're going to do professionally to put that in risk.

SPEAKER_01 23:01

Sure, sure. And what about with these athletes when you start working with them? We all see the life expectancy of an athlete is sometimes just a year and a half, two years. We hear about the Tom Brady's, we hear about the LeBron James. It's, you know, they they stick around for decades. But when you're actually managing an athlete and managing their expectations and working with their family, do you kind of map that out for them saying, hey, look, you just signed an X million dollar deal. The life expectancy of an athlete is so-and-so. Do you not want to rain on their parade, or do you just kind of really map it out for them so that they understand the transition once the phone stops ringing or the ball stops bouncing?

SPEAKER_00 23:40

Great question, Thomas. And here's the truth. And like we were saying before about that becoming paramount, that concept being paramount in our conversation today. If I felt like being a BS artist, I would fluff up the fact that they just made a bunch of money playing a game. And I would say that they have no concerns about their future. Don't worry about how you spend your money. You're always going to have this job, and you just made a lot of money. That's what a BS artist says in this industry to take advantage of the student athlete. However, the professional who's giving legal advice, who is not a BS artist, will say, like you just said, your life expectancy in this sport is very, very small. You may be successful for two to five years. 10 is almost unheard of, especially in football. What we're going to do is build a plan so that way you're successful for the next 70 years. You're dealing with a 20-year-old athlete, you're dealing with a 25-year-old new professional. Get them to see the roadmap for the next 50 years instead of just seeing what they could purchase in the next two months, but how their money is going to be able to create a level of certainty for their family as they begin to build it and for the loved ones that they want to take care of and bring them on this wonderful road they're going to be on. But if they blow their money in the first two years because the BS artist, you know, didn't have the rocks to tell the truth, well, then they're in the butt they're in the wrong hands. Well, POY and sports agency, we're going to put them in the correct hands and let them realize that this is going to be a professional relationship we're going to have for the rest of their lives, not just so we can take advantage of them because they just came into money. Sure. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 25:21

So that being said, what would you tell a young athlete, whether they're in high school or they're at a JUCO, about this new world of NIL transfer portal, as well as professional contracts? Let's say a young athlete comes to you and says, What advice would you give me for the next three years and the next five years?

SPEAKER_00 25:41

Shrink the inner circle is the top advice that I'd be able to give them. There's going to be a lot of outside noise, a lot of influencers, social media is more bad than good. And in that respect, I think one of the things a student athlete will have to come to terms with is to start shrinking their inner circle. Because the first thing that the student athlete wants to do is trust everybody. Trust everybody who sends an email, trust everybody who sends a like, trust everybody. Listen to people that are older than you, I think is another thing that I would say to them. Uh, shrink the inner circle, listen to people that are older than you because we've been screwed over by people before, but they're too young to have been, you know, screwed in life, per se. Life presents a lot of different curveballs over the years. Yeah. You've had to navigate them. You know, as you age, you navigate more curveballs than you ever thought and you saw coming. A brand new student athlete and new professional may not have been screwed over by life just yet. And we want to prepare them for that, especially with their negotiations with the contracts with the universities. Very cool.

SPEAKER_01 26:47

Yeah, that I mean that we always hear about that with the entourage, right? With a lot of these athletes that, you know, that all of these people start coming out of the woodwork. That's one of the things we try to emphasize right off the bat. And one of the things that Aaron and I have dealt with, like one of the when we were dealing with a young athlete and their family, we've asked them, you know, who do you who are you working with for the contracts and legal aspects as well as financial services? And it just it makes us cringe when they say, Oh, my uncle's handling that. We're like, okay, that's uh be careful on that one. Let's put us, let's put you in touch with Tommy just to make sure you got you dot your i's and crossing your t's. With that said, I'm gonna turn it over to Aaron, which is segment four, which is the rapid fire round. Aaron, take it away.

SPEAKER_00 27:30

All right, you got it.

SPEAKER_02 27:31

Awesome. Okay, this is my favorite section of the whole thing. I mean, I love this all. This is so informative. So this is quick. I'm just gonna start a fit sentence and you're gonna finish my sentence, okay, Tommy?

SPEAKER_00 27:42

Very good. I'm ready.

SPEAKER_02 27:44

Okay, discipline equals hearing things that are not since we're gonna edit this.

SPEAKER_00 27:53

Let me try that one again. Yeah, you're just saying that again. Discipline, discipline equals hearing things that are uncomfortable.

SPEAKER_02 28:04

I love it. Nobody's ever said that. That's a great one.

SPEAKER_00 28:07

Leadership equals being able to put yourself out there in a realm where you don't care what other people think about you.

SPEAKER_02 28:18

I love that.

SPEAKER_00 28:19

Faith equals faith is blind, it's internal, it's something that no one else can tell you about. There you go. You're feeling.

SPEAKER_02 28:28

Yeah, that's a good one. I love it. What about legacy? What does legacy equal?

SPEAKER_00 28:35

Legacy will only be around if your reputation while you were alive was pristine.

SPEAKER_02 28:41

Amen to that one. What is one thing you'd never compromise on?

SPEAKER_00 28:46

Telling the truth. There you go.

SPEAKER_02 28:49

What's a if you could put up a billboard for this next generation of athletes, what would it be?

SPEAKER_00 28:56

Listen to people older than you.

SPEAKER_02 28:59

That is sound advice. Listen to your elders, children. Listen to your elders, athletes. You go to people that have been through it. It's so critical. I love that. Okay, Thomas, back to you.

SPEAKER_01 29:13

Awesome. Tommy, before we close out, what you went from the rapid fire to the hot seat. I love asking this question of all of our guests. What are the top three sports movies, according to Tommy, of all time? Any genre?

SPEAKER_00 29:28

I love the story behind Happy Gilmore. I'm gonna say that that's gonna be number one. He had to help his grandmother afford the nursing home. I love the story behind it. I love how he was able to transform the sport there. Obviously, a lot of humor in the movie, but I like the message behind it. I would say the number two sports movie, Dodgeball. Love the comedy behind it. Dodgeball was one of my favorite movies of all time. So I have to throw that into the sports realm. And I would say a close three. Let's go with Rudy. Everyone loves the underdog story. 100%. No question.

SPEAKER_01 30:08

Awesome. Hey, Tommy, before we wrap up, is there something we didn't touch on today that you feel like athletes, business owners, and families need to hear about legal planning and protecting what they've built? This is kind of just an open floor for you to kind of touch on what you feel like is important and what you specialize in.

SPEAKER_00 30:27

Absolutely. And I appreciate the opportunity to talk about it here. I think we did a great job of bringing up why the sports athlete is going to need these types of services down the road. But I've, if there was one message that was maybe left out, it's to read your Instagram messages, read your emails, vet the people that are trying to help you. I've sent countless amounts of messages out to student athletes across the country, and I haven't gotten one response yet. And we're the most truthful panel of professionals that a sports athlete is going to deal with in his entire life. And I think that these athletes need to start waking up to the idea to bring the contract attorney to the table, stop trusting their uncle and get some real professionals at the table because these universities are taking advantage of the players. And I actually had this conversation with a partner of mine about this. How are we going to be perceived? If we take on the representation of the student athletes, are we going to become enemies to the universities? Very possible. But you know what? Let's be the driving force that gets these universities to change the way these contracts are written. So that way it's not one-sided, and that way the player can have the same and enjoy the same liberties that these coaches have been able to enjoy over the course of the last hundred years in college sports.

SPEAKER_01 31:52

Right on. You nailed it right there. People really need to understand that this is a small window and you need to maximize that opportunity and you need to surround yourself with the right people. Tommy, we're going to have it in the show notes and we're going to have it at the bottom, but where can people get a hold of you? Whether it's a phone number, it's an email, a website, or your social media handles. Where's the best way for a family or an athlete to get a hold of you?

SPEAKER_00 32:20

Awesome. Well, like this, the same way I would tell the student athletes to answer their Instagram messages. You have to be able to answer all the different vehicles in which people can contact you. So I'm available on Instagram. I'm available on Facebook. My business number is my cell phone. And I have a website. You can go to www.protectyourstuff.info and you could reach out to me there. You can schedule a 30-minute, which is free, 30-minute strategy session. You can just email or text to say hello, introduce yourself. And I love having uh networking group networking calls. I schedule not only consultations and strategy sessions throughout the week, but also networking calls. So if there's a group of people that you think that would help our cause out, reach out and I'll schedule a session with them.

SPEAKER_01 33:07

I love it. Awesome. Tommy, thank you so much for sharing your story and your truth. Team, if this conversation challenged you, inspired you, or made you think differently, which I know it did because it made me think think differently, share it. Send it to an athlete who needs legal advice or guidance, or a business owner, or a family that's putting an estate together, estate planning together, or maybe a family who needs to think about protecting what they've already built. Again, reach out to Tommy, he's a great resource. He and his team. This is the standard podcast, and this movement only grows when we raise the standard together. Talent fades, but truth endures. Let's raise the bar, let's rebuild the culture, and let's become the standard. We'll see you next time. Tommy, Aaron, thank you so much for joining us. You guys have a fantastic weekend. Go cats. Tommy, before we close out, tell me who do you got in your bracket to take it off?

SPEAKER_00 34:04

I have Michigan to take it over, Duke.

SPEAKER_01 34:06

Wow. Okay. I like it. I like it. Aaron's got Duke as well. You're in good company.

SPEAKER_00 34:13

And it kills me because I'm a diehard Tar Hills fan.

SPEAKER_02 34:18

Yeah. Well, we shall see who comes away as a national champion.

SPEAKER_01 34:24

Yep. All righty. Thanks so much.