George Asafo-Adjei (00:00): A lot of success is action. It’s 10% saying it, 90%. You actually have to go do it. And at least try and practice trying to practice trying and, and be okay with failing. Sometimes don’t, don’t accept failure, but when you fail, it’s okay. Sometimes that helps you actually, maybe, you know, God doesn’t allow certain things to unfold for a reason, but I was definitely, you have to do, you have to take steps. You have to move forward. And if you do that, you’ll be successful in whatever it is.
Zach Colman (00:46): Hey, everyone, I want to welcome you to another episode of the brand power analysis today we have,
George Asafo-Adjei (00:52): Georgia soccer was a New York, uh, excellent. New York giant.
Zach Colman (00:57): Uh, why don’t you, why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself?
George Asafo-Adjei’s Journey
George Asafo-Adjei (01:01): I actually graduated from the University of Kentucky. I played for four years there. I was a starter at right tackle. and got drafted by the New York Giants in 2019. And, you know, before that in high school, I was a two-year starter and I started playing football actually in middle school. But why I’m taking it back there is that’s when I learned, you know, about football. That’s when I actually fell in love with football and learning. I, I didn’t know anything about football prior to that. I was a big WWF guy. I mean, you would catch me on YouTube watching the WWE and all that stuff. And then my friends were like, oh, you should come to play football. And first, stay there. Uh, not someone’s helmet off and a whole bunch of crazies and stuff. So I was like, all right, maybe this might be, it started taking more seriously in high school, but you know, I think that stays in my life. This is where it’s the most important. That’s where it shapes you from the wrecks of your career, whether you want to play or not. And, you know, as a man, that’s where you develop habits. So yeah, I’ll, uh, I’ll start off with that.
Zach Colman (02:21): No, that, that, that’s awesome. How did that, how did that, when you went to college, tell me a little bit about your, your college, uh, your college journey and how it led you to, how it led you to the NFL and, and your experiences on, what you really learned in college that really helped mold you while you were playing the game.
George Asafo-Adjei (02:46): Right? So college is, it’s a whole nother beast than a high school. That’s a lot more, demanding, demanding in all aspects mentally, as, as having to handle going from training, right to classes, having you, you, you know, the normal student can be like, oh, I’m not feeling it today. When you’re an athlete, you have to go to all the classes. You know, there is no none of that. So, it was, it’s a lot mentally. And then having to go from training to workouts, to practice, then taking that extra step mentally, it’s a stay and does extra, you know, stretches or Colts, uh, you know, treatments. it’s also taxing, you know, it’s a whole nother level of your body. Physically, the players are better. Every practice is like a high school game. So, you know, the whole level of intensity increases and, you know, I think all those things together, it, it makes you a man because you have to decide like, wow, this is like my job.
Before the NFL
George Asafo-Adjei (04:05): This is, I mean, even beyond a job, because you know, you’re really putting about 20 hours. I mean, I take that back maybe 16 hours a day, you know, being, a student-athlete, it’s very different from high school where, you know, football was football. And then other than that, you’re just chilling. You’re not on a schedule. You’re not getting texts about what you’re going to have to do next. So, you know, but at the end of the day, all that prepares you for the NFL because, in the NFL, it becomes a real job. I mean, you sit in the three-hour meeting, I mean, the NFL is the whole other beast from college soup because the NFL it’s, they, they breathe. I mean, it’s all football all day. especially being a rookie, it’s not easy, you know, you’re, you’re expected to do all the extra stuff.
George Asafo-Adjei (05:06): And then, you know, you, they’re still treating you like the little boys. So, you know, you’re not really, it’s, it’s a weird transition, but college definitely prepares you for that. Maybe in a way, college is a little tougher because you have classes versus where, when I’m done, I’m going home, no homework, you know, nothing like that. So I would say for anyone young, that’s going to play college football and has any aspirations. You really need to be serious. You really need to be mentally tough and, make sure you really love football and enjoy what she’s doing, because if you don’t, if it will not be a great time and, uh, and if you do, it’s gonna be, you’re going to enjoy it. It’s going to be worth all the hard work, all the dedication, all the coaches, yelling at you, all the MFS, all that will be worth it. So, you know, for any young viewers, definitely if you’re going to make that decision and pray about it, you know, see your family’s advice and you’ll be all right.
Zach Colman (06:23): Yeah. I mean, I remember when I was in college, that was it’s and I kind of say this all the time, too. I mean, did you hear a lot of gurus out there say, Hey, you don’t need to go to college? You know, if you want to be a great entrepreneur or be successful, but, uh, I’ve seen that college is kind of that stepping stone, kind of, like you said, it’s really important because they, they let you kind of, they don’t, you don’t have that handholding that you do in high school. And I feel like it’s, it’s really a place where they are like, we’re here to teach you how to teach yourself, you know like that’s really what college is. And so when you get out into the real world, not even the, I mean, I bet you, the NFL is very much like that too. Like yeah, you have rules and you have guidelines, but they’re like, if you don’t follow them, you’re cut. Yeah. It’s very cutthroat. And so how would you, w what did you study in college and did you, did you feel, did you have like another passion that you kind of, uh, fell in love with while you were going to school in college?
George Asafo-Adjei (07:24): Yeah, so, I actually graduated from the college of the bag. I was a community leader and development. I was in that field and, that’s what my major was actually. And I loved it. I loved that’s what I actually wanted to do. like I said, I started football late, you know, I love football, but I don’t have that deep brew, you know, like, ah, as I’ll die for it kind of thing. never been in it. I think that’s a good thing too, when you, uh, just being a player, but anyways, uh, graduated, with that major and it helped me because I want to give back to communities. I want to be, I want to help a lot of the young kids know that there’s a lot more to just being an athlete and, you know, just the stereotypical things. There’s a lot more out there.
George Asafo-Adjei (08:21): There’s a lot of money out there, you know, God is way bigger than football and all this stuff. So I want to give back and show, you know, young kids that there’s a lot out there. I want to give back in multiple ways, whether it’s eating right or helping businesses get off, get off their feet, helping them do business a different way. I’m also in solar. So I do a lot of things that are, you know, I want to help the world. That’s I, I believe that’s why I’m here. I believe that’s why all here so love our neighbor. You know, obviously, before that, love God with all your heart, beloved, your neighbor care for people that don’t have anything and that’s literally it. So that’s what I’m dedicating my life’s, you know, to, uh, that’s part of the reason I left the NFL was, uh, you know, pursue that because that’s love, I actually, I think I, I believe God put it in me to want to do this in college.
George Asafo-Adjei (09:23): I mean, I remember when I was telling my coaches, I’m like I had a, I had a, uh, uh, heavy, like an avenue that there were bigger things than even football in the NFL, you know, and I love football, but I knew there was greater. So I, I just followed, I followed that and you know, I’m now doing, but, you know, I learned in college, I’m putting all those skills that I learned in college work. I’m the leader of my business. I’m having to make decisions, not for me or my company, both for people, you know, the betterment of people, still, all those things are definitely learned from U K you know, the program of life.
Zach Colman (10:15): How do you feel, uh, I want to go back to what you kind of said a little bit in the, in the earlier where we kind of stepped past it, where you were like, you know, having a love for football. but it’s also important that it doesn’t have to be your, you don’t have to be, we’ll just, we’ll just put numbers to it. You don’t have to be a hundred percent passionate about football to be playing football that could actually benefit you because what I saw and I, I, this is very similar in the business world. Uh, you know, and they always say, Hey, you know, grow your passions, do something that you love. But I think a lot of people don’t understand that it doesn’t matter how much you love something, you know, you’ll need time off. You still need to have your mind somewhere else.
Zach Colman (11:02): I mean, I, I love football myself. it’s one of my favorite passions. And I work with, you know, a lot of NFL players. I work with, you know, other sports as well, like MLB and stuff like that. But, but I’m also like, you know, I need my time with my family. I need my time to be healthy. Milo. My whole thing is I love working out. I love eating, right, because it’s, it helps with my anxiety, you know, it’s really guiding, but, but so why don’t you speak up a little bit about that and, and I think that will lead into our next question and, and how you kind of over how you overcame some of those challenges associated with the transition of, of when you were in the NFL. And if you want to dive a little bit, I mean, you don’t have to get too much, into the organization that habits or anything like that. But if you want to dive in a little bit about just how you felt like when you were playing, working with the team and how, how, how you did that transition, how you overcame that to kind of do what you’re doing now.
Love of Business
George Asafo-Adjei (12:06): Right. So, I’ll definitely say first and foremost, me putting my focus into my new love of doing business, trying to help people, and being more selfless. It definitely helped me on the field because once I took me I’ll be honest, uh, in college, I didn’t even want to go to the, I didn’t even want one of those to be NFL because the hands that were already out family telling me, Hey, when you sign up, can’t wait to get like 30 K I’m like, yeah. And it’s, it was just a very goofy thing to me. And I was just like, I’m not really in love with what comes with all this. But needless to say, I did, I, I didn’t put too much, you know, care and I actually played better. It was, it was weird. I, I put my focus on other things that I liked and my game got way better.
George Asafo-Adjei (13:07): My senior year was the best I’ve ever played football. I was actually going out there with no stresses or anxieties because I wasn’t, I, I got, I finally got out of the mindset that this isn’t just, it there’s a lot more, the world is much bigger than me playing. Right. Do you know? Right. Tackle and dah, dah, dah. So once I got that, I was playing free. I was, I mean, dominating in games. So it helped me big time. And, and what I can say with that, that right then, right. That lesson shaped me, you know, and it’s continuing to shape me because even now in business, I don’t just put all my, I don’t put all my focus in one business. I have several ones that I’m focusing on. Yeah. You have to be very strategic and smart, but I’m seeing that I’m freer.
George Asafo-Adjei (14:05): I’m, I’m freer to even let other people that are in my business, do what they need to do instead of me doing everything because I know how to back off and allow people to understand. And so I think it was definitely huge, very, very huge. Even going into the NFL, I have a steam mindset. I think even that what helped me get drafted is finally, you know, once I got out of the lab and I was playing free, obviously the team saw that, et cetera, I did well at the combine, but that freedom honestly came from God. Like just Jesus Christ, just knowing what I am and who I am. I’m not a football player. You know, the world was telling me you’re a football player. No, like with Amenia you don’t want to play football. You know what I’m telling people, personal things is like, what do you mean, what are you going to do that it’s like, there’s a lot more in the world than,
Zach Colman (15:09): And I think what’s really important behind that. I think there are two things that we can kind of touch on that is, is one it’s. I mean, I think you very, I, I think the first one that a way to really make people understand that that free, that free feeling of when you’re playing is you’re not putting too much pressure on yourself. And so I think it goes to show you that, you know, when you see games where, you know, a team’s winning by like 25 points and somehow the other comes back, I think that goes to show you that a lot of that really is mental with the team and they break down. And a lot of that is, yes. I think anyone that plays a game that the pressures or the pressures are hard. I don’t know how you handled it. I mean, those pressures of knowing that a team scored or, or this and that.
Zach Colman (15:54): I mean, I play, I play rec games, you know, all the time and when, you know, a team’s scores on me and that’s the only rack, you know, so like that like the rest of the night. So I don’t even know how you guys handle it. And, but, uh, but having that free menu that frees like, feeling of being able to, uh, not say, take things so seriously, but I think it’s a golden, a golden opportunity for, for college athletes, even high school, even, even, I mean, I’ve even seen, you know, really good prodigies that are like 13, 14. They were still playing before high school that are like, oh, I just want to play football. I just want to do this. And it’s like, well, really think about that other passion that you’re working on too because you’re right. And, and nothing against, you know, players, there are players that play 20 years and know most of the time, their quarterbacks, if they’re lucky, but, but there is that the average is what, three to four years anyway.
Zach Colman (16:54): And so know that you’re leveraging that and you probably saw it very similar to what I’m going to say here is, Hey, this isn’t going to be my end, all be all. This is going to be my I’m going to going here. I’m going to play. I’m going to let the world take me where it takes me if I play three years or play five years. Great. But I’ll know when it’s ready for me to leave. And at the same time, I need to start thinking about the other stuff I really want to do because there’s, there’s a whole world ahead of me at that time. And I do think that that’s a really good insight for a lot of college athletes, especially with nails coming out and, them starting to really look at sponsorship opportunities and not to take advantage of too much advantage of, of that. But athletes are the next influencers and there’s, and there’s a really negative mindset around influencers these days because all you really think about is people, you know, posting pictures of them with fancy cars or in their Kini and stuff. When in reality, it’s you being able to give your message to the world at a much higher, much higher level. And I feel like,
Beyond the Game
Zach Colman (18:05): That you saw that and you’re doing it. So I give you kudos. And I think that a lot of other, uh, a lot of other athletes can take really good positive energy for Matt as they’re kind of getting into the game, or if, even if they’re getting close to retirement. And I think another thing you really focused on there was, and will lead to the next question with this was you’re on a team and you knew that, Hey, it’s not just all you, but it’s a team effort. And a lot of fans don’t be, don’t see the inner workings of how much team it takes to make that full game. I mean, at the end of the day, it’s entertainment, you know, that’s, they get money off the ticket sales. So it’s about winning, but it’s also about, Hey, you have your position, you have the wide receivers, you have the cornerbacks, you have the coaches, you have the assistant coaches, you have the water boy, you have the, you know, you have the people in the stands in the stadium charging for food, in paying for people to the food to watch the game, to keep, keep the fans engaged.
Zach Colman (19:06): So you guys have better productivities. So, there’s, it goes back to that mentality of, of, of what you said was very important as you grow your businesses. And we’ll get into the, we’ll get into that here in a second, but understanding that, yes, I know you have multiple businesses, but not doing too much at once. Understanding their sort of professions where they, they do stuff and they’re good at it. And that’s what they said. And that’s what they’re a passion. Also, let them do their job while you can do what you need to do that, you know, and I think that grows a really successful business is being able to hire people that, that you trust, but that you also value their understanding of certain things that you may know. I mean, I, I own an agency myself and I always hire employees that are better at certain things than me, you know, and I let them take the free rein.
Zach Colman (20:04): I’m like, Hey, you come up with something great. Then no doubt we’re going to go with it. Do you know? So, so I think that’s a really important lesson for a lot of, not just athletes, but athletes in that transition towards coming up with something better. That, and we’ll kind of talk a little bit more about that in a little bit, but why don’t you kind of get into what you’re doing now, like now after you went to the transition or after you’ve done all that, what are you really doing? What is your main, what are your main two, one or two, uh, directions that you’re taking with your business?
The App Groove Club
George Asafo-Adjei (20:36): Right. So I’m the first, actually, right now I have groove club. It’s an app that I’ve been, we’ve been building out for about a year now last week as finally, when he like, actually got done with a whole process, there’s still a little bit more additional, a little add on there, but it’s actually live in the app store. Finally, it’s out, it’s called a group club. And, to keep it short it’s, it’s essentially the Amazon of services. So it brings service providers, all kinds of businesses of all kinds right to your home. So whether that’s hairstylists, barbers, nannies, tutors, you name it. I mean, you can book all those services for your home. and then why we came up with that is because in cocoa, because of COVID in my area, a lot of these salons closed down, barbershops closed down, so that bad bridge, which was just going to the, you know, the salon or whatever that was, you know, cut out because of lockdowns and all that.
George Asafo-Adjei (21:49): So, you know, when things got, when things were opening back up, those places closed down permanently because he can’t pay rent and not having any service, you know, no revenue. So it’s very sad to see, but I plan to help, you know, every, I mean, all businesses transition to this model because, at the end of the day, people want convenience. I mean, if you’re a family, why not book a cleaner and somebody to tutor, you know, the boys real quick, conveniently like that on one hand, you know, we’re, we’re in that time. So there should be that platform that does that, and that hosts all services. So that’s the avenue we took with a group club. And then I am also a part owner of Samaritan solar, and we do residential and commercial solar, I mean, throughout the United States. So that’s, that’s basically where my two focuses are, but there’s a lot more,
Zach Colman (22:57): Yeah, there’s, there’s nothing, there’s nothing wrong with it. I mean, like they always say you have to have multiple streams of income coming in, so there’s nothing wrong. And I think it really, I mean, it sounds like you kind of got it down in knowing, Hey, I’m either investing in this and I’m part owners and they’re doing a lot of the work or, so I could focus a lot more time on this business or things of that nature. But one thing that I really want to get into it because you hit something that, uh, not just for athletes, but for a lot of business owners as well. And since you kind of work with business owners, this could be kind of a, a nice topic to talk about if you were like, Hey, we, we developed this app. It finally went live. It took about two years.
Zach Colman (23:39): So a lot of, so, so a lot of people understand when you develop an app there’s, you can tell me a little bit about your journey with it, but there are phases that go out. So, I mean, I’ve seen a lot of prospects be like, oh, I need an app, give it, I need it in like a month or two months. And it’s like, it doesn’t work or you have to go through phases, and then you have to do a beta test. And why don’t you, why don’t you talk to me a little bit about, and you don’t have to go too deep into this, but just so people understand some of the hard work that went behind developing your, your groove, the business and the app, like the brainstorming and the discovery that went around developing this app.
George Asafo-Adjei (24:21): Right. And I’ll even start off by saying, I’m somebody that tries to be way, way, way ahead of the game. And I still was behind, behind the ball when it came to app development, I gave these, I gave them everything they needed, but what I didn’t see is these coders see one task at a time. They don’t mean you can tell them all this stuff, but they only see what they need to do. So a lot of it is, it’s a lot of patients, uh, work, a lot of patient work. As you said, it happens in phases. So in the first phase, it’ll probably be like 10 things. And you’re like, uh, we need to speed this up, you know? And then some of the issues that we, have a lot was if apple has an update, we have to wait for Apple’s updates to finish before we can then push new items onto the app.
George Asafo-Adjei (25:21): And then if we don’t make that, I remember we had a six-week delay one time. So it’s a lot of patients in this, a lot of phase work. these developers are also working on other people’s apps. So we also have to make sure you’re, you’re meeting on their schedule and that the time works. And, also it’s a lot of legal work, a lot of li having protections, whether it’s trademarks or patents, you also have to, ours is the international company. So we’re in all the countries and we had to get each, each and every country’s approval. Wait a couple of months for that. And then also, you know, finally get the trademark, get the protection there. And then even after you get that protection, it still takes another three months before they actually it’s like, all right, it does. So it’s a lot of, a lot of minor parts. a lot of teamwork, you can’t do anything. You can’t do anything this by yourself at all. Everything has to be the team. We’re all in meetings every week. Sometimes it gets heated, you know, it’s yeah. That’s business though. That’s okay.
Zach Colman (26:47): Uh, it’s fun. It’s, it’s some somewhat fun collaboration. I mean, I think that the biggest thing that I see from, uh, not just athletes, but other business owners as well is because of the commodity of the way some of these, these sites. And I won’t mention any of them, but give you this prebuilt stuff or they do stuff, people, everything. Oh, so it shouldn’t be cheap when in reality, it’s like they spent millions and millions to make that app though, you know, and they’re not going to do everything you want. And, and one of the preliminary things that you probably went through with this software company was, or even maybe even with a different company because honestly, a lot of these companies do one thing really well. Like, do you have the software developers that are really good at software, but they’re not as great at the, user experience side?
The App’s Development
Zach Colman (27:35): So they’ll team up with the users, but the wireframing, I think it’s funny because I’ll get a lot of, well we’re, we’re really, we’re really more so on the marketing side, we’ll do consultant will be a consultant and do the design side and the user experience for, uh, we have partners in the software side, but we don’t focus a hundred percent on that. But, uh, but the wireframing side, like the funny thing, is you have to look at it as, Hey, I can either tell you everything that I want, and it will take eight months. We’ll just use an example of eight months because there are going to be so many mistakes. We have to verbally change stuff, or you can take six months to do all the discovery and figure out all of the inner workings and working together and all this talk that we’re doing back and forth.
Zach Colman (28:23): And then one month to develop the app. Do you know what I mean? It’s always like, you actually think you’re wasting time when in reality, that patience is a virtue because it actually saves you time in the long run and now, you know, exactly. And then the small mistakes, man, you’ll see like this, even the small, and I wasn’t gonna ask you this, when you first said you launched on the apple store, I’m like, it’s a pain in the butt to launch on all platforms. yeah. Yeah. We, I, I did a test back in the day, just so I knew how to do it on an, I developed a really small app and threw, went up, just cause I wanted to get the inner workings of how it worked. we ever talked with clients, but, but with that said, with that said, congratulations, it’s awesome. It’s finally launched. Now. It’s time for you to reach the world and people it’s perfect timing. And so if you were to give people advice and we kind of just did this a little bit, but if you were to give the athletes advice on, it could be anything from the transition to starting a business or pushing a business, what would you, what kind of advice would you give other athletes when they start taking that journey and going outside the game
George Asafo-Adjei (29:40): Advice before any kind of worldly advice this, see God and seek the truth because that you’ll know who you are and in knowing who you are, you’ll know how to move forward in whatever route you take a life. That’s my honest suggestion for anyone is fine. God find the truth, find Christ. And then that will shape your future. That will shape everything going forward. As far as like worldly things. Definitely, definitely. you have to be 100% committed to actually doing what you want to do. There’s a lot of people that want a lot of people, I want to be great and don’t actually do the things, you know, they don’t actually execute a lot of, a lot of successes action. It’s 10% saying it, 90%. You actually have to go do it. And, and at least try and practice trying to practice trying and, and be okay with failing.
George Asafo-Adjei (30:48): Sometimes don’t accept failure, but when you fail, it’s okay. Sometimes that helps you actually, maybe, you know, God doesn’t allow certain things to unfold for a reason, but I would say definitely. you have to do, you have to take steps. You have to move forward. And if you do that, you’ll be successful in whatever it is. As far as the field, you have to, you have to do the little things stretching. It’s so weird, but stretching asleep is the biggest success. I mean, that’s how you’ll be successful on the field is your sleep habits, your eating habits, you know, the little things like stretching for sure while you eat. Other than that, if you can be disciplined, respectful, be mindful of people. You’ll go very far. There’s a lot of knuckleheads that careers, you know, are cut short because of the mind.
George Asafo-Adjei (31:51): And if you want to make it a long time, and whether it’s in the business world or football world, you have to have a very strong mind, a strong mind. That doesn’t mean you’re a headache for people. That means you know how to work with people. You don’t have to be respectful, you know how to be understanding, you know, uh, that’s something we lack. And I feel like in today’s world is understanding people. There’s a reason to why everyone does certain things or that you have to be in that seat. You can’t view yourself any different than anyone. So once you get,
Zach Colman (32:29): And, and that’s the hard thing I think with social media, not to get too far into it, but the world is great. There is no black and white, you know, so kind of underpinning people and understanding there are multiple sides to every story. you know, and so I, I feel you on that one and with that transition, with that transition, I mean, what kind of stuff do you feel like when you were playing the game helped, helped in your success as, as a business owner? Is there anything that you can relate to when those two in the two that you feel like, oh man, like the fact that I did this or did this, I, I see how that, how that made me stronger as this
George Asafo-Adjei (33:16): Big time. A lot of lessons I took for football are helping me be a great businessman, but definitely, getting used to be consistent, whether it’s waking up every day at 6:00 AM to go to the weights, that kind of thing builds. It builds something that makes you, even though I still wake up very early. It’s, it’s a good habit. You build good habits in college. When you’re playing football, you build good habits when you’re with a team because you know how to work with everyone. It’s not everyone that’s on the team that you’re going to like when you’re going to learn to work with them, or you’ll be running a lot of gassers, a lot of the goofy stuff. So it teaches you how to work with people, and how to be mentally tough. Like I said, handling all of that and then being a leader too.
George Asafo-Adjei (34:07): I mean, that’s just one thing I’ve noticed is I’m more, I’m more, prone to call something out and just hit it on the head versus, you know, some business people won’t target certain things, but I’ll just be like, okay, this doesn’t look good. Boom. And you know, I think it’s very good for business. Honestly, it gets a lot of things done, but that’s something that we’ve taped for football because in football if your brother is, uh, being a goofball and not doing the right things, you call them out and you know, before the coach calls you guys out and that’s that kind of relationship, uh, you take it to the business world. Uh, people appreciate that because you don’t let certain things slide. Uh, so football definitely develops a lot, a lot of good skills and habits and, yeah, that’s, that’s definitely a lot of the things
Accountability
Zach Colman (35:14): I think accountability is, is huge in there too. Cause like you said, oh
George Asafo-Adjei (35:18): Yeah,
Zach Colman (35:20): Well, and I have to agree with you. And I think this is something that happens very similar to what we said earlier, where you can’t take things so serious in, in football businesses a little bit different. You have to take a lot of things seriously. Cause a lot more, not going to say a lot more is involved, but there, there are certain things where, you know, you could be paying for something you learned from your you, but you have to realize you have to learn from your failures and you actually learn something from that situation. Or you have to, uh, you have to kind of look at it as in, you probably get this all the time too, because you’re, you’re not an entrepreneur now there’s ups and downs in business. You’ll have one day where you’re like, oh man, like, oh, like I’m on top of the world. Everything’s going great. And then the next day you’ll be like, man things, aren’t running smoothly and I’m in a, I’m going to quit. And I don’t, I don’t know
Zach Colman (36:18): What’s going on? You have to kind of give it, let yourself know, Hey, this isn’t going to last forever. I have to know that tomorrow will be fine again or the next day or two hours from now. And I think it very much relates to working out and eating well as well. I mean, cause you don’t really, there’s a lot of things in business you really don’t have control over, you know? And, and, and the one thing that I’ve seen in life that I do, and I mean, I have a two-year-old right now, too. So, you know, running and running, you know, an app running and all that stuff. So you kind of learn, I think having even a child helps you learn that, uh, not, everything’s always going to be in your control and you have to live with it. but doing stuff that you do have in control, like eating well and dealing with your anxiety through working out or dealing with your mental, your, your mental stresses through certain activities.
Zach Colman (37:13): besides, as we said, football, besides with playing the game or with business will help you feel in more control of your life, which will be intended to help you. You’ll pop more positivity about the growth that you’re kind of doing outside. Right outside of the thing. So with that said, I mean, I think that goes into the next question, which is what, now that we talked about the things they can learn, what are some of the struggles that you can eat, that you see the athletes go through when they kind of take that, that step into entrepreneurship? What are some things, I mean, we don’t have weaknesses. Like what are some things that you were like, man, I wish that I kind of, you know, learn this or I wish I, I could be better at this that you can help athletes understand a little bit so that they don’t make the same mistakes that you might have.
George Asafo-Adjei (38:06): Right. a lot of the struggles I’ve run into, it’s just, uh, you know, and I think with being a player, it’s almost like all eyes on your kind of thing. So you’re used to a whole different dynamic. Like you get a little help here, you get help period. Or whether it’s tutors that are not in business, you’ve got a, you almost have to show up, like, you gotta know what you, you gotta know everything. You have to be presentable. You have to, it’s not like football where I don’t have to, I’m showing up to an interview and whatever, you know, I can wear, whatever business is not like that you have to be represented, you know, should be, you have to look good, you know, show up and, be presentable. Nobody’s gonna help you do this. a lot of the struggles personally I’ve dealt with was I was, I don’t know if it’s because just like I was saying, trying to be a leader, but I was trying to do too much.
George Asafo-Adjei (39:14): And then that overextended too, because I, I don’t know what other people know. So I learned the hard way I needed to let people do what they need to do. And, I think is to, because I was trying to, I’m used to in football, you gotta always play your best kind of mentality. Like you have to be the best you have to train to be the best you have to, nobody can beat you, and workouts that are that. So sometimes that can be very, uh, bad in business and, uh, taking that kind of mindset because people are there for a reason, you can’t, you can’t show up on the scene and, you know, try to do take something out of everyone’s cup. You know, that’s not going to work out, you have to do what you do best. And, when to be a team member that way.
George Asafo-Adjei (40:04): So, you know, being more selfless, you know, in the verses and football where you kind of have to be kind of selfish because your individual work will help the team kind of thing. But it’s a lot different than, uh, not a lot, but a little different in business. And that’s, I was, I would say another struggle might be, just, you have to be alive, you have to be patient, you know, things aren’t, you’re not on a schedule in the business world. Like you are football where, you know, okay, Monday I’m going to have weights. Uh, you’ll get on a meeting and it’s going to be a whole different scenario than what you planned. your plans change a lot. so you gotta be ready for that. It’s a different temple. with more time comes, more responsibilities too. So I would say that’s
Zach Colman (41:11): Yeah, I, I think you’ve, you’ve hit something that I’ve seen. I’ve seen quite a bit. and hence why I got this field, to begin with, was as an athlete, you, you, you tend to have to boost yourself up by saying, I’m the best, I’m the best, even though we talked about it is about the team, you know, so you, you, you have to learn in-game and it’s about the team, but when you’re outside the game, it’s the same thing it’s about, Hey, I need to realize that I need to build a team of people that are good at what they do, uh, with different things. And, I see a lot of, I see a lot of athletes going out there being like, I’m the best I’m going to do everything myself. And, or they just don’t value different things. And then they end up, it just doesn’t turn out the way they, want, they don’t trust the people that they’re hiring. They just hide, you know? so I see that struggle. So I think a big takeaway for anyone is, is, you know, just, uh, be willing to see value in, in other things. I mean, wouldn’t you agree?
George Asafo-Adjei (42:17): Yeah. Also, I forgot to mention I have a huge struggle, especially like, I don’t know if it’s just because of the transition, but when people know that you’ve played football instantly, their mind is on a different, they’re looking at you in a different light and it can be, it can be, it can be a blessing and it can be a curse too, because some people always see that, oh, okay, he’s a football player. So he might not be that smart or something. Like a lot of things I ran into as I was showing people, my business plan, I’ll do it. Hey, this is my business plan to talk about it. And the first thing they would say is you wrote this, wow. It’s like, what do you mean? And I wrote this. Yeah, of course, my name was on, you know, it’s, it was, it was almost like disrespectful because, you know, the way people view athletes or some athletes as like, oh, you know, he plays football.
George Asafo-Adjei (43:19): So he might not be that smart kind of thing. And I was like, I had to, I think it was a good thing though because I showed a lot of people know, you can play football and be smart. Like you have to graduate, you have to have some kind of knowledge to graduate. So that was a struggle, right? There was just running into stuff like that. Like, you know, you, and to all athletes out there, go hard in school, go hard and learn things like actually learn knowledge is way more than what your physical body can do. People are getting paid from there with their minds, not still lifting rocks, you know? Like, yeah. So build your mind.
Zach Colman (44:07): I mean, people still get paid to do that, but those are the people that, you know, that unfortunately just don’t build your minds. But, uh, but, uh, but no, I, I, a hundred percent agree with you. Uh, so as you’ve been building this business out and you kind of, as I said, you kind of touched on this a little bit, but what are some of the, what are some of the, what are some of the things athletes can learn when they’re building their brands, from other athletes like yourself. So what can other athletes learn as they start to build their businesses slash brands?
Your Journey
George Asafo-Adjei (44:50): definitely, take notes on how people present themselves. and I’m just saying what I look for from other people and why I see it as successful as the way you brand yourself. You know, wherever you go, your brand is with you. I mean, who you are people, if they see you being disrespectful out somewhere, that’s your brand. Even if it’s those number of people they’re telling people, telling people, and then social media will blow that up. So you, your brand is very important, like very, very important. It’s important to build it now as early as possible. it all goes with when I see other people, I see how even I interact with people online, the stuff they’re posting, you know, what they believe in a lot of that is as a part of your brand that will attract certain people to you to follow you, too, you know, want to be a part of what you’re doing.
George Asafo-Adjei (45:59): So always stay true to that. And don’t be fake. Don’t it’s not like, oh, I’m a, you know, I’m not a good person, but I’m going to act like I’m a good person. And now people all that will always be exposed quickly. So actually work on trying to be a good person. And just like, when you watch the film, you take things from other people’s games and you apply them to yourself as the same way. So when you’re staying all these people signing big deals and dah, dah, dah, and then when you go to their page and you see what they’re doing, and then when you see the links, you know, when you click on the link on their page, you can see, oh, he’s into the community. He actually has engaged in the community and is engaged with people. You know, people like that, maybe I should be engaged with people. You take that attitude. Some people are good with, you know, posting certain things that people like, or, you know, certain material, whether it’s having fans join, you know, Tik TOK has brought so much, uh, talk is almost amplified your brand. So people just post workout stuff, simple stuff then doing, and you know, you get a certain following. So, you know, be smart, be very strategic in building your brand, and be as consistent as possible.
Zach Colman (47:34): Yeah. And that’s actually funny, you said X, we talk a lot about that on the YouTube channel all the time. Like consistently, because consistency, consistency matters in so many different, different aspects. It’s not just, your mentality. It’s the way you write. It’s your visuals, it’s your case. It’s, it’s everything moving forward and fan base. I think that’s what you were touching on was, was, Hey, you’re, you’re going to have a unique fan type. That’s going to come to you. and this is getting a little geekier on the marketing side, but you’re going to have a certain fan base. And if you’re going to, if sponsorships are one of your situations that you’re trying to promote, not even that, if you’re trying to build a fan base around the business that you’re trying to grow, you’re gonna want to have a certain following.
Zach Colman (48:19): So it doesn’t really matter if you have a million, 2 million, 3 million followers, even a hundred thousand, if you have a hundred thousand followers and 98% of those followers are your targeted fan base, you’re going to have a much better conversion slash ROI than you would with. I’ve seen companies with fake followers. I won’t mention any of their names, but large companies with fake followers. And you just use that as an example, when athletes asked me, well, what if I just buy followers? I’m like, it’s not about your follower account. It’s the help, how many relationships you can build, and how much advice and influence you can build on someone. And at the end of the day, if you’re doing it correctly, then they will want to buy. And you can leverage that brand to have people purchase things without our help you grow with what you’re trying to grow with without just trying to make them feel like you’re, they’re making it. Yeah. so again, I really wanna, I really wanna thank you for jumping on, why don’t you tell everyone why don’t you tell everyone where they can find you, uh, a little bit about your app and, uh, and yeah.
George Asafo-Adjei (49:33): Yeah. So, uh, I’m going to ask you to write it down. I’ll just write out, I guess, my Twitter, but, yeah, about the app. I’ll definitely talk about that is, uh, it’s, it’s called groove club. And again, it brings all the services of all kinds to the home. Right now we’re in the process of onboarding businesses and service providers of all kinds. So if anyone, if you know your, your barber or a hairstylist or whoever, tells them to join on there, and you know, this allows businesses to hire more employees back and now go out and execute the services, you know, get back on their feet, that kind of thing. So that’s kind of where we’re bringing in Samaritan, solar, again, residential and commercial solar. you could follow me on Instagram. Sorry. Right there is that backward
Zach Colman (50:36): Now you got it. You got it. I got it. All
George Asafo-Adjei (50:39): Right, cool. So, you know, that’s my Instagram, not that huge on social media, but uh, you know, if anyone wants to reach me that way, I’m on Instagram, I’m on LinkedIn. that’s not, I actually use LinkedIn more than social media.
Zach Colman (50:59): Yeah. I talked to a lot of athletes about that is LinkedIn’s a great place to go, to, to do this stuff. So thanks. I’ll throw these all up in at the end too, so you don’t have to worry. You don’t have to worry about that. I’ll take that when you, you already sent me over some images. So when, uh, when we’re done with our call, you’re definitely more than welcome to send me over some of that stuff. And I’ll throw him into that when it goes live. but again, I want to thank you for being on the brand power analysis and I hope everyone enjoys it.
George Asafo-Adjei (51:31): Thank you so much. I appreciate it.
Zach Colman (51:34): No problem. Watch our Interview with Drew Scott here >
