Zach Colman (00:06): Everyone. I’d like to welcome you to another episode of the brand power analysis today. I have on Kirk, why don’t you explain a little bit about yourself and the journey?

Kurt’s Story

Kurt Hallead (00:16): Yeah, Zach, thanks for having me on. I really appreciate the opportunity. So yeah, it’s, you know, I spent a vast majority of my career on wall street and, you know, always had a passion for sports and, and combining sports with business. And it always been looking for different opportunities to potentially kind of break away from the wall street grind and get into something more fun and exciting and, uh, had that opportunity to do it as we got into, uh, get into year 20 into 2021. Uh, so I’m really excited about what we’re trying to do and how we’re trying to connect up sports and technology and grit, a unique dynamic, for college athletes, and give them an opportunity to potentially make some money.

Zach Colman (00:59): That’s awesome. why don’t you, why don’t you discuss a little bit about how you kind of got to where you are now and what made you really want to push towards the direction of sports?  

Kurt Hallead (01:11): Yeah, no, that’s a, that’s a good question. You know, I think it always sports always kind of course, through my veins. You know, I had the opportunity to, to play at least through, through, uh, through high school. And, obviously, uh, was a little bit limited in my opportunities to, to pursue that on a, on a post-high school basis and in the college. But, that, despite that fact, you know, I’ve always, always had that passion and drive. And I think it’s just a dynamic where it’s like, you know, you’re, you’re basically on a scoreboard constantly, right? Whether you’re, you’re playing baseball every day and you got, a batting average or whatever, if you’re playing football every week, it depends on your performance, but it’s what you put into is what you get out of it. And, and, and the preparation element of it.

Kurt Hallead (01:54): Uh, it’s all those things are always kind of, kind of formed my, my life during, you know, the, my business career. And, I just see an opportunity and they wanted to drive an opportunity here to kind of connect the business element, with the sports. And, after 30 years of, of, uh, of going at it on wall street, I finally had an opportunity to step away and figure out what I want to do, what I wanted to do, and what I want to be when I grew up and, uh, kinda came across as unique intersection of, of technology related to nonrefundable tokens and sports related to the changes in the name, image, and likeness, elements for college sports. And I thought it’d be a really cool way to take those two things with my business experience and, uh, and kind of bring that to the marketplace.

Zach Colman (02:41): Yeah, that’s great. Why don’t you, I mean, that’s really interesting and I know we’ve talked in the past. I mean, it’s, it’s, you’re, you’re not able, but your, your experience in, in the world of, of the wall, I think probably plays a huge partnering into what you’re doing now and not to intimidate anyone who’s on here. But I mean, I know that you’re, you’re kind of doing something that’s trying to compete with, you know, the NFT side. so why don’t you discuss a little bit more about that, the business, what it, what it is and, and how it works?

Building Legacy League

Kurt Hallead (03:20): Yeah, yeah. So the, uh, the name of the company is Legacy League was formed in May of this year, along with one of my former colleagues from my wall street days. his name is Stuart Bush and he brings a lot of great expertise around the, uh, the technology front that I didn’t have. you know, my emphasis and focus are, you know, on the, on the business and corporate development front, then, you know, quite frankly, some something that, uh, uh, a lot of people, even those that are pretty close to me, don’t really recognize is of them. I’m actually also an assistant football coach at a division three university in Texas. So having that engagement with, with the college athletes at that level, you know, and helping them figure out what they’re going to do, not only, you know, in college, but once they get out of college and then I’ll being, uh, able to be engaged with them on a more direct basis and giving them an opportunity to figure out ways on how to become business people on their own, right, because that’s effectively what our business model is.

Kurt Hallead (04:21): we are, we are set up to empower college athletes to monetize their name, image, and likeness by using non-fungible tokens. That’s really what we’re set up to do clean claim, you know, plain and simple, and, you know, from a, from a, uh, student-athlete standpoint, right? They haven’t had opportunities necessarily to go out and generate some incremental income. So the way we kind of see this dynamic is, you know, take my wall street experience and kind of marry it up with what we’re trying to do here is I kind of see the athlete has their own corporation, right? And then I see an NFT as a stock of that corporation, right? So then as an athlete, you know, only 2% of athletes are going to have the opportunity to go play at a professional level. And even when they go in and do that, it’s going to be a very brief and short career.

Kurt Hallead (05:11): So now what we’re giving them an opportunity to do is kind of build some resume material beyond their athletic, dynamics as well. And they could effectively say, Hey, look, I was a CEO of my own corporation. I issued my own stock in effect through these NFTs. Uh, I went out and it was an investor relations person for my own business, right? I had to go out and market and promote my own brand and awareness. And I had to create more awareness around that. and, you know, hence here’s what I’ve been able to learn. Right? It’s what you’ve been able to learn, plus what table, you’ve been able to earn. Now. Some people may not earn a lot from it, but they’re going to learn a tremendous amount and they’re gonna make themselves even more marketable once they get out of college.

Zach Colman (05:55): Well, that sounds awesome. So I know you’re, you’re mentioning a lot of talk about college athletes and, and not, not professionals, as you said, it’s that, there’s that 2% only that 2% that makes it, and you did, you brought up something that I thought was very interesting. You said you thought of athletes as kind of a corporation, and I always preach, college or, or professional. even high school, it’d be days that, you know, as an athlete, you’re basically a business, you know, you’re, I guess you’re a personal brand and you eventually move into a corporate brand status, but, you have this ability to leverage your, your end game appearance and what you’re doing to kind of grow something outside the game. And if you were to look at it, like you said, as the NFTs as a stock, it sounds like a great way for athletes to be able to in the, in the college level, to be able to have very little risk, a lot like the stock market, and depending on what kind of stocks you’re doing worse, but, but be able to make money off of their name, image, and like this, which did just come into effect recently with nil in college athletes, able to do stuff.

Zach Colman (07:15): So with that said, and kind of going back to what you said with, with, how you felt when you got into sports and you, you felt, you felt, oh, you were really intrigued by the successes and the failures and, and the determination of athletes. Why don’t you, why don’t you dive in a little bit more into your thought process behind this and why you feel like this is such a good opportunity for athletes, to utilize your new platform?

The Three Buckets

Kurt Hallead (07:52): Yeah, no, no, for sure. And I think it might be beneficial too, to kind of give a broader context around what I call the NISL ecosystem. Right? So in, in, as this market has evolved and evolved very rapidly, you know, I kinda see it in three different buckets, right? You have a, you have a compliance bucket with a number of outsourcing source firms out there that are helping to protect the reputation of the university, and as well as helping to protect the eligibility, you know, of the athlete, you have another bucket that I call sponsorship brokers that are basically just trying to connect, you know, athletes with varying companies for endorsement deals. And obviously from that standpoint, these sponsorship brokers, you know, get a pretty hefty fee, you know, and trying to try and do kind of marry that up. Uh, and then, you know, there’s a, there’s a kind of broader category of, of other, but, you know, let’s, let’s call kind of digital marketplaces is a kind of art segment of that bucket.

Kurt Hallead (08:43): And, you know, the digital marketplace, is, is really set up to maximize the earnings capability for, uh, for the athlete. So when you think about what we’re trying to offer, you know, it’s a no, option for the athlete. You know, all they need to do is sign on-site onto our platform, uh, provide us with some video, uh, highlights of, of them in gameplay. Uh, we have our own NFT creation wizard, uh, that we’ll turn into a really cool digital token for them to basically, you know, sell, uh, on our, on our marketplace. And in addition to that, you know, the athlete will get a fairly sizable chunk of the initial, uh, revenue that’s generated from that NFT sale. And in addition to ongoing royalties and perpetuity, right? So coming back around to that, you know, corporation and stock concept, right? So you have, uh, an initial offering of the NFT is kind of like the initial public offering of stock, right?

Kurt Hallead (09:37): You get the proceeds from that, and then you have the ability over time to continue to, uh, you know, pay, uh, pay yourself a dividend, uh, with respect to the continued marketing and promotion of your brand, you know, through the sale of, and the year NFTs on the secondary market, right? So even if you graduate college, you do a really good job in building your brand awareness. There’ll always be demand for your NFT in, in the future. And you’ll be able to collect on that going forward. So, you know, one example we tend to use, right, not to drone on too much on this dynamic though, is, is one of the key questions that came up. And I had even been wanting to launch this thing is, you know, you have a, you have a number of athletes that participate in non-revenue sports, or you have a number of athletes that, you know, don’t participate at the, uh, at the power five division, one level, you know, what’s, what’s the real underlying interest in, and someone buying an NFTA of, of an athlete of that type.

About NFT’s

Kurt Hallead (10:33): And, you know, it was really interesting when we went through our dynamic and found who the buyers of these NFTs were going to be there’s, you know, at least seven or eight different categories of buyers that have their own reasons for being involved. Right. So investors and collectors, yeah. You’re going to focus on your division one potential professional prospects, but you know, you think about alumni, you think about boosters, you think about local business owners that get more directly engaged with either the athlete or the university. And these are the ones that are really going to drive the, uh, the sales of those, those types of athletes. So it’s really an interesting opportunity for the athlete to come in with really, really minimal to no costs, very, very low risk, and really kind of put them in the driver’s seat, you know, with respect to what they’re going to try to make, and, and really kind of put them if they do not already have one, you know, really drive an entrepreneur perineurial mindset.

Zach Colman (11:29): Yeah. And I feel like that’s key. I feel like that’s something that we’ve really tried to promote as we, when we talk to college athletes, even, even some, like I said, even younger than that, where it’s like, Hey, you need to kind of build some sort of a, you have to look at it as a business. As you said, build some entrepreneurial skill sets because you’re going to be leveraging that alongside what you’re doing. with that said, I think that kind of, I think that kind of goes into my next question, which is for the athletes. I mean, we talked about the positives, uh, with everything going on, what do you feel like? So some of the struggles that you’re helping curate with, with, uh, with your new platform.

Kurt Hallead (12:13): Yeah. So, so look, I think, you know, you’d probably have to segment the athletes, you know, and say, you know, those that wind up going to blade the professional level, uh, you know, the vast majority of them write very sad, sad, sad to state, you know, wind up having some sort of financial difficulty, right. And, and, you know, they don’t necessarily know how to handle all that financial, the success that comes their way in, in such a short time period, especially at a young age. Right. And, and being, mature enough to, to know that, Hey, you know, I only have a very, very brief window, uh, to really, uh, participate in this sport. but you know, I, I get the sense that there’s a lot of people tugging at their cocktails, you know, wanting, uh, wanting a little piece of the pie. And it’s hard for some of these athletes, you have to say, no, right.

Kurt Hallead (13:07): So I know there’s a lot of education that goes into that process for those now, for the ones that aren’t going to go play professional sports, right? this kind of gives them, I think, uh, an opportunity to really display some skills that can translate to the real world, you know, once, once they’re done playing their sport, like for example, right? If you’re, if you’re a college athlete and you do have the opportunity to go get a job, you know, uh, to help supplement your income, uh, up until recently, you know, those, those jobs were, you know, your mundane, you know, minimum wage, you know, for lack of a better term, you know, flipping burger type of jobs, you’re not going to learn how a heck of a lot, you know, uh, doing that, but in the context of, of what we’re offering and, and their ability to, you know, promote and market their brand, right?

Kurt Hallead (14:02): That’s a marketing skill that they’re going to be able to bring with them. The fact that, all these athletes are digitally native. You know, they, they understand how to use technology. This is another avenue for them to utilize that skill set. And you, you utilize it in an emerging market space, whether it’s nonfungible tokens or, you know, on, on marketplaces that may require a cryptocurrency, which by the way, ours is not going to require that up front, but something we could do. and then there’s the other element around, you know, so social media and being influencers in their own right on social media, right? I’ve seen all these studies and I have college-aged kids myself. So I kind of know that dynamic of, you know, the millennials and gen Z spend, you know, three hours a day, if not more on social media and they’re spending most of their time helping other influencers make money. So all they really need to do is reallocate a portion of that time to focus on marketing their own brand and marketing, or their own, uh, image, if you will, uh, degenerate income for themselves. Right. And then that’s another skill set that they should be able to take with them and be able to then, you know, put on their resume and, and put them at the front of the line, you know, for potential jobs once they graduate.

Zach Colman (15:24): Yeah. I think that I think that’s beautiful and I like the whole, the whole factor of what you did with, I mean, cause even me being a beginning stage of a millennial, you know, or I would, you know, I won’t say my age, but, being able to, you know, I still look at NFTE use is kind of confusing the whole way that the Bitcoin and, and all the digital currencies working these days. But I think that what you’re doing is you’re, uh, what you call transactional, correct. You call it transactional, where it’s just the money back and forth. And I think that helps, I think that helps athletes even, you know, other individuals see that in a much easier light. so what do you think about what you’re going through right now with building your business and, and moving into the sports realm, what are some things that your platform, what are you hoping to achieve when it comes to helping athletes, grow in regards to building the brands?

Kurt Hallead (16:32): Yeah, I think, you know, when, when we look at it, it’s, it’s very, very basic and very, very simple is, is just trying to level the playing field. for all college athletes who participate in every sport and at every level of play, it’s really that simple, right? Uh, again, the top one to 2% of athletes that will have an opportunity to go play at a professional level. you know, you know, they, they’re going to have a lot of things thrown their way. you know, and, and again, you know, kudos to, you know, their physical skillset and that enables them to have those opportunities. And, and, but it’s, it’s that it’s a 98% of that, that population where we want to try to level that playing field and give them an opportunity to figure out what, uh, what their, what the market is really willing to pay for, for, for their, uh, for themselves.

Superbowl and Post-College

Kurt Hallead (17:27): Quite frankly, I can put it in this context, right? Is, is that you know, when you think about, like a super bowl, right. And super bowl Sunday, you think about what a lot of these broadcast networks do to capture the attention of the casual fan. It’s really driven underlying storylines, you know, and, and I see the opportunity, I see a very similar opportunity for the 98% of the college athletes, and aren’t going to go pro yeah. It’s a bit about what you do on the field and, and all these cool things that you can, you can do athletically, but it’s as much about what’s your storyline. What’s the story that you want to tell people? What kind of adversity did you have to overcome to get to where you are to be able to play the college sport and to, uh, be a success in the academic environment?

Kurt Hallead (18:23): What are your, what are your goals post-college? What, what do you want to do, right? How cool would it be for someone to be able to grab an NFT of a college athlete in a non-revenue sport only to find out, you know, four or five years later, that that individual becomes, you know, a successful business, mobile of a tech startup, or becomes, you know, a Nobel prize winner in climate change, or, you know, whatever, whatever the dynamic may be. Right? So you may not think that, you know, maybe the initial dynamic of, uh, somebody buying an NFT of, uh, of an athlete is that, Hey, it’s a really cool story. Or, you know what? I played that sport in college. And I really wish I had the opportunity to make some money from this and this fashion, or you have a booster that really didn’t have a legal and compliant way to necessarily pay an athlete.

Kurt Hallead (19:15): So now they can actually buy the NFT, which is a product, right? And therefore the athlete can get paid. But, you know, in that context, 3, 4, 5 years later, you still own that NFT. And now this individual becomes very successful in their own, right? And opens up another opportunity for that potential buyer, that NFT again, to potentially monetize it. And then for that, that athlete gets to do to monetize it along as we’ve mentioned before, you know, the opportunity continues to generate a royalty on that future success, right? So it kind of builds continues to build on it on the whole dynamic. You have a foundation. And then, you know, like when you build a house, you have to build a foundation and you put the framing up and then you put the roof up and all that other things. I think it’s just an opportunity for the athlete to have cumulative success over time, and be able to tell their story. And again, that becomes a marketing and promotion campaign and brand awareness campaign, you know, for their own, for their own purposes.

Zach Colman (20:15): No, that’s, that’s, that’s wonderful. I think you, I think you said it nicely. So with, with where you’re with, where your product is your well, your, your platform is at your software. are you launched, when are you going to launch, like, how is all that working in and how can you, how can athletes right now or in the near future utilize your platform?

Kurt Hallead (20:42): Yes. Great. Yeah. Yeah. So, preparing for our fundraising effort, which we hope to complete before, uh, before the end of the year. Uh, no, we’ve had some competitors of ours have very good success in their funding rounds over the last, uh, last couple of weeks, one of which I think raised something close to $50 million. So, you know, that would obviously be a very nice thing for us to have as well as we go forward. Uh, we are planning on going live on our marketplace and Ft marketplace, you know, in the first quarter of 2022. And from an athlete standpoint right now, all you really need to go do is go to legacy league.com, click the, get paid button, uh, give us your, uh, just put it, put in your name and email and ways for us to contact you so we can keep you abreast on when we’re going to start dropping in FTS.

Kurt Hallead (21:35): and that’s really all the athlete has to, has to, it has to do really simple process and no fee again, want to emphasize that no fee, no cost. Uh, we want to make this, as easy to use as frictionless to use. You don’t need an agent. Okay. You don’t need to go find your own graphic designer. Uh, you don’t need to go and try and enlist this on some other broad marketplace. again, we’re trying to create a community, uh, effect, uh, that, as we all know, right, college sports and college experience in general really has a deep-rooted, emotional impact on anybody who goes and it lasts for generations. So we’re trying to try to kind of keep that all in-house. And, uh, and so people know where they can go to the, find the athletes and find the NFTs and find the community that, that have a lot of shared interests. So just go to legacy lead.com, like to get paid button, and leave the rest up to us.

Interview Outro

Zach Colman (22:30): You truffle well, Kurt, I appreciate having you on, and I’m excited to continue watching your growth as you continue to build this wonderful platform. again, where can people find you? I know you kind of mentioned it there at the end, but is there, if there’s any other place people can find you?

Kurt Hallead (22:53): Yeah, you can, you can, you know, uh, you can follow us on, uh, on Twitter, which is a legacy league, uh, legacy league NFT. Uh, you can also find us on Instagram at legacy league one.

Zach Colman (23:08): Beautiful. Well, again, thanks. Thanks again for being part of the brand power analysis, and I hope you have a good rest of your day.

Kurt Hallead (23:15): Thank you, Zach. Really appreciate it. And have a great one take care. Watch our Interview with Greg Amiel here >

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