The Future of Athlete Training Subsidization

Personal Brand Marketing and Social Media Influencing

Every athlete with a dream knows that the journey to a National, World, or Olympic Championship starts a long way from the podium, both in time and distance. It is that journey, whether 4 years or 20, that marks the true triumph of a champion. The final event may decide the victor, but the victory (or victories) is a capstone on the journey. Modern day sport fans, through the growth of social media athlete-influencers, know this. If you are, or aspire to be, a professional athlete, you also have to know that the vicarious sharing of your athletic journey/experience has become the whole point behind professional sports today. It is also why the public will subsidize your training if they think you have the potential to be successful (and/or your journey is compelling enough).

Every athlete pursues competitive success for their own individual and personal reasons. The reason why society supports, celebrates and SUBSIDIZES high level athletes is entirely singular: The Champion exemplifies what is the very best of us as human beings. It may be one person/team who stands on the podium, but it is humanity that celebrates.  The achievement, the broken boundary, the shattered record, the extraordinary moment is when the whole planet says, “Incredible. I couldn’t even begin to believe that was humanly possible” …and then we all move forward together.    

For today’s high level athletes, what they are sharing (ostensibly through social media) is more than the achievement. It is the crooked path to glory, the road of ups and downs. This is the other thing that humanity wants to vicariously experience and know: the path to excellence is not straight up. The path, your path, weaves around and dances from the highest levels of jubilation to the darkest depths of depression and frustration. Your journey shines a light on the journey we all share. No one follows a singular path up or down. 

For today’s high level athletes, what they are sharing (ostensibly through social media) is more than the achievement. It is the crooked path to glory, the road of ups and downs.

This may seem like an overstated responsibility: “I just want to win some races! I’m not interested in being a role model or sharing my experience!” Guess what? You’re a role model, like it or not. We’re all role models because we’re constantly watching each other for cues on how to behave and manage our lives. No one lives in an opaque box of existence. Athletes are even more visible because they perform publicly (no one competes in secret) and winners get noticed. If your goal is to truly be a champion, then you need to accept the publicness of your campaign. You need to accept the reality that part of your training and journey to elite competition and potential championships is the constant marketing and monetization of that journey.

We’ve all seen the elite rower’s (typically understated) fundraising campaign. With two weeks to competition, and credit cards maxed out, the aspiring elite athlete turns to GoFundMe and their ~2K followers on Instagram to subsidize their expenses so they can eat etc. As someone who follows (and supports) several aspiring athletes, I understand the need and appreciate the effort. (I especially appreciate the follow up thank you note/text). 

What if they didn’t need a GoFundMe?

The answer of course is the elusive sponsorship deal.

Sponsors are the social media influencer’s bread and butter. When we think of social media sponsors for athletes however, we think of Nike, Gatorade, and a dozen or so other billion dollar brands. They sponsor athletes with million dollar deals like Serena Williams (17 million Instagram followers) and Cristiano Ronaldo (615 million Instagram followers!). Olympic Gold in rowing seems more attainable than that level of sponsorship for today’s aspiring rower.

The good news is that the opportunity for social media athlete influencers is just as micro as it is macro.  Today’s aspiring Olympic rower doesn’t need a million dollar sponsor (although of course no one would turn it away). They need multiple smaller sponsors to cover those ever challenging training and travel expenses. Instead of soliciting support (in the form of $100 donations) from dozens of friends and family, the aspiring elite athlete could be soliciting support (in the form of subsidies in the the thousands or even tens of thousands) from smaller companies, companies that would love to have a high level athlete representing their brand (fun fact: there are over 30 million small businesses (companies that make less than $1 million in revenue) in the United States). Would anyone hesitate to ask your millionaire aunt for a $100 donation? Then why nor pursue a professional relationship with a million-dollar company? My gentle suggestion is that today’s aspiring Olympic rower is missing out on a significant opportunity to subsidize their training over the long term by not soliciting sponsorships from smaller corporate entities. 

For everyone considering marketing their social media brand and influence to help subsidize their training, here are some tips:

• YOUR JOURNEY MATTERS.  Your audience wants to experience the life of an elite athlete. As athletes, it is sometimes hard for us to process this vicarious ideal (Why not just go and do it yourself?) It’s important to remember that not everyone is motivated the same way, and that NARP is not necessarily a pejorative. Even the casual recreational athletes who only go for a walk 2-3x a week will appreciate and be engaged in your journey. When you believe that, your sponsor(s) will believe it.
• YOU ARE GOING TO WIN. If you cannot look a sponsor dead in the eye and make this statement, how will you face your opponents on race day? No sponsor will want to hear anything different.
• YOUR JOB IS ATHLETE. YOUR OTHER JOB IS SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCER. Social media influencing is a lot of work. The time spent not training/recovering will be producing and editing content.
• ENGAGEMENT IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN FOLLOWERS. The number of followers is irrelevant. How much people are paying attention and engaging (comments, sharing) is what your sponsors will look for.
• YOU CONTROL THE NARRATIVE. This is frequently overlooked. Your journey, your story, in your words. Ever capture the attention of the entire room with a story? This is your time to shine. 
• INFLUENCE. You have an opportunity to INFLUENCE in a truly positive way. Athletes can be associated with fair play, integrity, diligence, accountability. These are all positive qualities to be reinforced.
• WE HAVE TO START SOMEWHERE. Out there, today, is a competitive rower who will capture the attention of millions of followers and turn the spotlight on rowing. Someone needs to blaze the trail.

The final tip for the aspiring athlete/rower/influencer: LOOK OUTSIDE AND BEYOND THE ROWING COMMUNITY FOR YOUR AUDIENCE. The rowing community is very small, perhaps less than a million people world-wide. You need to market yourself to everyone (not just the rowing community) in order to engage enough interest for sponsorship. This is something the entire rowing community should consider. We need to leave the echo chamber of telling ourselves how awesome we are. We need to tell the world how awesome rowing is, and perhaps it can start with the athletes. 
The journey of the elite athlete is motivated on the most deeply personal level. The subsidization of that journey (unless they are independently wealthy) happens at the public’s leisure. The most efficacious way to market anything today is via social media. This is indisputable. It is not just individual rowers who would be well served to engage this process, but in fact the entire rowing community. If a rower or organization cannot capture attention on social media, then the sport will slowly fade. KEEP UP OR BE LEFT BEHIND. 

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John Wojtkiewicz

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