Latest / Money And Wealth With John Hope Bryant / BONUS* Arik Armstead on Investing Beyond Football

Transcript

BONUS* Arik Armstead on Investing Beyond Football · Money And Wealth With John Hope Bryant

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome The Money In Wealth with John O'Bryant, a production
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: of the Black Effect Podcast Network and iHeartRadio. This is
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: John O'Brien and this is the Money in Wealth Podcast
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: episode Season three on iHeartRadio and Black Effect Network. We
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: have with us Eric Armstead, who is a NFL pro
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: and in some ways a working living legend, and he's
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: won the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award. He
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: is a first round draft pick for the San Francisco
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: forty nine ers. He's now with the Jacksonville Jaguars. You
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: know him because he always rubs his belly after every
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: good play. He's always hungry. But he's hungry not just
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: on the field. This is a bonus episode talking about
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: what he does off the field to expand his field
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: of play, the investments he makes not just a life,
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: he lives. Eric tell us about unique and important investment
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: you made that you think might have legacy and lineage
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: tied to it.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you for the intro. And just recently, I
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: was fortunate enough to invest in the new just announced
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: last week Pro Flag Football League in partnership with Tomorrow
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: Sports and the NFL. And although it's a cool, exciting
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: opportunity and one that right now I haven't really made
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: too often. This is probably the largest investment I've made
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: into a singular private equity deal to date. But I'm
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: really excited about the opportunity and where flag football is headed.
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: You know, the times are changing and football in itself
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: is becoming a global game. And so when I had
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: the opportunity and I was presented the opportunity UH to
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: invest into this league, which I feel very fortunate for
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: because not everyone was brought in that early. I really
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: began to think about this opportunity. But how years and
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: years prior things that I invested in, in time that
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: I spent in relationships I built really fast forwarded eight
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: years provided an opportunity to invest to make this investment.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: And.
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: There are a number of people involved. I built a
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: great relationship, a relationship I built a great relationship with
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: a gentleman named Byron Deeter who's with Bestment Capital and
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: UH me and Byron have you know, been friends and
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: and uh done business together for going on about eight
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: years now and just building and nurturing that relationship and
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: trying to add value to him and his firm, and
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: you know, just trying to be a Sponge Byron investment
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: actually ended up becoming one of the lead investment partners
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: uh in this league.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: And so.
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: Throughout the process he was picking my brain, asking me
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: about what I thought about Flag and in the future
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: for the for the sport ye. And so that was
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: one way I was able to learn, uh. And then
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: also to just being connected. You can look up the
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: list of people that of players that invested into the
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: league and it's it's a very you know, short exclusive list,
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: which I'm humble to be a part of. And that
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: was purely all about connections and relationships as well too
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: being in the right rooms, you know, adding value where
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: where opportunities were presented at the league level, and partners
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: and building relationships and uh going to events and and
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: being myself and uh letting everyone know who I was
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: and what I was about and what I.
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: Stood for.
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: And and all that, you know, reputation and relationship building
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: and all those things presenting an opportunity years and years
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: later that not everyone was afforded to. And so I'm
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: really excited about this investment and where this league is headed.
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: It really for me personally, shows uh that I am
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: moving the right way. Uh, that when I do present
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: myself to the world and and and meet people, that
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: something is something is sticking, and it's opening up doors
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: and knocking down barriers for me. And this investment, I
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: feel is is very much a legacy investment. I have
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: two daughters and I have a son as well, but
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: I have two daughters, and uh, this the league is
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: launching with Women's First, a big, a big initiative. I
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: don't actually I don't know if I can say that,
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: but I think I can.
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: Well, you just said it. Well, well, I'm gonna say
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: you will pivot on that. Let me ask you this
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: question because we'll say that further the leagu's press release.
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: Because I played flag football growing up, everybody can relate
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: to this story. This is a really cool thing I
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: think you've done. And I think that what with the
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: with the the principles of this business enterprise, what they
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: saw with somebody who's more interested in partnership conversation than
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: party conversation. And so your focus in your integrity brought
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: you in off the field of play to the field
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: of business. In the minds of some people, it took
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: you seriously without giving any confidential information, can you quickly
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: tell the audience how this deal was structured. So you
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: it's it's it's the who the partners, who are the backers,
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: the financiers, the bankers, where, you know, where does it operate?
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: Uh And without getting into getting the confidential I think
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: this is how to make the money.
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: It's public information. There is Tomorrow Sports will be the
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: operator and there are six big firm that will lead
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: that investment. On that side. M hmm, I think Best
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: mayor silver Lake and then a number of others firms
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: that came together too and will be the lead investors
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: on this investment.
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: Does investment management, family office management, things like that, private banking,
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: and then silver Lake is private equity, et cetera. Continued yep.
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: And on the NFL side, which was awesome, you know,
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: working with Curtis Martin and his private equity firm Lootis,
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: we were able uh to have conversations and he had
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: conversations with Roger Goodell and NFL that you know, players
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: need to be involved, and so we were able to
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: have some players be able to invest. And I was
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: fortunate enough to uh that I got the call to
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: be one of those players that had an opportunity and
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: an allocation to invest in. I'm really excited, like I said,
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: about the opportunity, and that goes back to, like I said,
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: a relationship building and being in the right place at
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: the right time, and showing up and presenting yourself at
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: the right time as well too, and creating opportunities for
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: yourself in that space that people see you in that
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: light and they bring you in on those conversations.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: Yep. And as I'd love to say, if you hang
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: around nine bro people, you'll be the tenth. What he
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: said is basically the opposite of that. Right rooms, right places,
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: right spaces on about the right things in the right mindset.
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: And essentially what he just described was what you might
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: call in traditional sense, a pre i po environment where
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: he was brought in to an investment because before it
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: became public, before it became publicly available or even available
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: to mainstream investors, somebody selected him to be as part
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: of the original capital stack. You can look at what
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: capital stack means, but it's a really the stack of
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: types of money that goes into a deal, debt and
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: equity and uh. And so he's got a real shot
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: at success of this. And I think if anything has
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: a shot of success staning on flag football and the
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: fact that Roger Goodell's she's a wonderful, wonderful human being.
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: I love that brother. Uh called an honorary black man.
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: But if the NFL's you know.
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: What they say, you know what they say, by rent
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: had they might as they might as well be black.
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: Okay, Well that's a whole nother conversation. Uh right right,
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: Roger sure will appreciate that. Uh, he's a good brother.
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: So look, this has been great and I'm glad you
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: took this time to give the people a super vitamin
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: of a targeted deal. Uh. Who is involved what you're
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: doing off the field? Uh to make money during the
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: day his salary from NFL, but building wealth in your sleep,
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: things like this investment in flag football. Eric, thanks for
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: being a model and living what you say.
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: I appreciate that and trying to keep leading away and
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: you will.
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: I'll see you on the field of play. Money and
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: Wealth with John O'Brien is a production of the Black
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: Effect Podcast Network. For more podcasts from the Black Effect
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: Podcast Network, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.