On this episode of Alumni Direct's show "ATHLETES TO ENTREPRENEURS: The Alumni Journey," we talk to Sydney Supple, current softball player at Northwestern University. In her spare time, Sydney is a journalist and broadcaster and also hosts her own podcast, From The Players.

Sydney tells us about all she has gained from growing up playing sports, her ambitions to go pro, and her perspective on preparing for life after sports.

Tell me about playing sports growing up, and how it shaped you.

"Sports has really shaped me into the woman I am today. I mean, so many intangible lessons that you learn...One, just the hard work, and how if you're willing to put your heart and soul into something, and put your body on the line, amazing things can come out of it.

But most importantly, I think it has just surrounded me with the best relationships I could have ever dreamt of, it taught me the power of having somebody believe in me, and it taught me the power of believing in myself. And when you can combine these two things and be surrounded on a team or in a room full of people who all believe in each other, amazing things can happen."

Sydney on knowing that Softball was the sport for her:

"Right away, I knew there was something special about softball. I think it is the fact that you wake up every day and the game never knows who's supposed to win. And you always have a shot of winning, until you're down to your very last out. Softball is 7 innings, and anything can happen in 7 innings."

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On this episode of Alumni Direct's show "ATHLETES TO ENTREPRENEURS: The Alumni Journey," we talk to Garett Henson, former college hockey player, advertising agent and events marketing specialist.

Tell me about how growing up playing sports shaped you.

"Sportsmanship is what gave me my start. You treat everyone like you want to be treated, following the golden rule. But more importantly, sportsmanship really gave me the positive mindset I have. It gave me that go-getter energy."

Garett's views on the outdated mentality that many athletes have:

"I think that athletes, especially Division 1 athletes, have that mindset that there is no plan B, there's only a plan A. And I'll use my grandfather as an example: my grandfather has been a great athlete his whole entire life. He played Division 1 ball at Lafayette. But after college, he did not really feel like getting drafted or going into the pros. I mean, he was pretty good...but I think that athletic mindset, especially when it comes to good athletes in high school, college, and pro: They say, this is my plan A, and when I retire, I retire, and I'll be comfortable. That's not really the case nowadays."

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On this episode of Alumni Direct's show "ATHLETES TO ENTREPRENEURS: The Alumni Journey," we talk to Orlando Arnold, former baseball player at Alabama State University, Sports Agent, Public Speaker, and President and CEO of Pyramid Sports Group.

When you were growing up, did you dream about being a professional athlete?

"Oh yeah. Yeah yeah yeah. If you go look in my senior memory book, I wrote in there that I would be an MLB player. That's what I thought I was going to do. I wrote in there that I would be playing in major league baseball. There was no doubt in my mind. I didn't know how I was going to get there. I knew I was going to have to work hard. I had an opportunity that only 2% of my peers got, which was to play college athletics. That was a blessing and a rarity in itself. I was a senior amongst all my peers. You know, all these guys with these football interests and basketball interests, and I was one of the few that was going on to play Division 1 athletics at Alabama State. So, I knew then that this is what I wanted to do. And so I forged out to do it."

What would be the best advice you'd give to athletes preparing for a transition out?

"The first piece of advice is, be real with yourself. Be open and honest with yourself about whether there is still opportunity for you to keep playing. Have a plan B ready to go. Secondarily, while you're still playing in school, get a mentor who can help you walk through life experiences, who can help you see things from a very high level, that because you haven't lived those experiences, you don't see it. And the third thing I would say is, don't be afraid to ask questions; pick up the phone and call anybody. Those are the three takeaways I would give on that."

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On this episode of Alumni Direct's show "ATHLETES TO ENTREPRENEURS: The Alumni Journey," we talk to Josh Copeland, former college football player, youth tutor, and motivational speaker.

Talk about playing sports growing up, and share how it helped to shape your life.

"Sports played a big part in my life. I have 4 brothers, and we're a big baseball family. As a way to keep us from fighting, and to keep us out of trouble, my parents put us into sports. Baseball is our first love; we still talk about it to this day and we still follow MLB. I gravitated to basketball and football; I played all 3 growing up. It was great; it was a way to keep us out of trouble. But then, sports teaches you a lot of life lessons. And a lot of how to handle adversity, how to be self-motivated, hard work, dedication. It teaches you all these things...and it molded me into the person I am today."

Talk about your transition out of sports:

"Everybody is different when they transition out, but for me, I really struggled because my whole identity was tied up in who I was as an athlete, because I played for so long. And everybody that I met from about 6 years old to 25, outside of my family, I met through sports. So this whole community around me and the people that I was meeting, I met through sports. That became who I was and I didn't know that I even had to develop "me" as a person outside of sports. Because like I said, my whole world was sports. It was very difficult for me to transition out of it, mentally."

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On this episode of Alumni Direct's show "ATHLETES TO ENTREPRENEURS: The Alumni Journey," we chat with Tim Wright, Superbowl champion, multi-passionate entrepreneur, and co-founder of Dome Audio.

Talk about playing sports growing up and how that shaped your youth.

"Sports was very important to my foundation. That's where you learn how to win. That's where you learn how to lose. And later on in life, I learned that you either win or you learn. So taking the lessons of what you were able to learn in that loss is what you're then able to apply to that game next week or the practice the next day, and really get better. And that's the same thing throughout life and the same thing in entrepreneurship."

Tim's advice to current athletes:

"When I got on the field, I made it count. And that's the most important thing. The time you get, make it count."

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On this episode of Alumni Direct's show "ATHLETES TO ENTREPRENEURS: The Alumni Journey," we chat with Juan M. Fernandez, a former professional basketball player turned life and transition coach.

Juan has dedicated his life to helping others overcome challenges and maximize their potential. Born in Argentina, Juan followed his passion for basketball and earned an athletic scholarship to study and play at Temple University in Philadelphia. After completing his degree in Broadcast Journalism, he embarked on a 10-year professional basketball career in Europe.

"When you're most uncomfortable is when you grow. That's the place of growth. It's hard to see it then. But now that I reflect back with 15 years of career behind me, those are the moments that made me. I think that's what college gave me: Finding myself and starting to discover who I was for the first time...and it gave me the preparation to find a system that worked for me. To organize myself. To show that I could commit to being an athlete and a student at the same time."

Juan speaks about preparing for the transition out of sports:

"One of the main things that I always did was to look at, what are the possible downsides of this change? Which may happen or they may not, but I would rather be aware of them. And then, what are my transferrable skills? What do I feel comfortable with? What am I good at, other than just bouncing the ball around? And I think it's a powerful thing to do because you become more comfortable, more confident, and then the transition is smoother."

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On this episode of Alumni Direct's show "ATHLETES TO ENTREPRENEURS: The Alumni Journey," we chat with Liz Valade, former college soccer and lacrosse player, former Army combat veteran, and MLB agent.

Looking at it as an athlete and an agent, what is your perspective on NIL?

"As an athlete, I would have loved for NIL to existed...however, some of this stuff, I think, is a little bit out of control. I think part of it is just because it's new that the balance isn't there. My other main concern is that it doesn't level the playing field. Because you're going to have colleges that have more people who can get the bigger endorsements...so now the playing field is not level at all."

Give some advice for athletes who are done with their career, and how they can regain their sense of identity after sports.

"So, it's very similar in the military. For me, I was Major Valade, I was a person who supported Special Operations and did all of my combat deployments, and I very much identified with that. And I actually went through a bit of a lull period of trying to figure out exactly who I was, outside of the military...Especially because I did a 21-year career, that is who you become. And so that switch of "Liz the soccer player" to "Liz the soldier"...it just kept that going. So then all of a sudden, I'm 40 years old and I'm like, "who am I, and what do I want to do?", so I spent a lot of time doing soul-searching, and I started talking a lot with people who were older than me about what to do when I was done with the military."

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On this episode of Alumni Direct's show "ATHLETES TO ENTREPRENEURS: The Alumni Journey," we chat with Eileen Shanahan, former softball player at New York Tech, former television producer, and Founder and President of the Warrior Ranch.

Eileen talks about growing up in Queens, NY playing all kinds of sports, including stick ball, stoop ball, basketball, soccer, volleyball and softball in a time when girls weren't really playing sports. She shares about the values she learned through sports, her advice to current student athletes, and what she's up to today.

How did growing up in sports shape you from a skills perspective?

"Playing all those sports, you become disciplined, for sure. I was always taught the Vince Lombardi rule about showing up 15 minutes early and staying late. You become physically fit, and when you're physically fit, you feel good. You have to sacrifice a lot, including time off when other kids get it. The other thing I learned was about commitment. Once you commit, you're committed. You're part of a team and you can't bail...you learn a lot about teamwork and camaraderie. You learn to play together and to work together as a team, because the ultimate goal it to win...you want to win."

What is some advice that you would give to other athletes?

"Remember who you are. Be an individual. You are a ball player, but make sure you have a backup. Because if you get hurt, you don't play. Don't let your sport totally define you, and don't forget about the education."

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On this episode of Alumni Direct's show "ATHLETES TO ENTREPRENEURS: The Alumni Journey," we chat with Scott Gibbs, former college basketball player, executive leader, business coach and founder of Acres of Diamonds.

When you were in college, did your school make an effort to educate the athletes about the transition out of sports?

"No, not to my knowledge. I think that's a gap in the system. Athletes have an awesome tenacity; an awesome work ethic. That's what caused them to get there. That being said, especially the higher level athletes, the Division 1 athletes, it's a job. It becomes an identity for them. I think there's a lack of empathy and a lack of awareness from the school's standpoint about what it actually took to become a Division 1 athlete. It takes tunnel vision, commitment, work ethic, deterministic behavior, vision, commitment, and...it's a job. It's a job for about 15 years with a single pursuit to become a division 1 athlete or a pro athlete. And then, at the end of May, it all comes to an end. So what do we expect to happen? I don't see a lot of people reaching out to athletes and saying 'hey, by the way you're going to graduate. Your identity has been your sport for a very long time. That's where you got your publicity, that's where you got your self-esteem fed, that's where you got your ego fed...and now that's gonna be gone. You better be ready for it, and this is how we can get you ready for it.' I'm not aware that that's happening at all."

Scott's take on athletes' transferrable skills:

"If you look at top 10 attributes that employers are looking for today, it's gonna be the ability to work within teams, it's communication, it's collaboration, it's resilience, it's emotional reprocessing...it's all of these things that have to happen for you to become a college athlete."

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On this episode of Alumni Direct's show "ATHLETES TO ENTREPRENEURS: The Alumni Journey," we chat with Ken Dunek, former professional football player in the NFL and the USFL, publisher, author, and film producer. Ken talks with us about the mindset, hard work and beliefs that helped him achieve success in sports and beyond.

Growing up, did you dream of being a professional athlete?

"I did. My parents instilled in me a belief that I could do anything I set my mind to. So while a lot of kids get laughed down by their friend, teammates or parents because it is such a long shot, I always had the belief down deep inside that I could do anything I put my mind to, and I developed a work ethic to back up that dream, and made it come true. And that is something I'm really proud of."

Ken's advice for anyone starting out in business:

"Networking is really important. If you have a marketable product or service, your success will depend directly on how many people you tell about it. 

Find something that you love to do and you're good at, and if you do that and people see the benefit of why they should get involved with it, then you'll be a success, IF you talk to enough people to make it work."

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