TAXATION/FINANCES: Today it’s time to talk about a topic that gives most people, including myself a big headache: taxes! Athena Constantinou and her team at APC Sports Consulting took the time to tell me all about managing your taxes, image rights, and wealth as professional athletes abroad. Athena is no newbie to the accounting and tax scene, and comes equipped with a bulk load of certifications, as you will hear in the beginning of this podcast. She’s also spent years abroad in the U.S. and now supports a number of pro athletes on their path to financial success. “The average athlete may travel to 20 or more different country during one season. Each country has their own legislative peculiarities, which can create a tax compliance nightmare. At the same time, athletes are becoming a tactic target of tax authorities to extract revenues during times of tight budgets.” In this episode, we talk about: What points do athletes abroad need to be aware of in terms of income through sponsoring, product endorsements, television appearances lifestyle choices and investing while abroad judging dubious investment opportunities dealing with overspending as a way to compensate homesickness image rights and tax rights, using the example of Lionel Messi’s […]

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BASKETBALL: Dre “DreAllDay” Baldwin hails from Philadelphia, PA, and managed to play professional basketball overseas after getting kicked off his college basketball team. Hear all about his struggles of going from intramural basketball his senior year to pro contracts abroad and playing hoops overseas in this podcast episode. We talk about exposure camps, his first gig in Lithuania, gaining exposure through MySpace and YouTube (and a lot of hustle), his lessons learned, and how he built a personal brand before that was even a catch phrase. “I realized that I needed some control of my life, and on this process. It’s a job and you are an employee. The club owns you. It’s a buyers market, there are way more potential employees than jobs. The people that are hiring, they can pick and chose. They can easily find someone to replace you. So, I built my personal brand to become unique.” Contact Dre Check out Dre’s Youtube channel  or visit his Website www.dreallday.com (and grab a free pdf book about Dre’s story), follow him on Instagram @DreBaldwin or Twitter @DreAllDay Other resources Dre mentioned during the interview: Paul Shirley’s book- Can I keep my jersey Rod Benson –Too much Rod Benson blog There is an under-served market […]

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BASKETBALL: Tyler Smith, a former Penn State College basketball player, had many unique encounters, experiences, and memorable stories throughout his years of playing professional basketball abroad. The 6‘8 (2m30) athlete snatched his first contract overseas in the Netherlands, which happened coincidently at the same time as his parents were on an expatriation overseas in the European country. He moved on to play in Italy, Uruguay, Argentina, had the unique opportunity to play in a training camp with Utah Jazz, U.S. D-League, Japan, and Thailand. We talk about the difficulties in obtaining a new contract every year, the challenges abroad, but also highlight the great learning opportunities. “At the time you have no idea where a contract is going to come from. When you are going over for 8 months, you know that you’ll be unemployed again. Every summer was stressful. You have zero control over the situation.” In this podcast we focus on: how to see if an offer is a potential scam, dealing with the insecurity of waiting for new contract offers in the summer setting up side businesses while still being on the road his video platform “Pro player video” – video platform for pro players having a plan vs. no […]

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GOLF/TRANSITION MANAGEMENT: Penny Pulz is one of the top golfer to ever come out of the Australian continent. During her active career, she was considered a Top 10 Golfer worldwide,had  two LPGA wins, and played for 18 yrs on the LPGA tour. After a difficult transition with what she describes as “years of wasting time filled with migraines and panic attacks”, she is now a transition management coach. She helps athletes transition their thinking and mindset to the business world. Of course, I asked her about her cultural transition from down under to the USA. “I didn’t know how good I was at the world stage when I left Australia. It was a very different world. Even though I speak the same language, I really don’t. All the marketing meant nothing to me. Customs like American socialization were odd in the beginning. It took me ten years to fully get adapted. It was a process. The traits of how I was raised cannot be erased. I haven’t lost those ideas, but I describe myself as a half-American/half-Australian. You end up being a nice little mix, and that is a powerful place to be.” Penny and I touch upon many points during our interview, […]

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AMERICAN FOOTBALL/FINANCES:  Brandon Williams’ motto is “create a lifestyle that builds financial freedom.” In this episode of the podcast, he shares his reasons for becoming a financial advisor to professional athletes after retiring from a pro American Football career in the NFL in 2010. In our interview, we talk about his transition process and the change of perspectives he had to go through to find a new definition of success.  Press the play button up above or subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher to listen to episode 34 all about financial freedom abroad. “I’ve been playing since I was 6 years. I was putting my body in danger for 14 years for free. When I finally started playing in the NFL, I felt so blessed just to be there. I connected with many people. When I came to the realization that it was my last game, it was hard. I felt depressed when I first stopped. I blamed everybody.  My way to combatting depression was to be massively active. Every year I was reinventing myself. I started to fill like I was not living up to the full potential.” Brandon and I touch upon several subjects of interest to active athletes, […]

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VOLLEYBALL: Christy Swagerty and I met in Paris this spring (2015) after finding out we don’t live far away from each other. She is a professional volleyball player and also coaches youth teams in France. Her parents are coaches, so she says it was inevitable that she would take up a sport when younger. The ultimate decision had to be between basketball and volleyball. With her degree in the bags, she found herself a job coaching a college volleyball team. She didn’t know it yet, but it would set the stepping stone to her decision to move abroad. It all came down to a very unlikely event of coaching her new team against her former college team. Clearly, a big emotional experience that made Christy realize that part of her life was gone. She thought she had moved on, but she clearly hadn’t. Thankfully, her husband has always been a huge proponent of going overseas, so when the opportunity came up, they packed their bags. “My dream was always to play in college. I never thought of going abroad as a professional.”…Click To Tweet Joys and challenge of life abroad In our podcast (click the play button at the top of the post, […]

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BASEBALL: Bobby Carrington is the first international baseball player to be featured on our podcast. He started playing in the U.S. as a 10yr old kid. Thanks to his good hand-eye coordination, he managed to develop into a top athlete and gained access to a full athletic college scholarship. An injury in his second passion of freestyle skying ended up costing him his scholarship, but somehow turned out for the better and landed him at a better NCAA Division 1 school. After his college days, he started his path to a professional baseball career with the Kansas City T-bones. An encounter with the shortstop of the team then sparked his adventurous mind to go play professionally abroad. Tune in to our episode to her Bobby tell you the story himself by clicking the player above or finding us on iTunes or Stitcher under “Fit across Cultures”. Bobby’s first day of playing baseball abroad ” I remember when I first arrived. It was a 14 hours ride. I didn’t sleep at all. I just wanted to take it all in. When I got there, I ended up meeting the team straight away. Probably around 50 people. When I finally went to […]

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MENTAL FITNESS: Jemiah Battle thinks so. He went through his own emotional crisis when the recession hit in 2008. He felt “socially handicapped”, as he describes his mental state in his own words. After losing a lot of his material goods, he invested in personal coaching and certifications to specialize in the one area that helped him out of his hole: emotional & social intelligence. He also saw this topic as a missing piece in the sports industry, the development of emotional intelligence in athletes. “Coaches and clubs teach you what to do, but never show you how to be” In our interview, he shares valuable insights and easy exercises to start your journey to self-development and fulfillment. Jemiah’s tips to develop emotional intelligence in athletes Journaling (find your emotional triggers) 10 minutes affirmations morning exercise (what are you grateful for? , how you want your day to be?,  I am statements) Creating habits Benefits of Self-Development Better relationships Get rid of clutter Better peace of mind Better decision making Better team work and collaboration Reach out to Jemiah to find out more about emotional intelligence for athletes, and his book (Process You: Know yourself, Chose yourself, Give yourself) www.jemiahbattle.com or find […]

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BASKETBALL:  Former Wisconsin Badgers college basketball player Mike Bruesewitz was known for his red afro in college ball (which he doesn’t don overseas anymore), but , as he notes, he’s really always been into sports. He is currently finishing up his second season playing pro ball abroad in Malta, after stunts in Israel and Slovenia. In our interview, we talk about his path to professional sports the summer of patience of 2013 after the end of his college career (“I was just kind of sitting around, working out and waiting for a job”) the 25 long days of negotiation for his first pro hoops contract the challenges of his second season in Slovenia and why he ended up transferring to Malta mid-season his efforts to brand and market himself while being overseas, talking about his FOX Sports blog and other ways he stays visible dealing with agents and their different ways of handling the business when playing pro ball abroad (see also our episode on how to find the right agent) Mike on Dealing with Agents: “It’s your life, it’s your decision, it’s your business. It’s your job to make sure you handle your business. If you are going to move agents, […]

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PLAYER DEVELOPMENT: Dr. Mark Robinson decided to enroll in a PhD program while playing professional basketball on a three year contract in Manchester. Something you don’t hear about every day. Since that time, he has developed his Personal Player Development philosophy and practice, authored a book titled “The Athletic Identity” and hosts a magazine called PPD Mag. “The sport industry needs to stop using athletes only for their skill, but start to support them to be better people. It’s a challenge because it’s an area that is often overlook. Athletes sacrifice a lot of their free time to get better players that they could invest in their own development.” In our interview, we touch upon his personal experience of playing professionally abroad. Additionally, Mark explains the three corner stones of this concept of Athletic Identity: Athletes should ask themselves as a professional.. 1. Who are you? 2. What are you good at? 3. What do you want to become? “If you compare professional athletes and doctors and you look at the time they spend developing their craft: An athlete will have spent more time honing their skills than a doctor. Or can you show me a doctor that started at […]

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