Turning Setbacks Into Startups with Debo Williams

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Speaker 14 Welcome to the shit show. Things are going to get weird.

Speaker 14 It's your fade villain, Kale Wower Lauer. And you're listening to Barely Famous.

Speaker 14 All right, welcome back to the Barely Famous podcast. Today I'm sitting with Debo Williams.
Thank you for joining us. Thank you for having me.
So we met in 2021-ish

Speaker 14 through mutual friends in Delaware. You were born and raised in Delaware, and then you started playing football for South Carolina.
Yep. Okay, before that,

Speaker 14 where did you go to high school?

Speaker 7 I went to to Smyrna High School.

Speaker 14 Oh, you did? Yep. Oh, I didn't know that.

Speaker 7 Born and raised in Delaware. Okay.

Speaker 14 And you're, everyone calls you Debo. Yep.
But what is your real name?

Speaker 7 It's Daryl.

Speaker 14 Okay. And how did you get the nickname Debo?

Speaker 7 So I don't know if you've ever seen Friday. Friday is basically the guy Debo in the movie.
He's a big bully. Always been a bully on the field.

Speaker 14 Were you a bully?

Speaker 7 Big bully on the field. Oh, on the field.
Outside, outside, nah, I wasn't. But on the field, I was a big bully for sure.
So I got that name when I was around like five or six years old. Okay.

Speaker 7 And it just kind of stuck.

Speaker 14 Like your family even called you.

Speaker 14 everybody calls me debo wow that's so funny we were just talking about nicknames before you got here and um my kids have already three letter names but somehow they have nicknames now it's like why are we calling rio eo you know what i mean so

Speaker 14 um i love that so you you were an athlete throughout your whole childhood into high school and what was that like

Speaker 7 I was just kind of always taught to be the best. And so I started off with football.

Speaker 7 I played a little bit of basketball, but it was just, if you're going to do it, you're going to dominate in it, you know? So every single thing I try to do, just always try to dominate it.

Speaker 14 Did you go to your parents one day and just say, I want to play football?

Speaker 7 No, I started off with that. Like my mom and dad put me into it, but dad always, he was real big in football.
My uncles played, dad played, everybody played.

Speaker 7 And it was like, it's kind of just something we did, you know, and I was naturally good at it, you know, so he kind of just honed in on my, on me being better at it, you know, perfecting the craft.

Speaker 14 I know that there's a little bit of controversy surrounding tackle football and youth and things like that.

Speaker 14 And so it's interesting when certain families, it's like all they know, we're going to put our kids in football and there's no controversy for them.

Speaker 14 And then there are other families who are like, oh, I don't know, because of, you know, CTE, is it CTE and things like that? Was that ever a concern for your family?

Speaker 7 Oh, yeah, especially the way I played too, because I'm very aggressive, very physical, but I came in at a time where nothing was banned yet.

Speaker 7 So it was a lot of, even at an early age, it was smacking helmets, you know, so could have been a lot of CTE awareness.

Speaker 14 It's interesting though, because, I mean, you know, my son Lincoln, he's about to be 12 and he played football. I I think he started when he was seven.

Speaker 14 And I, people ask me about it all the time. And I think that the hits at that age are sort of, they're all relative, right? So, like, the kids are not really huge.

Speaker 14 There's maybe one or two kids that's significantly bigger than the rest. So the hits are all relative.

Speaker 14 Not saying that there can't be any injuries at that time, but I do think that, um, you know, as you get older and then there's growth spurts and bigger kids for their ages, I think that's where it gets a little bit concerning.

Speaker 14 Um, but I loved being a football mom. Like that, I I think out of all the sports my kids have played, football parents are the craziest, the most fun.

Speaker 7 How old is Lincoln?

Speaker 14 He'll be 12 next month.

Speaker 7 Oh, yeah, it's just a beginner for you, then.

Speaker 14 Well, he stopped playing football and now he's doing basketball and soccer. Okay.
My other kids want to play football. And if I could put them all in football, I would because I loved it so much.

Speaker 7 It's probably the best time because they're starting to change, especially NFL, you know, making it a little bit better. They got these padded helmets now and stuff.

Speaker 7 So they're trying to definitely be protective.

Speaker 14 I've seen like the, you can get your head scanned to have like the football helmet fit you better.

Speaker 7 And I think that's cool. Yeah, they definitely making a lot of to where you can not be as hurt or

Speaker 14 CT awareness. So you go to Smyrna High, you play football.
What position did you play? And did you keep that same position throughout your career?

Speaker 7 It's crazy because when you start off young, you switch positions a lot. But I've always played inside linebackers since I was five years old, since I started football.

Speaker 14 Oh, okay.

Speaker 14 So you played that even when you went to college?

Speaker 7 Even when I went to college. Oh, wow.

Speaker 14 That's crazy. So you go to,

Speaker 14 you went to South Carolina. Yep.
So

Speaker 7 crazy story. I started at the University of Delaware.
You did? Yep. I did.
I started there for a semester during COVID.

Speaker 14 Did you get a scholarship or how did that work? Okay, because I wanted to ask you about that. I wanted to ask you about, you know, just.

Speaker 14 the process, the scouting, all of that, because I think there are so many youth athletes who sort of don't know where to start or how to get looked at.

Speaker 14 So what was that like, that whole process in high school? Did people come find you?

Speaker 7 When I was severely underrecruited and severely doubted. And so during high school, I didn't have that much hope.
I didn't know a lot. Like you said, those kids, they don't, they don't know.

Speaker 7 So they got something called huddle to where all the film is on for all the kids that's watching. And

Speaker 7 with that, I was posting as much as I could to try to get coaches to see it. I'm sending them everything on Twitter, Instagram, wherever I could find coaches on social media.

Speaker 7 I'm sending them my highlights. And before you know it, I start going to a lot of camps and things of that nature, different colleges, not getting the offers that I wanted.

Speaker 7 I ended up getting some smaller school offers. I was getting like Villanova, Elon, Coastal Carolina.
Small school? Villanova.

Speaker 14 What do you mean?

Speaker 7 So they're, as far as education, they might be good. Football, a little bit smaller.
And so I was trying to get to the bigger schools, like a South Carolina, like Alabama, Georgia.

Speaker 7 I was trying to get to those schools, and they just wasn't really seeing me because I wasn't the fastest. I wasn't the strongest, the quickest.
I'm not that tall. I'm like six foot.

Speaker 7 But in their minds, they want the 6'4, 6'5 guy that's super fast. And I was always up there mentally.
I was always stronger, better than everybody else.

Speaker 7 I was willing to outwork you, but you can't see that on film necessarily.

Speaker 7 So that's why I went under recruited, but I got the opportunity later on, which we'll get into that to how I got to South Carolina. Yeah.

Speaker 14 Well, no, help, help me understand because I thought that it was kind of like a smooth

Speaker 7 journey for you. I wish it was smooth, but it made me into who I am today.

Speaker 14 What would be, I guess, the process in order to be seen and to be scouted and to be recruited?

Speaker 7 Honestly, it helps when you have somebody who's been through that process that can show you how to do it.

Speaker 7 but it's it starts with genetics like when they see your size and you coming in at an early age when you come in at ninth grade you got a great size already they said they recruit that so you're already looking at in ninth grade yeah yeah if you have the size for it if your size looks like something called FCSD1, I mean FBSD1, which is power five schools, like all your big schools, like

Speaker 7 Mississippi, like Duke, all the schools that start with their state, if this state name starts with that,

Speaker 7 that university of, it's it's probably a big school. And so they start early because they're trying to find the next thing, the next big thing.

Speaker 14 So if you're, if you already have the genetics stacked against you, like you're just not, you know, the height or the speed or whatever it is that they're looking for, you sort of are already getting overlooked.

Speaker 14 You chop.

Speaker 7 That's what they say. You beat.

Speaker 14 So how did you ultimately get South Carolina to be interested?

Speaker 7 So I ended up taking my offer to the University of Delaware. I'm there for about three or four months during COVID.
They canceled our season.

Speaker 7 COVID shut everything down, but the bigger schools was still playing. So South Carolina was playing.
So I technically got red shirted as a freshman. What is red shirting?

Speaker 7 Red shirt means you're not really prepared to play. So you probably either

Speaker 7 they don't think you're ready to play college football. So you need to put some weight on or your grades aren't that good.
But with COVID happening, they everybody got red shirt.

Speaker 7 You got another year added on to you because you didn't get a chance to play. So I wasn't really a red shirt because I was ready to play, but I got red shirted because they canceled our season.

Speaker 7 So I had a running back. His name is one of my closest friends to grew up with him.
His name is Marshawn Lewitt. He plays for the Packers right now.

Speaker 7 He was at the University of South Carolina playing running back at the time and they needed some linebackers. So it was a new coach hire.
Coach Beamer, he's there right now.

Speaker 7 They had a coach named Mush Champ, though, that was there beforehand. Okay.
And so

Speaker 7 Beamer asked him, he's like, you know, any linebackers. He was like, I may got somebody for you.
So Marshawn's like, man, you got to take this jump.

Speaker 7 You feel me? I can't have the coaches talk to you. That's illegal.
But if you go into the portal, they may take a chance on you. Now, I'm already on a full ride at University of Delaware.

Speaker 14 So they off University of Delaware offered you a full ride. Yep.

Speaker 7 And I'm there at the school. I'm already at the school.
It's almost like imagine you working for a podcast company, right? And you get there. You're there for a couple of months.

Speaker 7 This podcast company took a chance on you, but now you got a bigger podcast company calling you and this can change your life. And you kind of like, ah,

Speaker 7 do I owe them loyalty? Because if that company, if that owner had a chance to jump, they would jump instantly. Imagine your owner being one of my coaches.

Speaker 7 They would jump to take another job instantly if it's a bigger job. So I had to kind of think for myself and I'm like, I want to go to a bigger school anyway.
I got it. I got to take that jump.

Speaker 14 So what happens to the full ride? Nothing?

Speaker 7 It kind of technically transfers to South Carolina. They put me on full ride now once I got there because I went into the transfer portal.

Speaker 7 And a couple of days go by, I hear nothing from nobody. So now in my head, I'm like, oh, shit.
What am I going to do? I just made a dumb move. But a couple of days go by and they end up contacting me.

Speaker 7 And that was on January 2nd of 2021. So I was at UD in 2020.
From August to December, I go into the transfer portal. 2021 is here now.
January 2nd, they offer me a full ride.

Speaker 7 I was moved in by January 7th.

Speaker 14 Were you ever concerned about the financial aspect of it, right? Because, I mean, UD is such a good school. And you're like, I have a full ride, right?

Speaker 14 Like to me, I don't ever hear hear about people getting full rides. You get a scholarship here and there, but a full ride to UD, to me, if one of my kids got that, I'd be like, you're going.

Speaker 14 You know what I mean? Yeah, definitely.

Speaker 7 It's just, it depends on what your goals are. You know, I wasn't necessarily using college for education purposes as far as what I was trying to do.
What I was in school for was communications.

Speaker 7 You can get a communication degree in any school, you know? So I wasn't, I didn't necessarily need University of Delaware for education purposes. Okay.

Speaker 7 My mind was on, I'm trying to get to the best type of football schools I can be in. And I had got given that opportunity.
So I was willing to take it.

Speaker 14 Right. No, that makes sense to me.

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Speaker 14 So you get to University of South Carolina

Speaker 14 and

Speaker 14 you were no longer red shirted at that point or you were red shirted.

Speaker 7 So they would say I was a red shirt freshman. Like it just continues on.

Speaker 14 Okay.

Speaker 14 So tell me about how that experience was going there.

Speaker 7 Yeah. So I get there and

Speaker 7 it's a whole different nature.

Speaker 7 Everything is football. You know, you go from being at a smaller school football-wise.
So you got guys that are, you maybe got 10 to 20 guys that's like, yo, I'm trying to go to the league.

Speaker 7 I'm trying to be the best to a school that is 100 guys saying that.

Speaker 7 so it's very competitive and everybody's trying to be the best at what they do in their sport which is the same sport we all playing so it's kind of alpha on top of alpha you feel me the uh it's a dog eat dog world so

Speaker 7 i get there and at first it was kind of like uncomfortable but then it's like this is what i love to do this is what i want so i started to kind of thrive in that environment okay and before you know it my confidence started growing once the confidence grew it was over with And what was your family's support throughout this whole process?

Speaker 7 Did they ever tell you, no, don't make that leap, don't go to university of south carolina or were they always on board so i made the first couple of days i told i told my family as soon as it happened they were uncomfortable because like you said i had a full ride to the university of delaw yeah they was uncomfortable and so yeah i got my dad in the background stevo's dad is here in the background shaking his head i told him he was like yo son give me a couple days to think about it man let me let me let me figure some stuff out my mom and my grandmom they're like is you sure this is what you want to do you have a full ride to the university of delaware so this, I'm 18 years old making this decision, and this is like all on me.

Speaker 7 This is my first true grown man move. And it's like, I've seen something for myself that I got to take this opportunity now.

Speaker 7 Because originally, when I got to the University of Delaware, I knew I wanted to go to a bigger school, but I was, I'm going to have to be here for a year or two, get some good film, and then transfer out.

Speaker 7 Okay. This opportunity came to me a lot faster than I expected.
So, I'm like, I got to take this now. Yeah.
And

Speaker 7 so, yeah, they were uncomfortable for short. But once I brung them there to the school, they've seen University of Delaware before, and it's no knock that you did at all.

Speaker 7 Once they got to South Carolina, they fell in love. I brung them there.
They seen all the facilities. They seen the culture.
They seen everything.

Speaker 7 And it was like, okay, he might have made the right decision.

Speaker 14 Well, I think, too, like football in the South is so much bigger anyway. So I feel like something like that

Speaker 14 makes sense for anyone who's trying to go to the league or, you know, especially for football families. They're looking in the South and the Midwest.
Like, I don't know. Is Texas the Midwest?

Speaker 14 It's the South.

Speaker 7 Yeah, they consider it the South still.

Speaker 16 Yeah, people like to argue it.

Speaker 7 So our conference is called the SEC, which is a southeastern conference. And all the Texas schools are in there, all the big Texas schools.

Speaker 14 So that makes sense. So, I mean, to me, it sounds like you made the move that was going to benefit whatever your goals were.

Speaker 14 And I think that is such a key point for young athletes, anyone who's going to watch this interview or small athletes that are going to listen to what you have to say.

Speaker 14 It's like, you have to think about what the end goal is.

Speaker 14 If you were going

Speaker 14 for, you know, education purposes, UD probably would have been it for you.

Speaker 14 So you're at University of South Carolina, you're thriving.

Speaker 14 Do you get to play?

Speaker 7 So at first I get there and I don't know if you're familiar with like star rating systems, but I know that whoever's watching that's in high school, they'll be familiar with it and even college because you get stars, right?

Speaker 7 And so you got all these guys, like a hotel, the best stars are five stars. That's the highest it can go.
So the school I'm at, now you're, it's full of five stars.

Speaker 7 At UD type of school, it's no five stars. I go to to that type of school, no disrespect.
D1, it's still D1, but it's a lower end, so you got levels.

Speaker 7 So, this is UD at the lowest level of D1, then you've got South Carolina at the highest level of D1. So, I take that type of jump.

Speaker 7 Now, it's like, okay, I believed in myself enough to do it, but most of the time, when people take that jump, they end up going back down because they just can't handle it. It's just too much.

Speaker 7 And me, I was kind of like thriving in it. I was getting better every single day.
So, eventually, my first time playing, I wasn't starting at linebacker, but I played something special.

Speaker 7 It's called special teams, if you're familiar with that. That's a chance for me to get on the field.
So you got offense, you got defense, and you got special teams.

Speaker 7 I made my way to special teams, and I was starting on special teams. I had broke a record in my first game playing.
So now I have made a name for myself. That's what helped me.

Speaker 7 And I had blocked two punts in a game, broke a school record in my first game as a freshman. From there, they was like, okay, he got potential.
So now I had kind of set a path for myself.

Speaker 7 So by my sophomore year, I was playing a lot more.

Speaker 16 Okay.

Speaker 14 But were you starting or no?

Speaker 7 I started a couple games my sophomore year, yes.

Speaker 14 Is it typical for sophomores to start?

Speaker 7 If you have a chance, a good chance of going to the NFL, most likely, yes.

Speaker 14 Okay, interesting. And what was the competition like while you were there? And by competition, I mean truly the peers on your teammate on your team.

Speaker 7 It's hectic because every single year, them coaches are bringing in players to take your spot because they job is on the line. So you got to be at the best of your game at all times.

Speaker 7 And if you're not, they have no problem putting somebody else in to get the job done.

Speaker 14 But also, too, like you're developing friendships with these people that ultimately become your competition if you're trying to get to the league.

Speaker 14 And so, for that, I can't imagine like the internal conflict where you're like, I love this person like my brother, but now I got to fight for, you know, whatever that looks like on the field so that I can get to the league.

Speaker 14 And if that means that I got to brush him off, like that, that's got to be a really hard thing to deal with.

Speaker 7 You get used to it. It's definitely at the end of the day, still your brothers.
I got guys that's in the NFL right now that I had to compete with every single day, and I want the best for them.

Speaker 7 And it's really about that competition making everybody better so it's nobody's hating because if you a hating type of player you're going to end up going down levels and you're not going to work out when you want everybody to succeed that's how it works out because now we're making every each other better everybody better and it's like best man may win you know who the ball brothers are it's nba not football

Speaker 14 brothers like i always think of l'Angelo because I'm like

Speaker 14 how would that feel for your brothers to be in the NBA and then you're just kind of not quite good enough? It's like the jealousy, but also

Speaker 14 loving that for your brothers and being so supportive. Like, I would imagine it's kind of similar.
Yeah.

Speaker 7 So he, and he's a good player too, but he's, I see him making a way for himself now. He's rapping and everything.

Speaker 14 I don't know that a one-hit wonder counts as making a way.

Speaker 7 I look at it like, man, they all eating. Like they all, they all got a successful life now.
So it's like, why even, you know, be jealous at that point.

Speaker 14 What was the turning point, you know, in college for you on the field? Was there, was there a turning point for you where you're like, I'm going to the league?

Speaker 7 So I thought so, where I had a game my sophomore year. It was my first game ever starting.
And we played Missouri. Now we lost this game, but I had a really good game.

Speaker 7 I had 10 tackles, which is as a linebacker, having anything over 10 tackles, that's like, yo, you're balling. Like, that's a real good game that's going to put the league on notice.

Speaker 7 And that was my first time ever starting. And I'm like, I just did that.
I was like, I got a lot of potential. And from there, my next game, I started again, I had two sacks against Florida.

Speaker 7 Mind you, the QB, I had a sack on, I just got drafted. First round, fourth pick is a named Anthony Richardson playing on the Colts right now.
Had two, had two sacks on him. So I'm like,

Speaker 7 oh yeah, I'm starting to heat up.

Speaker 14 When you look at, you know, your, your college career and then knowing that some of your friends went to the league, like, how do you feel? Like, you played against these people.

Speaker 7 Yeah, it's like I know that

Speaker 7 everything and which we're going to get to more with like all my apps and stuff that I'm doing.

Speaker 7 Everything happens for a reason because I could very well be with them right now i can get a call tomorrow and be like all right we need you on this team is that like a free agent free agency yeah okay so i'm i'm always ready but it just goes to show how

Speaker 7 never expect expect the unexpected

Speaker 7 so when you say free agency does that mean that you're actively training and doing football stuff even though you're not picked up currently yep what does the training look like i guess while you're a free agent yeah so it's it's no different than what you did in college it's like you just kind of perfecting everything at your position you know me playing linebacker, I'm doing a lot of drills regarding that, which is explosion, a lot of shuffles, sprints, tackling.

Speaker 7 So,

Speaker 14 so, but where do you go do this?

Speaker 7 So, I'm in South Carolina a lot. I do it at my facility that the college is at.
So, I just train there all the time.

Speaker 14 Oh, do you live there?

Speaker 7 I'm kind of on the move. With me being an entrepreneur, I kind of, you know, I get a lot of Airbnbs.
Yeah, okay.

Speaker 14 Well, and speaking of being an entrepreneur, and we'll go back to sports, obviously, this is, this podcast is all over the place. So there's no rhyme or reason.

Speaker 14 You, you are an entrepreneur and you had reached out to me about this app.

Speaker 14 Tell me about the app.

Speaker 7 So it's called Spender Hotline out now on every app store. And when you think of hotline, you think of something super serious, like a suicide prevention.

Speaker 14 I was thinking of escorts, but same thing.

Speaker 7 I hope not. Not on there.
But so with a hotline, though, you've never seen anything on the app store when you search up hotline to just take you to everything.

Speaker 7 Whenever you search up, it's like, oh, it's a hotline for this, it's a hotline for that. I made an app to wherever you go, you can search up on my app.

Speaker 7 You got a customer side, you got an employee side. As an employee, they're self-contractors, you know, so you work your own hours and you go on the bio and you put in what you want to talk about.

Speaker 7 So if you're an owner, you're a podcast host, you're a manager at McDonald's, you want to teach people how to learn how to tie ties. It could be anything.
Those people can search it up.

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Speaker 14 Okay. So for example, if we needed help setting up the podcast equipment, could go on spender

Speaker 14 and spender or spender?

Speaker 7 Spender. Spender.

Speaker 14 Okay, so go on the spender app and we would be like, hey, I can't get this, you know, equipment to work, whatever. And they'll be able to like talk about it and how it works.

Speaker 7 So the only AI part I have on my app is just a search. So if you just just search up podcasts, it'll be people willing to talk about that.
Okay.

Speaker 7 Anything that'll come up, you know, so this is my way of trying to give back to the world, you know, and this is why I say football, you know, obviously I'm a free agent right now, but the impact that I'm about to create, it had to happen this way.

Speaker 7 I couldn't go straight into the league like the rest of my teammates did because I wouldn't have been able to do what I'm doing right now to create this impact. You know, I'm giving people jobs.

Speaker 7 It's like it's, I'm about to change the world in a way, in a sense, because this is every market. When you think of Amazon, Amazon has every market on it.

Speaker 7 My app, my hotline, you can talk about anything on there. This is for every single market, anything you can think of.

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Speaker 14 Where did the idea come from?

Speaker 7 I truly say, because I'm a God-fearing man, it came from God. Like I'm, I get back from Still's mini camp.
This was May 12th of this year, 2025. This is four months ago.

Speaker 7 And I'm sitting on the couch because I'm like, is this it? Like, no teams really hitting me up. I just got back from my mini camp and I'm sitting on the couch, sitting on my best friend couch.

Speaker 7 And ideas start waving over me because I always knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur, but I thought I would go into like real estate. Okay.

Speaker 7 The plan was originally in my mind, make it to the NFL, try to be the best player you can be, stack your money up and start making investments from there. I thought I would be franchising a Chipotle's

Speaker 7 and doing things of that nature. And so obviously that didn't happen at first.
And so I'm like, okay, what are we going to do? Lock in, Debo. Let's figure it out.

Speaker 7 And ideas start coming up to me and I start thinking of apps. And I'm like, okay, I can do this.
I can do that. And ideas just started coming.

Speaker 7 As far as like my logos, the name, it was like the Holy Spirit was over top of me during this whole time because it just kept giving me ideas and ideas.

Speaker 7 And I kind of, me going through this gave me the creativity I never knew I had.

Speaker 14 Yeah, no, and it's definitely an outlet too. And it'll keep you busy until you get picked up.

Speaker 14 And I think too, not to get like political or, you know, talk about race, but I do think that you are creating.

Speaker 14 something for young black men to look up to, black and brown people to look up to. And I think that that's incredible because we need more.
We need more of that. And especially

Speaker 14 as a mom of biracial children, like I want them to look at people like you and say, okay, like it doesn't have to be this way. I

Speaker 14 still can make this happen. And I think that's incredible, especially for youth, you know, and in your position too, like.

Speaker 14 wanting to go to the league and being a free agent, you have free time. You're not just sitting around waiting.
Exactly. You're not just hoping for the best.

Speaker 14 Like you have to go create opportunities for yourself. And it's not easy.
But so what, what were some of the roadblocks that you faced while you were trying?

Speaker 14 I know you reached out to me a bunch and I tried to give you, you, you know, a connection with someone I knew.

Speaker 14 I don't know if that ever worked out, but what were some of the roadblocks that you sort of faced while you were coming up with this idea and launching that?

Speaker 7 And I want to say thank you for that. You've always been there to help anytime I've asked.

Speaker 7 So Kale said, I met her back in 2021. I met a friend of Kale's and got introduced to her because I was starting a podcast and it was called the Debo Williams podcast.

Speaker 7 And I knew Kale was big time in it and I wanted to learn. That's all I ever do is try to get education.

Speaker 7 And I ended up stopping the podcast so I could focus more on football. And so fast forward, I'm coming out with this app.
I'm like, okay, Kel might know somebody. Let me just ask.

Speaker 7 And you can't be afraid to just ask people. Like, I ask anybody I know that's doing big things.
I'm like, what do you know about this? What do you know about that? Just get an education, you know?

Speaker 7 Don't ask for handouts, but ask for resources.

Speaker 14 Exactly. And I think that's the biggest thing.
There's a huge difference between, you know, asking someone to do something for you and asking for the resources to help yourself. Exactly.

Speaker 14 And I think that there is a huge difference.

Speaker 14 And I know, and I do feel like the, the relationship is mutually beneficial because not only do you ask me for resources, but you were willing to come on the podcast. So it helps both of us.

Speaker 14 And I think that there is a huge difference.

Speaker 7 And I respect what you said about being able to know that it's, it's not just being an athlete. Growing up, how I grew up, it's like, it's the only way out.
You feel me? Sports. And so I.

Speaker 7 Everybody, you know, that I'm growing up with is putting everything into sports, giving everything to football. And it's like, they don't work on nothing else.

Speaker 7 And I feel bad for a lot of these guys because NFL truly stands for not for long. And yes, everybody can't be Pat Mahomes.
Everybody can't have a

Speaker 7 $500 million contract, you know? So you might make a meal or two, but that doesn't always last, especially when you get used to living the way you're living.

Speaker 7 You have to figure out ways to make other avenues and other money in different ways. And so it kind of opened my creativity to show people that this is not the only way.

Speaker 14 I heard something about Marshawn Lynch doing.

Speaker 14 Oh, Lynch? Yeah, yeah, Marshawn Lynch used, you know, when he retired from the league, he became a photographer for the league. And I just have so much respect for people that just,

Speaker 14 I mean, I get it. It can be hard.
I know like Alan Iverson in the NBA like filed bankruptcy a bunch or, you know, once

Speaker 7 more quote.

Speaker 14 But yeah, I mean, you just get comfortable living beyond your means and then it can all be taken away. And you're like, shit, now what do I do? Just like that.

Speaker 14 So for you, like creating other, you know, forms of revenue and income will help. And I just think that's so good for the, for young athletes.

Speaker 14 But it's so interesting because I think in Smyrna too like that what i see in youth athletes i'm like they will literally families will change their entire lives for a child sport how do you feel about that did that happen to you did your parents do that with you they tried their best they definitely tried their best but i i will commend my parents of

Speaker 7 showing me what it takes, the work ethic that it takes, especially Pasha sitting here right now. Like his quote, his favorite quote was, if it was easy, everybody would do it.

Speaker 7 And so I kind of always kept that in my head because if everybody was doing, I look at TikTok, everybody doing TikTok dances. You know why they're doing TikTok dances? Cause it's easy.
You feel me?

Speaker 7 It's not that hard to learn. Is everybody, you know, trying to make it to the NFL, owning three companies at the same time? I don't know anybody doing that.
Yeah.

Speaker 7 I'm trying to do it right now as we speak. So it's like, I take the hard road.
So the easy, it's going to be an easy path later.

Speaker 14 You know, so struggle now so you don't have to struggle later. So you created this app, the spender hotline.

Speaker 14 What has been the support or not of your teammates and people that you've played football with? Have they been super supportive? Have they not really wanted to touch it? Have they promoted it for you?

Speaker 7 Yeah, so it's been a good amount of help, but they are in season right now.

Speaker 7 So I don't even ask for any help as far as from my teammates or anything, but they have showed a lot of love because as fast as me being able to not necessarily move on, but create another avenue for myself, they kind of proud of me in a sense because we know how it is growing up.

Speaker 7 It's like all it is is football. In our mind, it's the only way out.
So for me to make another avenue literally in two, three months, it's kind of like, whoa, bro. I didn't know you had that in you.

Speaker 14 Your dad's here with you today. What was his reaction to you wanting to do this app?

Speaker 7 So at first he was kind of like,

Speaker 7 I'm, I'm interested, but my dad is always like, show me, make it happen.

Speaker 7 And so that pushes me in a way, you know, I feel like a lot of kids, they might be discouraged, but growing up, my dad has always been like, you're going to show me.

Speaker 7 You know, you say you're the best on the field, show me.

Speaker 14 Right.

Speaker 14 And you have.

Speaker 7 Yeah, I continue to every single day. So it works for me.
I don't know if it works for everybody else, but it works for me. Right.

Speaker 14 No, I think people are motivated differently but i think that's cool though that you have your parents support and you know you yeah they know me so that probably he probably knew that already that's the only way you were going to show

Speaker 14 yeah i love it um but going back to the topic of youth athletics today and you were saying you know sports is the only way out um

Speaker 14 i i on tick tock i see a lot of parents talk about

Speaker 14 there's controversy surrounding youth sports right like On one hand, they're like, oh, we do too much. We need to let the kids relax.

Speaker 14 And then on the other hand, you have parents who are like, no, like if they're going to take this seriously and do something with it and get a scholarship or a full ride or GoPro, like we have to, you know,

Speaker 14 essentially uproot our entire lives to make this work, right? So how do you feel about that looking back on your childhood and what your parents did for you in sports?

Speaker 14 Like, do you think it was beneficial or do you think it hurt you?

Speaker 7 Very beneficial because it's been times where I feel like my parents knew when to push me and then.

Speaker 7 when to stop because growing up, I feel like at an early age, you don't know what you're going to do, you know, so your parents have to steer you, you know, and I did enjoy football um a lot of people looking at me when people say my dad was tough on me maybe it was a different world then too but that pushed me to be greater it i i genuinely enjoyed that and the way my people raised me i want to raise my kids the same exact way because you can do whatever you want in life but i want you to be great at it though don't don't half ass it i just want you to be great at it you feel me it don't matter what you do you want to be the best doctor you can you can yeah you want to be the best mechanic you can right be the best though i will say that you know as you know lincoln played football and some of my other kids are interested

Speaker 14 six days a week at five years old is is a lot what they're drawing now is a lot i i will admit that it doesn't need to be that much four or five days a week practice that's good you know they still like growing like but i mean like i look at my my middle son right he's five and we had soccer last night and I'm like, okay, he finally, he's getting it now.

Speaker 14 Yeah. Two years ago, a year ago, hell no.
I can't imagine. And Lincoln started football around seven.
I could not imagine him starting football at five or six years old, six days a week.

Speaker 14 When we started at seven years old, it was two days a week for practice, one day a week for a game, which I think was manageable. Now the kids are playing specifically football.

Speaker 14 And I can't speak to other sports because we haven't done all year round, but football, there are kids that play all year long.

Speaker 7 And you definitely need a break. That's why even in NFL, they get chances for a break.
College, you get chances for a break. Workouts, cool.
Keep the workouts going.

Speaker 7 But as far as practice, you hitting all the time, they got to chill on that. That's why you see even NBA players now.

Speaker 7 You got all this AAU games leading up to college because they do it in high school, middle school, and there's so many games on their legs.

Speaker 7 And then by the time they get to the NBA, they all tearing their Achilles, they ACLs, because they've been doing genuinely too much.

Speaker 14 Ah, okay.

Speaker 14 I could definitely see that.

Speaker 14 What was it like going to classes and being a student athlete? Because I feel like, if I remember correctly, I went to DSU. Yeah.

Speaker 14 I did not know that.

Speaker 7 Okay. Yeah.

Speaker 14 I graduated in 2017. It took me a long time to get my degree, but are you from Delaware? No, I'm from Pennsylvania.
Okay.

Speaker 14 I remember like the athletes, they were all mass calm.

Speaker 7 They were all communication. That's what I was in.

Speaker 7 I ended up switching to broadcast journalism, though.

Speaker 14 Okay. Well, that's a little bit, you can do this.
Exactly. Do a sports podcast.

Speaker 7 So I'm already, I'm doing some stuff for South Carolina right now, but with me being an entrepreneur, I just don't necessarily have the time to pull it off. So

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Speaker 14 So I noticed a lot of it was football and basketball specifically. They were all MASCOM majors.

Speaker 14 But I also do feel like they got a little bit of special treatment.

Speaker 16 Oh, for sure. Okay.

Speaker 7 So you get a lot more help too. Okay.
But it's, it's harder. Imagine you got all the time in the world to do school because you're just there as a student.
Right.

Speaker 7 But then you got, you leave on a Friday for games. You don't get back till Sunday.
And you, so you go on the whole weekend.

Speaker 7 It's film, film, film, film, film all week during the week practice. So, you know, you kind of need help.
So we get like study hall and things of that nature.

Speaker 7 And people can say it's special treatment, but it's, it's like

Speaker 7 we getting the school paid off our sports, you know, so we have to. hone in on this or my scholarship not getting paid for.
If I'm not good at my sport,

Speaker 7 my scholarship not getting paid for. So I have to give everything to this sport, but I also have to give time to class too, you know?

Speaker 14 So it essentially has to be just for people who are listening who don't understand, I think it's more for clarity. Your

Speaker 14 scholarship is essentially you getting paid to play football, but then the school is benefiting off of your athleticism. So it has to be mutually beneficial.

Speaker 7 I'm going to keep it real because especially the school I'm at or the bigger schools that we at, those kids' grades aren't the best. They need help, but they're savages on that field.

Speaker 7 They're They're savages on the court. So

Speaker 7 the best players that y'all are seeing, the same way y'all being entertained, the reason y'all being entertained, because those players are great at what they do.

Speaker 7 So yeah, they might need help in school to play, but that's why you're entertained. Imagine it's just a bunch of guys that got great grades, but they're not good on the court and you watch them play.

Speaker 7 You're not entertained.

Speaker 14 But then what happens when they graduate and they don't make it to the league? That's life. That's what? And now you have a degree and you barely made it by.

Speaker 7 That's life. You better figure it out.
Yeah.

Speaker 14 Nobody, nobody nobody had could help me when the stillers was like bye see you well let's talk about that i have there's so many other questions i have about being i will jump around and we'll figure it out okay so let's talk about youth athletes again though because there are a lot of children who are maybe good at sports but maybe they are the short kid on the field or they're the short kid on the court

Speaker 7 they're okay but their parents are us as parents we have to dedicate our time and our money into this sport what do you do when the kid is mediocre he's okay yeah what do you do then i would definitely say at an early age you have to stare them into what they want to do figure out what they want to do but as they get older that 10 to 13 range see how bad they want it and depending on how bad they want it that's how bad you want it for them that's how much energy you put into it on them you know at a at a 12 13 I wanted to be great at football.

Speaker 7 So my family was helping me. I was going to all American games in Texas, Jersey, going different states to figure it out and dominate, you know, because I wanted it that bad.

Speaker 7 And you can see the potential. Even as a kid, though, even if you're not genetically the best, if you're practicing the most, you're still going to be the best on the court or on the field.

Speaker 7 So if they want it that bad, you kind of go off of how they want it, you know, but I would definitely say a certain age, though.

Speaker 7 When they're younger, you kind of got to steer them in the right direction first.

Speaker 14 I want you to like something and love it, but I don't want to put thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars into something that you're not going anywhere with this.

Speaker 14 And I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but that's just what it is.

Speaker 7 yeah i mean

Speaker 7 they'll catch on you can do what you want to do as a parent like i had a best friend um back in high school and he didn't start playing football till eighth grade how did that work out for him he he ended up going d1 with me because he was with me every day because he wanted it right his his mom never put no money into him playing sports sure at least maybe not until high school but he was with me every day because he wanted it right and just him being around me made him that much better and i was able to help him perfect his craft so if a kid want it they're gonna figure it out you know definitely from the younger ages you definitely got to support them and give them the time the energy but i wouldn't say you got to spend necessarily thousands on them all the time until they get a little older you know you just got to kind of help them perfect the craft well i started hyper fixating i started putting thousands of dollars into my son playing soccer and then i was like you know what you're eight so you should probably try everything and figure out what you want before i sink more money into this because i'm like you might change your mind and want to do football or basketball in five years from now.

Speaker 14 And so it's just like sort of letting him play whatever he wants right now

Speaker 14 and then then focus once we figure out what it is that you're good at and you also want to play.

Speaker 7 And I'll say this because I know I haven't told you. My mom had me at 14.
I didn't know that. My dad was 15.

Speaker 14 Oh, wow. Teen parents.

Speaker 7 So I kind of, my mom don't know any better at that age. Dad don't know any better.
You know, I kind of.

Speaker 14 You guys look like brothers, to be honest.

Speaker 7 They seen I had the potential. And from there, they went with it and gradually kept pushing me.
You know, I don't think my parents pushing me that, that hard at a young age.

Speaker 7 I think it got harder the older I got. And they was like, okay, you want to be great? You say this is what you want.
All right, show me.

Speaker 14 Well, dad, how did you get there when you were so young? Like, how did you know what to do?

Speaker 27 So for my father dying at an early age, it was a lot of missed opportunities that I had. So I knew immediately the day he was born and this finally sinked into me.

Speaker 27 I knew where I wanted to be and what I wanted to do.

Speaker 27 I knew I wanted to make the next generation stronger and not go do what I had to go through. And I put my all in someone.

Speaker 14 Are you an only child?

Speaker 7 My God, that's six. That's six.
Yep. And then my mom.

Speaker 7 My mom got four, including a stepsister. So I'm the oldest of 11.

Speaker 14 That's crazy. I did not know that about you.
I had no.

Speaker 7 It wasn't for you as a team mom.

Speaker 14 It was rough. It was rough.

Speaker 14 Had to go to, I lived in a homeless shelter for a little while. And then I got into this program for housing and I could not make my tuition payments to go to community college.

Speaker 14 So that's why it took me seven years. I transferred to DSU, finally got my, you know, got my life together, but it was rough.

Speaker 14 Do you think it matters what age you start a sport at in order to be great and to get a potential opportunity to hit the league?

Speaker 14 Like, do you think that it matters if someone starts at five or someone starts at 15? Yeah.

Speaker 7 So if you don't have the genetics, you definitely need to start early. If you got great genetics, they'll work with you.

Speaker 7 I've seen guys come from Africa that 15, 16 years old, don't know how to play the sport, but they see his potential because of his size and they'll work with him.

Speaker 14 Okay. So my weird maybe tmi question for you then is

Speaker 7 are you going to seek out a woman who genetically speaking would be beneficial to your offspring it's crazy because i didn't seek out who i'm with right now but she is a genetic phenomenon and it just happened you know like she's also athletically inclined yeah she went to the university of delaware um she almost six foot like me you know and fash uh beautiful strong you know so she got it all full package for sure okay Okay, so you were talking about the Steelers.

Speaker 14 So how, first of all, for people who are listening to this podcast, if you're a woman, tag your husband, your brother, your son, whoever is a male, they need to listen to this.

Speaker 14 When you are trying to go to the league, what does that process look like? Because I just got the rundown on how you get to the NFL. But for those of you listening, what...
What is the process? Yep.

Speaker 7 Well, depending on the division you win the conference you win, if you win D3, D2, low D1, you're going to have to be the best person in your conference your damn they're the division you're going to if you win d3 you're going to be the best player in d3 because you're not going to get an opportunity they really but do you have to sign up for like a conference to go like to the nfl yes so you it's called a declaration and it's just you got to have your school or whatever make a post and you kind of like you're signing off on you being done with college football like it's nothing really special you're just kind of putting a declaration a post out there and then once you sign a contract then it's like okay college football is done for sure you know so once you go into that world once you start signing contracts with um agents and stuff which is you getting ready to do like the combine and get ready for the nfl now you're done with college football so you have to give up college to to go to pro sport yes i did not know that yep because you you can't go back it's kind of like cheating you learn why can't you go back because you're learning stuff on a pro level and then trying to go back to college is just not fair you know

Speaker 7 what do you mean so it's like how do i explain it if you go so like you're we'll we'll take it back to university of south carolina if you go and you're like okay i want to go to the league yep at what point do you make that decision so you'll if you're good enough you will be hearing from agents and those agents hear from nfl scouts and nfl scouts will tell those agents that hey he should go to the nfl he can make a he can get drafted And so the agents will come back to you and start telling you.

Speaker 7 And then you'll pick an agent that you like and go from there.

Speaker 14 Interesting.

Speaker 7 I did not know that there's so much in this football world basketball or sports world you know like it's me it's me trying to go to the boxing world i don't know that much i just started boxing a couple months ago you know so if i was to go professional in boxing it's so much i got to learn you know so would you consider that nah i that's a different type of hunger you know and i don't necessarily have that hunger i might be good technique wise but as far as you got guys that's growing up boxing and they hungry they sleeping on mattresses like they got a different type of hunger for that you know so i'm not about to go in there get my head knocked off because you feel me.

Speaker 7 And I could protect myself, but you, yeah, they just got a different type of hunger for that.

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Speaker 14 So you are at the University of South Carolina and then get a call from the Steelers or what?

Speaker 7 So you go into the draft. I go undrafted.
What does that mean? Undrafted means no team selected you. Okay.

Speaker 7 So going into the draft though i had over probably it's 32 teams in the nfl i had over 23 teams hit me so that's probably like 75 of the nfl are contacted me before the draft at making sure hey this is your number debo this and the third we're going to call you on draft day we're very interested in you so imagine that's happening draft day comes you get no calls from anyone all you hear is crickets it's like yo what happened what's going on that happens I don't hear nothing for two weeks.

Speaker 7 Now you got something called, once you get drafted or you don't get drafted, you become

Speaker 7 what do they call it? It's uh, it's like as soon as free agency comes, it's like an immediate uh free agent. So they would pick you right away, right after the draft.

Speaker 7 If you don't get drafted, they calling you right away. I didn't get any calls at all, so I'm like, yo, I was projected to go like fifth, seventh round.
You got first round through seven rounds.

Speaker 7 I was projected to go around like fifth through seventh. And as an inside linebacker, they usually go a little bit later around like second round, third round, fourth round.

Speaker 7 Usually don't go in first because they want those quarterbacks. They want like offensive line in certain positions they want.
want, and so um, end up not getting any calls.

Speaker 7 Two weeks go by, and I get a call from the Stillers, and they're like, Hey, we're gonna fly you out, you come out for our rookie minicamp, come check us out. I'm like, Okay, cool.

Speaker 7 I make my way out there, and this is where the uh the politics come in because you're already paying a lot of guys at my position,

Speaker 7 so you're most likely not going to get picked up.

Speaker 14 What do you mean, why are they paying a lot of guys in your position?

Speaker 7 Because

Speaker 14 how many strings are there? What is it? Is it strings, like how, like starters, second strings, how many?

Speaker 7 Usually you got a 53-man roster, right? So for NFL, you're probably going to have about four or five inside linebackers. Got it.
So you're like, and only two can start at one time.

Speaker 7 Only two can be on the field.

Speaker 14 So you're like,

Speaker 14 you're already paying whoever you want.

Speaker 7 You were already paying those four or five guys.

Speaker 14 Right. But they wouldn't have called you if they weren't interested.

Speaker 7 Yeah.

Speaker 7 But maybe they just needed some bodies.

Speaker 7 It's very business oriented. You never know the reason or why they're doing something.

Speaker 3 Okay.

Speaker 14 So is that hard for you?

Speaker 7 I mean, you play a game for 20 years and it just comes to an erupt ending like that. Obviously, it's not an ending because I'm a free agency.
I can get a call any moment.

Speaker 7 But if I didn't get a call for the rest of my life, this would be the end of football, right? If I didn't get a call tomorrow or it would have just stopped back in May.

Speaker 7 And fast forward, I had a couple of workouts with a couple of teams this past summer, but Stillers were the ones that kind of went mainstream with a team I was with. And so I get back to Delaware.

Speaker 7 It's May 12th. I'll never forget it because my birthday, May 13th.
So I never forget it. And I'm sitting on my best friend couch and I'm like, all right, what you going to do now, man?

Speaker 7 You go your whole life playing a sport. And this is where guys, they

Speaker 7 guys really don't talk about it, but most of the time, women too, you play a whole sport your whole life and then you finish college and it's like,

Speaker 7 what am I going to do? What am I going to do now? My whole life, I've been working on this one thing, and it didn't go the way I thought it was going to go. What are you going to do now?

Speaker 7 And that kind of created me into a monster. Not a bad monster, but a monster of I'm figuring out things in my brain that I didn't know I could figure out.
Right. And I started creating things.

Speaker 7 And that's how I started coming out with my apps.

Speaker 14 Is there more than one app?

Speaker 7 I got another one coming out. What is it? I can't tell you that yet because it will be hitting mainstream soon and it'll be a big surprise.

Speaker 14 Well, while we're still on the subject of the NFL, there is an NFL player that I know of whose girlfriend is extremely famous.

Speaker 14 I don't think he's that good of a player.

Speaker 14 And so I really think that he's only in the NFL because of the fandom that comes with him because of his girlfriend.

Speaker 14 How does that make you feel when you're like, okay, I have the talent and the dedication, and this is just some guy who has a famous girlfriend?

Speaker 7 Yeah. So, I mean, at the end of the day, it's all about growing up because the NFL is a business.
They're going to do what brings business. Okay.
Now, me myself,

Speaker 7 you never know. They may bring me in because I am about to bring a lot of business to them.

Speaker 7 You know, I'm building my name up and I'm going to continue to become something that hasn't been done before. I have a chance to be in the NFL as a tech owner that's never been done before.

Speaker 7 So that could bring them a lot. of business.
They could be using me as a business partner. You know, you never know.
So you have people, a lot of people in the NFL.

Speaker 7 You look at Travis Kelsey, for instance, great player, but Taylor Swift definitely just boosted him a lot. So that might have added five years to his

Speaker 7 life in the NFL. You never know.
So he can retire on his own terms. He's made enough money.
He's done enough to be in the Hall of Fame. But imagine if he wasn't that good.

Speaker 7 That might have just boosted his career in the NFL. So NFL is definitely going to...
make more business with the players they can.

Speaker 14 So you don't get pissed off by stuff like that.

Speaker 7 No, because

Speaker 7 I could be on the other end.

Speaker 14 If it's mutually beneficial, then you see nothing wrong with it. Like the NFL is gaining something from this player.
This player is gaining something from the NFL.

Speaker 7 I'm not saying what goes on with that is right, but it's life. And as soon as you accept that, the better off you'll be.

Speaker 7 You know, I don't think it was fair that I played football for 20 years straight and it's just done like that, you know? But as soon as you accept it, it's like. Okay, it's time to make moves.

Speaker 7 And then before you know it, I'm not even paying attention. They start calling my phone again and it's like, oh, it's time to go.

Speaker 14 Who media trained you?

Speaker 14 the politically correct answers that came up

Speaker 7 a fun fact my freshman year i was uh in an interview and i i go on the interview and they like they asked me a question like how you got your name debo this that and the third i'm just like yeah when i'm on the field i just want to kill and i'm kind of like and kill as and i want to hurt people on the field and the nature i don't i don't want them coming back on the field and i didn't get another interview for like a year.

Speaker 7 My head coach, he was in them back doors like, yeah, don't interview him no more. And so I was like, you know what? Let me learn how to talk.
So I switched, I switched from communications.

Speaker 7 I went to broadcast journalism because I knew I could, my best skill is making people believe.

Speaker 14 But I just feel like, but you're the type of most people don't like male hosted podcasts, but I feel like you could have one. So when I was in college and fresh, I graduated high school in 2010.

Speaker 14 What year did you graduate?

Speaker 7 I just graduated in 25.

Speaker 14 No, high school.

Speaker 7 Oh, 2020.

Speaker 14 Okay. So when you were, when I was in high school, there was no NIL deals in college.
Like you got scholarship or you didn't, period.

Speaker 7 Well, when I first got there, there wasn't no NIL either.

Speaker 14 And you couldn't do like brand deals or anything. Essentially, my thought was that it's because the college is not making money on that.
So like you can't do it. Is that sort of the gist of it?

Speaker 14 So how do you feel about that? But also, how do you feel about college?

Speaker 7 athletes getting paid like essentially a salary on top of whatever scholarship it is that they may have gotten yeah i think it's about time honestly um because ncaa is making money off of players for for so long and so much making billions and i i definitely think they could spread that around for sure but as far as the salary and everything i think they need to lessen it because you got guys that aren't ready for it you know and it's going to hurt them later nil just came out came out so it hasn't hit yet but when these guys are making all this money and they don't make the league and they live the life they once lived and now they didn't focus on school at all but it didn't go how they thought it was going to go in a professional world they are going to suffer and i feel bad for what's to come, you know, because I was able to figure it out fast.

Speaker 14 Not everybody is that way.

Speaker 7 99% ain't going to be able to figure it out at all. And they're going to be stuck and they're going to have to start from rock bottom and even worse from where they.

Speaker 7 would have been at just coming out of college because they might be in debt. They might have got themselves in stuff they shouldn't have got themselves into.

Speaker 7 But on the flip side, NIL is great because you got guys that are making a lot and it has changed their lives. It has changed their family lives, especially if they made enough.

Speaker 7 But like even my situation, you know, I was able to save and be able to, NFL didn't go the way I thought it was going to go at first, and I was able to invest in things that I'm doing right now.

Speaker 7 I can't imagine me coming out of college with no NIL and having to figure out a way because I always wanted to get in like real estate or stuff of that nature and create.

Speaker 7 I wouldn't be able to do that. It takes money to make money.
So, NIL is great in a way, but as something that's great, it's going to be bad size to it, too, as well.

Speaker 14 Well, it's kind of like what we talked about before when we weren't rolling: is like without the financial literacy, it all sounds good,

Speaker 14 but unless you understand and are able to actually apply it, it's not helpful at all.

Speaker 14 So, like, you could give people large sums of money, whatever that looks like, salary, NIO, scholarships, whatever.

Speaker 14 If you do not do it properly and have the right people around you, I mean, I can speak for myself. When I first started reality TV, it was like, okay, I'm getting these large sums of money.

Speaker 14 Blew it. Had no, nothing.
It was only the last, I don't know, five to seven years. I got a financial advisor.
I got life insurance.

Speaker 14 But what happened to the first 10 years? Exactly. Do you know know what I mean? So, like, I came from poverty and I didn't know any better.

Speaker 7 I didn't know any better. And I appreciate you keeping it real because a lot of people won't.

Speaker 14 No, I mean, I, yeah, I got it out the mud for real though. Um, but so what

Speaker 14 I guess my biggest question is, what is the controversy surrounding the salary, though? Because at the end of the day, like

Speaker 14 such a

Speaker 14 small percentage of college athletes are going to go to the league, whether it's NBA or football or whatever,

Speaker 14 baseball, anything.

Speaker 14 that money might be the only money that they ever make. And they might.

Speaker 7 That's what I think is good about it, though, because you are making a lot of money and it's

Speaker 7 pretty much professional. Now, you get paid.
So it is, you are a professional at a big D1 because you're getting paid now. And so, for guys that don't get to go to that next level, that is good.

Speaker 7 And I hope they're taking care of their money because that's going to be the last they get for a sport-wise, unless they go football in my world.

Speaker 7 You got something called CFL, XFL that's under the NFL. You don't get paid nowhere near it.
You got guys, NIL, college-wise, getting paid more than CFL and XFL.

Speaker 7 So it's like, you're not going to get that type of amount of money again. So hopefully you take care of it, you know? So in that sense, I would greatly appreciate that.

Speaker 7 But, you know, and especially if you go to the NFL too, it's just building you. It's teaching you, you know, so maybe you do learn how to use your money before you even get to the NFL.

Speaker 14 Would you ever do like a different position, not doing like an actual player on the field, but would you ever look into like photography or anything like that? Like coaching.

Speaker 7 Yeah.

Speaker 7 So I, I get asked to coach all the time because that was my strength on the field i wasn't the fastest the strongest the quickest but my mind i knew plays that was going to happen before it even happened because of how much film i would watch and things of that nature so i could always coach but i kind of when guys don't make the nfl when guys don't make the nba or soccer or whatever they're doing in their profession they always go to being a trainer or being a coach and i just felt like that was me giving up in a way.

Speaker 7 I felt like I got a chance to make such a bigger impact and change a lot of people's lives. And I could do that in coaching, but I'd rather do it worldwide to what I'm about to do right now.

Speaker 14 How has social media impacted college sports?

Speaker 7 It's impacted in great ways and it's impacted in bad ways because it will go to kids' head. I do see that.
And you got kids that'll be depressed.

Speaker 7 Say you have a great season and then you got a bad season the next season. You'll have fans going crazy on you, just talking crazy.

Speaker 7 Say you missed a game with a field goal or you dropped a game with an interception. They are talking crazy and you got to deal with that at a young age, you know?

Speaker 7 So it can stiffen you and it can toughen you in a way or it can crumble you, you know, so, but it can also be great too, because a lot of guys, they don't even make it to the professional sports, but they might have blew up in college and now they were able to make a name for themselves.

Speaker 7 Somebody like a Tim Tebow. Tim Tebow was in the league for maybe a year or two, a couple years, but he made such of a big name in college, he can kind of live off of that.

Speaker 7 That was only one or two years, Tim Tebow. I don't think he was in the league that long.

Speaker 9 Are you serious?

Speaker 7 But he made such of a big impact in college that you know him from college.

Speaker 14 And it could generate another stream of income

Speaker 7 for people who are. And that was all social media.
If you don't have social media, Tim Tebow wouldn't be as big as he is.

Speaker 7 You know, he'd be famous from his plan days, but social media carries that out.

Speaker 14 That's such a good point. I never thought about it.
Okay, well, I guess just to end it on your app, and we'll put the link in the description so people will know where to like download.

Speaker 14 What are your future plans for your app? Obviously, you have another project happening in the near future, but for spender specifically,

Speaker 14 what are your plans for that app?

Speaker 7 So I'm saying this right now.

Speaker 7 Spender will be top five, if not number one uh apps out in the next five years because it will be the biggest hotline in the world because it has everything that you can think of it's every single market and it's my job to get it out and for people to see it right now it's going to be hard to understand because it's never been done before but once i get it out more

Speaker 7 It'll be the biggest thing out.

Speaker 7 And you can literally, whatever you want to talk about, whatever you want to figure out, instead of going on Google or Reddit, because you don't want to see, it's not giving you a good enough explanation through AI.

Speaker 7 You can get it from real life people.

Speaker 7 You get paid if you want to, if you just need some money or maybe you do have a profession, you literally go on there on the employee side, you get paid for your phone calls, the audio calls, you get paid for the FaceTimes and the pictures and videos with the information you give them.

Speaker 7 So if you don't have enough time to do a call, I can send you a video about how to be a podcast host. So that's on the employee side.
On the customer side, you have monthly subscriptions.

Speaker 7 You got three months, six months, you got one week, and you got a year. You got that's five different subscriptions you can do.

Speaker 7 And you go on there and you pay people for the time with the information they give you.

Speaker 14 you so this essentially is what is the word i'm looking for um not going against what is the word um countering counter

Speaker 14 countering ai ai is very controversial yeah it takes a lot of money a lot of water a lot of things resources right this sort of gives the jobs back to human beings and is giving real people the opportunity to answer real life questions versus using ai which is all auto generated i'm here to change the world And that's what I'm saying.

Speaker 7 Like, I could do coaching all day, but I would feel like that'd be me tapping out. Like, ah, but I feel like I have such a bigger purpose.

Speaker 7 That's why I was telling you the Holy Spirit has been over me, giving me all these answers. You hear the way I'm talking? It's not me talking like this.

Speaker 7 This is literally God giving me the answers to give the camera and show people, especially people that look like me. I'm 23 years old.
I own three companies.

Speaker 7 I was a college all-American doing things that I never thought I'd be able to do, but it's possible. You just have to put the work in, the time and the effort.

Speaker 7 Where can people find you on social media um instagram team debo zero um team debo on tick tock um twitter is debo williams spender hotline you can just look up spender uh spenderhotline.com perfect yeah thank you for coming on barely famous thank you for having me of course

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Speaker 4 Hey, never.

Speaker 5 I'm Justin Sylvester.

Speaker 14 And I'm Blakely Thornton.

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Speaker 28 The things that got us riled up during dial-up, those makeouts that should have been breakouts, and the drops that were cemented in pop. I'm talking Benifer, Tyra vs.

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