Navigating NIL Opportunities, Academic Success, and Life After Sports w/ Former NFL Wide Receiver Roy Hall Jr.

Shandra McDonald [00:00:05]:

This is the Academic Survival podcast, and I'm your host, doctor Shandra McDonald. Statistics show that approximately 40% of students drop out of college every year. In fact, nearly 30% drop out their 1st year. Well, I am on a mission to improve these stats.

Roy Hall Jr. [00:00:33]:

So, the first thing I want to make sure is, is my focus more on NIL and deals and money, or is it on staying eligible and making sure my academic success is taken care of, and academic excellence is at the at the front the front end? Then as a student athlete, as an athlete, now am I maximizing my performance on the field or in the pool or on the court or whatever it is that I do? And so those have to be the first and foremost.

Shandra McDonald [00:01:01]:

That's Roy Hall junior, former student athlete and former NFL wide receiver. After my episode on empowering student athletes with ASU's deputy athletic director, Jean Boyd, and associate athletic director Alonzo Jones, I knew I wanted to include the voice of someone who not only played sports in college but also realized their dream of becoming a professional athlete. So I invited Roy Hall junior to the show to share some insights from when he was a student athlete and to share his opinion on navigating NIL. So stay tuned. I think you'll enjoy this episode. Hello and welcome to the Academic Survival Podcast. Today I have with me Roy Hall Junior, who was a wide receiver for the Indianapolis Colts. He also played for Ohio State.

Shandra McDonald [00:01:56]:

And I had a recent episode where I was able to speak to the deputy athletic director for Arizona State University and we were able to go into a lot of things regarding college athletes and I wanted to have an opportunity to speak with someone who was actually a student athlete and then after that went pro and so I wanted to invite Roy Hall junior. He agreed to come on and so that's who I have with me today. So welcome to the show.

Roy Hall Jr. [00:02:22]:

Thanks for having me. Excited. Super excited to be on. Congratulations on all your episodes and just your progress. And, everything sounds great, and you're giving your listeners some awesome insight and obviously leverage leveraging your contacts and the people that are close to you to be able to deliver some good info. So, I’m excited to be on this and honored. Thank you.

Shandra McDonald [00:02:43]:

Thank you. So I want to start off with talking about name, image, and likeness because things have definitely changed within that, aspect of, student athletes. And I know that that wasn't something that you were able to leverage when you were in college, the way that it's being able to be used now. So if you were in college now, in what way would you specifically leverage your name, image, and likeness?

Roy Hall Jr. [00:03:07]:

Well, the first thing that you have to realize with the NIL or name, image, and likeness is you have to understand the business of it, and you also have to understand the time that goes with it. Unlike professional athletes who have marketing firms and marketing companies to represent them, to go seek out the deals, to filter through the nonsense, have those discussions and conversations on your behalf, a lot of these things are going right to the student athlete. And so, the first thing that they have to do is create a team to get around them that understands the business, understands the tax implications, that understand how marketing and connecting yourself to a brand can impact you long term. Those are all things that you're being associated with. So, you have to get that educational team around you to be able to facilitate some of these conversations. Now I say all that as a prelude to you have to understand why you're a student athlete. I am you know, for example, at the Ohio State University, to be a student, then an athlete, and then all the NIL stuff kicks in after that. So, the first thing I want to make sure is my focus more on NIL and deals and money, or is it on staying eligible and making sure my academic success is taken care of? And academic excellence is at the at the front the front end.

Roy Hall Jr. [00:04:29]:

Then as a student athlete, as an athlete, now am I maximizing my performance on the field or in the pool or on the court or whatever it is that I do. And so those have to be the first and foremost. Like, I go to a big-time college to make sure I get my degree, get my education. I'm also there obviously to contribute from an athletic standpoint, and then everything else from an NIL piece comes into play. If you take care of academics, in part of that, you can start taking classes now to educate yourself on the process from a marketing standpoint, a business standpoint, and get that acumen squared away and tightened up so that you can go into these meetings knowing exactly what you're talking about and what they're saying to you and be able to communicate effectively. And then from an athletic standpoint, if you take care of business on the field, like I said, on the court, in the pool, whatever, now all of a sudden, more people want to come to you. With the academic side, more people want you to represent them because your academics more so display what type of person you are, your character. Your character and who you

Shandra McDonald [00:05:30]:

are and your

Roy Hall Jr. [00:05:31]:

work ethic isn't just what you do on the field or as an athlete, but it's also communicated through your transcript and through your academics. So now all of a sudden, you have 2 things that you can leverage to gain more money and notoriety through NIL from those two factors. So, the first thing that I would do is not focus on leveraging. Where's my focus and where's my balance? Where's my balance? Because right now, what I'm seeing is too much marketing, too much look at me, too much this who I represent, too much this who’s paying me essentially, and not enough focus on the field. And some people can do both because they're so talented, so talented, and so gifted that they can do both where it's not that hard for me to catch a football, it's not that hard for me to run fast, but then my academics suffer. Right? So how can you be better at marketing yourself to a company or for a company than you are marketing yourself to yourself? Right? Like, if you're excellent

Shandra McDonald [00:06:27]:

That's good.

Roy Hall Jr. [00:06:28]:

Off the field and you want all these people to give you stuff, but you won't give yourself what you want from other people. And so, you need to give yourself that excellence first, and that's where I will start. And then all of a sudden, I can start to look at, okay, what companies, what brands, what things align with who I am as a player and who I am as a person, and does it make sense for me to do these things? And then also, what other athletes at my position are doing things and what are who are they branded with? Who are they going with? So, you want to get a few larger I know this is a long answer. A few larger companies with you. Right? A few larger companies with you that may be because these 5 or 6 elite athletes around the country are fused with them, which helps you as well, puts you in that elite tier. But then, locally, you really want to get out and brand yourself locally because, you know, you may only have 1 or 2 years to capitalize locally, but you could develop some relationships now that you can leverage. You know, we talk about the word leverage. You can leverage for the next 10, 15 years whether you make it to the NFL or not just because you showed them love while you were a college student athlete.

Roy Hall Jr. [00:07:37]:

So I would again start with what am I focused on and where's my balance? And don't get too caught up in trying to get that huge piece of the pie just because it's available right now. You know, too many calories, you know, is not good for anybody. So, you know, you leave some of that pie on the table, bud.

Shandra McDonald [00:07:53]:

Oh, wow. That's good. That's good. I like what you said about, you know, building your character and having that focus on academics because that translates into, like, your transcript. One of the things that I heard someone say once, and this is not as far as sports, but it's still it's like you're you talked about transcript. And in in life, we talk about your credit score

Roy Hall Jr. [00:08:12]:

Mhmm.

Shandra McDonald [00:08:13]:

And how your credit score is also a reflection of your character. And so, like, what you were saying is, like, that transcript reflects your character in terms of, you know, how serious of a student were you when you were there to be a student athlete.

Roy Hall Jr. [00:08:28]:

Yeah. I think that's the difference, though. The difference between that and that's a good analogy. The difference between credit score and education and college is you get put in the classroom, and they give you the answers to the test. They give you the books. They give you the work package. They give you everything that you need. It's just a matter of you studying it.

Roy Hall Jr. [00:08:45]:

A lot of people's credit scores are messed up because they didn't get the education. They didn't know the value of it before they were some before someone comes and tells you this is why you need a high credit score and this is what it can do, you have no idea. So, a lot of times, depending on where you come from, credit doesn't mean anything. Cash is king where a lot of people come from. Now cash is nothing because, you know, you got debit cards and credit cards and all that stuff. But if you don't know, you just don't know. Right? So, if you got a mom or a dad that's struggling and all of a sudden, they put a credit card in your name as a kid and destroy it. Yep.

Roy Hall Jr. [00:09:18]:

And you, like, we had to do that to get by. And then all of a sudden, you're 24, and you want to go get an apartment or go get a get a car. You're like, I didn't even know I had credit. It's not so much a character thing is it might have been the character of the people before you. Right? But it's more of an education and education thing, whereas opposed to in school, it's like you're handed on pretty much you're handed 4 to 5 years of free education as long as you can go and do what you're supposed to do as an athlete. And a lot of people don't understand the value of how to leverage that in regards to those circles from a from a NIL standpoint. So, they both go hand in hand in regards to what you have to do and you happen to put in the work to show who you are and where you want to go specifically for sure.

Shandra McDonald [00:10:01]:

Yeah. Yeah. That's good. With NIL in place, what do you feel happens between the relationship between the student athlete and the university?

Roy Hall Jr. [00:10:11]:

Yeah. So the to be honest, the there is no real relationship between the student athlete and the university. There is a partnership, and it's always been a partnership.

Shandra McDonald [00:10:21]:

Okay.

Roy Hall Jr. [00:10:22]:

You come and you play sports. We're banking on, hey. We got a 120 people on a football team. You know? Of those 120, we probably going to get about 25 standouts every 4-year cycle, and those 25 standouts are going to drive revenue into the 100 of 1,000,000 for this university, if not 1,000,000,000 because of how big this athletic branding is. And so, we have a partnership because when you leave, our deal is if you do what you're supposed to do, you're going to get your degree, so you're going to have your bachelor's in something. If you if you go a little bit faster, you might have access to your master's, so you'll get those 2. You'll get 4 to 5 years at the highest of level of competition athletically. If you're the elite of the elite, you have an opportunity to then make your dreams come true at a professional level via the NFL or NBA, whatever it may be, and then also, you're going to be showcased around the world to 1,000,000 to do what you love to do most, which is play your sport that you love.

Roy Hall Jr. [00:11:24]:

That's the partnership. You get this and we get this. What NIL did was, well, while we're generating all those 100 of 1,000,000 of dollars for you in these TV contracts and different things, we get a small little piece that we can generate ourselves from companies that have probably been partnering with the university or different places during the same time period. So, it's not really a relationship, but it's more of a partnership. And I think the faster that these student athletes understand that the university didn't owe you anything. Right? They don't owe you anything. They don't owe you playing time. They don't owe you someone telling you where to go to class.

Roy Hall Jr. [00:12:01]:

They don't owe you NIL deals. They don't owe you anything. When you sign on the dotted line, you're essentially saying that I know I'm coming here to get an education, and then I get to play sports. And in return, I may have an opportunity to make my dreams come true. But now, also, you get the opportunity to make some money on the side on your own via NIL. And, sometimes people think, like, this is not high school. People get out of high school, like, oh, we were so close. It's not that, because if you blow your knee out, if you can't play anymore, if you do something that's detrimental to the brand of the university, they can strip you of your scholarship and kick you off the team, and so now all of a sudden, just because you had a good relationship doesn't matter anymore.

Roy Hall Jr. [00:12:42]:

They're looking more on the business side and how it could be costly to their name, image, and likeness of the university.

Shandra McDonald [00:12:49]:

Wow. So as far as, like, making your dreams come true, a lot of athletes or a lot of student athletes enter the space wanting to go pro. How can an athlete, I guess, effectively determine their pro potential? Not everyone's going to make it to the pros.

Roy Hall Jr. [00:13:06]:

Yeah. That's it’s always tough for athletes to be realistic because they've always been the best. If you are playing at a USC Mhmm. Or Ohio State, Notre Dame, Michigan, Texas, Florida, Alabama. You're playing at these big-time universities. If you go there, like, 10 times out of 10, you were the best on your team and probably one of the best in the state, if not the country, obviously, and so you never look at yourself as someone that's a failure or someone that's not going to make it to the next level. It's interesting to me to hear a lot of these guys. They play it politically correct because I used to do it as well.

Roy Hall Jr. [00:13:44]:

You have to. But you go to, like, these big time universities, like, it sounds good to say I'm going to get an education. Like, that sounds really good. Like, yes, you are going to get an education, but you know, like, you're going because you want to go to the NFL. Like, that's the goal. If you're a football player, you want to go pro. And it's not like, oh, if I go pro, cool. If not, I'm a follow my degree.

Roy Hall Jr. [00:14:06]:

It's I want to go pro, and if I don't go pro, I know I'll have my degree, but I am going to school because I want to make this happen. There's no is it you don't go you don't say, hey. You know what? I want to I want to become a doctor and or I want to be a dentist and go to dentistry school. Like, you know what? I'm a just go and if, you know, if it doesn't really work out, so be it. I at least, you know, at least I tried and I got my bachelor's and I, you know, I've already gotten a couple years of school. Like, it doesn't work that way. I'm going whatever that top tier is, that's what I'm what I'm aiming for. And so in regards to, you know, trying to navigate through both of those spaces, you just have to be careful on assessing what that means because some people who don't play a down in football are like, man, I'm going to the NFL, which could potentially be true because there's so many different ways to get there.

Roy Hall Jr. [00:14:53]:

I think instead of assessing whether or not I can go, you do everything you can to put yourself in position to get there. There are combines, you know, locally and nationally, and pro days where the NFL scouts come to your school. You get to show off your talents and skills. But the goal is just to do everything to possibly get there. I think a lot of the things that I mean, when you have a dream, and I'm never want to I don't really, I'm one of those people that don't subscribe to the whole have a plan b plan c situation. I think that's spoken by people who don't necessarily understand what it's like to, like, you only get like 1 or 2 dreams in your whole life period. Like, that's it. Like, like, that's it.

Roy Hall Jr. [00:15:37]:

Right? So, some people do have a dream. Like, I have a dream of becoming a doctor. That's been my dream since I've been since day 1. That might be their dream. And it might take them 30 years to get there however long, and they can do it. But when it comes to the NFL, since it's so minuscule and so small of the people who actually get there, then all of a sudden people are like, it's impossible. So, since it's impossible to them and since they know the statistics on it are very, very low, they're trying to prepare you for disappointment. Why? Like, don't it's my job to work through the disappointment, not the person who's on the other side that can actually help me get there.

Roy Hall Jr. [00:16:14]:

It actually hurts me more to hear somebody tell me that what my dream is since I was 6 years old is invalid to them, so I need to prepare for it to not work out for me. Like, it it shouldn't be in my mind that it could I could possibly fail. Because if I work as hard as I possibly can on anything specifically on my dream, I may not what did they say? You know, shoot for the moon or something. You know, worst case scenario, if you don't hit the moon, you'll land amongst the stars. Well, I can shoot for the NFL, and maybe I don't make it because of injury or I just wasn't good enough. But because of the relationship that I've developed and the character that I've developed and the discipline that it took for even to be considered for the NFL, I'm in an arena full of people in the NFL that might get me there. I might just get there another way. Now I might get to the NFL as a scout.

Roy Hall Jr. [00:17:01]:

I might get to the NFL as a manager. I might get to the NFL as a trainer. I might get to the NFL as a coach. I might get to the NFL being on sports center or being on NFL first take and talking about people in the NFL because of my experiences. But because I work to get to that point, if it doesn't work out, I'm still going to be amongst a bunch of people and opportunities and job opportunities that are still in the NFL that's a part of my dream. So, then I still won't feel defeated, which is why the academics come into play. I do what I'm supposed to do in the classroom. I'm disciplined enough over here.

Roy Hall Jr. [00:17:39]:

So now when I get here, I can adjust. So the same transition that happens for a person that makes it to the NFL when they have to get out of the NFL is the same transition someone has to go through when they're trying to get to the NFL and they don't make it, where they have to hang up the cleats, hang up the shoulder pads, put up the helmet, and get into the real world, but the real world could still be the NFL. Plan b doesn't exist. Plan a. Like, what's my dream? My dream is to make it to the NFL. Man, you're 52 and a £130. In my mind, it may be impossible for you to get there. But in your mind, you may think it's real.

Roy Hall Jr. [00:18:13]:

But that 52, 130 over a summer could turn into 6 foot 2, you know, 195 over a summer. I've seen it happen. And then all of a sudden, it's like, oh, maybe you can. Well, I didn't see their growth inside of them both literally and figuratively. I didn't see it come I didn't see you growing 12 inches over summer, and I didn't see the potential that was inside of you to be great. So that's on me as the person trying to strike down your dream. So, I think if you have it and you, what no matter what it is in life, NFL or business owner or billionaire or podcast, you know, MC, whatever. Like, whatever you want to do, just go after it and don't go after it.

Roy Hall Jr. [00:18:53]:

Well, I'll try to podcast, but if the podcast don't work, I can always fall back on the online classes where you can't have your foot in and foot out. You either go 1000% at that particular thing. And if God shuts it down to where that's not for you, then when it happens, you adjust. But before that, you just go as hard as you possibly can to make it happen. There's only a 100 and 60 NFL wide receivers on the roster at any given moment in the entire NFL. Alright? Active roster, a 160 NFL wide receivers. That's it. 5 on every team.

Roy Hall Jr. [00:19:24]:

A 160. Okay? There's 8,000,000,000 plus people on earth. That means for 4 years, I was one out of 160 people out of 8,000,000,000 that could do what I can do. That's almost impossible. 1 divided by 160 divided by 8,000,000,000 is like 0.0000 0, like, 125 or something crazy. It's like almost nonexistent. It's like nonexistent. So going into it, I know it's, like, almost not real, but that small small small small fraction of a fraction of a fraction is enough to put me in the mindset to be able to do the impossible.

Roy Hall Jr. [00:20:04]:

Then then when I get it done or get close to getting it done, that just opens the door for how I view life in general to be able to do anything, that I put my mind to.

Shandra McDonald [00:20:13]:

So good. So for you, your NFL dream started at what age? 7. Was it 6?

Roy Hall Jr. [00:20:21]:

76 or 7? Somewhere in there. Somewhere where, you know, it's quick math. Yeah. 6 or 7. You know? Somewhere where you know, somewhere between making sure I have really, really good knots tying my shoes and trying to figure out how to do multiplication, I guess. I don't know. Somewhere in there.

Shandra McDonald [00:20:38]:

So then for the athlete who is not going to GoPro for I don't know. Okay. I'll give you an example. I ran track when I was in high school, and the only reason why I didn't run track when I was in college was because my thought process at the time was I didn't make it I didn't make it there with on a scholarship, which tell which told me I wasn't good enough. So, I so I had an opportunity to try out for the track team. And then I when I got there, I just was like, you know, I don't the passion is not there. And so, I knew that I I wasn't going to go any further. I also knew for myself academically, just school is a little hard for me.

Shandra McDonald [00:21:20]:

So I didn't need that extra just being torn between several different things. So, I would imagine that there are other student athletes who know they're not going to they're just not going to go pro. Mhmm. Would you have any different, I guess, any different recommendation for how they should pursue this student athlete space in the partnership? Like, if they just know in their heart they're not going pro, is there anything differently that you would you would say to them?

Roy Hall Jr. [00:21:49]:

Yeah. So, I think there's 2 different spaces. There is the high school to college space regards to knowing that you're not going to go pro, but then there is the student athlete who, in regards to the relationship with the are you speaking specifically to the university? Because it's if it's university relationship for a student athlete that knows they're not going pro, now you're talking about but they're there whether they're on scholarship or walk on. They are participating in athletics as a college athlete. So there's 2 different there's 2 different spaces there. So are you referring to the high school to college or just the college in general? Just college in general. Okay. So if you're a student athlete in college and you're, like, looking it's your senior year.

Roy Hall Jr. [00:22:33]:

Let's just say you had an ACL tear. You play sparingly, and you're like, this is just not something that I see myself doing professionally or in the Olympics or semi pro. This is just this is not it. So now all of a sudden, the relationship with the university or partnership with the university remains the same. I'm creative enough to know that if, say all of a sudden, I tore my ACL and I was a student athlete in college, and I'm like, I don't have any NIL disc. Well, maybe you're looking in the wrong directions because now you should start looking at sports med, hospitals, people who have equipment for knees, or people that have torn their knees up. Like, you start you start looking at different people who have things that can benefit that are a part of your story. You know, what trainers helped you, like, you know, so you start looking at different thing, high school train you start looking at different people who maybe have helped you and assisted you, and you start to be spokespersons spokespeople for those types of companies that maybe helped you through your healing.

Roy Hall Jr. [00:23:35]:

Right? So, if your major is, say, marketing, now all of a sudden you call marketing firms to figure out ways to try and market someone who isn't marketable. Right? You make it a project for the marketing company, and you still leverage being a student athlete. That's part of the deal. Like, so the NIL space is not so much companies coming to you. It's what do I have to offer. It's just like that's a real relationship instead of, like it just in from person to person. Mhmm. Instead of always trying to figure out what can they give me? What can they provide me? What do they what are they doing for me? What do I have to offer? What do I bring to the table? Right? Am I helping to build the table? Right? Whatever it may be.

Roy Hall Jr. [00:24:14]:

So now you can go seek those people out and say, wow. This could be a great partnership and a nice spin on NIL that's nontraditional. In regards to the partnership with the university, nothing changed. They still will honor their scholarship, and you still get to get your education. Now you may not be going pro in your sport and you doing it physically, But again, you still could be a coach if you love that sport. You still could be a scout if you love that sport. You still could be the video person if you love that sport. You still could go on TV if you love talking about that sport.

Roy Hall Jr. [00:24:49]:

You still could do radio if you love speaking about that sport. You still could train kids who are just as talented as you in high school in that sport if you really love it. So, there's so many different avenues that you can take that spinning off of or birth out of your sports passion or whatever it is that you do. So it's never the dream is still never dead, Right? Because you getting to the next level could be you helping somebody else get there. Then you help somebody else get there, and then in their speech, when they're receiving their award or their 1st round draft pick, they just, hey. I want to thank miss McDonald for allowing me to get here. She helped coach me, and I listened to a podcast one time. And if I hadn't heard her voice, then you see what I'm saying now? You made it to the league.

Roy Hall Jr. [00:25:35]:

You just made it through somebody else. Right? And so if

Shandra McDonald [00:25:38]:

you're Yeah.

Roy Hall Jr. [00:25:39]:

That's good. To make a difference, you can still make it somewhere without actually going. That's the cool that's the cool thing even about social media. I can get on social media and go to Japan right now. I can go. I mean, my physical body might not, but my mind is there because I could see all the places and all the hotels I could stay in. I could be in Japan and then I could make a phone I could FaceTime somebody in Japan right now. So, if technology says that I can communicate with somebody in a different country, in a different world, almost, so to speak, on the other side of the world, that same thing holds true for my dream.

Roy Hall Jr. [00:26:13]:

I might not be there physically, but I can still live my dream via what I contribute to somebody else getting there. And that's just my mindset on it. So, you know, for some people, their dream is like, I have to do it for me. If somebody else makes it to somewhere that I couldn't make it, but I could have a hand in them getting there, it's all it’s the same thing to me. It's the same thing to me.

Shandra McDonald [00:26:35]:

That's awesome. Okay. So, I want to transition to life after sports, life after being a professional athlete. Sure. For you, like, when did you start planning for life after sports?

Roy Hall Jr. [00:26:48]:

I really believe that most of the things that we do in the future were and it obviously makes sense. They're predicated based on your experiences in the present. So everything that's going to happen 5 years from now, 10 years from now, we're getting prepared for that right now. That's why it's not happening to us right now because we're either not prepared for it on the good side, or we got to go through this so that we can know what to do and navigate in the future. So, life after football, you know, essentially is transitioning from being a superhero with all the power, all the authority, all the popularity, all the fame, all the fortune, all the friendships, and you gather all those awesome diamonds, you put them in a bag, and you get to have them for a short period of time. You get to have them for a short period of time. And then when you're done, somebody comes and takes your bag. Now Mhmm.

Roy Hall Jr. [00:27:46]:

Not necessarily monetarily, but sometimes that way too. But they're coming to take that bag, and they're going to hand that bag off to somebody else. Right? And somebody else is going to get the exact same thing that you had. Your jersey number, they're going to get, talked about like you used to get talked about. It like, it's just always new people that's going to come in that can do what you can do better than you. And so you have to learn how to deal with that. So a lot of the transition is learning how to deal with not your not It's understanding and trying to figure out and trying to carve your way back out of this identity crisis where you fell into the hole of thinking you are what you do when it's not the truth. Like, it's what you do but it's not who you are.

Roy Hall Jr. [00:28:33]:

And you get caught up in image, and you veer away from identity. Right? Image becomes more important in your identity, which is embedded in integrity. Who I am who am I in my core, in my person? Like, I like, who am I? And so when you think that you are what you've done, this is not just life after football. This is life after whatever. You look at people in business, CEOs, people that had some type of title, some type of high position, and then they get let go because of budget cuts. And you're like, you're going to let me go? I built this company. You hear it all the time. Like, how are you going to get rid of me? Or you get so old and you retire and you look back, man.

Roy Hall Jr. [00:29:10]:

Like, I've been doing this for 50 years now. I'm sitting at home by myself, and somebody else is running the company that I built. People go through this all the time because so much attention and so much time has been focused on literally building this image of who you either wanted to be, who you thought you should've been when you were younger, or building somebody else's dream. I always talk about that too. Like, being in the NFL may be my dream, but me doing well in the NFL also contributes to the persons who dream it was to build the NFL. Right? If I work for someone, I may have a dream of being, you know, I want to have a dream of making $200,000 a year. A quart I want to make a quarter $1,000,000 at this dream. I just want to make quarter 1,000,000.

Roy Hall Jr. [00:29:51]:

I want to make a half a $1,000,000. If I make a half a 1,000,000, I just made the company 50,000,000. Right? And the company that I made 50,000,000 for, that wasn't my dream. That's somebody else's dream. So I talk to a lot of people a lot of time, like, figure out how to, like, do your own thing and, like, build your dream and build it for you versus building somebody else's dream. Anyway, that's a whole another conversation. But the transition the transition is difficult when you get caught up in the image piece of it. What are people going to think? No.

Roy Hall Jr. [00:30:20]:

No. No. I’m not playing. My value is in me being a ball player or a volleyball player or a swimmer or a golfer. My value is in that when your value is in which you contribute to the to the world, to the universe, like, every day. How are you helping people? How are you helping people build their dreams? How are you using your platform and influence for a purpose? Right? To help push people to the next level. The best leaders, the elite leaders, take people further than they've gone. They take people further.

Roy Hall Jr. [00:30:48]:

They understand that most people in life can't go to where they need to go unless they have your help. Right? Like, that's why you're here, to help other people go as higher as they could possibly go. So it’s difficult when you're selfish, you know, but the transition was easy for me, specifically in my field of going into working in youth development with youth leadership programs and character development, giving back to the community through food outreaches and resources and working with men and women as they transition out of incarceration, incarceration, get them back on their feet. Like, those are things that I was exposed to as a young person. And so growing up in a household, single mom raising 2 kids, she's working 2, 3 jobs, not having a car, eviction notices hitting the door, you know, every other day because you can't pay the bills, you know, asking relatives to borrow money, you know, as a kid be because mom couldn't help this. Dad was suffering from substance abuse and has some hair had a heroin addiction and then domestic violence kicks in. Like, so now you're in poverty and then live going through hell as a 7 and 8 year old, and you're trying to figure out how to get out. But you get exposed to all these things that are embedded on your soul, and when you get into position to be able to be a part of the solution, you take full advantage of that.

Roy Hall Jr. [00:32:09]:

So many people complain, and they don't contribute. So I tell people all the time, stop complaining, start contributing. What should I contribute to? Well, think of all the things that gave you a problem since you were 5 years old until now, and now that you have some money, now that you have business acumen, now that you have your degree, your master's, and your fancy PhD, how are you using those things to better the people that came from where you came from versus trying to put more zeros on your bank account. You see what I'm saying? So now Mhmm. That's makes all transitions so much easier. Like, wow. I had all this huge platform. Now what do I do? Well, let's think about all the people that are going through things that I was going through when I was coming up, and why not use your platform, purpose, leverage, resources to go back and to make a difference in those spaces.

Roy Hall Jr. [00:32:56]:

And that's what I decided to do, which made my transition pretty seamless. I'm a give you as much as I can in these 50 minutes or whatever we together. I'm you know, we're just going to go. You know?

Shandra McDonald [00:33:07]:

No. You're you're great. So can we talk a little bit about your Driven Foundation?

Roy Hall Jr. [00:33:12]:

Sure. Sure. 14 years so far, plugging away. Our mission is to build hope through service. You know? We provide basic human needs to families just to build hope, to combat poverty. We do it through community outreach events and and, youth programming. And so we're in about 20 to 25 schools here locally in Ohio. Mhmm.

Roy Hall Jr. [00:33:33]:

5th grade all the way through seniors in high school where we do 8 week programs, you know, week in and week out. You know, 8 weeks, first 1st semester, 2nd semester, 3rd semester. We have 3 tiers of curriculum where we're in schools with, you know, once a week, 45 minutes, you know, whether it be with 15 young men for 45 minutes every single week or 15 young women in our in our girls groups. And then we have some coed sessions. And so, you know, we're we got after school programs as well where you're including financial literacy for kids, getting them started early. We mentioned credit and the importance in understanding that so that education is starting early. Career exploration field trips where you're taking these kids, picking them up in nice buses, and you're taking them around to local business establishments, fine dining, hospitality, smaller businesses, and smaller, like, boutique type things where people are entrepreneurs and starting businesses, and then also the bigger companies to see what they do on a day to day basis. There are a lot of Fortune 500 headquarters here in Columbus, Ohio.

Roy Hall Jr. [00:34:34]:

And so you take these career exploration field trips again to show them what else they could do. Right? Because everybody else everybody is an athlete. Every and so these are all the different things that you can you can do. You know, bringing in people to do canvas, paintings, and things like that, yoga, mental health classes, and courses. So we include all of these things inside of our youth programming, but then also we understand that there are challenges inside the home, and so we try and provide, like, basic human needs, pillows, right, like, killer kids are sleeping on floors, and they're like, hey. We want these kids to go to school and get a great education. Well, here's the thing. They weren't able to shower the night before because the water wasn't on.

Roy Hall Jr. [00:35:16]:

Right? Or maybe they have to, like, I don't know, like, draw straws, so to speak, for who's showering, whatever it may be for the hot water. You just never know the people's situation. Or maybe the heat's not on. Right? Or, like, it's 5 kids in 1 bedroom, you know, and so, like, some of them they 2 3 of them in a bed, 2 of them on a floor, they rotate every single night. Right? Every other day they rotate. Well, the ones on the floor don't get the pillows. So we decided, like, a lot of kid like, during our Baptist back to school event, we give away pillows. Really, really nice memory foam pillows and not just back to that.

Roy Hall Jr. [00:35:49]:

Why? Because, okay, we want to make sure we contribute something to you getting a good night's sleep. But also at the back to school event, we're going to get you a backpack filled with school supplies, but and not just random school supplies. We're going to get your supply list and make sure every kid gets what's on the supply list. But then also, we're going to give you another backpack filled with hygiene items, with wash cloths, and body wash, and hand soap, and toothbrush, toothpaste, floss, lotion, Chapstick, you know, whatever we could think of to go in that bag so that you deodorant. So that not only can you take your shower, smell good, feel good, come in with confidence, and then turn around and have a good night's sleep, so to speak, as best as you could possibly have, then all of a sudden your confidence to speak up and raise your hand in class comes into play. And then also we do haircuts. Why? Because you want to make sure you look great. But then also, we understand that you gotta eat.

Roy Hall Jr. [00:36:47]:

So a lot of kids, you can get a nice think about this. You can get a good night sleep and get some rest. You can get a shower, and you can come to school with your backpack, with your fancy school supplies. Right? But you didn't eat that morning. Like, so now it's like, how can we help families in these moments? And so every year during winter break, knowing that the majority of the families that we serve go on free lunches for that 8 to 10 days that they're off on winter break, we give that family and give our families a week's worth of food. So we give about 4 to 500 dollars worth of food to each one of these families, and we've been able to give away £1,500,000 of free food since 2010 through our food outreach program, feeding over 10,000 families. So I've been the family member of the kid that didn't have the food. I've also been the one that was in borderline homeless.

Roy Hall Jr. [00:37:38]:

Right? And so all these different things I remember. So what can I do on my scale? Now I can't save everybody. I can't do everything. But here, I can at least help out these families that we work with on a day to day basis. So not only are we impacting the parents at the higher level, we're also communicating and building up the young people internally through our youth character and leadership programs, And that's what we do with the Driven Foundation.

Shandra McDonald [00:38:05]:

That's awesome. You know, it makes me wonder about, you know, how you establish those connections. I remember you saying earlier in our conversation about being local, like starting locally. And so how did you find the connections to be as effective as you are in with your foundation?

Roy Hall Jr. [00:38:23]:

Sure. I mean, obviously, it’s hard to build out all those things in one night, but we started with a food outreach. That that was our first deal. We food, outreach, that's where we're going with it. And it it really wasn't that difficult because you don't have to say I want to feed a 1,000 people. You literally can say you can go to an elementary school, walk into the elementary school and say, hey. You know, my name is Roy, and you don't have to go until I'm a former football player and all that. No.

Roy Hall Jr. [00:38:54]:

Hey. I'm a community member. I have some resources to be able to help some families. You know, I would imagine that some of the your families are going through some challenges financially. We would like to help with our food outreach and our organization. Can you select 5, not 500, 5 families that could benefit from having a box of food bought from Kroger, Giant Eagle, whatever the grocery store or wherever you are. Right? And this is what we're going to supply for them. This is what we're going to give them.

Roy Hall Jr. [00:39:24]:

We will deliver it to their home, DoorDash it, so to speak, but deliver it to their home, and we can leave it on their doorstep or whatever those they don't have to do any interviews. They don't have to sign any paperwork. They don't have to show proof of poverty, show some bill or something, like, nothing. Right? So that principle is going to go look at a list of probably about 50 to a 100 students that they know are going through some challenges and make a few phone calls, and next thing you know, you're able to do it. Once you got 5, right, you take those 5 and you document it. We gave 5 families this, this, this, this, and this, and you go to local small companies or businesses. I wouldn't just kinda cold call it. I would look on their website to see what they stand for.

Roy Hall Jr. [00:40:08]:

I would get on their social medias and see if they're charitable or if they work with nonprofit organizations. I would go through that whole spiel and do my back front end research so that I know what I'm going into and just ask the questions. And then everywhere that you go, you know someone. I'm talking to you right now on the podcast. Now I'm not going to ask you to send me money. I'm not going to say, hey. Hop on stay driven dot org and, you know, $25 to help feed a family for a week. But you got the information now.

Roy Hall Jr. [00:40:34]:

Right? So Yeah. Like, you could say, you know what? I want to support what Roy's doing and go for it and just do it. Like, you can just go and do that. And so the other route is when you're talking to people, we talk to people about everything else other than what matters. Hey. What do you think about Yellowstone? What do you think about Game of Thrones? What do you think about the season finale of Succession? Hey. What do you what do you watch on Netflix right now? Are you Love is Blind? Like, what do you think about the NBA finals? Like, you want all these different things. What I just read this awesome new book, and all we're doing is talking about all this stuff that other people are doing.

Roy Hall Jr. [00:41:06]:

Right? So if I'm doing something great, in my opinion, or if I'm doing something that's helpful to other people, yo, this is what I got going. Instead of me going out the happy hour with you and giving you a hour or 2 hours of my time, you know, drinking at the bar, like, and doing it every single week, Why not take that $50 that I was going to spend at this local local place drinking or hanging out or having chicken fingers and just give it, like, give it over here to these people that's helping these families. So it's just a matter of priorities. But if I'm willing to talk to you about the Super Bowl, I'm willing to talk to you about a Super Bowl ad, or I'm willing to talk to you about anything politically and see where you stand in politics, how come I can't just say, hey. Like, this is what I got going on over here. Would love to have you help me with this. This is how you can help volunteering financially and then also spreading awareness. Like, that's not too much to ask from people that you talk to every day.

Roy Hall Jr. [00:41:58]:

Wow. It's just being intentional. You know? If it's a sale, hey, man, like, hey, man, you should hop online right now. Like, they're having a sale 50% off at nike.com if you use this code. Okay. So if you can call me and tell me that, you like, I can't call you and say, hey, man, look, I can get this food for 50% off because I can buy it in bulk because of my partnership with the local grocery store. Would you like to, you know And here's the thing, people can tell you no, but it also allows you to locate whether or not they're really rocking with you or not. You need to get around people who are like minded that want to make a difference the way, you know, the way that you do, because not everybody wants to.

Roy Hall Jr. [00:42:34]:

I mean, some people are like, no, I'd rather not. I already give to the whatever. Okay. That's cool. But do you know the person? You just said you give to a name of a nonprofit. Right. Do you know the person that you're giving to? Do you know the like, do you know them? Because you know me. Right? And so, like, this is supposed to be a friendship or a relationship.

Roy Hall Jr. [00:42:58]:

Right? Not a partnership.

Shandra McDonald [00:43:00]:

Right. That's good. That's really good. What do you see yourself doing in this space 5 years from now?

Roy Hall Jr. [00:43:08]:

On a nonprofit side, we'll just keep building our programs. You know, I really believe that we'll be able to expand a little bit more where we're not just in the Central Ohio area with the majority of our programs where we'll have some partnerships in Cleveland, where I'm originally from, and maybe even Cincinnati. You know, the more we can get when we talk about athletes, professional athletes involved to where the brand is big enough to where some of these athletes instead of starting their own thing, they may say, hey. We could we could be a brand ambassador of the Driven Foundation to kind of get Mhmm. Some of these programs in these areas without having to start their own, which is sometimes kind of difficult because as a as a young athlete, you're like, man, I definitely want to start my own because it just makes feel like a business owner. You're doing something great. So, I see that coming. Also, just expanding our programs.

Roy Hall Jr. [00:43:58]:

I mentioned we're in 20 to 25 schools now. I could see that tripling. You know, I could see that being a 100 in 5 years. I could see that being a 150. I mean, there's so many middle and high schools here in the city. There's no reason why we can't continue to develop young people in the areas of leadership and character. So that's kind of where I see it. Here's the thing.

Roy Hall Jr. [00:44:18]:

It's not necessarily one of those have to be oh, man, we have to be in Cleveland. We have to go to Cincinnati. If god didn't release it to go there, then it doesn't. And it'll be right here in Columbus. You know? And as long as we're here, that the biggest thing is to be here. Right? Not to necessarily worry about expand like, that can I can see it happening, but the goal is to be, you know, because usually, you have a professional athlete, they have a foundation when they get done playing their foundation in that 1 or 2 years after goes by the wayside because it's, like, you gotta find funding and have somebody to run it and that's you know? So, we're here. We're 14 years in now. Okay? And so just to continue to be here and be consistent as a resource for a lot of these families is definitely the goal.

Roy Hall Jr. [00:45:05]:

And, you know, I think out of that also, and we didn't talk at all about me traveling around and speaking and motivating and inspiring and building up leadership conferences and talks and all that. Like, that spun out of wanting to make a difference and maximizing my life. I didn't know I had a speaking gift. I didn't it's not something that I was like, Lord, I just I want to be in front of a microphone. Like, I just want to speak. Like, it was never that. It’s you know, you get the talking sometimes, and some things that you say tend to tend to make sense and strike a chord with some people, and then you cultivate the gift. But, you know you know, that and writing books and, you know, teaching courses and all those different things will come.

Roy Hall Jr. [00:45:46]:

You know? But right now, I just I like where we are. I like being able to help people. I think if you make your life about others, you'll always have value. You'll always have value in the world. You'll always be valuable to people, and you'll always feel purpose driven. You'll always feel like you have a purpose. And I think no matter what you do, no matter who you are, no matter how much money you make, when you make your life about service to others and helping other people, there'll always be somebody to help take you to the level that you want to get to. I just firmly believe that.

Shandra McDonald [00:46:15]:

Alright. My final question. What brings you hope?

Roy Hall Jr. [00:46:20]:

What brings me hope? Mhmm. Wow. That's a really, really good question. Outside of my faith in the lord, like, having opportunity gives me hope. The fact that I woke up this morning and the fact that you woke up, the fact that we woke up, the fact that the people on earth woke up today and they had an opportunity to put their feet on the ground and get their day going. Right? The whole tomorrow's not promised, you know, that whole thing is real. Like, every day is certainly a gift. It’s a it's a it's a it's a blessing.

Roy Hall Jr. [00:46:52]:

All 1,008 heartbeats that we get every single day on average, like, it's a gift, and I'm so thankful and grateful to have an opportunity to be here. Sometimes you have hard days, sometimes you have good days, sometimes you have better days, but there's never a bad day. There's never a bad day. How can there be a bad day when you woke up on this side of the turf? On this side of the Yeah. Like, how is there such a you know, perspective is everything. Oh, you don't understand how hard it is. I said it could be some hard times for sure. Right? But you're here, which means you have an opportunity to work through, get through, work around, knock it down.

Roy Hall Jr. [00:47:34]:

Right? You got an opportunity to witness a real-life miracle when you make it through. And so that's what gives me hope for the future, hope for mankind, hope for equality, hope for, you know, violence numbers going, like, back the other way instead of through the roof. Right? Like, going back underground, like, all the separation and division, like, you get hope because it's still like, we're humans. So, it’s somebody out there, some people out there, some groups out there that as they continue to do their work and band together, it can make a difference. And so that's kind of kind of what gives me hope on a day to day basis.

Shandra McDonald [00:48:12]:

That's awesome. Wow. Well, thank you so much for joining the academic survival podcast. I know you dropped a lot of good information. Like, we went so many different ways within each, like, little question you provided, like, tips on how to start a nonprofit. You know, how to how to build a relationship with you. Like, the school doesn't owe you anything. Like, you just kind of, like, covered so much.

Shandra McDonald [00:48:34]:

So that's this was really, really great. I appreciate it. Thank you so much for coming on the show, and have a good day.

Roy Hall Jr. [00:48:41]:

It's a blessing to be on with you. It's awesome. Academic survival is just the title in itself is enough to make you stop and listen to just to listen, and it's a journey for sure. And I know it's a journey that you've had to fight through on multiple different levels and multiple different ways, but you're definitely an example and inspiring in your own right, not just through what you do on a day to day basis, but just being selfless enough to want to offer information and insight to people to help them through their academic journey. And so, for that, you should be commended, and, just keep up the good work. Stay committed. Right? Stay committed. And even when it gets hard to do this and to come up with ideas and figure out who to talk to and schedule the person and get the information and send the follow-up email, just stay consistent, and you'll keep making a difference.

Shandra McDonald [00:49:27]:

Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate that too.

Roy Hall Jr. [00:49:29]:

My pleasure. My pleasure.

Shandra McDonald [00:49:36]:

That's it for today on academic survival. If you want to share your story on how you survived your freshman year of college, you can reach me at info@shandralmcdonald.com. We'll be back next week with more ways to survive your academic journey. Until then, happy studying.