Defeat is Optional
Are you ready to embark on a journey of motivation and transformation? Welcome to Defeat is optional, where we unlock the secrets to success, fueled by Ronnie Baker's awe-inspiring story of determination, resilience, and faith. Join Ronnie, a world-class Olympic sprinter and a man of God, on a quest to break barriers, defy odds, and inspire millions. If you're on the verge of giving up on your dreams, get ready to be uplifted, empowered, and reminded that defeat is optional. This is the podcast that will fuel your fire and lead you towards your inevitable victory.
Defeat is Optional
Former Nike Athlete Shares Why I Switched to Adidas
In this episode of 'Defeat is Optional' Ronnie shares his story into the reality behind his Nike contract. Discover how, despite being ranked number two in the world and the third fastest man in the 60-meter dash, he never made six figures with Nike. This candid episode covers key lessons in contract negotiations, the impact of NCAA finals, and the challenges faced when switching sponsorships from Nike to Adidas. With insights on mental resilience and the importance of 'thinking smarter,' this episode is a must-listen for aspiring athletes. Don't miss the compelling journey of victories, frustrations, and invaluable tips when trying to go pro and get the bag!
00:00 Introduction: Shocking Nike Contract Details
00:26 Welcome to Defeat is Optional
01:03 Journey from Nike to Adidas
02:17 Lessons from Contract Negotiations
04:50 Challenges and Realities of Professional Track
21:28 Final Thoughts and Q&A
What if I told you as an NCAA champion and collegiate record holder, my contract with Nike wasn't even a hundred thousand dollars. Would you believe me if after being ranked number two in the world and becoming the third fastest man in the 60 meter dash that I never made six figures with Nike. I'm going to talk to you guys about contract negotiations, what I learned from switching from Nike to Adidas and how I felt slighted by Nike all in the process. Welcome to defeat is optional. The podcast where I'll give you the best mental tips to unlock your mind so you can improve your performance on race day. If you've ever felt stuck, doubted your abilities or struggled to bring your best on race day, you're in the right place. This isn't just about training harder. It's about thinking smarter. Here we'll break down the mental barriers that hold you back and build the mindset that propels you to victory because in your journey to greatness, Defeat is never the final answer. It's a choice. So let's get to work. Remember defeat is optional is not just a podcast. It's a way of life.
H6 & ZV-E10-1:How did I end up at Nike in the first place, and then how did I end up with Adidas? So, I don't know if you guys saw, but the story that I posted earlier basically just said, what if you, what if I told you that I did not make 100, 000 base contract with Nike when I was signed with them for five years? Being a collegiate record holder, being an NCAA champion, my initial contract was less than 100, 000 and even after I became the third fastest man in the world and was ranked number two, I never got paid more than six figures from Nike,
Ronnie Baker:So kind
H6 & ZV-E10-1:of crazy. we're going to dive into the story. nine years ago is when I signed my first contract. That was in 2017. I graduated from TCU in 2016. So, how did that all transpire? Right. So as I in my senior year. I had won the NCAA championship indoors. I broke the collegiate record that was in, I believe it was in Alabama at the crossplex. Crazy story. I actually started my collegiate career at that track. I ran my first track meet at that track and did my last indoor track meet at that track, which is really cool. So anyway, I knew that I had the potential to go pro. Now here's the lesson. One of the first lessons that I learned when it comes to professional track and field. That if you want to become a professional that's sponsored, you need to be in an NCAA final. that is the first, lesson that I learned. If you're not in the NCAA final, it's going to be very hard for you to get sponsored as a professional track and field athlete. Now you can go and run afterwards. However, if you want money from these big shoe companies, you need to be in an NCAA final. That's the first lesson and not just any NCAA final, right? You need to be in. An outdoor NCAA final, because the whole thing with when I was into, when I went into negotiations, my senior year, basically after my senior season, after the NCAA championships, there wasn't Olympic games that year. And I actually went to the Olympic trials. I did not make the Olympic team. However, when I first got news and talked to Nike,
Ronnie Baker:the
H6 & ZV-E10-1:number that they were offering me was a good six finger contract. But when I did not make The NCAA 100 meter final, that number plummeted, and it was because I did not make the final. So the people that get the contracts that get the most money are the people that either win or in that final, they get looked at. They're, they're in that spotlight. I was not. So my stock just plummeted. from there on, You know, I was going back and forth with and I did not actually sign my professional contract. I didn't sign it in 2016 after I got, or after my last race as a collegiate athlete, I did not sign my Nike contract until February of the next year. So luckily I still had a semester left to school because if I didn't, I was going to have to pay rent.
Ronnie Baker:work a job. I
H6 & ZV-E10-1:I was going to have to find a way to pay my rent. I mean, everyone knows that if you've been in a situation where you can't pay your rent or you, you know, that you're doing everything that you can to pay your rent and you know, you're still going to be come up short. Like that's where I was at one point because. I hadn't signed a contract. I was graduating that December, and after that, after that graduation, like, TCU wasn't going to be fitting the bills me to live, to be an adult, and I hadn't signed a contract yet, so I was literally filling out potentially to go work, and then train, because I knew that I could succeed at the next level, but I was going to have to work a job in order to do it. So we were going back and forth, and, this is the reason why it took so long. One, because Nike has a, they had a bunch of different athletes that they're trying to figure out contracts with, and then they were going to try to figure out what money they had left for me, basically because, I wasn't again in the NCAA final, so I wasn't getting first pick of you know, collegiate athletes that are getting money but also, you know, you have all the other top athletes that are already running, so they had to figure out those contracts too, because it was the end of the year. Now, another big thing was that another lesson that I learned here. Is that the first lesson is that if you want to be a professional, you need it and you want to get like money and you want to get sponsored by a shoe company, you need to be an NCAA final. You need to be in an outdoor NCAA final, not an indoor one, because I had one NCAA title indoors and broke a collegiate record, but for these shoe companies, they don't really care about indoors. They don't care unless you're breaking a world record. They do not care. You know, you do well indoors. They pat you on the back and they say, good job, like keep it pushing. Let's see what you can do outdoors. Because at the end of the day, my coach always says this. He says. There is no indoor olympics and he's right. There's no indoor olympics. So the companies they don't care about that So that was lesson one Lesson lesson two really in contract negotiations is that these shoe companies They will especially Nike I know for sure Nike has People that they pay, they have coaches that they pay around the country and you guys probably know them. If you look at any group that has a ton of Nike athletes, guess what? Nike's probably paying that certain someone. And so what happened is when I was coming out of school, they wanted me to move coaches and go train with the people that they're paying. That makes total sense. But, you know, I had gone from a high school athlete that was running 10, seven consistently to. A collegiate senior who was running nine nines consistently. I had run nine 91 a couple of times. And so the progression that I had, I was just like, I don't want to leave my coach who I've been with for four years, trained with for four years. One, two NCAA titles with, and gotten faster every single year. That just doesn't make sense for me to move switch coaches. So I didn't want to switch coaches and they wanted me to go out to California. They wanted me to go. To Florida, but I just didn't want to leave my coach. So that was kind of the run around was that they wanted me to move and I didn't. So we were going back and forth with that. I ended up signing my first contract guys for, 60, 60 K with my first professional contract. Which honestly, for, a single guy coming out of college, that's, That's good money. That's pretty good money. I had more money than I ever had before. And to be honest with you, like,
Ronnie Baker:I
H6 & ZV-E10-1:I, it was good. Like, it was good. I had a good time. I, pay my bills, pay my rent. I, was pretty set. Okay. So that was the, are some of the lessons I learned,
Ronnie Baker:if you
H6 & ZV-E10-1:go pro, most likely they're going to want you to move because they have coaches that they pay. That's, that's kind of standard. And then, you know, If you're not in the NCAA final, that your stock is going to drop, which means you're negotiating power drops too. So if you're not running fast, you're negotiating power. It it's out the window. And that's where I was. I never actually made an NCAA hundred meter in my four years at TCU. So. That was a little bit harsh, but Hey, it is what it is. So that's how I ended up with Nike. Now my contract with Nike, I, I was going to show you guys the details, but, just so you know, I protect myself. I don't think that Nike can do anything, but I'm not trying to get sued by Nike. So either way, I'm just going to tell details. I. My contract was for three years with what's called an option year. Now option actually a two year option. So an option year, all an option year is. Is that Nike can say after the three years that they were initially with me, they could say, Hey, we're going to reevaluate where we believe you are. And we're going to decide if we're going to take an option. The option year is basically like we have two extra years on the table that we can have, like you can be our athlete, but we have the right to say, we don't want you or not. Right. That's kind of what an option year is. And typically when you have option years it kind of protects the company a little bit, because for me, I. Did really well in 2018. I was ranked number two in the world, but behind their number one guy, which was Christian Coleman. And you know, because I was on the option year coming out of 2019 You know, I had no negotiation power because one, had crappy 2019 season, but even if I had a really good one with the option years, it's really hard to negotiate. they take the option year and you really don't have any negotiations. It's not, it's not a time to renegotiate your contract. So you kind of just are locked into what you already have. Now, after my 2018 season, I did get a bump. In my pay and I went up to, I was making 90 K a year because of the bonuses that I had just from, you know, basically running fast. I think I had a 30, 000 performance bonus because I was ranked number two. Boom. So now my base contract went up to 90 K and that's basically where I stayed for the next two years.
Ronnie Baker:So
H6 & ZV-E10-1:I felt like for me that. I was
Ronnie Baker:underpaid
H6 & ZV-E10-1:and I think that most people here and most people on the track and underpaid you know, I saw the guys that I was running against and beating on a regular basis getting paid boatloads more money than I was, and here I was, you know, working my butt off and beating those guys. So for me it was really hard to justify like where I was at and knowing that I was worth more. Okay. And it's not like I was entitled to that. Like I knew I wasn't just sitting around doing nothing. Like I was actually working my butt off and actually performing to that level. So I think there's a difference. A lot of people get into this thing where they feel like they're owed something or they, they deserve this type of money or whatever the case may be. And most of the times when you are evaluating yourself, you overshoot, and I may have been, I knew how hard I was working. I knew what I knew the Okay, so here's another lesson. I learned is because after the 2021 Olympics, so I was with Nike for five years, they took the two year option. So that means I was locked in for five years, no matter what. At the same contract price. Now, after 2021, I went to the Olympics. I made my first outdoor championship team. I placed fifth in the Olympics. And I think that that was the Olympics that Nike felt like if I was going to do or be anything, it was going to be in that one, basically, because 2016 was my first Olympic trials. I was coming out of college. They figured, Hey, this one's probably not going to be the one that he pops off at, and that's fine. We're really paying him for. You know, the next one, which was 2020. So I actually made that and it was great. I felt like, okay, I had a really good season. I ran nine 83. I'm definitely, I was ranked top five, I believe that year in the a hundred meters. And so I felt like, okay, I've, I've definitely worked and earned my keep as far as what I feel like I should be paid now. Right. And You know, that's one thing for me to believe that, but my, my sponsors gotta believe that as So
Ronnie Baker:all in all,
H6 & ZV-E10-1:we went into contract negotiation. Now this is how it works. when you're, when you finish a contract you cannot. And you're a free agent. Technically, there's no option here. You know that, Hey, you know, I can go shop around to these other shoe companies. Now you can't actually talk to anybody because of their, the clauses in the contract. You can't talk to anybody until December 15th, I believe is the date, which sucks. Because, December 15th is the end of the year. And a lot of these companies are doing their deals early So that they can, you know, for budgeting purposes, you know, they don't want to go into the next year having to figure out contracts. So, you know, December 15th is kind of the day where it's like, all right, now I can officially talk to whoever I want to talk to. So basically after that day, my agent starts reaching out You know other companies seeing who's interested and pretty much there was no bites, you know at 28 years old Made the olympic final ran 983 Apparently nobody wanted me which was crazy because I felt like you know after that year, you know making olympic final That should be the year where I should you know, this is going to be my second quote unquote contract It should be a little bit bigger now here's the biggest thing that I learned from this part of getting this contract with adidas is that You Shoe companies, they do not care what you've already done. They don't care what you've done. They pay you based on what, like what they think you're going to do. That's literally how they pay you. They don't pay you on all the accolades that you've accumulated. They don't pay you on all the races you've won. They don't pay you on how fast you've run. They pay you on what do we see this person's foreseeable future as, and that's how they pay you. So that is one of the biggest things. Like, if they don't see that they're, you're gonna be valuable to them in the next two to three years racing, Or at the next Olympics or whatever the basically the Olympics they they use the Olympics as the the gauge if they don't feel like you're gonna be successful at the Olympics, then they're like, hey, buddy, you know, we're not going to give you you're not going to give you this this or this, you know, they did offer me something. Going into the 22 2022 season. Now the same problem we ran into the same problem though, when I first signed with him after college is that they wanted me to move coaches. they felt like. You know, I hadn't gotten it done with my coach and to, to an extent I will, I will say this, like I hadn't gotten any you know, I'd been hurt a lot of the years I did get a bronze medal in the indoors, but I wasn't again, these companies care about outdoor times, outdoor medals, outdoor competitions. And so I wasn't, I didn't have any medals. that was the biggest, I think for them, that was the biggest, thing of like, okay, well, Ronnie's produced, he's done really well, but he hasn't won anything. And so I totally understand that. Like for me,
Ronnie Baker:that.
H6 & ZV-E10-1:was, that's one of the biggest, that's one of the biggest drawbacks is not having one of those. anyway, going into contract negotiations, they offered me, Way more money this time, however, they wanted me, to move. The first place they wanted me to move was to Jamaica and I, I just, I couldn't bring myself to, well, my wife at the time was with our first child. I had been in this, the house that I was in, in Texas for over five years, and I would have to leave my coach, who I'd basically been training with for the last, at this point, would've been 11, almost no, it would have been about 10 years. So I would have to leave my coach of 10 years who I've gotten better with every single year. I would have to move to Jamaica. It's just, it would have been so different. And then I would have to move my pregnant wife there, have my baby in It would have just been. It would have been a lot for me at the time. So,
Ronnie Baker:so
H6 & ZV-E10-1:yeah, And that, that was just not going to happen. So I, I told them no on that Although they offered me like a
Ronnie Baker:boatload more money
H6 & ZV-E10-1:well beyond six figures. I said, no, I turned it down because at the end of the day, like the money was just not worth it at that point. And then they wanted me to move to Florida. with Dennis Mitchell. Mitchell. love Dennis, but I just didn't want to. I didn't want to move there either, so I didn't want to leave my coach like I was committed. I'm committed to my coach. I have really good relationship with him. For a lot of time, And a lot of the times, like I have been very injury prone. So a lot of the times I would just be injured or something like that. But it never, whenever I was healthy, I always ran super well. So as long as I could stay healthy, that was like a big thing for me. But anyway
Ronnie Baker:they
H6 & ZV-E10-1:offered me a little over a hundred K. After I said I was gonna stay with my coach, which for me, it just, it wasn't enough, especially with the guys that I was running against. I was like, I know what everybody else is getting paid. Like, they're my ears to the ground. And, I was like, I don't know what I'm gonna do. But at the end of the day, I was like, Push my agent like, Hey, we need to find somebody that's going to give me some money because at the end of the day, if not, I'm going to be forced to take this contract again that I don't really want to be in. And it's not that I didn't want to be with Nike. It was just that I felt like I should have been paid more and I did not want to move across the country at that point in my life. And so, yeah, so. Negotiations, my agent was trying to figure out, you know, how he get another deal wasn't happening. Long story short. I had a conversation with my now agent about Adidas, right? And, Know, I told my old agent I was like, Hey, I'm not committed to anything, but I'm going to have conversations. So had a conversation with them. They brought back a number that Was well within what I believe that, I should have been paid And, pretty much from there, you know, it was a hard decision because I was going to have step away from the agent that I've been with for five years that we'd developed really good friendship and relationship with however, it was to the point where like, I needed, I knew that this was going to probably be my last contract and I needed it to be a big one, especially just with how hard I've worked. Like I'm not going to run track forever. that is, that was basically how that transpired. I ended up signing that contract, worked with a new agent, got, basically got that contract and that contract, because what happens with contract negotiations is that you The company that you're with typically will put inside the contract that they have what's called a first right of refusal and the first right of refusal. All it means is that whatever offer that you get from another they have the right to look at that offer and then either match that offer or decline that And so whenever.
Ronnie Baker:And
H6 & ZV-E10-1:you know, obviously if they come back and match that offer, that's a great thing because then the company that Cynthia offer over either goes up or, you know, the, or you take the, take the one that they, that they matched or if they go higher, whatever. So it kind of gets into a little bidding war, which is cool.
Ronnie Baker:That
H6 & ZV-E10-1:that number got sent over to Nike and basically they have, they, in the, in the contract, there's 10 days, they have 10 days to and in 10 days. They didn't respond. And so I just, I, I talked about how I felt slighted. I felt slighted because I felt like, man, first of all, you know, outside of Fred coming up into the hundred and getting a silver medal you know, I was there, I was the next guy. And so I was just like, like they didn't feel like I was worth that amount of money, but also they just didn't really want to sign me for the next, for another four years. And so, you know, someone that I, the company that I felt like, Hey, I'd done a lot for, you well for again, They don't care about what you have done. They care about what you're going to do. And so yeah, man, that's, that's basically how that transpired. Ended up running one more meet, which was the Millrose games in 2022, which, oh my gosh, Got so sick at. I remember I went to, I like trying different food. And it's not that I have never eaten but this was two days before the meet, I'm in New York, so I went to go get some Indian food, and Dude, it was just, I just got so sick, But it was only like a day thing. It was just like, I kind of like I got food poisoning and then the next day I was fine, but obviously I was still feeling it. So I had a day to kind of like recoup. And the next day I ran, I still ran six 50 something. That was the, that was the race where it was like the big drawback between Trayvon Christian Coleman. I was there. It was, it was a good meet. But no one was talking about me. I got third. So I felt like I could probably could have won that if I was healthy, you know, if I wasn't sick. But props to those guys, man. It was a, those, that was a fun race. But either way, that was the last time I ran in Nike because after that, they never responded after those 10 days. And I ended up signing that, that deal with Adidas. And I've been with Adidas ever since, since, 2022. So. Those were just, I mean, man, when I think about, when I look back on just contract negotiations and some of the lessons I learned, man, one of the big things, it's like a lot of people ask me how to go pro. And the biggest thing, man, is like, you have to one, just run fast. Like everyone's trying to figure out, like even kids now they're trying to figure out how they can be pro by without running fast, that there's no way you can do it. There's no, you're not going to get. A name, image, and likeness deal. You're not gonna get a deal because you're, you're famous on Instagram or you do cool stuff, like. You got to go run fast. Like that's it. If people get paid, they run fast. And then the cool stuff that you get to do because you run fast happens after that. But you got to run fast. And if you want to be talking about getting a big deal or shoe contract, like you need to be an NCAA final and that NCAA final needs to be an outdoor NCAA final. If you want a really big one, you need to place in the top three. You know, when you sit down and you negotiate a contract, you need to negotiate the right. Bonuses. You need to negotiate. You know, for me, I didn't have in my contract, I did not have any indoor bonuses. So like all the fast times I ran indoors, I didn't get paid for them because it just wasn't in my contract. And so some people have that in the contract. Some people don't. I didn't. So, you know, as far as I did run, you know, it didn't matter. You know, so that's a big thing. I'd say that it's harder to go pro in a world championship or Olympic year as well, because typically if you are running well at the NCAA level, you know, if you don't win the NCAA title, you're And you're like maybe fourth or fifth. That's still good. However, if you're in from the U S and it's an Olympic or world championship year, the negotiations for a contract probably don't start until after the which is hard because they want to see how you, how you stack up against the professionals, because that's what you're going to be doing. You're going to be running against the professionals every single week. So they want to see how, what do you perform? You know, do you fold? Do you choke? Do you persevere? I feel like that's it's kind of like a. Yeah. The chopping block or a proving ground is USA trials for those years. I feel like it's harder to make, to get contracts because typically if you don't do, if you do well at the NCAAs or you do kind of mid you're in the middle of the pack and then you go into the USAs and you don't do well, I feel like your stock drops even more because you know, now you didn't make the team or you didn't perform well enough. So now they're kind of looking at you like You know, how are they going to, how are they, again, how are they going to perform in the next couple of years? Cause that's how they pay you. They pay you based on what they believe you're And then just being aware that, you know, you're, they're going to, depending on who you're signing with, you're going to probably want you to move coaches, move areas, which is fine, but you just have to be okay with that and, and comfortable with it and
Ronnie Baker:those are some
H6 & ZV-E10-1:yeah, man, that's, those are some of the big things that I've learned, man, if you guys have any questions, I will take some questions real quick just about that whole scenario, but that's really how I ended up with them, you know, I just felt like, hey, I wasn't gonna get paid what I wanted like what I wanted was Nike, and that's totally fine, you know, God made a way and opened a door for me to be able to be with Adidas for a long time James Stokes, what's good, my guy? He said, What would you have done differently knowing what, you know, if I knew what I would, I knew now I would probably like I said earlier, I'd probably put some, stuff, some stipulations in there for my indoor stuff, because I did run really well as indoors and potentially, you know, negotiate whether I could have bonuses into my indoor contracts, like for my indoor running which typically does not happen again, because there is no indoor Olympics, but I could have probably made a couple, Couple of dollars doing that. So yeah, that was, that would have been one of my biggest things. That would have that would have been my biggest thing. Let me see if there's any other questions, Someone said, are you going to start indoors? Yeah. So I'm going to be starting my indoor season January 29th is the first. Do you think switching shoe brands has changed how you perform? I don't think so. Speed. I think that for me, one of my biggest challenges is coming back from the Olympics and just all the mental stuff that I had to go through with overcoming just the disappointment from the 2021 Olympics was really hard. I talked about that. I've talked about that on a lot of my podcasts. I've talked about that on here in my lives. But I think that that's was, has been something that I've been dealing with and coming out of. I don't think it's necessarily the shoe brand or, or anything with the shoe. But I think that for me, it was more mental. The last couple of years have been more mental than anything and just getting in the right headspace to do well because I, because I believe that You don't just lose talent out of nowhere. That's what I believe. And so I knew, you know, a lot of people, when they have bad seasons, they switch coaches. They find someone new because whatever the program they're doing isn't working. But I knew the program worked because I'd run fast. I knew the program worked. So it was I knew it was me. I wasn't gonna blame anybody else. Like, I took full responsibility Matico says, Do you think your agent was the problem when you had bad deals? Because seems Like, you got a better contract ever changing agents Well, I wouldn't say my agent was bad. I think that sometimes depending on where you are at, because track and field, I feel like there's literally track and field agents that are still agents that have been agents for like 50 plus years. So I think that what that says is that there, there aren't a lot of new ones, meaning that. The relationships that the agents have, they've had for years and years and years. So I think that there, whenever you sign with a specific agent, especially in the track and field world, they already have connections to certain shoe So like, if you sign with someone, they most likely can get you a new balance or a Puma deal, but they probably won't be able to get you an Adidas You know, it, it just depends because the relationships are very different across, you know, different agents. So I wouldn't say that my agent was bad. I just think that connections were. Connections were just different. Um,
Ronnie Baker:Tino
H6 & ZV-E10-1:says, do you negotiate the terms yourself or is it all through your agent? Well, typically, I mean, you, you, you, the, the contracts, a lot of the contracts are very blanket contracts, meaning they don't differ. I feel like a lot from, from athlete to athlete. I think that there's sometimes that you can put some special things in there for like big bonuses if you want. But you know, and I think what, I think the difference, I think Is that like, everyone probably has a world record bonus in their contract. The difference is how much is it you know, mine might be different than someone else's mine might be lower than someone else's. Who knows? So that's kind of how that works. But as far as negotiations The agent does a lot of that I feel like if you, if you have some special requests, you obviously can run that by your agent, but you know, that's, that's kind of how that works. I feel like your agent does a lot of that. And because again, because the agents have. Very long lasting and relationships with these companies. They kind of like go into these negotiations, kind of knowing what they're going to put together. And I feel like if you wanted something different than you'd probably get asked for it. Maybe that's something that I would do now that I know better. But Yeah. I mean, you get to look over the contract before you sign it. No one forces you to do it. So you get to, you get to look over everything and sign it beforehand. So if you don't like something, you just say, Hey, I don't like this. How can we change it? And then you, that's how the negotiation continues to go on. How do signature shoes work with running shoe deals? there's not very many people that have their own running shoe. And to be honest with you, like, Allison Felix, they made a shoe for Allison Felix with Nike, but I mean, they, she was the most, she has the most medals of any athlete, I think. And track and field history. And they didn't do that until like, she was about to like retire probably three years. They made like this shoe and it wouldn't even have her name on it or anything. It was just like, they made this shoe for her to run in. But again, that's why Alison Felix made her own shoe. So I don't think that they do that a lot of times. I think that was more of a, I mean, Michael Johnson has his own shoe. Yeah. But there was Michael Johnson back in the day. He was like the best runner to ever do anything. He wrote two world records. So. You know, break a world record. Maybe you get one. So but yeah, man, I am gonna hop off here. I really appreciate you guys hanging in with me. and this is probably the most viewership we've had talked about money contracts, all kinds of things. It's been really cool. I will tell you that there is money in track and field. People always say that there is not money in track and field. There's money in track and field. Yeah, I've made well over a million dollars as a track and field. athlete. I can probably say that. A lot of it has come from my performances and how well I've done, but there's money in track and field. Now, there's not millions and millions and millions of dollars like there is in basketball and football, but there is enough money if you run well enough to where you can set yourself up, you can have a nice home, you can buy a nice car, you can set yourself, set your life up to where you're at. You know, the next few years are going to look good for you. If you invest your money, right. And do the right things with it. That is, that's what I'll tell you Cause everyone always complains about, it's funny because the top people, the people that make the most money complain about there not being money in track and field in the track and field space. So there's money there. There's lots of money. You just have to run really, really well. Right. It's about what you focus on. So, all right guys, tomorrow, I will see you guys tomorrow at 6 PM. We're doing a question and answer. So if you guys have questions that you're asking right now, then I'm not going to get to bring them to the next one. And I will, you know, I'll basically answer any questions that you have. I will answer this last one at the bottom of the synergy says, can you advocate for yourself? you can advocate for yourself, but I feel like it's not really advantageous, especially if you don't know what you're doing. Like if you're, I mean, coming out of college and you don't know what you're doing, probably not the best. And also again, because there's this, these deep root of relationships with these companies and these agents, I feel like sometimes they don't take you serious as an athlete doing it on your own.
Ronnie Baker:they'll
H6 & ZV-E10-1:find ways to like potentially just screw you over. You know, So I wouldn't, I wouldn't recommend doing that. I always have a professional doing that with you. You know, that way they can be a voice and they can be your voice. But anyway, I love you guys. I will see you guys tomorrow at 6 PM. We'll do a question and answer. So bring your questions. I will talk to y'all tomorrow. Peace.