Elliot Kallen: Well, good morning. Good afternoon, everyone. I’m Elliot Kallen here back once again for Meet the Expert with Elliot Kallen, where we talk to lively business owners, lively people in the marketplace, so many of our clients own companies. We help them with the selling of the company, with building a 401k, with personal investments, so much. And today is no exception. We are going to be talking to a sports maven, a true PhD sports expert that has spent his entire career in sports development. And I don’t mean learning how to play tennis better or golf. We’re going to talk about what that means. Let me welcome Lynn Lashbrook. Lynn, how are you? I’m good. Thanks for having me on today. Great. So let me tell you, if you want to reach me, I’m at 925-314-8503. It’s Elliot, E-L-L-I-O-T at prosperityfinancialgroup.com, or the website to see about 100 other podcasts, top 2% of the world in financial podcasts, very exciting. And that is prosperityfinancialgroup.com. And I’ll tell you why we’re talking to Lynn. Lynn is a founder of a sports development company, agents and so forth. I’ll let him tell you more about it in a moment. But we talk to founders all the time. We get excited by founders. I’m a founder. This is businesses number three, four, and five that I started. I’m always happy to share my secrets. I wish I had better secrets, but I think they’re pretty good. But they’re not like a Phil Nike or Howard Schultz, or as you were saying, some of these oil tycoons that are your heroes here. But we’re going to talk about that. So tell me what you do. And tell me, bring us up to date on what you do that’s so interesting that other founders should be listening to you. 

Lynn Lashbrook: So we’re a worldwide company and over 30,000 graduates from 164 different countries. We do all sports, cricket, rugby, football, basketball, baseball. We do agent, NIL, analytics, sports broadcasting, ticket sales, any business operation to get people in the ecosystem to get jobs. We’re the only ones that do this with our price point and online lifetime membership. We’re literally created an ecosystem, a 70 year old can take our course and a 17 year old in the world of sports business. That’s what we do. And we’re growing daily, worldwide. 

Elliot Kallen: Lynn, how is that different than I go to, I know you’re up in a Portland area, but I go to let’s say Eugene and get a sports management degree. How is what you’re talking about any different than that? 

Lynn Lashbrook: I think it’s price point, number one. Number two, you’re taught by an industry leader. You’re given a lifetime membership. I was a tenured professor at 30 years old. I left higher ed. I still taught for 55 years. And I think higher ed has some challenges, both price point and relevancy. And we talk about the issues of the day. We use all the cutting edge software in our program. And we’re interested without guaranteeing a job. We’re interested in being a mentor for lives and we’re global and we cross pollinate. And I think the price point, the education and the continued mentoring after the course makes us very special and unique. 

Elliot Kallen: So I want to be an agent one day. I’m going to contact you. And let’s forget the fact that I’m not 25. And I didn’t play college when I went to work. I didn’t play football or Rutgers. But I Love dealing with football players. Am I kind of at a disadvantage? Because I know you want to attract the leaders in the sports industry for tomorrow. What does it take? 

Lynn Lashbrook: That’s the nucleus of our company. I decided it’s all about Relationships. If you get an undrafted free agent out of Louisville named Ralph Dawkins, you might get the younger brother, Brian Dawkins, out of Clemson, NFL Hall of Famer. So getting players is a relationship. I go back to Uber. Uber came along because the taxi didn’t go to every neighborhood. And Uber drivers have a car and they fill out an app to get approved. They go to the airport and they pick up a passenger and they make Money. The passenger gets off the plane, goes to the app, and the closest one to the airport makes money. With NIL and the eight billion people out there in sports and the cross pollination and the streaming going on, anybody, keep your day job. All you need is one player. And I use an example that really tells the story. Two guys from Monroe, Louisiana, took an eight week course. The mother from Monroe said, can you help my son who’s 26 years old playing in Poland? There’s no way he can make the NFL. Comes back and plays in the USFL and he gets MVP’s very fast. And then nobody gave him a chance with the Dallas Cowboys. And the first time he touched the ball, he had a 98 yard touchdown. And then the second quarter he had a 68 yard. He later made Pro Bowl. He’s made Pro Bowl again this year. The two guys from Monroe, Louisiana are getting certified. We help people get into the business. And now with NIL, every high school senior and Family needs advice. Do I go to Oregon or Oregon State? If I’m not playing, do I transfer? What kind of NIL deal? What’s my second career? What about my financial planning? It’s got to be a one-on-one relationship. Corporate agencies like taxis cannot meet the needs of the individual request. We’re in a 3.0 revolution of sports. That’s just one course. Some people want to do salary caps. Some people want to do analytics, cricket, rugby. And now with the growth of sports and what the Olympics done and baseball coming back into the Olympics in 2028 and North America hosting the soccer and the NFL playing in Brazil. We’re talking about globalization. Go global or go home is my mantra. There’s never been a growth of sports like there has the last two years. And then you add betting to it and you’re seeing the ratings, you’re seeing the Franchise. And we haven’t even talked about women’s sports. It’s exploding. And what we do is provide the introduction to the ecosystem to get in sports. It used to be you had to play the game or you had to know somebody. Your dad had to own a team. Today, one course with us and you’re in our ecosystem for life. You do information interviews and you get jobs. And that’s why we’re growing significantly, particularly the last three years. And now we’re getting ready to do multiple languages, offering our courses in Spanish and Japanese and Portuguese. And that’s a new world. And bringing people into a class with AI and Zoom, you can actually have just like you do in the United Nations. You can have multiple languages, multiple countries talking the same thing, sports. It’s all a universal language. 

Elliot Kallen:: So let me talk a little. Ashbrook, very exciting what he’s doing in a world of sports agency and sports management and so forth. He’s making sports more powerful is what he’s doing, sports management more powerful. Let me tell you the experience that I’ve had. And I’d love for you to comment on that. I had a number of Giants and Yankees as retired guys as clients. And I could talk their language. I played a lot of sports my whole life. And the difference is they’re athletes and I’m athletic. And there is a difference between those. But when I went after the current ballplayers, you found out that most of them were signed contracts with agents that included financial planning, that included investment portfolios. But then the bulk of them, as you know, and sadly, the bulk of baseball and football players five years out of their sports world is they’re in bankruptcy or they’re broke or they’re teetering on financial disaster. But they can’t talk to me ahead of time. So who’s working in their best interest and what’s wrong with this? 

Lynn Lashbrook: That’s the main reason I started my company. I lost a guy named Ryan Lee to a major agent. But I realized the more clients I had, the more diluted the relationship. And I helped one athlete who’s friends of mine today who started this company. But you need to be responsible for the not only the contract, but you’ve got to be responsible for the second career. It’s not sustainable. There’s very few athletes have that kind of money. They need the fulfillment of another career. And that’s exactly why I came up with this uber idea of representation all over the world. If somebody’s from Nigeria playing in America at a university, there’s a culture divide. So you need somebody, an agent advisor in Nigeria representing the player, let’s say at Rutgers, where you went to school. So you have two people and you’re talking about not just the contract, but you’re talking about the second career. You’re absolutely right. We came up with the idea. You keep your day job. You’re successful. You invest a small amount and we will. You bring the relationship and we’ll bring the credentials to get started and help you jumpstart your career as a sports agent. Sports agents do not want to refer you to anybody else but them. It’s a very possessive. I’m not saying there’s a lot of good agents out there. Don’t get me wrong. But the end of the day, globally, there’s discoveries all over the world. It’s not just a few group of those prima donnas. A lot of great athletes have become superstars that were not getting the attention coming out of college. 

Elliot Kallen: So we’re going to get right back to that. So if you want to reach me, it’s 953148503 or Elliott, E-L-L-I-O-T at Prosperity Financial Group. And Lynn, we’re talking with Lynn. Very exciting what you’re doing. Lynn, you were telling me in the pre-call that three of your heroes are Phil Nike, obviously, Oregon. And there was a great story about Phil Nike in Stanford. I can share with you if you don’t. And then Howard Schultz, obviously, that’s Starbucks and has nothing to do with sports. And Lamar Hunt, who didn’t himself, was not involved with sports, but owned the Kansas City Chiefs in the original AFL. And as a Jets fan, I really have great respect for those original guys from the oil and the silver. And he was an oil guy, too. 

Lynn Lashbrook: Came from the oil family. Growing up in Kansas City, we first had the Kansas City A’s. They moved out to the Bay and Oakland A’s, if I may. But Charlie Finley came up with ninth World Series baseball, the orange baseball, the color uniform. I was fascinated by him as a young boy. I caught 13 foul balls in a three-year period. And the reason I use that mantra, you have to have a ticket to the game to catch a foul ball. We don’t guarantee a job, but if you take one of our courses, you have a chance of catching a foul ball. So that’s my mantra. Well, Lamar Hunt came along and started the American Football League because the NFL was stodgy and they didn’t want to expand. And then when they put an NFL team in Dallas, he had no choice but to come to Kansas City. I watched him start the American Football League. He converted the Super Bowl, named after a ball that his daughter was playing with, a Super Bowl in the early 60s. He brought soccer to America. Nobody thought it had a chance. And in 2026, soccer, World Cup soccer in North America is going to be the most phenomenal, billion people. And then Lamar Hunt and the NFL and Jerry Jones and others now played in Brazil last year. They go to Europe every year. The soccer billion people for two weeks and a Super Bowl gets 150 million. So that’s one inspiration. The other, when I moved to Portland, I met Phil Knight because I’ve been trying to bring Major League Baseball to Portland. Portland’s smaller than Kansas City and bigger than Kansas City. They don’t have baseball. We’re still working on that. But I met with Phil Knight. And if you look at his story and starting out with a shoe in the truck of his car and the waffle shoe came along. And then when he did the Michael Jordan contact, and by the way, it was Sonny Baccaro that went and talked to Michael’s mom. All of my recruits, 150 in the NFL. I always went through the mom. That’s my secret that I mentor people to do. And so I admire what Lamar, what Phil Knight has done in the world of Nike. And then the third one, another person I’ve met personally is Howard Schultz when he owned the Seattle Storm or the Seattle Sonics. But to be honest with you, he started with one coffee. I drink Starbucks every morning because I’m inspired by the story, not just the coffee, but the story as I Travel around the world. I have to have a Starbucks. All those are inspirations. As a founder, you have to self-motivate. You’re lonely in one sense, but you feel strong in the other. My wife’s been a partner in this company for 30 years. We started with one student and dialed up Yahoo. I’m a passionate educator and we’re an educational company, but we do it right. We’re price point friendly, lifetime membership. And we help people and people take three or four courses once they fall in love with us. Our challenge is we sound too good to be true. We’re getting ready to accept investors because we’re scalable. We could be as big as what Uber did to the world. We could be as big as what Nike’s done to the world and what Starbucks has done to the world. And to be honest with you, when you’re scalable and you have 30 years of what we call a reputational value and scalable, the hardest thing for me as I talk to investors and I have a meeting tomorrow is how do you get the numbers to demonstrate the algorithms of the vision? Sometimes the vision is bigger than the numbers. So somebody’s going to buy into the vision and see the 30-year success rate, but it’s a fascinating time. And yet sports is one of the few ecosystems doing very well in this Economy. Think about the growth of the sports and the growth of women’s sport, the value of franchise, Saudi Arabia, cross-pollination, talent discovery, NIL, the change in the visa rules. We’re in a 3.0 revolution, most exciting time ever in sport as I watch my can’t-see-chiefs try to get to the third Super Bowl. That’s my story. Keep coming. 

Elliot Kallen: Let’s do a little futuristic planning for a moment if we could, Lynn. All right. And I hope your chiefs make it. I’m sorry that my Jets aren’t there. But most people, when I say that, they just have pity on me. They just feel bad. 

Lynn Lashbrook: At the moment, the Jets won the first ever American football game, Super Bowl. That was a game-changer with Joe. 

Elliot Kallen: That was. He was. And you can’t see my wall behind you, but it’s all Joe Namath. I’ve met him probably a dozen times, one of the most gracious people I’ve ever met, super nice, definitely not a snob, and not filled up with his fame. And I always wish him the very best. And I hope my paths cross with him again. Let’s do some future planning for a second, okay? Let’s go five, 10 years out, because everything is changing, as in the world of sports. It’s already changed from 10 years ago. It’s changing again. And let’s go to the major sports, because nobody can really tell where cricket is going. Or even soccer, we can get an idea for it. 

Lynn Lashbrook: This summer in New York, Major League World Cup cricket was so successful. Rugby, so successful. The cross-pollination of explosion of sport. There’s so many Indians from India over here that love cricket. And cricket is going to be part of the American mainstream someday, you watch. But go ahead, back to your point. 

Elliot Kallen: We know that soccer certainly is now. And I imagine pickleball will be, and may even overtake, it may even overtake tennis. Tennis people don’t, it’s like taxis don’t like Uber drivers. Tennis people don’t like pickleball. Tennis is the average person, should be pickleball is the average person’s game. I know. It’s a touch football on Thanksgiving. It’s the best. And it is. And I could play it until I’m 80 years old or until I snap both my Achilles tendons. One of the two. 

Lynn Lashbrook: You got two new knees. I’m back on the pickleball court. I just played the other day. I literally had to give it up for a couple of years to get my knee replay. I’m ready to get back. 

Elliot Kallen: I get it. I’m mostly made of titanium, so I definitely get that. All right, so I got two questions. Let me ask you the first one. Where is sports going in general? Not sports management, where’s sports going in general? So if somebody wants to get in this business and sign up where you can be in front of the curve, because those most successful people will be in front of the curve, not chasing the curve. That’s number one. And go ahead, let’s do that. 

Lynn Lashbrook: Well, no, I’m going to go to Africa. People, we don’t treat sports as a catalyst to make it a better world. Sports is, as I said, is better than war. It’s a weapon of mass construction. And you think about Africa and their love for sports and the sport business side, representation, analytics, talent discovery, cross-pollination. Many, many athletes around the world are coming to America. They want to get an education. They play sports. Look at the NBA and the multinational roster. That’s the revolution going on. It’s becoming a worldwide phenomena. And then women’s sports, the influence of women’s sports. I watched Title 9 52 years ago. The men fought it for 20 years. It’s here to stay. Look what Caitlin Clark has done. Look at the impact of women’s sports on societies that don’t give women many rights. Think of what it’s empowered women. So we’re making it a better world, but we need people in sports just because they didn’t play the game. They don’t have a letter jacket. They didn’t coach. There’s so much more to sport business. It used to be only if you played, you could be a coach and then a scout and then a GM, and then you’re fired. Now we get all these analytics people running NFL teams. We’re getting women scouting baseball or football. That’s the revolution going on. The opportunity to get paid for your passion. I tell students every day, adrenalized today and monetized tomorrow. You can make money in sport, representing one athlete, working for your favorite team, whether it’s in the marketing side, the analytics side, the scouting side. And then now universities are starting general managers, et cetera. They’re scouting. They’re all over the world. Oregon State, my backyard, the top major league draft pick was Travis Bozoma. Last year, Cleveland Guardians. He’s not from Oregon. He’s from Australia. He grew up cricket and rugby, but he saw baseball and he fell in love with baseball. Oregon State has a basketball team with seven roster members. We have no conference now since the uproar of the conference in the Pac-12. We have seven players on our basketball team from seven different countries, seven different languages. That’s the revolution going on. It’s exciting. It’s vertical. It’s all the way down to little league. Families are involved. Sport makes you a better person. It’s easier to raise kids in sport. Sports is important. So is music. But don’t tell me that sports isn’t a weapon of mass construction. It’s changing the world. And we need to invest in sports. We need leaders in sports. And we provide people an opportunity to get in the ecosystem. We don’t guarantee a job. We give them a chance. We’re changing the world. We are right now, as a league. 

Elliot Kallen: Now, let me ask you, does paying college players help or hurt? I would think it would help you. 

Lynn Lashbrook: No, I kept athletes eligible for years. I’ll look back now. The revolution, it’s a Supreme Court ruling. So let’s don’t debate if it’s right or wrong. It’s here. Chancellor, there’s no guardrails. I think Congress will get involved. But the athlete is becoming a business person. There’s social media. They can make money in high school. They can make money, which college you go to. They become better capitalists. So in fairness, over time, we’ll watch the game night, Notre Dame and Ohio State. It’s a changing world, but get over it. It was not right never to let the kids get any money. Even after they played, they wouldn’t even give them royalties on EA Sports. The NCA blew it. They’re gone. College is here. What’s going to happen to the Olympic sports? We don’t know. But being an athletic director or compliance officer, it’s an exciting time to work. Colleges need sport. They gotta have sport. Because if you don’t have sports, you may not get anybody at your school. 

Elliot Kallen: Yeah, I have to tell you, when you have so much money pulling these college kids out in year two from college, you’re almost guaranteeing that when they retire, they’re in trouble.

Lynn Lashbrook: If we do a good job with agent advisors and help them, realistically, they can be smart. We can call it a problem, or we can make it a solution. Sports Management Worldwide is offering a solution, a one-on-one agent advisor, no matter what your career is. You can be in your financial career. You can be an engineer. Whatever you are, you can mentor somebody and bring something to the table than just the family going ga-ga over all the money. I won’t argue with it. It’s not vulnerable. But we have to deal with it. But you can’t deal with it. I go back to taxi. They’re angry. They make you walk a mile further to get an Uber. Uber’s winning. Uber’s winning. You’re not investing in taxi companies, are you? I don’t think so. But Uber’s here to stay. I was in Vegas the other day. The guy, the driver’s from Ethiopia. I said, you have taxis in Ethiopia? He says, of course we do. It’s all over the world. Uber revolutionized our world. We’re going to revolutionize representation. The corporate agency can’t keep up with a one-on-one athlete being born every second, every day, all over the world. 

Elliot Kallen: Well, I’m with you on that. So on a personal level, I want you to know I’ve played hockey most of my life as a goalie, coached at a pretty high level. My brother has been an NHL wannabe for his entire life. He’s 70 now. He’s ready to do that. Why can’t hockey move further along with other sports?

Lynn Lashbrook: I was athletic director of Alaska Fairbanks. I grew up when Don Cherry was Kansas City Scouts coach I didn’t really know hockey till I moved to Alaska Fairbanks and we do a great job Harry Sennett used to teach our hockey course. He’s 90 years old in a Boston Bruins Exactly. Hockey is doing so well. I was with Commissioner Bettman up in Toronto Hockey’s doing great all over the world and it’s their TV ratings are way up The game is way up. My grandson three years old loves hockey So quick the everybody is getting smarter basketball is getting smarter hockey is getting smarter They’re growing like for Betman has done a great job in hockey So what was you know Canada and hockey look at how many hockey programs in the southern part of the United States that are successful Look how Arizona moved to Utah who would have ever imagined 30 years ago? What hockey is done hockey is way on its way, but we’re getting better sophisticated leadership. There’s more analytical There’s more talent discovery. They’re gonna play in the Olympics. It’s exciting. So I there’s not one sport. It’s not wrong 

Elliot Kallen: Well, I love your passion. We’ve been speaking with Lynn Lashbrook. All right of the sports world the Asian world If you need to reach us again, it’s not you five three one four eighty five or three or prosperityfinancialgroup.com Lynn tell me how people find you. How do they get involved with this? 

Lynn Lashbrook: They SMWW if you can’t spell it, I can’t help you SMW w.com. It’s all on the website. We’re all over the world. I’m dr. Lashbury You can click on talk to dr. Lashbury. I will give you a call personally and talk to you We’re not interested in selling courses. We’re interested in growing if I help you make money then I’ll grow my company So we’re a clean company Most people when they meet us they say it sounds too good to be true. It’s been a hard 30 years, but a very excited as a founder you realize after 30 years that you’ve got something You have the waffle iron You got to shoot now go out and get Michael Jordan and when I have my meetings tomorrow to be honest with you We’re going to start talking about how can we grow and scale in a more robust way than just Organically growing and that’s light bulb went off at 76 and I’ve decided I want to scale it up And I’m going to I’m gonna find somebody I love these podcasts. You can tell the transparency and my enthusiasm But what’s interesting? We have a company that makes money and we’re growing every day and it’s pretty damn exciting 

Elliot Kallen: That is very excited and you could tell Lynn’s passion. So reach out to Lynn Reach out to us get more information if you want to know how to reach Lynn and you can’t do it Just give me a holler or send me an email. We’ll get you in touch with Lynn You’ve been listening to an episode of meet the expert with Lynn With Elliot kills, you may meet the extra belly Callan and with little Ashbrook He’s up in the Northeast here Northwest you got me so excited. I’m forgetting who I am where I am 

Lynn Lashbrook: Spoke ringer sports is a weapon of mass construction Smww we will help will change your life get paid for your passion. Keep your day job Small investment lifetime membership. I dare you to look at the website Smww.com. I think that’s great Lynn. Thanks for being on here