Empowering non-revenue sport student-Athletes for NIL success

 
NIL Quickstart logo for the NIL course

NIL Quickstart at a Glance

The NIL Quickstart program provides Olympic/non-revenue sport student-athletes a step-by-step guide to independently secure authentic NIL partnerships. The program includes:

3 Live 45-minute Workshops: Covering 1) personal branding for NIL, 2) developing NIL-centric social media, and 3) learning to market your NIL.

Digital Course (complementary 1-year license for all student-athletes): Same core content from the 3 live workshops, but in a self-paced format to ensure 100% access to all your student-athletes.

Workbook: A 40-page companion guide with checklists, prompts, and templates to simplify and jumpstart your student-athletes’ NIL success.

 

“The way Quickstart empowers athletes has not only impacted me but many others in my circle who are navigating their own NIL journeys.”

Michelle Thao, UNC Asheville

 

Supporting Olympic/Non-Revenue Sport Student-Athletes

Over thirty DI universities currently use NIL Quickstart. They include a broad range of schools from UC Davis and the University of Vermont to UNC Asheville and North Carolina A&T. They understand that most student-athletes won’t benefit from the House v. NCAA settlement revenue-sharing model.

Yet many student-athletes are interested in the potential income and other benefits that NIL can bring. NIL Quickstart supports non-revenue sport athletes by providing tools to help them work independently to identify and secure authentic NIL partnerships - not from revenue sharing or from a Collective.

By providing NIL Quickstart, an athletic department is ensuring that every one of their student-athletes has access to practical, actionable NIL education.

 

The NIL Quickstart Curriculum

Slide from personal branding module from NIL Quickstart

01 Building a Personal Brand for NIL

"What" you are going to communicate for the purpose of landing your first NIL deal

  • Take a deep dive into your strengths, values, and interests - a personal inventory.

  • Determine your target audience so that you can tailor your message, build relationships, and attract opportunities.

  • Create your core message - the one key takeaway you want your audience to remember about you.

 
Slide about the importance of analyzing your followers for NIL social media success

02 Establishing NIL-Centric Social Media

"Where" you are going to communicate for the purpose of landing your first NIL deal

  • Learn to align your personal brand with your social media.

  • Access tools to develop a content plan to keep your audience engaged and interested.

  • Create a social media account that potential NIL partners see as a marketing asset that they can tap into.

 
Slide from NIL Quickstart about learning to sell your NIL

03 learn to market your nil

"How" you are going to communicate for the purpose of landing your first NIL deal

  • Learn how to identify your ideal NIL business partners.

  • Create a killer NIL pitch deck!

  • Create an outreach plan that uses multiple channels and effective follow-up strategies.

 
Slide from NIL Quickstart workbook

04 The Game Plan workbook

40-page Game Plan Workbook—a powerful guide packed with checklists, branding prompts, and templates to simplify the NIL journey. This workbook is designed to:

  • Help you reflect on and develop your brand.

  • Provide social media insights to help you connect with the right audience.

  • Offer ready-to-use templates to streamline your NIL sales and marketing efforts.

 
 

The Data Analysis Behind Quickstart

In the Spring of 2024, I surveyed over 700 DI student-athletes, selected based on whether they had received NIL education from their school or a third party.

Then isolating student-athletes who had secured at least one NIL deal, I surveyed them about the content of the NIL education they’d received (financial literacy, Collectives, regulations, and 10+ other areas of focus.)

Based on that data, I identified the content that had a positive correlation to landing a first/next partnership or had a negative/no correlation to pursuing NIL or securing an NIL partnership.

The data supports that there are three elements of NIL education lead to a student-athlete’s success:

  • Building a personal brand for NIL

  • Establishing an NIL-centric social media presence

  • Learning to sell their NIL to brands/businesses

Read below for detail on the curriculum I built.

*Curriculum that includes elements like financial literacy, regulations, and life skills has value - and in other workshops and courses, I teach that too. But that curriculum lacks relevance and the tangible steps toward helping student-athletes secure their first and next NIL deal.

 
Bill Carter, NIL expert, teaching NIL education course

Meet Your Instructor: Bill Carter

Bill Carter is an NIL Columnist for Sports Business Journal and teaches NIL at the University of Vermont’s Grossman School of Business. Prior to launching Student-Athlete Insights in 2020, Bill spent 20+ years in the sports industry, founded the agency Fuse, and was awarded Sports Business Journal's Forty Under 40 Award as one of the most influential executives in sports.

Bill Carter is one of the nation’s leading NIL experts and a trusted figure in NIL consulting. With over 20 years of experience in the sports industry, Bill has dedicated his career to NIL education and student-athlete success. As an NIL educator and consultant, he teaches NIL at the University of Vermont’s Grossman School of Business and regularly writes on NIL topics for the Sports Business Journal. Bill founded Student-Athlete Insights in 2020 to support athletes across the U.S. in making the most of their NIL opportunities.

 

Testimonials for Student-Athlete Insights