Building Your Child's Brand

Summary

Joy Harris, entrepreneur and founder of SCORE, joins Lisa Stone to discuss how junior tennis players and student-athletes can leverage Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) regulations to build personal brands and secure brand deals. Harris explains that NIL opportunities are not limited to college athletes in revenue sports — tennis players as young as elementary school can pursue brand partnerships. The conversation covers personal branding basics, social media safety, the range of deals available (from $20 to six figures), and why NIL is as much about networking and career development as it is about money.

Guest Background

Joy Harris is an entrepreneur who pivoted into the student-athlete space after navigating the youth sports system with her own child (a football player). She runs SCORE, an organization focused on closing the career, financial, and mental health gap for student-athletes. She authored “How to Get Paid Before One Pro” and works one-on-one with families on NIL strategy, brand building, and deal matchmaking.

Key Topics

• NIL is not just for revenue sports: Track, volleyball, and tennis athletes have secured some of the most NIL deals. The misconception that only football and basketball players benefit is driven by headline bias, not reality.
• Personal branding formula: “I play X and I like Z” — combine the sport with a genuine personal interest (food, fashion, music, anything authentic) to create a unique brand identity that attracts non-sport-specific sponsors.
• Start young, before regulation kicks in: For sports like tennis where players start early, Harris recommends pursuing brand deals in elementary and middle school when there are fewer restrictions. By high school, state-level regulations begin to apply.
• Social media presence is necessary but flexible: Athletes don’t need to be extroverts or create elaborate content. They should be present on the platform they naturally use (TikTok, YouTube, Snapchat) and post authentically. Engagement matters more than follower count.
• Brand deals span every category: Apparel, nutrition, vitamins, socks, equipment, local businesses (bakeries, dentists, HVAC companies). The key insight is to look beyond sport-specific brands to everything the athlete already uses and loves.
• NIL as networking vehicle: Brand deals connect student-athletes with executives and managers they would never otherwise meet, opening post-career employment pathways. This is potentially more valuable than the financial compensation itself.
• No logo or website needed to start: Harris pushes back against the “business kit” mentality. Athletes need content and audience engagement, not letterhead.

Actionable Advice for Families

1. Start building a brand identity early — the “I play X and I like Z” formula is the simplest entry point.
2. Don’t limit brand deal searches to tennis-specific companies. Catalog every brand your athlete already uses and loves, then explore partnership opportunities.
3. Use the social media platform your child already gravitates toward. Authenticity on one platform beats forced presence on five.
4. Parents should participate actively in the brand-building process, especially for younger athletes, to manage safety and guide content creation.
5. Don’t wait for brands to come to you — proactively reach out to local businesses and companies whose products your athlete genuinely uses.
6. Treat NIL income as more than expense offset: it teaches financial literacy, professional communication, and networking — skills with lifelong value.

INTENNSE Relevance

• Adjacent market signal: NIL monetization for junior athletes (pre-college) is an emerging space that intersects with INTENNSE’s family advisory positioning. The gap between “awareness that NIL exists” and “knowing how to execute” is wide.
• Content opportunity: The “I play tennis and I like Z” formula is immediately actionable content for INTENNSE’s audience. Simple frameworks that reduce complexity have high adoption rates.
• Networking angle aligns with INTENNSE thesis: Harris’s point that NIL’s greatest value is networking and post-career connection (not just money) reinforces the INTENNSE view that tennis development should be holistically career-oriented.
• Youth sports cost offset: With junior tennis costs escalating, positioning NIL as a legitimate cost-offset strategy (not just a revenue-sport luxury) is a differentiating message.

Notable Quotes

“If the colleges and universities are using NIL to their advantage to get you, you can use it to your advantage for yourself.”

“Building brand is not about likes and followers. Building brand is about engagement. And it could be teeny tiny communities.”

“NIL for me is not just about money. As students are getting brand deals, they’re meeting managers, executives, representatives of these companies they would never, never have access to.”