RISE Sports Advisors Signs First NIL Client: Notre Dame OL Blake Fisher
RISE Sports Advisors has quickly made a name in NFL circles and especially those around Notre Dame.
Jaylon Smith and Drue Tranquill are part of the RISE family as the office focuses on developing, building strategies and elevating professional athletes into world-class entrepreneurs.
RISE, started by Michael Ledo, has its first NIL (Name, Image and Likeness) client in place in Notre Dame freshman offensive lineman Blake Fisher.
Ledo has been very selective in who RISE works with when it comes to professional athletes, and he did extensive research on Fisher leading up to the partnership.
"It's hard to find NFL guys mature enough to work with us," Ledo told ISD. "It's a small percentage. What's the likelihood of finding a college kid that's mature enough? Not likely.
"Blake Fisher is more mature than some of my pro guys and his family is A-plus. Blake's thought process, maturity, communication skills - we're excited. A lot of people are signing NIL guys that are actually declaring for the draft this year and we're not doing any of that.”
Many agencies or offices similar to RISE have turned attention to draft-eligible players. Ledo has done the opposite and feels Fisher will set a high bar for future student-athletes.
"We could sign three or four guys for NIL, but we're doing a standard process; with Blake, it makes sense," explained Ledo. "We think he has an opportunity to be a legend at Notre Dame. He has the opportunity to be in the Zack Martin, Quenton Nelson and Jaylon Smith conversation. We can help him build something intelligently.
"You set the bar with your first client. Blake sets the bar with the kind of college kid we're looking to work with."
RISE has helped Jaylon Smith grow his brand, but also become business savvy.
Smith has grown his enterprise into several fields that include his own Minority Entrepreneurship Institute, Hotel Tango Artisan Distillery, Clear Eye View eyewear, iCryo and real estate development.
Fisher's father, Mark, believes RISE will allow his son to grow away from the field and prepare him for the future.
"RISE offers an array of services that is a toolbox that will forever be something he'll be able to reach into and use in a variety of different situations," the elder Fisher exclusively told ISD. "It's all about preparing (Blake), and RISE has so many different things that are scalable to him - getting him into a place where it's not necessarily about making a deal, but educating and making him aware of who he is, the capabilities of what he's able to do so as those opportunities come, they meet the value of who he is."
The value between Fisher and RISE isn't about obtaining NIL deals, but rather educating him to make the right decisions away from the field.
"I feel like we've embraced it and have brought our tools into Blake's toolbox that will last him a lifetime," Mark Fisher said. "He'll be able to use them as they are applicable to his journey going forward, even though he's just a freshman at the University of Notre Dame."
It's precisely why Ledo started RISE and those tools will help provide Fisher with a chance to get ahead of his peers.
"Our foundation at Rise is education," Ledo stated. "It's about education, access and infrastructure. These college kids can make money, but if we can get with a Blake Fisher, we can start educating him. We can teach things to him now we wouldn't be teaching until they come out of college. We can accelerate the education process. We can start putting things in structure when it comes to investors or the right accounting."
RISE and Notre Dame are very similar in mission, which appealed to the Fisher family. The goal isn't about the next four years, but it's about the next 40 - a frequent refrain from both entities.
"Every year I go to the Super Bowl and you have all these pro football players there, but you have a small group of people that stand out," said Ledo. "They all wear gold jackets. You have all these people like Jaylon Smith, but you have this group of guys with a gold jacket. They're a whole different hemisphere.
"That's called long-term brand equity. Those guys are making as much or more money than when they played because of the brand. We want to build long-term brand equity."
What does that mean in the grand scheme of NIL?
Well, don't look for Fisher to follow in the footsteps of his peers.
"Branding is about authenticity, not promoting yourself or putting on a persona," explained Ledo. "It's about, ‘Who is Blake Fisher?.’ What makes his heart beat? And what is he passionate about? How do we create core values to make sure we don't work with people that don't align with him?
"We're not trying to chase the money. The money will come for a kid like him, but we want to make sure when someone looks at him, they see consistency with who he is and this is what he stands for."
RISE also likely has an advantage over agencies or startups as there is no change when it comes to NIL.
"They need accounting, financing and all this stuff," Ledo said. "We know it, and that's what we do. A lot of agencies have to create a pivot to do this. We don't have to do that because it's in place."
There is also trust between RISE and the Fisher family as Ledo is a Fort Wayne native. Fisher's mother has mutual connections along with the Jaylon Smith and Notre Dame connection, which helped create a reassurance RISE was the right fit.
"It's going to make a difference, so there's not necessarily one person going in the opposite direction of the other," said Fisher. "We're going together as a team in a strategic manner to make the ultimate impact."
RISE Clients
LB Drue Tranquill - LA Chargers
LB Jaylon Smith - Dallas Cowboys
S Jessie Bates III - Cincinnati Bengals
WR Austin Mack - New York Giants
DB Marvell Tell III - Indianapolis Colts
WR D'Wayne Eskridge - Seattle Seahawks
DL Deatrich Wise - New England Patriots
Defensive Coordinator Tim Banks - Tennessee Volunteers
More about RISE Sports Advisors: https://www.risesportsadvisors.com/