How this NFL Linebacker is changing the game for other athletes through his online course!

Sunny Lenarduzzi:

Hello everyone. I am so, so, so excited about today's interview. I am so thrilled because I am speaking to Jelani Jenkins today, who is a client in our Authority Accelerator program. He is also a former NFL linebacker, played for the Miami Dolphins, Oakland Raiders, and Houston Texans. And after transitioning out of professional sports, he became an entrepreneur and he joined our program to create his online course. And now it's really become a movement via his digital platform called a Postseason, which empowers athletes for life after sports, through online courses, coaching and community events. It has evolved into a whole thing. And I'm so excited to dive into that today, plus Jelani and Postseason, the platform he created was recently featured in Forbes. So I'm so excited to have Jelani here and I'm excited to welcome him today. Hi, Jelani. How are you?

Jelani Jenkins:

Hello. Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here. I really am.

Sunny Lenarduzzi:

Oh my gosh, I'm so excited to have you. And I just have to say, I think it's so wild because you actually set out a goal when you watched Geoffrey's story and Geoffrey's interview that you were going to be a success story. So here we are.

Jelani Jenkins:

Here we are. Here we are. I was inspired seeing someone else's success story. And I was like, I got to get on that Facebook page. It was a mandatory thing for me to get here and here we are.

Sunny Lenarduzzi:

You did it.

Jelani Jenkins:

And how powerful the program is. I'm excited to be here.

Sunny Lenarduzzi:

Aw, I thank you so much. And I think what's so wild too, we were talking about this before we got on live, is that, I mean, we did that case study with Geoffrey less than a year ago, so it's been less than a year and so much has changed for you in this year. If people are kind of unfamiliar with your journey, do you want to kind of share with people what your journey has looked like over this last year?

Jelani Jenkins:

Yeah. Yeah. I came into the Authority Accelerator around this time last year, a little bit earlier maybe, and was in a position where I did not have some one-on-one clients. I didn't really know how to scale the program. I'm coming from this NFL background, kind of new into the entrepreneurial world. And I didn't really know what I was doing necessarily. I was going into YouTube. I was kind of all over the place, just doing like mindset stuff and not speaking to anyone directly in person. And so I joined the platform after watching Geoffrey's live and immediately I was just filled with so much love from the community, from the coaches, and I'm the type of person who needs like, just if you give me straight direction, I can make it happen. And that's what the program was all about. Showing me step by step. I took it step by step, took my time with it grew through the process. I was put in a lot of uncomfortable positions as everyone that goes to the program, you're forced to grow and expand out of your comfort zone. And so, I got to the point where, I can go through the whole story, but I don't know how much you want me to share just yet.

Sunny Lenarduzzi:

No, I think that's perfect. I mean, I think that's a good teaser is to say you're pushed out of your comfort zone because for me, I mean, I'm far from a professional athlete, so I just think it's so interesting to be on this side of it and to go, "How could I possibly push you out of your comfort zone realistically?" And when you think about having a career in the NFL, which is something that people only dream of and now being an entrepreneur, what would you say is harder or has been harder for you?

Jelani Jenkins:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's tough. It's interesting. I mean, I trained my whole life to be in NFL and the whole time I was surrounded by support, coaches, nutritionists telling me what to eat, where to be, where to go. And when I stopped playing in the NFL, all of that left and that's kind of my passion behind creating this course. And the program I created is you get into this isolation, you get into this immediate loss of support. And so in the entrepreneurial world, not having a coach is not having a playbook, not having a direct understanding of step by step what to do, has been very challenging. And it's something that I haven't trained for 12 years for, so I would say it's a tie, but I would say the entrepreneurial life, it really helps to have a coach. It really helps to have that support system to surround yourself with people who can help you through it, mentors, community, all of that.

Sunny Lenarduzzi:

I fully agree. I mean, I always say coaches need coaches. And I mean, for you as somebody who is in the sports world, moving into the business world, it makes perfect sense that you would also look for mentors and role models as I'm sure you did when you were an athlete, I'm sure from a young age, you were looking up to people and getting guidance from people and it's really no different when you are an entrepreneur.

Jelani Jenkins:

Yeah. Yeah. And it took me a little while to understand that for whatever reason. I felt like during the athlete phase, although we had coaches, although we had teammates, all the support, I still was at home doing ladder drills by myself, getting it in. And I know that if I put the work in, I can get to wherever I need to go. So I took that approach in the next phase, but I was burning out, feeling like I was all over the place and didn't have that support. And so I felt like I had the work ethic of a professional athlete without the structure and without the understanding and the know-how. And so that's really what was driving me to really, really frustration, slight depression, all those different things.

Sunny Lenarduzzi:

I mean, let's talk about that because I think that that's so important to discuss, because I think it's oftentimes a piece of entrepreneurship that gets overlooked is that you kind of only ever see this, you see the success story, you see the transformation, the end result. And of course that's what gravitates people to want to do this and to be an entrepreneur. But when you kind of think about where you were at your most frustrated and challenged state, what did that look like for you? And what do you think led to you feeling that way?

Jelani Jenkins:

Yeah. I mean, for me, I had a lot of different loves. I was tapping into my artistic side. I was getting, I had the camera in front of me. I was getting into YouTube and I just wasn't seeing the same level of results. I think I compared it to the immediate gratification of being in the NFL. Like I make a tackle, the crowd goes crazy. I leave the game, knowing that I had a win. It was easy metrics for success, sports. I can compare my stats with everyone else's stats being a good linebacker, if I have better stats than that linebacker. But in this phase, I was kind of in it on my own. And I was running my own race, thinking people were way ahead of me and so I would just overwork, work, work, work, work, and not know that I was moving forward and not know that I was having success. And that's really what was really driving me to the brink of it, where I needed to find a solution. And then, we found each other,

Sunny Lenarduzzi:

We found each other. And now I know, I didn't even know prior to us talking about how you kind of got introduced to this was through, very same thing. Facebook live that I did a year ago or almost a year ago with Geoffrey. And I just did a followup with him last month, which if you're here, you might've seen that as well, where Geoffrey has gone from zero to a million dollars in 18 months. And I mean, for you, your transformation has been incredible too. So I do want to dive into that.

And also be sure to share this with somebody who you think needs a little inspiration or that you think could be next success story. And one of you very well could be the person that Jelani was, when he was watching Geoffrey’s case study and you could be our next success story. So just so you're clear on what is happening here, we are talking to Jelani Jenkins, former NFL linebacker, now a thriving entrepreneur just featured in Forbes and he is a member of our Authority Accelerator program. And if you're interested in the Authority Accelerator program, I'm going to drop the link for you to go ahead and apply right here.

So you and I find each other about a year ago and you enroll in the program. And I vividly remember our first conversation. Do you remember that conversation?

Jelani Jenkins:

I remember it very vividly.

Sunny Lenarduzzi:

So do you want to explain what happened?

Jelani Jenkins:

Yeah. I was in the process of doing my ICA research for those that don't know, it was, I have to interview 50 ideal client avatars and I wasn't getting a lot of traction. And I had a wide net cast and was looking for anyone who was wanting to, or in the process of transitioning into a more purposeful career. Maybe they had a lot of success in this career, but they wanted to transition. So I was casting that net on anybody in that phase. And I wasn't really getting a lot of traction. I didn't know where to find this particular person. And I came once to one of the coaching calls and had a long question for Sunny, like where am I going wrong? And Sunny didn't even answer the question. She would just like, "Before I go into that, why don't you just do athletes? Why don't you just focus on athletes, athletes who want to find something more purposeful?" And immediately as she said it, I just like, "Yep. Yep."

Because that makes the most sense. That makes most the sense. And I think for me, I was kind of in my own head with just blockages of that's too niched down and it's just a specialized crowd or I'm still an athlete, so they're not necessarily going to see me as an authority and want to work with me. There's a lot of different blockages going through my mind. But as soon as you said that, you cleared that up for me, I changed it around and let's say in four weeks I had 10 interviews lined up for that other route. Within two weeks I had like 35 lined up when I focused directly on athletes and niched down. So I completely remember that that was the catalyst to just put me in a flow. It was like taking a boulder out of the river.

Sunny Lenarduzzi:

Let it flow. Yeah. I mean, I think it's really interesting. I think this is a good sort of teaching point for anybody who's here who's trying to figure out what their niche is. I've now worked with thousands of people doing this, and I do feel like it's a superpower of mine to really identify what somebody's niche is, but at the end of the day, it's because it's so simple. And generally it's super aligned with your own story. And the thing that you're meant to teach people is the thing that you have the most experience in. And so oftentimes we go after these sort of broad niches and that's the old way of niching down was to go after these big, broad niches, like dating, like mindset, which is kind of the path that you were going down. And what we try to do is help you create a micro-niche and an uncopyable niche. And what that is, is it's really based on your own story. And your story is you were a professional athlete and then you transitioned into the real world. And as you spoke about earlier, that wasn't an easy transition. So now when you kind of ... Hindsight's 20/20, so when you look back at what you've created, how aligned is your program and what you're doing now with your own journey and your own story?

Jelani Jenkins:

Yeah, it's very much still aligned. I have three main phases. The first is self discovery. It's something that I went through when I was in my most challenged state. I immediately got into yoga and meditation, just kind of finding myself through the self discovery path. Who am I, what do I want, who must I become in the second phase is self-mastery. And actually after figuring that out, how do I actually train my mind and disrupt those limiting beliefs, those limiting patterns, how do I reinforce new empowering ones, going through a self-mastery phase. And the third is impact. How do I take all of that, find my new zone of genius. How do I find this next phase of my purpose, how do I structure my life to where I'm moving in a way that is exciting to me, but that I'm not burning out.

And so it's completely aligned with my exact journey and that's what made it simple in a lot of ways to really create it for others. And then just going into that first initial phase of bringing people through it, hearing the feedback, I was able to iterate and really make it fine tuned for my people. And, yeah, it's completely related to what they're going through. We all have very similar situations, and I think that's the power of niching down and connecting with somebody, or an audience that connects with your story. We're all going through very similar things. And we're just not really talking about it because we're only showing the good side.

Sunny Lenarduzzi:

I completely agree. And I think what's so interesting, you said actually you posted on Instagram today before we got on this live, and you said,?

"I think the biggest thing that I got from us working together was you fell in love with the people that you were meant to serve."

And that really at the basics of it all, I think it's really interesting when people are like, "I need to have an audience. I need to have all of these things in order to build a business." But if you have experienced it, there are other people out there who need your support and help. And generally the people that you're meant to serve and the audience that you're going to love the most are the people who are in the zero state that you were also in, when you were trying to navigate life after professional sports, that's really who you're serving. You're almost serving yourself at that point. And there's a lot of other people out there. So when you think about the first clients that you attracted, describe some of those people.

Jelani Jenkins:

Yeah. Some of them I played with and I didn't know what they were going through, but they were kind of watching me in this marketing phase and they reached out and I reached out to them. Some of them were people that I interviewed and I could hear their stories in that interview process, but, they were, one of them was battling with depression, just having a lot of challenges. He got cut from the NFL, like a year after I left, he was a younger guy. Another one, he was a college athlete and was just burning out. He had a really high work ethic, but didn't really know how to structure it. Another one was in a job that he just felt like it was beneath him kind of. I mean, he just felt like he wasn't fulfilled. He was having troubles in his personal life and didn't know how to balance both worlds.

So they were kind of coming from different areas, but ultimately they all really were looking for something more fulfilling, more aligned with their true self, a true self and the intuition that they didn't really know how to connect with yet. So I think that was my really specialty is like being able to teach mindfulness and ways to connect with your inner voice and your intuition, they needed help with that so that they can align with what it is that they were supposed to be doing and then help get a roadmap of how to actually pursue that goal.

Sunny Lenarduzzi:

I love that. And it's so important and obviously it's proven to be something that has worked for you because it's just built more and more and more momentum as you ... I feel like what happened was we had that initial conversation when you came into the Authority Accelerator program and it was like you said, it was like a catalyst. You were like, "Okay, got it. Light bulb moment. I know now who I'm going to work with." And since then, it's just gone. It's just skyrocketed. It's just taken off. And so with where you are now, I mean the first iteration of your program, you had six clients who came in the door now it's turned into something so much bigger than that. And you were just featured in Forbes. So tell us about the evolution. That started very simplistically.

Jelani Jenkins:

Yeah, a lot of it, when I went through that first initial group of six, I wanted to find a way ... So realistically, a lot of what we do is through the Facebook community, but for whatever reason with the athletes I was working with, they just were kind of resistant to it. And I wanted to find a way to combine the community aspect with the course, with the coaching and have it kind of all in one platform. And that's kind of the area that I was kind of moving towards. And so kind of long story short, I was able to put a team together, kind of on a project basis, not a full-time team, everyone had their own jobs and stuff, but was able to put a team together on this vision. Can we create this? Found somebody was able to create this platform. We worked on the branding and we made the logo. We got it looking the way we wanted it to. And essentially I just put my own course, which I created the SOP.

Sunny Lenarduzzi:

Scalable offer prototype, yeah.

Jelani Jenkins:

Prototype. It's pretty much taking your course and making it into video, self-paced format. I put that on the platform and was able to, on that same platform have a community element, live social feed, pretty much like a Facebook newsfeed, but also in that newsfeed, we can bring on different guests and people who can add value to the same community. And then also on that same platform, people were able to sign up for group coaching calls. So essentially taking, what I was getting ready to do on multiple platforms and putting it all on one and making it really feel like a locker room, feel like a sports atmosphere, which I'm very familiar with. And so I was able to put the team together, the lifetime access individuals that came on the personal journey with me through the live format, they joined the platform, and were able to give me feedback.

It's in its beta form. We haven't even fully launched the full thing yet. So it's not a big community right now, but right now we're putting the pieces in place, interviewing with investors, doing a lot of the fun stuff. And Forbes was able to really meet us to a point where we were able to tell our story and they loved the story, and it happened really quickly.

Sunny Lenarduzzi:

That's wild.

Jelani Jenkins:

And since Forbes made that story, I mean, it's just been like an abundance of support and it just, it was credibility. It was reinforcing to me how much of a demand this is and how many people in this world have something that they want to add to this mission. So it's way bigger than me at this point. And so now I feel myself in a situation where I'm just helping bring the geniuses around me to help create this vision for everybody that needs it.

Sunny Lenarduzzi:

I mean, it's incredible. And I think what's really important for people to understand is that this journey that it now is so much bigger than you started internally. And that is where majority of the most successful courses, for sure, I mean, we see this every single day inside the Authority Accelerator program, every single successful course comes from an internal story and an internal challenge, roadblock, hurdle that you've had to overcome for yourself and you haven't experienced it. And when you do it that way, I mean, it makes you uncopyable and it creates something that's completely unique in the market. There could be other people doing it, but they probably don't have the same story as you. So there is no competition. And the minute you went internal, it created this upward trajectory, tipping point of where you are now. And the fact that Forbes picked you up within a matter of days of this thing launching, even in a beta format, just proves that this is something that is going to be big for you. And it is something that there is so much demand around. How does it feel to see this sort of come to life? Does it feel surreal for you right now?

Jelani Jenkins:

Yeah, it feels surreal. It does feel surreal. I mean, seeing the, I mean, just the amount of people that I've gotten in contact with since that's happened has been really amazing. It's been humbling. For me also as a mindset coach, I'm very like a spiritual person. I got my amethyst right here.

But no, I really feel like Forbes was something that was on my vision board a couple of years ago. It's humbling, and, but I really feel like this is something that I've had on my mind and I feel like I'm hoping to create this moment as well. I know I put in a lot of work, but to see the amount of support that's come in as a result and the abundance that's come out of this as a result, it happened so quickly. And for that, I was surprised.

Sunny Lenarduzzi:

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, but I feel like, I mean, one of our team members, Lauren, she said last week, she was like, "Alignment is the absence of friction." And I feel like when you're truly aligned with what you're meant to be doing on this planet, which I do really believe comes from internal stories, there is no friction and everything just seems to move a lot smoother, faster, and quicker. And of course it takes hard work, but it feels more seamless. And it feels like there isn't as much push, it feels like you're almost pulling all of these things to you. Do you feel that when you're kind of in flow versus prior to us working together, feeling that sort of frustration and you're just kind of stuck, do you feel that difference?

Jelani Jenkins:

Yeah, I definitely feel like I'm being pulled to something. That's a vision that I actively bring into mind every single day, a couple of times a day. And I feel like I'm being pulled to that for sure. And I feel like people are coming into my world out of nowhere, synchronicities are happening that just make no sense at all. And I just feel like there's an architect really designing this whole thing and I'm just playing one important role in it.

Sunny Lenarduzzi:

I love that.

Jelani Jenkins:

And so, yeah, it definitely feels like you said, a pull, it feels like just pure flow and it feels like it's simple. I just need to continue to keep in touch with my intuition and walk forward every single day and move forward and things will work itself out how it's supposed to.

Sunny Lenarduzzi:

I love it. If you are just joining us, this is Jelani. Jelani is a member of our Authority Accelerator program. Jelani joined us about a year ago when he was watching a Facebook live that I did with another client, another client success story. He said, "I'm going to be a success story." And here we are today. So you may be sitting there thinking I'm going to be the next success story. And if you are, you can go and apply for the Authority Accelerator at sunnylenarduzzi.com/apply.

So one thing that I for sure know comes up, I'm sure it's coming up for people watching this, is like, "Well, it must be easy for him. He had the platform, he had the following, he had the authority because he was already professional athlete. It must be easier for him." What would you say to that?

Jelani Jenkins:

Yeah, it wasn't easy. It wasn't easy. When it comes to just social media in general, I have a real interesting relationship with it, because I came in and when it was popping, I was kind of in this phase where I was getting recruited by a bunch of schools and so long story short, I have a lot of people who have followed me in my career and my sports career for one particular reason, me being an athlete and making plays and being on this team, their favorite team. And so once I left the game and kind of went into my own person, I mean, I lost, I mean, we're talking vanity metrics. I lost all the engagement people weren't really interested in me going crystal shot. So no, it wasn't easy at all. Like I said before, I mean, I would get 14 views on my YouTube channel just speaking on mindset, when I didn't have a niche, I was not really reaching people. I was scattered and it was very challenging.

I think one thing that I did have as an advantage, I had a little bit of time because of the resources I was able to accumulate from football. I had a little bit of time to be able to fine tune. I wasn't pressured in the same way of needing to pay bills. So I think that is something that's important, but I'm one story out of how many people who are in Authority Accelerator, who are creating that same path. So it's not easy at all. It won't be easy for anybody going into the entrepreneur phase. The world shut down everything that I had initially planned just completely transitioned. Everyone's going through this. Things happen outside of us that we can't control. So it's never going to be like just a fully easy journey, even when we're in flow, there's the challenges that come up like mercury retrogrades happen.

Sunny Lenarduzzi:

Absolutely.

Jelani Jenkins:

My microphone didn't work coming into this. Things happen.

Sunny Lenarduzzi:

You still sound flawless. But yeah, we had some issues.

Jelani Jenkins:

Well, thank you.

Sunny Lenarduzzi:

Yes. You sound flawless. Don't worry. Yeah. I mean, that's the reality. The reality is, doesn't matter who you are, what you're coming into this with, it's not an easy journey, but it can be simple and something I wanted to touch on, because we're getting questions about like, how did you interview people? Did you do it on podcast or YouTube? What's your YouTube channel name, all these things. And I want to kind of clarify, we don't even touch social media in the beginning of when we're working with our clients, because if you don't know inside and out who you're serving, nothing will grow. And what the interviews that Jelani was referring to earlier, we call them ICA interviews. It's one of the first practices you do when you get into the Authority Accelerator and we show you how to build the right audience.

Because as he mentioned, he had an audience of people following him because he was in the NFL. And the minute he started talking about mindset, they were like, "Oh, well this isn't what I was following you for." So we show you how to build the right audience and an audience of 50 new people who are your ideal clients right off the bat. And that sounds like magic, but it's truth. And every single person who comes to the program does it. And they generally sell out their course in the first round of it with just those 50 people. And then you now know how to find clients for the rest of time, because we put you through this process and this workshop basically of where to find your people that are the right fit for your course. And you're not just kind of going blanket and trying to find all these people.

So when you think about, I want to touch on this note, the simplicity of kind of how we built out the pathway for you to even find your clients and get your initial course off the ground versus what you were doing before, because you have the work ethic. you will go, you talked about it earlier. I will work my face off. I will go hard. It's not the work ethic question. It's the right work. So when you think about pre Authority Accelerator, versus when we started working together, did you find it to be a more simple approach and how you did things?

Jelani Jenkins:

It was like straight point A to point B. Before that I was going all over the place, trying to get to point B. And what I mean by that is we had to reach into people's DMs and say like, "I want to talk to you directly." And, before I would try to create a whole course on my own and try to just guess what they want, try to put stuff out there, hoping somebody would latch on to it, but not really talking to anybody, just in my own zone, just feeling burnt out, not having any metric of am I doing this right? So I think the simplicity of it is go get your people and get clear on your story and go find those that you are passionate about serving and speak to them and have real conversation.

And in those interviews, I mean, there was tears that were coming up. I mean, for me and the other person, really getting in depth of like,?

"This is what I went through. Wow. Nobody's ever asked me these questions before. I never really got a chance to speak this out. What you're doing a course? How do I get involved?"?

And I really got a chance to fully understand, not just those individuals, but myself at a very deeper level, because it is uncomfortable. It's very uncomfortable to put yourself out there and it's like asking for help, but also I'm asking for help so I can help you.

Sunny Lenarduzzi:

Absolutely. And it, I mean, it's led to where we are today, which is amazing. And that is the very basis of any business is you have to know what your client really needs, not what you think they need. And I mean, I made that mistake when I created my first course, I just made it. I spent like three months making a course that I had done zero research on, and this is a mistake that so many people make. And that course wasn't very successful. And when I think about all the research I put into the Authority Accelerator before I created it, and even to this day, I still want to know my clients better than anybody else does, it's made it the success that it is today and it's also led to my clients having more success as well, because when you base it off of foundation of knowing exactly who you want to serve, and also what you want to be known for, it makes it very easy for everything else to fall into place.

The algorithm knows exactly how to help you grow because they know who you're targeting and why you want to be known for. It's not all over the map and it makes your content and your marketing so much easier as well. And these interviews are not recorded on social media. They're strictly for research purposes and you're basically having these conversations. We give you questions to ask, to figure out, "Okay, what do these people really, really need from me? Who do I really want to work with?" And then by the end of it, they're like, oh, wait, you're going to have a solution for me on this. You're going to have a course? I'm in. And that makes it very simple to sell the first round of your program, which is not something that you see when it comes to a lot of online courses, a lot of online courses, it's like, "Go massive. You got to have a big audience," et cetera. We're kind of the opposite. And you build your audience no matter where you are, what point you're at.

When it comes to mindset, because I know you're big on mindset and you're spiritual as am I, what do you think when you look back over this last year, what do you think has been the biggest mindset shift that you have gone through since we started working together?

Jelani Jenkins:

Yeah, that's a great question. I think for me it has a lot to do with kind of comparing myself to the other individuals in the program or I think the biggest mindset shift for me was run your own race and all going through this journey, our own personal journey and not think that there's so many amazing things that the Authority Accelerator offers and is able to give value to those who invest and those who go into the program. And then there's also like everyone's personal journey through that. Everyone comes in at a different stage and everyone has different limiting beliefs and thoughts that they have to get over to get to that point.

And for me early on, to be very candid, those are those six clients that I brought into the first round and I had a goal of 12 and I didn't hit the goal that I wanted to. And I saw other people hitting the goal and hitting these numbers. And, initially I felt a little bit down, but then I had a realization of, "Yeah, I'm going to work so hard for these six individuals to change their life." And if I can honestly say like, I'm happy with changing six individuals' lives, then I'm fulfilled in that case and everything else will work itself out. And when I was going through that process, I remember Sunny telling me that success is inevitable and it really stuck with me. Success is inevitable and I'm going to really take this as my personal journey. And what ended up happening was my journey wasn't really supposed to look like anybody else's journey in there. It was supposed to look like this. So I'm really grateful for that mindset shift and not to feel down because the metrics might not have looked the same as others in the platform because everyone is in there for a reason and everyone's going through their own journey.

Sunny Lenarduzzi:

Absolutely. And I always say like, I mean, there's that quote, which says, you're the sum of the five people you spend the most time with. And I do look at our community inside the Authority Accelerator and I'm like, well, damn.

If you're the sum of the thousands of people, you're in here with, you're going to do pretty well. I always say comparison can either be used as fuel or it can be used as an excuse to fail.

And I think there's an element I'm sure for you because you're competitive, which I think any entrepreneur innately is a little competitive, you probably looked at them and you're like, "Okay, I'm not where they are yet, but I'm going to get there." And it sort of gave you the possibility of what could happen if you stayed the course.

Jelani Jenkins:

Exactly, exactly. And I was able to see that and just recognize that, I was able to really look at myself and see, "Okay, these are the things I didn't necessarily do as good as I could have." For example, I didn't feel like I did enough on my end to show my audience through social media and through the marketing that I was the person that they should come to. I was doing a lot of like direct outreach and was able to connect with a lot of people, but I felt like I could do even more. So it was just all a learning lesson. I didn't see it as a failure necessarily, but just saw it as an opportunity to do something. Learn from our mistakes and get better the next time. Again, success is inevitable and I'm looking at it from a standpoint of I'm going to keep building. I'm not going to be stopped to get to where I want to go. So I'm just building and learning and growing and iterating.

Sunny Lenarduzzi:

Well, test, fail, learn, grow, repeat. We like to say that all the time. And I think that's absolutely the case with you, with everybody. If you can take those lessons and use them as feedback to get even better and stronger, I mean, look at where you are now. I'm sure you never would have imagined that this would turn into an entire platform and featured in Forbes and getting all this attention and investors wanting to be a part of it. It's taken on a life of its own and really it is your own unique path. I think that piece of it is you got to your own race is so important because if you are clear on your mission, you're clear on your story, you're clear on your niche, you have a foundation, you're clear on who you want to serve, that foundation is solid and you can go to the moon with it. But if you don't have a clear idea of who you're serving, what you want to be known for, how you want to show up and you're trying to grow, it's like doing things in reverse and building a house on a broken foundation, which is built to crack. So when I say that, I guess my question for you is, I mean, you've already done so much in the last year since we met. What does the future look like for you? What are you excited about next?

Jelani Jenkins:

Oh wow. I'm bringing in a team right now that I'm really excited about of passionate individuals that I can really move towards this goal with. I'm excited about the opportunity to really connect again on an even deeper level with the NFL and the NCAA and the college athletics. And I really see Postseason being the number one resource for athletes once they leave the game and being that premier resource, not just in the US but internationally, across North America, Canada, all of it. There's so many individuals who are looking for a solution and the Olympics this year to me was a real eye opener of the timing of all of this. When you see these elite athletes speaking out on their mental health and the challenges that they're having. And so I just feel really aligned and I feel like there's a larger purpose, and again, it's bigger than me. And I'm just connecting with as many people as possible who are aligned with that purpose and we can move towards it together

Sunny Lenarduzzi:

I love that so much. And I hear you say that, and I think it aligns a lot with my whole mission, mission, and vision for what I want to do. And it's part of why we have lifetime access in our program because I'm so excited to watch your journey unfold moving forward. And I'm so grateful that I get a front row seat. To every client that comes in the door, I get to see for the rest of time, what happens. And I've watched every little win along the way for you. And I know that big, big things are coming. And I think really knowing that your clients aren't just clients, they're humans and humans change and evolve and grow, and you will change and evolve and grow in your program as well as you go, when you think about the community factor to our program and the fact that we have a relationship for life, like you're stuck with me as your coach. How important was that to you and your growth, do you think?

Jelani Jenkins:

Oh, it was everything. It was everything. And I'll just speak for being an athlete, but I mean, for anybody, it was everything. And I'm used to being in that locker room environment. I'm used to that level of support and camaraderie. That's the thing I miss most about the game, is the camaraderie. And knowing that I can, at any moment, be able to speak to you, speak to the community, toss ideas around, collaborate. It's outstanding.

Just a couple of days ago someone, Eric Diaz from the community, he reached out to me and we had an hour long conversation. He was asking me about, he was a little bit stuck with his ICA and helping veterans through their path. And somebody that I think you or somebody brought him to me or recommended that he speak to me. And it was just amazing. It was an amazing conversation. And he felt light afterwards. I felt light and that's just the type of environment that the community offers and it brings. And there is a type of competitiveness, but a healthy competitiveness nature to it that's continuing to push everyone forward. And so, yeah, the community is everything. And that's the reason why I'm referring to Postseason as a social learning platform, it's like community first and we all learn and grow together. So, yeah.

Sunny Lenarduzzi:

And that makes so much sense too, because if you think about the journey, I mean, as an athlete, like you said, you are in a team from the time you're a kid to the time you leave the sport. And so to then be completely on your own and trying to navigate things when everything's kind of been like laid out for you, that is a huge transition. And so I think the work you're doing is so important. I grew up in an athletic family. My dad was a professional athlete. My grandfather was, my brother still works in sport. So I'm very familiar with the realm and I've seen the transition firsthand and I've seen how difficult it can be. So I'm so excited for the work you're doing. And I know the sky's the limit, and I just have seen your trajectory over the last year, so I'm really, really excited for you and I'm really grateful that I got to be on the journey with you and that you chose me, because there's a lot of other people you could have chosen.

Jelani Jenkins:

I'm grateful to be here. I'm grateful to have met you a year ago around this time. It's been the greatest decision of my life to take that stuff forward and trust my intuition, trust your heart, trust your passion. And knowing that you really, really, aren't just doing this for financial gains, but that you really care about every single person. And now that you put me and everyone else through the process, I see how much and why you care about us so much because you spoke to real people.

Sunny Lenarduzzi:

That's really nice. Thank you. Yeah, I really do. I mean, and people find that hard to believe, but I call it intimacy at scale. People don't believe that I actually know all the clients, but to a stalker level degree, I know all of you. And I do watch, and I'm like, "Are you doing the right thing?" Because your success is my success. I mean, it makes no sense for you to be in the program if you're not going to get to where you want to go. So I am heavily invested in your success. And I'm very excited to continue to be a part of the journey with you moving forward,

I guess, for anybody here, who's sitting here who is in the position that you were in a year ago, which is just so surreal. So just if you weren't here at the beginning, Jelani a year ago was watching a case study just like this with Geoffrey and he said, "I'm going to be her next success story." He ended up applying, joining the program. And today his business has basically skyrocketed, just featured in Forbes, all of these amazing things happening, and you're making a massive impact in the world. So if there's someone here who's thinking the exact same thing you were thinking a year ago, what would your advice be to them? Because I'm sure you can hear the fear and that hesitation also come up for them as well.

Jelani Jenkins:

Yeah. Yeah. I would say trust your gut. I know you're feeling called to do something. I would definitely trust, trust your gut on it. And the fear there's going to be fear. And once you join the platform, you're going to be put into more fearful situations. I think the biggest thing is to recognize that it's not just like this, something handed to you. You're going to be just this successful without doing the work. It takes a lot of work and it takes a lot of just passion behind what you're doing, but everything is laid out for you, exactly what you need to get there. And you have a support system that is out of this world. People who truly, genuinely care about your success. So I think Sunny would agree with this. If you are looking for an easy path or a path to becoming a millionaire, this probably isn't for you. And she knows that.

So, if you're really willing to put in the work and actually, do what you need to do to be able to create an impact in this world and do it in a way that is fulfilling to you, there's nothing better in my opinion than the Authority Accelerator. And I'm grateful.

Sunny Lenarduzzi:

Thank you. Thank you. I also, I love to say that business is actually quite simple. I mean, the growth is quite simple. And as you mentioned before, we lay it out step-by-step, it's very simple. The process and the method is proven, it's simple, but it takes hard work and it takes grit and determination, but anything worth doing is going to take that. And at least you're doing it in a smart way, and you're not sort of just flailing trying to figure it out on your own. So it's a much more efficient path to success. So I hope if you are sitting here and watching, and you're like, "Hey, I want to do this. I'm going to be her next success story." I hope in a year's time or even less, you and I are sitting here and we're having this conversation. I'm just so grateful, Jelani, for you joining me. Is there anything that you want to add before we wrap up?

Jelani Jenkins:

Your success is inevitable. That's what I want to add. And yeah, once you do apply, once you do join, I will be there. Sunny will be there. There's a community there. And you know, you have all the support that you need, a solid foundation. And if you have any questions or anything, reach out to me once you get there, or even before, if you want to speak to me on my path and be a little bit more intimate on that, definitely feel free to reach out.

Sunny Lenarduzzi:

I love that. Thank you for being you. Thank you for your generosity. Thank you for your time. I really, really appreciate it. I'm excited for the next steps and the next piece of your chapter, because I know it's just going to continue to grow and grow and grow. So thank you. And thank you everyone for being here. Be sure to share this if it resonated with you, give it a like, give it a comment, hit that apply button, go to sunnylenarduzzi.com/apply in your browser and I hope to see you on the other side. Thanks everyone. Thanks, Jelani.

Jelani Jenkins:

Thanks. Thanks for having me.

To apply to the Authority Accelerator today, please go to: https://sunnylenarduzzi.com/apply