Ep. 7 - Malcolm Lemmons: Former Professional Basketball Player, Founder of the Hype Report

On Episode 7, I was joined by Malcolm Lemmons. Malcolm is a former college and professional basketball player, author, and entrepreneur. He is current building a newsletter called the Hype Report: A Weekly newsletter helping sports tech founders and investors become smarter about the industry in less than 5 minutes. He frequently speaks on entrepreneurship, Sports business, Sports tech, Startups, career development, personal branding, and personal development. In 2017, he published Lessons From the Game. In the book, he talks about his experiences dealing with failure, depression, adversity, politics in sports, life after sports, and much more. Malcolm is a great example of a guy who’s not afraid to throw things at the wall to see what sticks and is a guy that focuses on adding value to people without asking for anything in return. Excited for you to check this one out. In this episode, you’ll learn about: Preparing for the transition to business and professional world while being an athlete Regardless of other people’s opinions, you’re the one that has to live with it Working on projects because you love them, not necessarily because there’s a monetary objective Defining your metric of success Finding a tribe of people who can derive value from your work Putting people first and being willing to serve - Business is all about people Timestamps: (0:00) - Intro to Malcolm (1:00) - His upbringing with his Mom and brother (3:35) - Basketball and lessons learned from his career (5:15) - The Coach that made the biggest impact in his life (7:00) - The transition away from basketball (10:30) - Nobody really cares as much as you think they do (12:55) - Balance between persistence and knowing when to quit (15:50) - Differentiating himself in a saturated media space (18:00) - What’s his version of success for the newsletter? (20:30) - Advice to athletes transitioning out of sports (22:40) - Being intentional with follow ups (24:30) - Building relationships with people on the same plane as you Where can you learn more about Malcolm? LinkedIn: Malcolm Lemmons Go check out his Newsletter: The Hype Report His Book: Lessons from the Game