Building Their Brand - Miami University RedHawks

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"What's the first thing you do if someone asks you if you know someone?"

On a Wednesday evening in late October, more than 50 Miami University student-athletes were gathered in a meeting room inside the Walter L. Gross Jr. Family Student-Athlete Development Center as Terri Hoffman opened her presentation with this question.

Hoffman, a marketing strategist and branding expert, was in Oxford to help the RedHawks learn more about NIL (Name, Image and Likeness) and personal branding. Or, in the words of this co-founder of The Brand Academy, 'what someone would say about you when you're not in the room.'

The response to her initial query came quickly from a student-athlete in the far corner: Look that person up online to see if they look familiar.

And that made Hoffman's point perfectly.

According to the visiting brand expert (a former college basketball player herself), researching and investigating someone online is second nature nowadays – from Google to Instagram to TikTok— and taking time to optimize your own digital presence is crucial.

"Brands, employers, grad schools and corporate recruiters do the same thing," Hoffman explained. "People will look you up before you meet.

"Your online presence helps shape that first impression...and your digital presence can affect opportunities: Jobs, internships, NIL, and more."

Over the next hour, the engaging, hands-on program, brought to campus by assistant athletic director of compliance Robbie Trittschuh and Champions 4 Life director Faith Girton, provided student-athletes from a variety of Miami sports with the practical tips needed to get their personal social media profiles ready for optimal engagement.

Hoffman, the aunt of former Miami football standout Jack Sorenson '20, walked the current RedHawks through an audit of their primary social platforms (including everything from LinkedIn to Twitter/X) to check for a quality profile photo, a biography that tells a story, updated links to important sites, visual consistency and a blend of off- and on-field information.

"Think like a brand," Hoffman encouraged the crowd, pointing out the importance of communicating talents and values to prospective partners. "Instead of asking, 'Would a brand work with me?', flip it around.

"Ask, 'If I were the marketing director, what would I want to see? What's unique about me? What am I showing them?'"

Miami Athletics branding presentation

Hoffman clicked through Instagram profiles of several current student-athletes at other institutions —from a variety of sports, competition levels, and follower sizes— to illustrate her teaching points before having the RedHawks pair up and review each other's social profiles to offer critiques and suggestions for improvement.

At one table, Amber Tretter and Núria Jurjo from the women's basketball team traded ideas with golfer Tyler Anderson based on the provided checklist. "We all just kind of looked at each other's pages," Tretter said later. "Then we got into conversation about how golf's MAC Championship went – but that was one of the things we noticed from his profile.

"It [just showed how] your social media can be a great conversation starter," the senior forward continued. "If someone sees something, they can ask you about that; it's almost like your personal resume. It combines into a portfolio."

Tretter is no stranger to the NIL space, as the Ferdinand, Ind. native is now in her second year as an ambassador for TriHealth. The First-Team All-MAC and All-Tournament honoree from last season's championship team said she has enjoyed her role with the company, which Miami initially helped connect her with. "Tri-Health is one of our sponsors for Miami. It's been really nice, because the posts can be authentic," Tretter said. "We meet once a month to discuss what we're going to be posting in the future...I'm just promoting mental and physical health.

"I can kind of show myself while also promoting something good as well."

Even though Tretter is already well-established when it comes to personal branding, events like the Hoffman presentation have been useful as she continues to grow in her understanding of how to leverage her platform as a successful student-athlete. "In Champions 4 Life, our leadership academy, we talk a lot about how to be a leader and how to set ourselves up for the future," Tretter said. "[We learn] what we can do to help for interviews and internships and how to boost what we're trying to do for our personal brand.

"Trying to take advantage of what the scope of NIL is now in the college realm is awesome for us."

On this particular Wednesday night, once Tretter and the rest of the RedHawks finished Hoffman's 'audit checklist' activity, Girton introduced a second speaker to the group. Former Miami men's basketball standout Precious Ayah '20 '21 '22 (yes, he earned three degrees from the university!) spent several minutes sharing his personal story and experience with the attentive audience.

The Nigeria native, who serves as a business development representative with Kemba Credit Union, literally landed his current job in southwest Ohio because of his reputation with the RedHawks. Now, he helps Kemba (a Miami Athletics partner) recruit brand ambassadors to represent its organization, with an intentional focus on not only alignment, but especially character.

"Your personality around campus, the stuff you do on campus and off, what you say in the training room— those things matter," Ayah reminded the RedHawks. "My CEO is a 'who'-first guy. With him, it's 'who' first, and then 'how.' My role was created because he liked the person that I was. He's going to find a way to make it work...so he created that role."

Ayah's remarks dovetailed perfectly with Hoffman's teaching from the first half-hour. "He completely told a real-life example of everything I was setting the stage beforehand and how he actually lived that!," Hoffman marveled later. "He lived it out and developed a job for himself because of his personal brand."

"A newspaper will be quick to pick up something you do [good or bad]," Ayah pointed out as he addressed the packed meeting room. "And the first thing it will say in that story is 'Miami University athlete.'

"If you do something negative, you take that into any brand you partner with. The more positive brand you have, the better. We want to know you as a person first."

After Ayah finished explaining from his perspective what brands care about, Hoffman wrapped up the session with a quick breakdown on how to go about preparing for a potential partnership. She challenged the RedHawks to compile a list of companies or organizations they would love to work with. "If you know brands you're interested in working with, be creative and go to them with ideas," Hoffman instructed. "Research before you reach out...where do your interests and values connect [with theirs]?"

Her presentation included an acronym for the word READY so a RedHawk student-athlete could evaluate if they were well-prepared for a potential connection with a brand. According to Hoffman, focusing on reminders like RECOGNIZABLE, EASY to contact, AUTHENTIC, DELIBERATE, and YOUR story would be crucial to optimizing a student-athlete's NIL chances now and in the future.

"Does somebody understand what makes you unique outside of your sport and beyond your sport if they just look at your profiles?", she asked.

Miami Athletics branding presentation

"I wish I was in school during this period," Ayah whispered nearby as Hoffman shared her practical tips and tricks with the crowd.

After the student-athletes were dismissed, several stayed later to ask individual questions of Hoffman, who was glad to help. "I was really impressed with how they participated in the homework, opened up, and took it seriously," she said later. "They really cared and wanted to update their profiles; they were asking me questions and also asking for suggestions from other people in the room...

"I had a lot of people help me when I was this age to get from playing a college sport into my career, so I want to be able to give back and do the same thing," Hoffman continued. "It's so fun, because there are opportunities there if they learn how to develop their personal brand and take that into their career.

"It's a life skill they can take with them."

"Tonight give us some extra motivation to try to reach out to new brands," Tretter added. "I know we all have the want, but it's really all about, 'You get out what you put into it.'

"So I think this is just another reminder of how to set ourselves up for success."

Find more Front Row Features at: MiamiRedHawks.com/FrontRowFeatures

To learn more about Champions 4 Life and how Miami Athletics is preparing student-athletes for the rest of their lives, check out the program's website here. Learn more about The Brand Academy's programming on the company's website here.

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