James Droz is one of the most popular sports influencers on the planet right now. He is from a small town in Oklahoma called Bartlesville. James has down syndrome but that doesn’t stop him from doing what he loves, watching sports. His fame began in January of 2022 when Tom Brady and the Buccaneers lost to the Los Angeles Rams in the NFC Championship. He got his popularity by repeating the phrase “what happened?” to the losing team. James has acquired over 850k followers on TikTok and about 20 million total views. One of his followers helped him go to the Oklahoma versus Oklahoma State game where James celebrated with his favorite team (Oklahoma) and made a video using his catchphrase. With his popularity he was able to create merchandise such as hats, shirts, and sweatshirts. James and his family use their entrepreneurship abilities to take advantage of his rising popularity to make money. James Droz isn’t just making merch, he has been invited to do some radio shows and invited to some high school and collegiate football games. It’s incredible to see that he is able to do all of this on his own even with a disability. Safe to say that James Droz is any fanbase’s worst nightmare, especially if you go to USC.
Author Archive for HaggartLH22
Dr. Jason Wersland is a Los Angeles- based chiropractor and founder of the brand Therabody (formerly Theragun). Dr. Jason was in a bad motorcycle accident in 2007 and that was where the birth of his idea took place. He needed something to help with his pain and a percussion gun would be able to ease the pain. His idea for the theragun was based on the needs and necessity for a product to help people with their injuries. It took almost 10 years to perfect the design and function of the theragun and upon its release in 2016, the theragun was an instant success. Since then, three different generations of the percussion gun and vast amounts of partnerships have been a part of the brand. In 2020, Wersland collected data and did research and ultimately decided to rebrand to Therabody. With the rebrand, the company sold more kinds of muscle treatments for athletes and regular folk alike. Dr. Jason uses his entrepreneurship skills to figure out what people need and how to answer their needs. And with his own personal experience with injury, and being a chiropractor, helped him create a multi-million dollar company that is able to help all kinds of people with muscle injuries and recovery.
Pat Cavanaugh is an entrepreneur from our town of Grove City. He graduated from Grove City high school and later went on to play basketball and football at the University of Pittsburgh. He was named captain of the basketball team two years in a row. After graduating from Pitt, Pat started his own promotional product company called The Cavanaugh Marketing Network. He also founded the sportswear brand CRONS, which supplied many Division 1 schools with athletic apparel. Pat made the brand to support health and exercise. In addition to the apparel, he made CRONS as an athletic program for all of the young student-athletes in America. CRONS is also a basketball club enforcing the ideas of hard work and competition. In 2012, Pat Cavanaugh got into the nutrition business with his company Ready Nutrition. Ready has been increasing in sales every year since its creation. The company wants to encourage kids to not give up on their sport no matter what people say about them; they should have good effort, attitude, and energy. Ready now has over 9 figures of income and a couple HUGE partnering athletes such as Aaron Donald and Giannis Antetokounmpo. Pat Cavanaugh used his own experiences to become a successful entrepreneur and businessman.
Olivia Dunne is a 20 year old gymnast from Louisiana State University(LSU). She joined TikTok in 2020 and quickly gained a big following. With over 6 million followers on TikTok and another 1 million on Instagram, Livvy is the most followed NCAA athlete on social media. In July of 2021, NCAA allowed athletes to make money using their name, image, and likeness. With her already huge following, Livvy was in a prime spot to make a lot of money. To help spread her entrepreneurship, she signed with the major talent agency, WME Sports(now Endeavor Group). With the agency, Olivia is able to post sponsored content and promote many different brands. She signed her first exclusive brand partnership with the athletic clothing brand, Vuori. Livvy’s net worth is roughly $2.3 million, mainly from her partnership with Vuori. Although she isn’t the traditional entrepreneur, Olivia uses her platform in a unique way in order to create an income. In fact, per post, Livvy makes around $10k for sponsored videos. Olivia’s older sister, who is also at LSU, handles a lot of Livvy’s NIL deals and sponsorships. She tries to post on TikTok everyday to keep up with her fans. She has been quoted as saying that she wants to focus more on her brand a become an entrepreneur.
Alexis Barreyat is a former employee of GoPro and the current CEO of popular app BeReal. Barreyat launched BeReal in 2020 and since then the app has completely taken off. Alexis encourages the users to be real and to not use filters. Unlike some social media platforms such as Instagram and Twitter, BeReal is user friendly and doesn’t trap a person in an endless scroll. Barreyat says that the app isn’t made to acquire a following but to keep in touch with friends and family in a unique way.
The entrepreneur had an initial financial startup of $30 million, but since it’s release, BeReal has accumulated over $630 million and is continuing to gain revenue. Between the months of January and April, the app grew by 315%. BeReal now has over 20 million downloads and 10 million active users all over the world. With no advertisements and no follower account, Alexis Barreyat created an app that de-emphasizes social media addiction and at the same time a fun app to let friends and family share what they are doing.
Brad Kraut is a popular tiktoker who goes by the username @name_is_brad. With over 9 million likes, Brad uses his following and popularity to spread positive messages about how to be a good college student. He encourages people to become an “academic warrior” with his company Kicking The Sheets. In addition to making money off of TikTok and his company, he is also a partner in the company Jerpa, which specializes in comfortable clothing mainly for college students. Brad is taking advantage of the current popularity of TikTok and consumers need to buy merchandise. The entrepreneurship doesn’t stop there, he also uses his fame to sell videos on the website Cameo.com. The Penn State celebrity uses his popularity to spread positive messages and encourages students to become more involved with their schoolwork; these messages allow him to generate a revenue through his personal merchandise or through other sites like Cameo.