The Winter Olympics in Sochi served to showcase some of the greatest sports people in the world competing at the highest level. People thrilled at the hockey, people watched enamoured at the ice dancing. Now we look towards Rio 2016 when again the best in their fields face off.
How Dreamfuel.me is Helping Elite Athletes Achieve Their Dreams
Consider though what swimming would be without Michael Phelps. Or what hockey would be without the Canadians. For many top level sports people this is the reality they are facing. The chance to compete against the worlds best on a global stage is potentially not available to them. It has nothing to do with ability, these sports people are in most cases without peer. It is simply put down to the fiscal realities of day to day life. Many sports stars have the good fortune to receive amazing corporate support, and deservedly so. However there are many others out there equally as incomparable who simply don’t get the support, and are therefore unable to achieve that which they could be.
It is because of this need that NCAA swimmer and crowd fund specialist Emily White stepped in to set up Dreamfuel.me. Emily had a successful career as a Division 1 scholarship swimmer in university, before utilising her art background to establish a successful management firm for musicians and comedians, and now athletes. Emily explained the genesis of Dreamfuel.me as being born in part from this experience “I’ve worked in the arts and entertainment field for the past decade. I also managed Amanda Palmer (musician and wife of author Neil Gaiman) who raised the most money ever on kickstarter for a musician, so we’re very used to working with artists and their fans to help fund albums and their tours. Because of my athletic background I’d always wanted to work with a swimmer, and really market them like a band, and take all these tools that we use in the music industry. I saw Anthony Ervin swim at the 2012 Olympics. He’d taken a decade off in between Olympics, and he has this incredibly cool image and great taste in music and I thought ‘that’s the guy, I want to work with that guy.’”
“I’d never done this before, so I sent an email into his personal website introducing myself and saying ‘I have a personal background in swimming, both my parents are coaches. This is my professional reality now, I run an entertainment firm. I have no idea if you have representation, but I have a bunch of ideas for you and I’d love to set up a call or meeting’ and he said ‘This sounds great, I’m going to be in New York in a couple of weeks, lets sit down and talk.‘ ”
During the course of the conversation between Ervin and White, Ervin discussed a huge opportunity that had been presented to him to swim competitively throughout Europe and Asia representing the USA, however he had no idea how he was going to fund this experience. USA Swimming was not funding him, leaving Ervin in the position of having to literally put everything on his credit card if he chose to pursue this monumental opportunity, in the hopes he was able to win enough prize money to cover his costs.
“Obviously the traditional route [for funding] is corporate sponsorship” White continues “but he was leaving in two or three weeks, there was no way we would be able to put that together in such a short space of time. But also from afar I always thought there was so many other avenues that could potentially be available, corporate sponsorship is only a sliver of a thing as its so competitive.”
From this thought came the fundamentals of what would become Dreamfuel.me “One of my interns said ‘Why doesn’t [Anthony] do a Kickstarter, he’s already selling merchandise and has fans all over the world who will want to come along on this journey and really be a part of it.’ I put together this plan, I was super excited about it, he was going to write songs for people and send cards, I took it to the Kickstarter people, and they rejected us because they don’t work in sports. Meanwhile I was telling another music executive [about what we were doing] and he told me about a friend who was sponsoring an olympic weightlifter who was living in her coaches basement to train. This is a thing. So we quickly realised that not only do athletes have a need to be supported, they may not be inherent marketers, they may not know how to build a community, how to tap into that community. I’m really excited to be able to help create that much needed revenue stream for those athletes, but also to give them the marketing skills that we teach our bands all the time, so they can have a long term and sustainable career.”
Two such athletes who are exploring this potential are rugby players Jinnie Pratt and Phaidra Knight. Both bring a unique view of the game, both have unique individual talents, and both are amazing representatives of a sport that means so much to them. I was fortunate enough to speak with both of them to find out what Dreamfuel is doing for them.
I’ve previously spoken to Jinnie about her rugby career, and the adversity she has truimphed over to achieve as much as she already has. Jinnie has been on the collegiate All American squad, she has attended the elite Serevi Camps and looks set to join the Womens Old Blue 7s squad in New York this summer. All of which she has achieved on her own. To therefore get any form of support would make a world of difference in Jinnie’s ability to pursue the greatness she could achieve ” Some of the higher level camps are expensive, and there’s a lot that goes around it. Dreamfuel is looking to support me [in many ways including] getting a chiropractor and trainer, I’d also be able to use the funding to attend All American if I’m invited again and I would really love to go to the Olympics.”
“Phaidra Knight had put something up about Dreamfuel on her twitter, a friend suggested I look into maybe approaching them to support me pursuing my rugby dreams. They helped to create a web campaign for me, and they already have a network of supporters that they can reach out to. They helped me with marketing, using Facebook and twitter, putting videos up and updating people on how I’m doing. They really reach out to people.”
Jinnie’s strength of character alone has been amazing, and to know that everything she has achieved has been self funded is hugely impressive. Further, in working with Dreamfuel, Jinnie has also been able to expand her personal rugby network, having the opportunity to work with and get to know Phaidra Knight, who Jinnie describes as one of her rugby idols.
Phaidra Knight is nothing short of awe inspiring. She exemplifies athletic strength, intellect and ability. NBC Sports quote her as being a broadcaster, motivational speaker, and business entrepreneur. Her sporting background includes basketball, bobsled, cross fit, as well as representing the USA in both 7s and 15s rugby. Asking what rugby means to Phaidra, she says “Rugby means so many things. In the beginning I saw it as something pretty enormous. When I was in law school I was training to make the Wisconsin Badgers basketball team, that was my thing. When I discovered rugby THAT became my thing. That was my outlet, it was a way to reconnect with team sports, competition and as I became more immersed in the sport I guess that’s when the transformation occurred, it became more of a career thing for me.”
“I had these dreams of women’s rugby being in the olympics, women’s rugby going professional, and women getting paid to play, because it’s such a spectacular sport. At that time though I was a player, and I was content with just playing and allowing that to happen over time. There were so many naysayers who didn’t think rugby would be included in the olympics, and didn’t think it would gain any momentum in the US because it competed against so many tier 1 sports like basketball, and football. I always felt that it would be, it was such an incredible sport, that fostered such a unique culture of people worldwide.”
She sums it up simply by saying “It means there is a lot of kids in the Bronx…who are now going on full scholarships because of rugby. Rugby is a dream fuel.”
To have an organisation such as Dreamfuel supporting this is amazing. Phaidra’s involvement in Dreamfuel was in part facilitated by her involvement with Crossfit gyms, and her training to attend the winter olympics as part of the bobsled team. Cortney Harding, who is also a part of the Dreamfuel team, reached out to Phaidra to introduce Dreamfuel and crowd funding to her. In the winter of 2013 Phaidra and Dreamfuel began their collaboration, looking towards the Rio Olympics. “The sleeping giant is just opening it’s eyes” Phaidra says, looking at the potential for rugby to explode on the global consciousness.
Emily is excited at the potential for Dreamfuel to assist athletes such as Phaidra and Jinnie in achieving their goals not just in the shirt term, but in a long term career opportunity “We want to help athletes at all levels” she says “The Olynpics is absolutely a focus, but we’re also about to launch an incredible athlete named Anne-Marie who is a rape survivor and to help cope with that she did her first Iron Man triathlon at age 49.”
The potential for Dreamfuel is of course so much more than just simply providing financial support. It gives athletes like Phaidra and Jinnie, and the others they support, the opportunity to reach their potential. It enriches all of the various sports they are aligned with. It provides them with a chance to connect with fans on a whole new level. Most importantly though, it gives them the chance to be who they are, elite sports people with the will and desire to succeed.
Dreamfuel provides a unique opportunity to provide a real, tangible way of being a part of these sports peoples journeys, so that when they succeed – and they will succeed – there is a sense of ‘I was there to see this happen’
To find out more about Jinnie and Phaidra’s campaigns, follow Jinnie here on her twitter feed, and check out her Dreamfuel campaign here. Also follow Phaidra’s Twitter here, and her Dreamfuel campaign here. To see some of the other amazing athletes Dreamfuel is working with you can link in to their twitter here, and their website here.
It was a huge honour to be able to speak with Emily White, Jinnie Pratt and Phaidra Knight, I thank them all for their time and I look forward to hearing their successes.
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Main Photo Credit: Composite Image via Photopin
