“I wanted to put it on my shoulders and say ‘hey, look, I walked in your shoes. I know exactly what you’re going through. I can help you,'” the All-Pro receiver tells Boardroom.
Even as he starred at wide receiver for the Dallas Cowboys during what became a standout career, Dez Bryant had a vision for athletes taking full ownership of their image and intellectual property as far back as 2016. He had a concept in mind known as “digital goods,” allowing individuals the ability to unlock gamified assets and extract them into real-world experiences, all inspired by his beloved NBA 2K.
Five years later, Bryant debuted Personal Corner, a platform with the sole intent of providing a one-stop, turnkey solution for athletes anywhere from high school to pro to take ownership of their personal brands.
As he explains on the latest episode of Boardroom’s “Brick By Brick,” Bryant wants Personal Corner’s athletes to be empowered to create unique communities and completely own the business that’s being conducted around them, withathlete-minted NFTs powered by the Ethtereum blockchain factoring into the strategy significantly.
As Bryant told Boardroom:
“Personal Corner is unity — wealth and ownership for the athlete, by the athlete. I think athletes really never truly came together on their own to create something special. That’s something I always thought about. That was one of the biggest sacrifices I wanted to make. I put it on me to get these guys to understand how much we do need each other.
“We live in a world we really only understand, and it hasn’t been catered to. There’s a lot of guys who get that opportunity and have no clue what the hell to do. I wanted to put that on my shoulders and say ‘hey, look, I walked in your shoes. I know exactly what you’re going through. I can help you.‘ And that’s what I’m gonna be chasing the rest of my life.
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“Being in college, I didn’t really pay attention to how popular I really was until after my first game, I couldn’t really walk into the [student] union and get a ton of looks. I can only imagine what I could’ve done [in NIL] with this type of platform.
“I love football. I feel like I’m a football geek. It’s not that I don’t love the game. I don’t want to sound like I don’t. It’s just that my mind is so focused on Personal Corner, it’s crazy.”
