We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Chris Peters a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Chris, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today One of the things we most admire about small businesses is their ability to diverge from the corporate/industry standard. Is there something that you or your brand do that differs from the industry standard? We’d love to hear about it as well as any stories you might have that illustrate how or why this difference matters.
We combine creativity and storytelling for athletes who want to increase their recruiting exposure. We offer an unmatched level of production. Our personalized production process is designed to magnify each athlete’s unique attributes and gain college coaches’ attention.
Our interviews are crafted to highlight potential recruits not only as athletes, but also as well-rounded students. We dig deep to expose the student- athlete’s motivations and mindsets behind the play of the game.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I’m a sports nut! No matter the level, I enjoy competition. As a former athlete, I wanted to find a way to stay in the game and give back. Creating this company awarded me that opportunity. The opportunity to be on the field, walk the courts and be in the atmosphere where the crowd is reacting to the band.
Post college career, I’ve been in the business of television news for 16 years as a Photojournalist. I’ve earn several Emmy Awards, Edward R. Murrow Awards and truly established a real talent for compositions as a photographer with regards to framing, lighting and telling a story visually.
That’s what I’m bringing to the sports recruiting industry, an elite level of visual storytelling to assist young men and women to all themselves to control their narrative during their recruiting evaluation. And it’s been very successful.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
As a young athlete, my family invested in my future ambitions to play at the college level. They spent time and money to allow me to travel to increase my exposure to college programs that have shown interests in my athletic abilities.
The letters and communication I received from programs were exciting. I felt wanted but when I visited these coaches, there was a different tone from the letters that were written to me.
After visiting these schools that feeling of being wanted was replaced with feeling left behind. It was almost a feeling of dishonesty.
After my time as a student-athlete at The University of Toledo, I felt as though I was called to create a platform where aspiring student athletes could share a more in-depth story perception of who they are beyond their success in their sport so they could receive a more realistic expectation during their recruiting journey.
Since 2011, we’ve assisted coaches and high school athletes with the ability to go through the recruiting process with integrity and honesty to match athletes with college programs that have mutual interests.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
The lessons I’ve learned from creating our services for high school athletes is that a lot of parents have unrealistic expectations for their son or daughter. College athletic recruiting is just as, if not more than, competitive as the sport they play. Most success in their sport doesn’t translate to the collegiate level of athletics.
If their son or daughter is the averages 30 points in their basketball games, a college coach may see their athletic skill set to be limited at the college level. Each school has some of the best talent in the country representing their team and parents need to be honest in their assessment to seeing where their child stands academically and athletically at collegiate level so they won’t waste their time and the coaches time to evaluate them.
Contact Info:
- Website: Student-athletes.com
- Instagram: Instagram.com/Studentathletes1
- Facebook: Facebook.com/student.athletes
- Twitter: Twitter.com/studentathlete3
Image Credits
Student-Athletes, LLC