We recently connected with Isaiah Blackmon and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Isaiah thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights 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.
The thing that separates the Gauntlet Fantasy League from being just another fantasy football league is its need and love of direct player involvement and how we, in turn, communicate that involvement back to all of our viewers and fans.
The original idea behind the league was based on embracing the love that draws all fantasy managers back to the game itself every year; the immersion of owning your own NFL team. For us, that was the biggest aesthetic we wanted to give back to our members/fans and how we do that in our own unique ways is what makes us special.
A prime example is as simple as how we decide our draft order every year. Before the NFL season we have “Draft Order Day” in which all members compete in 5 on 5 flag football; the team that’s the winner of the 5 on 5 game gets picks 1-5 and the losers get the picks 6-10 with intense 1 on 1s preceding after within each groups of 5 for individual order. We record this event to post on our YouTube channel for all our followers and fans to see!
We even host our own “media day”, in which members take professional grade photos in their own outfits that fit the “persona” they want their team to have. Whether that’s a detailed crazed coach, overstepped GM, or maybe you’re all the above and want to be them all! These photos we take are huge for content as we are able to turn those into different graphics for a variety of post, my favorite being the GFL America’s Game of the Week we have every week! We even have each member record “post game interviews” that we can use throughout the season to use as “live” reactions after major losses or wins in the season. Those post always create the funniest of content for all of our fans; like we said, the more the players are involved, the more fun it is for everyone to help build real immersion!
There is so much we have planned down the road to, not only keep the league fresh and exciting, but to stay ahead and “keep reinventing the wheel” of the same fantasy football we all love!
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Like I’ve mentioned before, the leagues idea really has been in front of my face more or less my entire life! I’ve been an avid sports lover since I was a little boy. I grew up in a household with both sides of my parents having family members that were all loyal to some sort of professional sports team!
Whether it was the Houston Rockets with my Uncle Buster and aunts on my dad’s side, Purdue Boilmakers and Cincinnati Reds fans with my cousin’s on my mom’s side, or even just my own household being dedicated and loyal Dallas Cowboys, Stars, Mavs, or Texas Ranger fans…my whole life has been surrounded by the LOVE of sports. It’s my second language at this point and huge part of who I am. Ironically though, the arts have also been the other half of my life that I feel as if defined me.
Not only am I one of the founders and creators of the GFL but, I am also the sole artist behind all the post, graphics, and art that we share onto our social media.
Whether it’s from our power rankings, GFL Americas GoT, post game interviews, or personalize team logos, I’ve done them all! I even manage and create all of the art, reels, and long form videos for our podcast the “I.D. Sports Podcast” that we post every 1st of the month.
The arts, much like sports, were embedded into me at a very young age; both my mother and father were artist themselves. My father would always draw realistic life drawings of famous athletes that he would try to have signed and even at one point had his own business himself that painted children’s bedrooms called “Go To Your Room!” My mother was more of an abstract artist but also played the Euphonium in both high school and college. You can imagine all that artistry in one household would influence me heavily over my childhood. I have been drawing for as long as I can remember.
Which is why, for me personally, this makes GFL a lot deeper than just a fantasy football league or even just my own business. It’s a representation of the two things in the world that I truly find myself in.
My undying love of sports; how invested I get into my favorite teams and analyze the stats and data from different leagues, the competitive nature within me that’s driven me in all aspects of my life, and the thrill of one day managing my own sports team…
Combined with the passion and love of art; the ability to use my gifts to an create a space where like minded people and I can connect in exciting and inventive ways, the thrill I get from pushing myself as an artist to keep coming up with fresh content while also growing my own brand, and being able to share my own work with the world!
This dream never would’ve taken off though without my business partner, brother in law, and most importantly great friend, Daniel Villegas. He really was the gas that ignited with my fire to help me truly get over my fears to start this journey.
In all honesty, that’s truly what I’m most proud of at this stage of my journey. I know that most content creators, artist, or any person with a creative bone in their body can understand this feeling…putting in the effort of putting yourself and your work out for the world to enjoy and judge! It’s the scary thing any person can do in all aspects of their lives. It’s the knowing the perspective of whether my dream of GFL blossoms in the beautiful floral vision I envisioned it be or not, I can take pride in the fact that I made did what most people are so afraid to do!
To all my creatives out there, just do it!
The Gauntlet Fantasy League will always set itself apart from everyone else to me because it’s an idea that is so pure in its essence. It’s based around the passion of sports and the love for people to be themselves and have doing it in innovative ways. I can’t wait to watch and see where it takes us as we continue to grow and reach out to more like minded people and I’m happy to be at center of it all!
How’d you meet your business partner?
The first time I had met my business partner, Daniel Villegas, was a dark November night in the middle of nowhere in southern Texas!
My wife and I were stranded in said middle of nowhere southern Texas after having car troubles on a trip back from my grandmothers house. She had called her brothers to come help tow our car back to Arlington whom to that point of our relationship, I had never met! Wasn’t fate like in the movies, but, it was the start of something because after that we became close friends in a very fast time frame! We both quickly found out we had the same love for sports and would always find ourselves debating, arguing, and criticizing everything in the athletic world! But, most importantly, we loved playing fantasy football! We both knew we wanted to co-commission a league together and when the idea hit me of trying to not only have fun with fantasy, but also make a business out of it, he was all hands on deck.
He helped be the fire that truly help me have the confidence to go out and start this idea. Not only did I win in life with my amazingly beautiful wife, but I also got to find a true genuine friend and brother in the process.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
I think I can speak for almost everyone when I say that COVID was not kind to most.
The same sentiment happen to me as COVID forced me to take a deep look in the mirror at what I wanted in life and how I was going to get there. At the time I was a music major at the University of Texas at Arlington studying Audio Production playing the French Horn. When the world went still for those first ensuing months I had found out the cold reality that music, while something I loved deeply, wasn’t the track in life I wanted to take. I had already spent almost 3 years in college by this point and caught myself in what felt like a rock and a hard place for me.
I could’ve finished my degree and dragged myself through two more years of classes, internships, and debt doing something I knew I didn’t truly want or I could take the leap of fate and start back at the drawing board to pursue my art career….?
Embarrassment was the biggest thing in my head…
What would people say? What will people think? How will my family react? Is this worth throwing away three years of college?
It was something that, looking back now, I’m grateful for the opportunity to have had that time. Coming back to my art was one of the greatest things I have ever down for myself. It’s opened up so many doors and friendships for me that I never thought I would be able to have now. It’s given me the tools to start to break out of my shell and really take pride in both my work and the journey I am on now.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gauntletfantasyleague/profilecard/?igsh=bTc4aHlqa3dxNXZ0
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@gauntletfantasyleague?si=FMEW4dWU-Pi46huC
- Other: 2024 Draft Order Day:
I.D. Sports Podcast:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFhRIkBhiUf-_jkdEM_0AhRSmYFo3Y-7v&si=muzUp5DFZK1ADX1z
Image Credits
Photographer used in shots from the shoot:
Brianna Gonzales
(The Social Chica)
Photographer/Videographer used in shots from “Draft Order Day”:
Cee Thomas
(@wyldchyldd)