Success Companion | Interview with Greg Genske | The Edge of Excellence Podcast
On today's episode of The Edge of Excellence, Matt talks with Greg Genske, CEO of VaynerBaseball. Greg oversees all of VaynerSports' baseball player representation activities. Before his current role, he was Executive Director and President of Baseball at The Legacy Agency. Since 2015, Greg Genske has also served as a law professor at the University of California-Berkeley, his alma mater, lecturing on sports law, representation of professional athletes and negotiations. In 2009, Genske was named to Sports Business Daily's prestigious "40 Under 40" list.
Baseball was Greg's life growing up, but his ambitions to become a professional athlete didn't materialize. Luckily, he had a backup plan—going to law school. He'll talk about how important it's for aspiring professional athletes to have a backup plan. You'll learn why he was so determined to succeed as a lawyer.
Before entering the sports industry, he began his legal career at the San Francisco Public Defender's Office and then worked as a litigator at leading national law firms. He'll talk about his experiences as a trial lawyer, including representing Steinberg, the real-life inspiration for the 1996 Oscar-winning film Jerry Maguire. He'll also talk about his journey to becoming a sports agent and how he took over the entire agency.
You'll learn about leveraged buyouts, how to run a business without giving away equity, and why he wanted to keep control of the company. Greg will disclose if taking his agency public was a good decision. After a bitter ending with the previous agency, Greg started his own agency from scratch. He talks about how he later teamed up with Gary Vaynerchuk to create VaynerBaseball and what the focus of this new agency is. You'll learn why he encourages people to become lawyers if they want to become agents. On a more personal level, he'll talk about parenthood, his passion for surfing and his morning affirmations.
Join Matt and Greg for a fascinating conversation about how to become an agent, his unique ability, and why passion is the key to success.
