- PNC is proud to support Business Forward, where community leaders discuss the issues confronting business in central Illinois.

(soft music) - Welcome to Business Forward.

I'm your host, Matt George joining me tonight, Doug Barnett.

Doug Barnette is the principal of his company, Player Management International.

Welcome Doug.

- hey, thanks for having me.

It's been a while since I've seen you, you look fantastic.

- [Matt] Well, you do too.

Let's start off with you.

I already know this answer, but where are you from?

- (laughs) Danville, Illinois.

You knew me when I was young, thin and better looking, but yeah, I grew up in Danville, Illinois, my wife and I both actually, my wife Teresa was in the class of 1988 with you and I at Danville High School.

And so yeah, grew up there and candidly still, still in the area.

So we've always loved it here.

And of course lived it in multiple cities, but we've always had a home here and loved being here.

- Yeah, it's funny because when I called you a couple weeks ago to see if you'd be on the show, I just think back all the time about sports, the sports growing up with you and we playing on the, at the Y basketball teams and your dad was, you know, always a coach and always an influence to not only you and your brother, but also to a lot of us growing up.

Is that where you got your competitiveness from, its from your dad?

- You know, I don't know.

I mean, of course, you know, you grew up in a household like that, right?

So you don't have a choice.

So, you know, I think so.

I think naturally, I mean, you know, frankly, growing up in Danville, Illinois, I don't think, you know, if you were gonna play sports, you had to be competitive.

I mean, I was actually just talking to Ricardo Brooks earlier today who was also in our class and played football and basketball at Danville High School and he was in a band.

And we were talking about just the level of athletes and business people and everything else that's come out of Danville.

So I think I, you know, naturally probably got that drive to compete at home.

But then, you know, when you're in the environment, you're at the Y playing baseball at the American Legion or playing football, you didn't have a choice, you know, you either had to compete or you weren't gonna be around very long.

- So Player Management International, tell us about your business.

- So the genesis of my company was representing NFL players.

I started my business in December of 1996 and playing basketball professionally.

And my agent helped me start the company.

And so the genesis of it was I started doing marketing for NFL players, just putting together deals, started working with college players that had declared for the draft, you know, helping them make money.

So they wouldn't have to borrow money from banks or from their agents.

And then just exploded from there.

I literally had 11 players in 30 days and then probably within 18 months or two years had 35 players in the NFL.

So it was a yeah.

Total blessing.

- So how do you go about?

is it just word of mouth?

Is it, or is it just, you know, because I know you, you even talk on your website about it, but you've always had that ethical piece in you in your soul, right?

And a lot of these athletes, no matter what sport it is, they're always looking for people that they trust.

Right?

- You know, most of the time, Matt, but I mean, you've been around a little bit here.

It was your uncle or cousin, you know, Jeff played in the NFL.

So you know how this goes.

I mean, you know, most folks are, and then some folks aren't, you know, looking for a quick handout or trying to take care of their family.

I think, you know, the key for me is having been surrounded by such great people.

I think I would, I always tell people this, you gotta know what you stand for and you gotta know like where you are.

And of course, if I lost business, because I wouldn't do certain things or agree to certain terms, no doubt about it.

I mean, I've probably lost more money than I could sit here and count because I just wouldn't do, you know, something that somebody wanted me to do.

But yeah, I mean it, so anyway, I don't know if that answers your question, but that's, you know.

- Well, I just think it's interesting cause I do go back to those days when my cousin, Jeff George played football and being around all those NFL guys and then you're actually in the business side of it.

So I've always found it interesting.

And when I think of you, I don't think of the NFL piece.

I always think of you as the race car, the NASCAR, the Indy 500 piece.

I don't know why, but I've just always been intrigued by that sport.

And I always thought it was pretty cool that that was one piece that you had as part of your business.

- Yeah.

Well, I mean, I got to it on accidents.

This is my 23rd year in NASCAR.

I can assure I never, in fact I always wear my ring from one of the Indy 500 in 2013 with Tony Kanaan and Jimmy Vasser.

And Jimmy and I have worked together since 2003 and bring a sponsorship to his team and his car.

And so that was super cool, but yeah, I kind of stumbled into it 23 years ago.

And funny story is that I had two of my Jacksonville Jaguars wide receivers, a spokespeople for a credit union in Jacksonville, Florida.

And the lady that ran the credit union said, well, we really want a NASCAR driver to be a spokesperson for us.

And Matt, this just shows my level of immaturity and how much I was unaware of the sports landscape beyond the NFL or basketball.

But I said, I go, nobody even watches NASCAR.

Why would you want a NASCAR driver?

She goes, well, that's what we want.

And you know, it's gotta be a driver from the state of Florida.

So 5 cent version is I called NASCAR and they gave me Mark Martin's information then a guy named Joe Nemechek and I called Joe and we just hit it off and ended up, that deal actually never panned out because NASCAR drivers get, you know, significant amount of money for PSA, personal services agreements.

And so it didn't work out, but it just started this whole relationship with Joe and I, and he's in Charlotte, which is the epicenter of NASCAR.

And one of my first, well, actually my first client Mike Minter out in Nebraska, played for the Carolina Panthers at the time.

And so it was great.

I still put some deals together where local companies would use both of them in their marketing and just some, did a lot of fun stuff through that.

But that was, you know, the genesis of a long ride that resulted in me, we won Daytona in 2004, won Indianapolis 500 in 2013.

I would've never thought, you know, those things would happen to me.

- That's pretty cool.

I mean, the focus of our show is business.

And I've had a lot of athletes on here.

Shaun Livingston is from Peoria and he's been on the show.

David Booth is from Peoria, he's been on the show.

Many, many others, but one of the things that I always find intriguing with a business owner like you is how do you make money?

Do you make money off contracts off of, because I think people watching this show kind of have an idea what a sports agent does or a sports marketing firm does, but they really don't know how the revenue piece is.

How does that work?

- Well, we just pray a lot and (both laugh), I know, that's part of it though.

That's part of it.

You know, in this business, you know, you eat what you kill, so to speak, right?

So yeah, we get a percentage of whatever deal we negotiate.

I mean, that's, you know, pretty straightforward.

I, (coughs) excuse me, like in auto racing, for example, I have over time represented drivers and then sponsors, of course, I brought a lot of sponsors in NASCAR or IndyCar or other forms of auto racing.

Now in a situation where I represented the driver and the sponsor, I would always just take commission on one side of the deal.

Like I would never take money on both sides of the table.

I could.

I mean, you know agencies do that all the time.

And truthfully, I'm probably a lot bigger than I am if I did do that, but I just never have done that.

And I find that helps build long term relationships and trust and things like that.

You know, when you handle business that way.

- Well, there must be something to it cause you've been in business for a while.

So on the sports marketing side, I mean, that's a piece that you're obviously very, very good at.

How has that changed in the past 10 years from or maybe even 15 years, I mean from your lens?

- I mean, Matt, I mean, how's it changed in the last two years?

You know, I mean the pandemic itself created this massive shift.

The fact that I'm doing Zoom with you today, I would've never done a Zoom two years ago.

You know?

I mean, I couldn't negotiate deals in my running clothes.

I had to like get dressed and comb my hair and come into work and come into my office.

So I mean really, I mean that, you know, the last two years really I would argue has been the largest shift, you know, in the last 10 or 15 years what's changed?

I mean, text messaging, you know, I mean, I don't talk on the phone a whole lot.

I only use, you know, maybe 1500 or 2000 minutes a month on my phone, but I get 8,000 I use eight to 10,000 text messages every month.

So that's a massive shift.

Email, you know, because before you just get people on the phone and you negotiate a deal or hammer it out, or if you're trying to find somebody, you called them.

And then all of a sudden now, you know, probably the last five to seven years, maybe it's just become so email based.

So, which I think, you know, it makes a little more challenging to get things done because I just think when you get on the phone or you get face to face people, you get, you tend to get it knocked out.

So to me, those would be the largest changes, you know, the money goes up and all that type of stuff, of course, over the last 10 to 15 years, just naturally.

But I would say the technology of it for me anyway, from my seat on the bus would be the largest shift in the industry.

- Yeah.

Being both of us from Danville or not too far from Indianapolis.

And I remember as a kid, always going to the, they called them back then the qualifications and you'd go, with my dad, my brother, and we'd see the cars and it was back then Mears and Rutherford and A.J Foyt and you know, those big, big names.

And, lately in the past, probably 15 years, Tony Kanaan, you mentioned him earlier.

He's actually my favorite driver in IndyCar and there's a piece - Mine too.

- Yeah.

Well, I mean, there's a real neat picture on your website with you and him and your son.

What is it like to sit there with someone who dreams about that their whole life as a driver and you're actually intimately involved with that person in that celebration?

I mean, what's that like?

- Well, I mean, (coughs) excuse me.

I mean, candidly, celebration's great.

I mean, we do really well at that.

It's the, you know, the greatest moments I have.

So when people ask me, like, what are some of the, you know, more poignant moments that you remember, or it's not that moment in the winners circle, that of course is terrific and hearing my good friend, Jimmy Vasser on the radio saying congratulations, Tony, you're the winner of the Indianapolis 500.

Those are those things are all terrific.

But it's the days that proceed that, in the weeks where we're sitting in the garage and trying to figure out the strategy.

You know, one example is I'm the one that brought Paul Tracy back to the Indianapolis 500 in 2009, after 2002, he swore to never returned to Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

He feels like he had the Indianapolis 500 stolen away from him.

And so over years and years, Jimmy Vasser and I would have these conversations and I finally talked Paul into doing it.

And then that's a whole nother segment in itself, by the way, how I even got him to come back.

But the long and short ago was we'd go out and qualify.

I think it was, I don't know, I don't have the numbers in front of me, but let's say it was 18th or 20th something like that.

Well, you're, at that point, you're locked into the biggest race in the world.

And when you go back out, you can go out back out three times, but when you go out, it's not like your best time.

You have to withdraw your time.

So if you go out to try take another Q run or qualifying run, you have to withdraw your time.

So now you're out of the Indianapolis 500.

So I remember sitting there and I was sitting with Jimmy Vasser and Paul Tracy, and were sitting in an engineering room, just watching qualifying going on a TV, and just seeing how it was gonna shake out.

And our engineer a guy named John Dick came in and John goes I think we can go faster.

And I'm like, really, but of course I'm a marketing guy and I'm on the business side, but I'm like, no, no, no, we're in we've qualified.

We don't need to go again.

And Paul Tracy's like really, and Jimmy Vasser goes, you definitely think we can go faster.

And of course I was the trying to be the voice of reason.

And so I called the president of Geico, who was the sponsor on the car.

And I said, hey, Bill, guy's named Bill Roberts.

I said, Bill, here's our situation where, you know, we've qualified 18th or 20th, whatever it was.

And you know, we have the opportunity to go back out.

We could be quicker the metric or the data shows that we could be faster.

And all he said was, he goes, I love it when people wanna do better and be faster and do more.

So go for it.

So that, like that moment, it doesn't sound very intense here.

But when you're sitting in the garage at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, you know, a facility that's made poor people, rich, rich people, poor.

it's killed people.

It's made people's careers.

It's, you know, everything else.

That's a big decision to make.

And there is actually a fantastic photo somewhere.

I have it, I'll have to text it to you, after this, but of me walk back out to the track with Paul Tracy.

Paul was in the car, and in fact, there's a guy named John Gregal from Danville, Illinois, a photographer.

And he captured this image, which I just love.

And, it's that moment when we're going back out to the track to make that next qualifying run.

And thankfully it all went well.

We did increase our position by, you know, three or four spots, ended up finishing I think ninth or 10th at the Indy 500.

But those are the moments that I remember the most, you know, the phone calls, the intense discussions, the arguments at times, the disagreement, and then working through all of that to create the desired result.

- What do you think your main focus right now is in your business?

Like what what's on your mind today?

- Well, I mean, for me, I would say I probably operate differently than everybody else, but I am very, you know, philanthropy.

I mean, I'm very, very philanthropically minded.

So when I sit here and negotiate a deal, I view it as kind of fundraising if you will.

So when I negotiate a deal, I go, okay, great.

So if you make X dollars, then my wife Teresa and I are gonna take half of that and, you know, commit it to the Danville community or invest it in somebody somewhere.

So I just have, that's always, just has always been our driving force, you know, truthfully.

So that's what I think about every day is that, you know, last year I kind of took a year off and, you know, and that was really heavy in my mind is like, why do you do this?

Like, what's your purpose for doing this?

And I think, you know, above and beyond that, I just love representing our hometown.

I love being at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and having Jimmy Vasser come back into the garage and go DB.

Like people are out there yelling at me saying that you're from Danville, Illinois, you know, and all this stuff.

So it's just stuff like that.

I think it's super cool to, you know, Paul Tracy has been to Danville a few different times, Todd Bodine.

I had a number of folks, NFL players that come here, Artis Gilmore, I've had NBA players come here.

And so I just love it here.

And I think aside from the philanthropic side of it, it's just the opportunity to be able to represent your hometown, you know?

And I, and just it doesn't matter where you come from.

Like, I didn't have to go to Harvard Law and grow up in Boston or grow up in Malibu or something to succeed in the professional sports business.

- I think that kind of transitions to my next question because I think you're exactly right.

And that's, what's cool about what you and your wife Teresa do.

You know, a lot of, we have a lot of schools here in central Illinois.

And so here in Peoria, we've got Bradley and Eureka and Illinois Central College and Illinois State is right down the street.

And, so you look at a lot of these younger people and I know you see it and hear it all the time.

A lot of these kids, so to speak will say, I want to be an agent, or I want to get into sports management or whatever it is.

What's the best answer when someone says that to you, number one.

But the second part of it is what is the best attribute that you can have as a young person that has that dream of getting into the business that you are in?

- Well, man, I mean, I always tell people, people really only wanna know the answer to two questions and that is, are you serious about what you're doing?

And do you care about me?

And the answer needs to be yes to both of those or you're not gonna have a shot in this business because effectively, I mean, you control the lives hopes and dreams of people, you know, and when they get to the professional level, they're married, they have children, they go to work just like you and I do.

I mean, if you talk to an NFL player or most NBA players will say, well, I got to work tomorrow.

You know, I got to, I don't get off work till five.

I mean, it's a job.

So I think that you have to care.

I think you, and if you follow me on social media, I always put, you know, love God, love people.

Like you have to absolutely love people if you're gonna have longevity.

Like at the end of the day, if you're just looking at this as a, you know, try to sneak in and make a few bucks, you probably can do that.

But you're just not gonna last very long because, as big as this world is, it's really, really small.

So you know how you, I always like to say how you do one thing is how you do everything.

And so, you know, whether I have a client that'll make me $5,000 this year or one that'll make me, you know, X amount higher than, they're all treated the same.

And then that results in, you know, third party referrals and people just watching how you do business.

You can't fake it.

Like you, I always say, you gotta know your identity, live with authenticity and be intentional.

And if you can practice that, then you'll be great.

You don't have any problems, but it's a certain, it's definitely a certain personality for sure.

It's not for everybody.

I can show you that.

- Well, that's a great answer.

You, kind of a fun thing here.

So you played against the Globetrotters many times.

So you were on the Washington Generals, right?

So, and the reason why I bring this up is because kind of a fun story, Curley "Boo" Johnson has been on this show and he's from Peoria.

He was a Globetrotter for 16 years.

And so he watches this show all the time I'm gonna text him and tell him that you were on.

Because I find it kind of interesting to be on a team that constantly lost.

What was that like?

- That's where I, you know, that's where I got my resilience.

You know, if you ever talk to people that I'm around in business, they always say like, Doug just doesn't take no as an answer.

Well, when you lose 87 games every 90 days, I mean you're, you know, it's yeah.

I just, obviously that's, that's part of the gig, but now Curley "Boo" is fantastic.

I mean, you talk about somebody that contributes to the community and has a great heart for kids and makes a difference.

We have an award here in Danville that we do called the Difference Maker award and he would definitely win that if he was in Danville, I've always had a lot of respect for him.

I actually have known him since I was a sophomore in high school, freshman or sophomore in high school.

He was the grad assistant to my cousin, my second cousin, who was the head basketball coach at the University of Tulsa, J.D Barnette.

So I met Curly, I met Boo, you know, when I was a sophomore in high school.

- [Matt] Oh, funny.

- Yeah.

He was just as great a guy then as he is now.

And so, I only had the opportunity to play with him once.

And that was when we did ABC's Wide World of Sports.

He was on another tour.

So we were on different tours.

There's two or three teams that travel the country at any given time.

- I can't wait to talk to him.

So how has social media changed your business?

Like, how do you keep up with it?

Because I don't personally know how to keep up with it.

Do you do it?

Or you just say, hey kids, or, hey Teresa, will you do this for me?

- No, it's actually the other way around.

So I have, you know, you just don't have a choice and I choose to use social media as, you know, a positive, impactful thing.

So I'm always very transparent be it about my marriage or just my journey in life, whatever it is.

And so I share a lot of, you know, marriage tidbits and just, you know, things I see as I go along day to day in life.

So I try to use it, you know, positively.

I think if you followed me or you went, looked at my feeds, I think you would agree with that.

I think that like anything, it could be negative.

I mean, I get on Twitter.

I'm just like, man, by the time I get off I'm, you know, like just it so depressing sometimes.

And so, and, and like, for example, this week, Bill Mears, who was Casey Mears's grandfather, Rick Mears's and Roger Mears's dad, he passed away on Sunday.

And so I've worked with him this week and creating the announcement release and so social media for stuff like that is terrific.

You know, you can easily push the message out, let people know, you know, but those, we use it as positive.

You know, it's a good way to get your message out and, you know, perception is reality.

And I always tell people when you're on social media, you have to be very careful of what you say because everybody perceives things differently.

And so I just choose to, you know, just share positive messages all the time.

But I mean, I love it for those reasons.

- Yeah.

I agree with you.

You are positive in many ways.

So let me ask you this.

One of the services you provide is career development.

Is that mainly for new and younger athletes coming in out of college?

Or is that just a continuous piece that's constant, no matter what level or time horizon you have?

- Well, man, I mean, I think, look, I mean you and I are doing career development every day.

- [Matt] That's true.

- That's just something to me that we evolve day to day.

I mean, minute to minute sometimes, you know, sometimes people always go, hey, take things one day at a time.

Well, look, man I mean, sometimes in life we gotta take it one minute at a time.

You know, one second at a time, maybe an hour at a time, if we're lucky some days.

so, you know, to me, it's an ongoing thing and I think it's constantly having those discussions of what's next, you know, hey, you're really good.

Like, I may talk to, you know, one of my NFL players on Nebraska, Tony Veland, Tony's been here to Danville and, and I just love Tony.

And I, he won a Superbowl the Broncos.

I tell him all the time, like, you'd be terrific at television, like with the way you communicate it's fantastic.

You know?

So I'm always trying to provide feedback because I would want that too.

I mean, if you did a business deal with me and you thought that I didn't do a good job at, you know, structuring the emails or something, I would want you to go, hey, Doug, you know, you could do better here.

So I always feel like the only way to help people cause change and to evolve and develop is just to be transparent with them.

You know?

And, I'm the first one to do that.

If I'll tell you like Matt, I made this mistake myself, this is what I did, how I handled it.

And this is how I would suggest maybe you do it.

I mean, I think when career development is such a, that's specifically big, right?

I mean, because it really evolves by the minute sometimes.

And it's not just in business, it's in life.

I mean, you've gotta understand who you are and you gotta know your identity and you gotta be authentic and then you have to be intentional.

And those are really the things I like to talk about or to teach people or mentor people about.

Because those things are gonna dictate your success in every other area of your life.

- Yeah.

Lastly, Doug, what does community mean to you?

I know we've talked about the whole show, but what is community to you?

- I mean, I'm not sure I specifically understand your question, but I mean, you know, I live just outside my hometown and even when we've, you know, had homes in other cities, I've always had a place here.

And I think that it's, you know, making the place that raised you, you know, better than when you found it and contributing to it.

I think that people are quick to discount Danville, Illinois, or to speak negatively.

I don't have to drive far in my own town to receive negative feedback about Danville, right?

Second worst city in the United States is this, is that, well, you know, man, I mean, to me, Danville gave me the greatest things I have in my life that gave me my wife Teresa, our children, D.J and Lauren were born in Danville over there at Lakeview or whatever OSF, whatever it is now, you know, playing for Gene Gourley at Danville high school and Andy and Mark Dicken and playing football for Nate Cunningham.

I go on down the line of all the wonderful things that Danville's given to me.

So when you say, you know, what does community mean to me?

It's being able to have Bobo Smalls who, God rest his soul passed away a couple years ago.

Bobo calling me all the time, going, you know, hey, I'm proud of you for this.

And really appreciate you doing that.

And just being engaged with everybody in the community and just trying to make it better regardless of race or neighborhood or anything else, it's just, you want the place to be better.

So that's when you ask me that question.

I don't know if I answered that properly.

- That's exactly what I was getting at.

I mean, you're true to the community.

We have a great community here in Peoria and I'd love for you to come and talk to the kids at children's home sometime and the boys and girls club here in Peoria, cause it'd be great.

So Doug Barnette, thank you for coming on this show.

It was awesome catching up and we're gonna gonna catch up again.

- [Doug] All right.

I appreciate you having me.

I've done a lot of work with Children's home society, by the way, with Keenan McCardell.

One of my Jacksonville Jaguar workers.

- [Matt] Okay, good.

Well, we appreciate it.

I'm Matt George.

And this is another episode of Business Forward.

(soft music) - Thank you for tuning into Business Forward.

Brought to you by PNC.

- [Matt] All right.

hey Doug, can you give us a big smile.

They're gonna take a picture for a promo.

- All right.

Right now.

- [Matt] Yeah.

All right.

Cool, man.

I appreciate it.

I'll text you.

I appreciate you coming on.

- Well I feel bad, I wanted to say what a great job you did.

That thing just cut off.

So, but anyway, yeah, I appreciate you having me on, but, but yeah.

Give me a call.

- [Matt] I will.

I will.

I appreciate it, man.

Talk to you.

- All right.

Thank you, Alex.

Appreciate you guys.

- Thanks.

See ya.

- [Doug] Have a great day.

- You too.