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Join The Urban Rez for an exciting journey that dives into the intersections of culture, sports, and lifestyle with a fresh, global, inclusive perspective. Each 30-minute episode brings a unique blend of conversations, stories, and interviews that explore the passions and experiences that define our lives.
Wesley Knight 0:00
This is a Kun V studios original program. The content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 jazz and more the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education. The
Marcus White 0:14
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Music 1:02
a prank. Good
Marcus White 1:13
morning and welcome to another empowering episode of the urban razz today, we're celebrating Black History Month and gearing up for an exciting a Super Bowl Sunday. We've got an incredible lineup for you, starting with an inspiring interview with Dr B as she shares her groundbreaking journey as the first Native American owner of a professional sports team. Plus we'll take you to the United natives women in sports gala held in New Orleans during Super Bowl week for some amazing stories and highlights. Dr
Dr. B 1:45
B, what's up? What's up? Marcus,
Marcus White 1:49
I get to talk about you and your greatness. So in the first show that we did last month, or in December, we talked about a little bit about you. But the thing that I want to talk about, and for everyone to know, is about this, being an owner of two professional sports teams, not just one, but two professional sports teams. So kind of you know, let me tell me what inspired you to pursue the ownership I'm like, what really grabbed you to be one to want to become an owner of a professional sports
Dr. B 2:24
team. Yes. So this all centers down on how I grew up in res ball. We talked about res ball and how reservation basketball has helped shape my life, so much that I actually hooped for two years in college. Actually who for Scottsdale Community College, and which is based in Scottsdale, Arizona, and I actually played high school basketball all four years as a starting varsity as a two three guard. So basketball was my life for my for up to a certain point in time. So I carry that peace with me always. And moving fast forward to 2021 there was an opportunity for me to acquire part ownership of a men's professional basketball team based in the country of Mexico, and that opportunity arose, and I'm like, Hey, here's this dope opportunity for me to be 1/3 of owner of a men's professional basketball team. Why? Who wouldn't jump on that? Right? Right? And so I did. I jumped on that and did not know what I was getting myself into, like at all. I just like, I just see this opportunity. I can, I can own a men's professional basketball team and so and that came through my basketball contacts. Because when once you're a Hooper, you're kind of always in that whooping world, because so many of your friends and family are still in that world. So it just came from that inner circle of my basketball circle, of how that opportunity came about,
Marcus White 4:12
awesome. So now, as the first Native American sports owner in the professional sports what challenges have you faced, and how have you navigated those obstacles.
Dr. B 4:22
So let's reflect back on the question. You know, there were so many obstacles, one being the first Native American professional sports team owner that's also a female and working in a whole different country where my ownership existed was based in Mexico, and at the time, I believe I was the only female in the entire country of Mexico that owned any professional sports team. So there's a few layers there. I. Yeah, one was just the common aspect that men didn't think I knew what I was talking about. I remember there was quite a bit of conversations where I was overlooked, and I'm like, wait, I know exactly what you're talking about. And so just for me to be overlooked that I don't have the basketball knowledge or sports knowledge just because I'm a female was a constant challenge, and I knew more than all the dudes at the table. I'm like, No, I remember this player. He hooped for this in college, this he was a point guard. And so just kind of reminding folks, like, I know what I'm talking about, and I know the sports world, and I especially know whooping and so knowing all the plays, are we gonna, you know, do zone defense? Are we doing half court? Are we doing full court press? Like, just even all those terminologies, guys would be like, Oh, well, damn you kind of know your stuff, right?
Marcus White 6:06
So what does it mean personally and to the Native American community to break this barrier, and how do you hope it impacts future generations?
Dr. B 6:19
Well, there's not a lot of our community members that have had the opportunity to be a sports owner, and I just would like to show not only our native communities, but also outwardly, like if you're a female, and especially if you come from a native community and or under resourced community, that you can do it, that don't let anyone take those dreams and visions away, and that this opportunity has opened so many doors, and just to keep at it, that you can do anything in this life if, if you are prepared to, if you're prepared for the opportunity as it comes, then I think the most important part is preparation, because that opportunity came. If I wasn't prepared at the moment, I don't think I would have had another opportunity to be in that space again.
Marcus White 7:25
And my last question before we wrap up, what are your aspirations? Are you looking to own any other sports teams actually here in the US? Or what are your thoughts?
Dr. B 7:37
Absolutely, I'm just gonna say this loud and proud, and I hope the universe is listening that I would love to be the first Native American person to own and be a part owner of the NBA team here in the US. And I'm hoping you know the NBA team is coming to Las Vegas, and this is where we reside. So I hope putting it out there, or if anyone's listening, I would love to be the first native to own or be part owner of the NBA team that's forthcoming, especially here in Las Vegas.
Marcus White 8:14
That's awesome. And last thing for me, I can tell you, she can ball. Man, she whipped my butt and horse six games in a row, and I'm just gonna leave it like that.
Dr. B 8:24
I am the horse queen. So any challengers out there, I would love, love to challenge you in a game of horse. Thanks. Dr B, thank you. Marcus,
Marcus White 8:34
the urban RES is underwritten by Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Nevada's premier sports venue, hosting two NASCAR and NHRA race weekends and the largest annual electronic music festival in North America, the Electric Daisy Carnival. NASCAR will be in Las Vegas March 14 through 16th for tickets and more information. Lvms.com this is Marcus and Dr B, hey, you all Dr B, here. So we just wrapped up the women in sports panel, and we have wonderful guests with us. We have Miss Rebecca Otto. She's the founder and CEO of the RKO group. I'll start with you first, with the first question, so with over 18 years in the sports industry, what motivated you to establish the RKO group, and how does your approach to talent management differ from traditional models?
Rebecca Otto 9:24
Yes, well, well, thanks for having me. You know, it was time. It was time 18 years that's a long time, you know, like my good friend Lish at the New Orleans Saints, I started when I was about 10 years old. You know. No, no. I, you know, I've been working for sports agencies right since, almost right out of college, for 17 years. And last year, May 2024 I decided to go out on my own. Because it just, it felt right. I felt like, you know, I had been really blessed to be in a good situation. With good people. And that's Doug Hendrickson and CJ Lavoy, who I started with at octagon 2007 and we went to two different agencies, ending at Wasserman, where they still are, and they really helped guide my my career and help create opportunities. And then I helped, you know myself, create opportunities at each agency and learn the business and and I felt like, you know, it was kind of almost like now or never, you know. Cam Jordan, the New Orleans saint, superstar, three time all pro eight time, pro bowler, 2024 Walter Payton, Man of the Year, nominee. I could go on and on. He is my long time client for 14 years. I started with him doing his PR before he was even drafted, you know, he he starting to look into his next chapter and his next, you know, career path once he retires. And when we were having that conversation, he thought, you know, what do you think like? You know, you think this is it. You think like you might want to go out on your own and manage me? And I said, Okay, let's do it. So that's really how it started. And you know, my model, I guess, is different in the sense that I take on a really strategic stance and point of view, I don't really right now, at least, I'm not taking a very tactical approach. I'm taking more of a 360 holistic view and ownership of my clients, career and overall goals and how do we get there, and making sure Point A to Point B to Point D all matches up and and managing every single aspect and relationship and partnership to ensure that there's brand alignment and not and when I say brand alignment, I mean his brand, not just brands that we work with. So it's a lot less like I'm gonna do this marketing deal for you and I'm gonna get this media deal for you, and it's more, what are your 135, year goals, and how do we put pieces together? Okay,
Marcus White 12:03
so with that, you mentioned representing cam Jordan, so how do you navigate the challenges of managing public personas while ensuring the authentic brand partnerships? Well,
Rebecca Otto 12:15
I've been really lucky in the sense of like, someone like cam who is just like, truly authentic to his core and has a wonderful public persona, is his private persona. That's just, that's really great, right? And also, um, but I would say that, like something I always tell athletes, because, you know, I've worked with so many over the 18 years, is that whether I don't really think, I don't ever really describe it in those words, so I'm not going to, I guess, what I usually say is, like, who you are, you're like a tree. And you know, at this moment in time, your trunk could be like your sport, but what are your branches, right? And how do we develop those? How do we help those grow? And so, you know, your personality is sprinkled throughout those. But like, as far as, like a persona, like, for instance, like him, I think for him, it was football for a long time. I mean football, but really, to me, his trunk is community like, community service like, because, you know, that has more people. I think as many people know him for that than as they do football. Now, his good works, his humanity, and then media personality, right? And people want watches on there, obviously, family like, you know. And so I think that tree has to the overall tree that has to be authentic and like, what are your whatever, your whatever branches you're growing, those are the authenticity, like part. And it's my job to help water that tree and make it grow well. Thank
Marcus White 13:43
you. All right, we have Shayna Paulus, professional cyclist and coach. So question for you, thanks for being on the show. How has your Oneida heritage influenced your cycling career, and in what ways does it inspire your work with the dream catcher foundation? Yeah,
Shayna Powless 13:59
being a member of the Oneida Nation. There's very few Oneidas who are in the sport of cycling. So it's, it's definitely an honor to be able to represent the United people in sport, in cycling. You know, growing up, sports was always a huge part of our family. We did almost every sport that you can you can name. Cycling was always kind of the first love for myself. But yeah, I mean being able to to be a native in in that world and represent has been really special. Very, such a huge honor. Yeah, and being able to inspire that next generation, hopefully getting more Oneida youth interested in the sport, proactive in the sport, not just cycling. Can be anything from football, baseball, really just sports in general, and that all kind of ties into the main reason why we wanted to start our nonprofit, the dreamcatcher Foundation, back in 2018 my fiance and I pinned being a member of the Ojibwe nation and being a professional football player as well. For the past eight years, we just both. Feel a strong inclination to give back to Native communities, particularly Native youth, and hopefully just empower them in sports, doing bike donations, football camps, clinics, anything along those lines. We try and do all we can to just make it easier for them to access sports. But yeah, I mean, I mean, Ely, my fiance, his his goal is the same as mine. We ultimately just want to be able to inspire that next generation to get into sports, to lead active, healthier lifestyles. Yeah.
Dr. B 15:31
And Shane, I have a quick question for you. What would you say to a negative youth who aspires to be an athlete and or have a career in sports? Give me one sentence that you would say to that young native kid on the res who's gonna be looking at this, hearing this, seeing you, hearing all the great accomplishments that our native peoples can do. Give us one sentence, oh man,
Shayna Powless 15:53
just go for it. No matter what, no matter what people say, what, what you see out there in terms of representation, just, just go for it. Just do what your heart says. And yeah, don't, don't hold back. It's totally
Dr. B 16:07
worth it. Y'all need a kid to hear that out there. Your auntie Shana says, go for it. So that's what we're gonna do. Okay?
Marcus White 16:17
So awesome, so awesome. All right,
so we're gonna move on to miss Alicia. Alicia, my bad. I'm sorry, Alicia, and for you guys, I don't know out there, when you can mispronounce a black woman's name, she will correct you. So she was the Vice President of Community Relations and youth sports development at the New Orleans Saints and the pelicans and the pelicans. So in your role for both organizations, what community programs have you found the most impactful in fostering youth engagement in sports? I
Elicia Broussard Sheridan 16:56
think anytime we, first of all, haven't been there 22 seasons. It's really hard to end point one. But I think you know, the moments that I appreciate most when you're talking about impacting the youth are those mentorships. And, you know, maybe not all the time. You know, we visit several schools and post, you know, a myriad of camps. But I think those moments that are off camera when you know we do have a player who's coming to engage, or even if it's a staff member, even if it's, you know, somebody from myself or my crew with us wearing that, that symbol, that brand, you know we, I don't know, sometimes have better luck with greater listening ears with the kids. And so those off camera moments, those off shooting moments where you can really, you know, before after an event, really have a one on one conversation with, you know, a kid or a group of kids, and you know, they're just excited for us to be there because of the association that we have. But you know, we never hesitate to take a moment to drill in the good points. And you know those things that teachers say over and over again, but it just falls small and deaf ears. But you know, I would say that those are probably the most impactful for me. And then you know that that's I kind of take that more on the CR side, on the Community Relations side, but on the youth sports development side, being in a position to help cultivate the game help, you know, giving kids something to fill up that idle time. Because, you know, they say about idle time. So, you know, we take great, great pride in being able to further develop those kids, introduce them to the game. Many times that comes by way of our players coming in and joining in that but most recently, and I don't know if you've heard this or not, but one of the most I don't know, just exciting things that have happened just this past week is that through the work on our youth sports development side, we now have girls high school flag football that has been sanctioned in Mississippi, and now we have conditional approval for sanctioning in Louisiana. So just that is so awesome. We found two states. We have two states that's awesome, you know, providing the girls an opportunity. And you know, not just the young ladies, but specifically, as we're talking about, you know, these initiatives that you know are most exciting for me right now, that's probably at the top
Dr. B 19:33
that is so amazing to hear. And I have a question for you. What would you say to these young girls who want to participate in football as in high school and college and as a professional career. What would your advice be for them? Go
Elicia Broussard Sheridan 19:48
for it. Same thing. Which state? Auntie, I'm a
tea listen. But no, yeah, go for it. And. And that's the thing that I love about sports, is that, you know, there are now opportunities that exist for the young ladies in our community that can lead to those nil deals. Nike actually just recently signed a young lady who's brand flag to the first nil deal for girls flag player. So just the exposure that, you know, is then granted to them, is, you know, is, I mean, there is no, there is no price that you can put on, that you think about, you know, opportunities for scholarships as boys have had, you know, playing in football, the NCAA, hopefully, in the next couple of years, will sanction it as a sport as well. It's going to be featured in the Olympics. So being able to provide them with a pathway to be able to, you know, get the scholarships, get the free tuition, get that free degree, you know.
Dr. B 20:55
And I think I forgot to ask Rebecca here a question, what would your advice be here to being a female in a male dominated industry. If you could just give me any advice to the women here?
Rebecca Otto 21:09
What is my advice to working in a male dominated industry? Well, that's really every industry. No. I mean, there's probably some that aren't, but I think that you have to really remain a true to yourself. I think integrity is really important in this business and and and staying true to like your standards. And I say that just because it's a it is a hard business to really be involved in the different layers of masculinity and and and the men that are in each position that you might face, and that's either from from an athlete and talent standpoint or corporate standpoint. And I think so like, you know, having high standards, having integrity, staying true to who you are, is really important. And then I'd say, you know, if you're looking to come into the sports business, specifically, which is a male dominated industry, I think, finding your people and specifically, like, if you can find a group strong women, you know, I, I was lucky to have some older women that really like, kind of, and that sounds like, yes, they're Not like 80 but like, 10 years older than me. But like, you know, like they're my they are like, I love them to death. They love me to death. They like, want, they like, are protective, and have, like, helped me. And then I have a group of girls, we call each other the board, and most of you know we do PR, and some are talent bookers and but like, we help each other out, we look out for each other. And I think it's important. And I mean, it's very important for sanity sake, for opportunity sake, for everything, because finding for financial sake, like finding out how much people make, like because, you know, sometimes men make more than women sometimes.
Dr. B 23:21
Hello. I think that is true still majority of the time, unfortunately, but here we are to help change the game when it comes to women in all disciplines. And right now, our focus is definitely in sports, and I just really appreciate the honesty of the experience that each of these women experience throughout their journey. I mean, it's not easy for us out here. Okay, I personally believe we need all the support mechanisms in place for us to be successful and give back to our community. So just really happy to have you all here, and I would love to introduce our next Miss.
Marcus White 23:57
Bianca McCall, thank you. Thank you for being here. Greatly appreciate it so you are a mental health advisor, and as a retired professional basketball player and a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, how do you integrate your athletic experience into your mental health advocacy with within the NFL?
Bianca McCall 24:15
I think mental health is naturally integrated into everything that we do in everything that we are, it's always, you know, an underlying factor in our behaviors, and what motivates us, inspires us to compete in sports. And it's something that for me, personally, being an athlete, it wasn't talked about, you know, when I was coming up and when I was competing and when I faced challenges to my mental health, I didn't have the language to be able to express that, or to even process that and understand what it what it was that I was going through. And so the fierce competitor that I am on the basketball court definitely translates that to my life's work, which is in in the mental. Health space and in counseling. And, like I said, I think that it's, it's naturally integrated, right? Like it's, we're always, we're always, we're always faced with challenges, you know, and how we are approaching something mentally and and I think too, just to kind of add is, is our understanding of mental health, I think, is so limited still, right? We've, we've kind of adopted these kind of trending statements, it's okay to not be okay, and that sort of thing. But, but how are we talking about why we're not okay? You know, people still not feeling safe enough to kind of process that openly because of what's going on in their inner process. So, so for me, integration, I mean, it's, it's it's looking at the whole person, and it's looking at everything that we do, and looking at it from a lens of, how is this either supporting and contributing to mental health, or how is this presenting challenges to my ability to be able to mentally, emotionally, behaviorally, spiritually or existentially and physically even. How is it presenting challenges?
Marcus White 26:11
Okay, great. So the next question for you, can you discuss the development and impact of the Reach in now program and mobile application and providing real time support to individuals in need, sure. So,
Bianca McCall 26:23
I mean, I think just starting with the name in itself, reach in now, right? You know, we're so conditioned to waiting for people to reach out when they're in crisis and and that whole notion, it's, it's based on the assumption that people, one can self identify when they're in crisis in real time, which we know isn't true. Some some of us don't recognize that we're in crisis until all the bridges are burned around us, right? And then it also assumes that people are great help seekers, that they're willing participants in actually seeking help. So reaching out. There's a lot of responsibility on the person that's experiencing the challenge or the crisis. So reach in just even in the name it came to be, because there's a call to action to we got to start looking inward. We got to do way more self reflection. I think for a lot of us who have experienced injury and trauma and things, we're almost there's that fear of really going there. You know, I don't want to think about it. I don't it. I don't want to talk about it. I'm over it. You know, we're afraid that we're going to get kind of caught up in in those feelings that are very uncomfortable and very painful for some of us. And so reaching in is all of that. It's being courageous enough to have conversations. And I wanted to build a platform that was safe for people to have courageous conversations, to self reflect, to process and find their community, to be able to, you know, have a have a communal kind of or universal language, to be able to process their their life experiences. Okay,
Marcus White 27:55
well, again, thank you so much for being on the show with us, the urban res and everybody out there, we hope that you have an awesome Sunday and enjoy the football game. We will see you next month. The urban RES is underwritten by global wave consulting, international specializing in IT solutions from network penetration testing and vulnerability management to SAP basis support and web application security. Global wave helps businesses stay secure and efficient in a digital world. For more information, global wave ci.com