Season 2 Episode 7: The NIL Roadmap: Navigating the Financial Journey of a Student-Athlete
April 16, 2026
This episode reframes NIL earnings as a serious business venture, teaching athletes how to apply their "on-field coachability" to their personal finances. It covers everything from setting up LLCs to building a professional "dream team" of advisors to ensure collegiate success translates into lifelong wealth.
In this episode, we discuss:
- 00:00 Introduction
- 03:05 The Financial Roadmap: Building a Life Plan Beyond Sports
- 06:28 The Financial Game Plan: Habit-Building and "Paying Yourself First"
- 09:20 Monitoring Goals and Avoiding Surprises
- 12:03 The Reality of Self-Employment Taxes and Brackets
- 17:29 Liability Protection and Entity Choice
- 22:45 Balancing Tax Savings with Business Responsibility
- 27:31 Geographic Compliance and Operational Risks
- 30:50 The CEO Mindset: Professional Responsibility and NIL Realities
- 35:05 Building an Elite Team for Long-Term Success
- 36:21 The First Step: Celebrating Success While Building a Foundation
About our guest Don VanLandingham
Don is co-founder/owner of Guardian Wealth and acts as principal investment advisor. He is also the Vision & Behavioral Coach to Guardian’s client-family. Don’s effectiveness in helping clients reach their goals is powered by a successful career as the owner of a CPA firm that also specialized in financial planning and small business consulting.
Learn more about Don and his expertise here.
About our host Brent Ullrich
Brent Ullrich is a Partner with Mauldin & Jenkins, LLC, with over 15 years of experience in many areas of taxation and industries, most notably in healthcare, real estate, private equity, technology and professional services. He also serves as the Firm’s Tax Strategy and Research Leader, which offers technical guidance and identifies planning opportunities for the firm to support clients on complex issues across a range of technical tax areas.
Learn more about Brent and his expertise here.
Learn more about our firm here