Reggie Calhoun Jr. Of RPA College® Is One Of The Leading Voices Of College Football
Your football career has been well-documented on a national and international level, but can you reflect on the decision-making process behind you starting RPA College®?
Though it would have been a phenomenal experience to compete internationally, I was not able to play at this level during my time as a student-athlete. In fact, I actually had the opportunity to sign with a team in Germany and arrogance took over. Safe to say I missed out on that opportunity. This is a great segway to my thought processes when inspired to create RPA College®.
Like most businesses the great ones are created from an experience. When it comes to creatives and the experiences that they have, they know it won’t be the last and they won’t be the only. So, it was up to me to make the leap and take on this challenge to impact athletes and their futures based on experiences I went through.
Talk about the awards you’ve won and which one has the most significance to you as a whole?
During my time at Louisiana College, I broke and held multiple records in the school’s history as a defensive back and held multiple all conference and all Louisiana recognitions.
In 2018, I became a Forbes Fellow and I’ve been blessed to be recognized by Hennessy during Black History Month. I was awarded Educator of the Year, Best of Black Dallas by Dallas, and the University of Texas at Arlington awarded me for my efforts both impacting lives domestically and internationally.
The one award that sticks out most to me is being awarded the opportunity to be a part of the Keynote Emancipation Day at the PanaFest in Ghana. At the end of the day, I’m just a kid from New Orleans who never stopped dreaming and that took me internationally as a prominent figure.
RPA College® is an institution that provides athletes with opportunities beyond both the turf and hardwood floor. How important is it for athletes to have the full scope of awareness about ventures outside of sports?
Our mantra at RPA College® is “The Platform is Sports, The Program is Life.” We truly embody this concept and emphasize it’s truth through the resources we provide to our student-athletes. We understand that sports is a lifeline for most of the student-athletes we work with, but our #1 goal is to transition that thinking. Sports is and can be the springboard to truly creating the life they want, desire, and deserve. We want to use sports as the tool it is, and not as a crutch. Sports has changed many lives, but only if used correctly.
How does your debut book Build Your Sportspreneurship Empire: The RPA Way and your exclusive coaching program coincide with each other?
The book is simply a blueprint for what influenced my journey to becoming a Sportspreneur. The coaching program provides sports enthusiasts, ex-athletes, coaches, and parents of athletes with a practical program with experts who have done the leg work. The book is the blueprint, and the coaching program is the work. We take students and turn them into professionals. I always ask, “Do you want to be a professional athlete, or a professional in athletics.” One has a longer shelf life.
Through every situation, whether it involves an athlete or regular civilian, you always strive to talk about the importance of how a person’s mindset plays a role in the approach they take throughout life. How will you impart your knowledge about sports, wealth and more at your upcoming conference, Th3 Conglomerate Fest?
Th3 Conglomerate Fest will be an opportunity for my student-athletes to see the RPA College® mantra in action. They have all heard the stories of my upbringing, the multiple highschools I attended, how illiterate I was about college and the requirements to succeed there and what it was like to find my bearings on a team I am proud to say that I played for and earned the awards you learned about earlier. As a black man in America, I want my guys to know that they are not their circumstances and that you can truly become a powerful person from your environment. Now get this, mindset has a BIG part to play in what that truly means, because for me, I don’t interpret it like most people do. I was born and raised in New Orleans and not the touristic part most people like to associate New Orleans with. My environment was one that I knew I couldn’t conform to, so I chose differently. I walked in a different direction and reprogrammed my thinking in order to get to a better place in life.
What is the overarching vision for RPA College® as we’re currently entrenched into a digitalized world full of opportunities for athletes involving NFT’s and cryptocurrency?
Our vision at RPA College® is to impact 1 billion lives world-wide so that they are able to embody all six of our core values: passion, education, community, vision, creativity, and recognition. The passion that each of our student-athletes have about the plans they set for their future will ultimately set them up to become more educated on the evolution of the digitalized world we’re driving towards. It will be through their networking communities (RPA College® being a key contributor) that they understand the vision of where NFT’s and cryptocurrency can take them. You’ll hear it here first…we have plans and projects rolling out to introduce smart contracts, blockchains, and digital currencies and tokens. New NIL (name-image-likeness) policies have made it easy for student-athletes to get creative with the use of these currency building mediums and securing assets digitally. 1 billion is a big number so as we continue to impact peopledirectly, we’re confident that they’ll stand out among their peers and are recognized as individuals that will impact others — this can also be known as the spillover effect.
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