Today we’d like to introduce you to Dephanie Adeyemi.
Hi Dephanie, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Ninety8percent originated from the NCAA statistic that only 2% of collegiate athletes go pro. The question I’ve always wondered is “What happens to the other 98%?” What are they doing? What are they struggling with? What have they accomplished? What did they graduate with? What job did they get after graduating? Those questions arose for me due to my lack of direction when I graduated from UCLA.
I am a first-generation American, raised by Nigerian parents who both emphasized the importance of education so naturally I had to attend one of the most applied to universities in the world, UCLA. I was recruited to run track and field on a full ride scholarship. I had two goals for myself – become a 2016 Olympian and graduate with a Civil Engineering degree. Those dreams quickly died as my body could not handle the increased impact of training and the difficulty of balancing engineering courses with 20 hours a week training and meetings. Being a student athlete knowing your education needs to come first but also maintaining the idea that no matter what you’re going to go pro, is a mentality that a lot of athletes carry. We neglect the gnawing feeling that maybe we won’t make it because we have trained our minds and bodies to achieve the impossible. Ultimately, I graduated with a degree in Sociology with a focus in pre-med and never made it to the professional sports world. Many athletes after graduation are left with no clear direction of what they want to do, and without a feeling of preparedness to be successful in a life without sports.
I landed my first job through a job placement agency with a degree from UCLA. Something wasn’t right. I had no clue how to network, how to put a resume together, how to interview, negotiate a salary and tell my story. After hopping from industry to industry for three years teaching myself how to network and having mentors fill me with knowledge of navigating the job world, I found myself in an interview for a consulting position. In that interview, I knew how to tell my story hoping they would hire me for me and completely forgetting I don’t have the technical skillset for the job but I was teachable, and flexible. I landed the job and everything I’ve been learning since that day, I wondered how I was never exposed to this information while I was in college.
One thing I learned from the interview process is people are interested in a college athletes’ story and our past experiences as an athlete are valuable to the world even though we are no longer competing.
From there Ninety8percent was created. A platform to empower athletes to share their stories because their stories are meaningful, unique, and inspiring and they can impact the lives of others who may be dealing with the same experience trying to navigate a life without sports. Ninety8percent provides a one-stop shop for athletes to find resources on navigating life after sports such as resume building, optimizing your LinkedIn, navigating networking events, and stories from other athletes!
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It honestly hasn’t been a difficult journey pulling this together. Although I work in consulting, I know nothing about running a platform or a business so every day I’m learning something new like social media management, marketing, interviewing others, public speaking techniques, etc. When starting a vision on your own, you are literally playing 10 roles all at the same time. You’re the marketer, the interviewer, the CFO, social media manager, the face of the whole thing. And you are doing all of this while working your 9-5. It’s crazy busy but I’m loving the journey.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Currently, I am a management consultant specializing in project/program management. I absolutely love what I do and would suggest this career path to anyone who is looking for their next career transition. As a program manager, I get to help businesses and organizations reach their goals by building solid, trusting relationships with people and organizing multiple teams and ensuring timelines are met to enable the business to reach their goals. What I do is so people-centric. 95% of my job is spent communicating with people, understanding their working style, personality and getting to know who they are as a person. It’s all about building trust and friendship.
I’m very proud of myself because I never knew I would make it to this position and be in a position to help others find their path and get into the industry. I never knew consulting existed and project management was a career path when I was in college struggling to find my path forward. Being a division 1 collegiate athlete, thinking about your future beyond sports wasn’t emphasized or framed well enough for anyone to listen. Now that I am in this position, I can share what I’m learning back to the community, and coach them to ensure they are set up for success regardless of their educational background or journey. 98% of athletes each graduating year are now joining the Ninety8Percent trying to figure out their life after sports. Ninety8Percent is making it easy to find stories of people who have walked similar paths and find resources to guide them to their definition of success.
Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?
I’ve learned from Covid, that we do not have control over anything. During 2020, I had well-thought-out plans and I was going to achieve all of them and ultimately, I was humbled. I own nothing, everything I have is by God’s grace. I started Ninety8percent on my couch in my living room during lockdown August 2020. I shared it in December and I’ve been moving on a prayer since that day. What will be for you will find its way to you as long as you put in the work.
To put it into better perspective, there were thousands of athletes from highschool to pro sports, who missed recruiting season, competition season, draft season, peak Olympic training and competition due to covid in 2020 and all those athletes are now having to pick up the pieces of such an unimaginable year. Ninety8Percent will seek to combat moments like those to better help athletes dealing with life transitions due to personal choices and world events.
Contact Info:
- Email: 98.ninetyeightpercent@gmail.com
- Website: ninety8percent.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/ninety8percent_?utm_medium=copy_link
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/?category=your_pages&ref=bookmarks
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/ninety8percent1/status/1488283224698757123?s=21
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChI3KzjqwN4WHAQ97jdvJHw
Image Credits
Briele Chanel
