Stephen Nedoroscik by no means anticipated to turn out to be a world celeb. However, whereas competing for Staff USA through the 2024 Summer season Olympic Video games in Paris, the American gymnast went viral—and his life modified without end. Over the course of some hours, Nedoroscik went from being an unknown, glasses-wearing, Rubik’s Dice-solving self-described nerd to a family identify—with an endearing nickname besides, the “pommel horse man.”
Nedoroscik was overwhelmed by the sudden flurry of consideration—so, for assist, he turned to SMITH&SAINT, a Boston-based boutique expertise company. The feminine-founded, female-led firm sprang into motion, placing a crew round Nedoroscik to assist him navigate the uncharted waters of his newfound fame. Since then, SMITH&SAINT has helped Nedoroscik launch a partnership with an eyeglass retailer, compete on Dancing with the Stars and use his platform to boost consciousness about males’s gymnastics and imaginative and prescient impairment.
“He simply stated, ‘I need assistance,’” says Britt St. George, the co-founder and chief govt officer of SMITH&SAINT. “And since this was such a brand new world for him, and his life turned the other way up—for the nice—in a single day, he actually needed individuals who had been variety and pleasant and simply took a step again and stated, ‘How are you feeling about all of this?’”
Nedoroscik’s alternative wasn’t random: He signed with SMITH&SAINT due to the company’s confirmed monitor document of representing athletes on the largest stage—together with a number of of his Staff USA teammates. The company works with a few of the most recognizable names in American gymnastics, together with Nastia Liukin, Sunisa “Suni” Lee, Jade Carey, Alicia Sacramone, Kayla DiCello and Hezly Rivera.
SMITH&SAINT’s mission
SMITH&SAINT’s roster could also be a “who’s who” of gymnastics royalty. However the company additionally represents digital creators, in addition to athletes in different disciplines like fencing, swimming and dance, the place skilled alternatives postcollege or post-Olympics are restricted. The SMITH&SAINT crew helps athletes turn out to be entrepreneurs, supporting them in all the pieces from launching influencer companies to negotiating identify, picture and likeness (NIL) offers. In addition they assist their purchasers discover alternatives in TV or commentary and develop their private manufacturers—not solely on-line but additionally in actual life.
“We work with lots of people who don’t have the chance to signal profitable gamers’ contracts as a result of there is no such thing as a skilled league to enter for his or her particular sport,” St. George says.
“And that’s a extremely daunting factor. Whether or not you’re an Olympian who’s type of on the finish of your Olympic cycle or a collegiate athlete who doesn’t have a professional league to go on to, it may be a extremely scary time. But it surely’s additionally a extremely thrilling time due to social media, which provides athletes the power to market themselves and pursue different profession paths.”
360-degree strategy to expertise illustration
St. George co-founded SMITH&SAINT together with her sister, Madison Smith. They had been each completed sports activities and leisure attorneys with expertise in influencer advertising once they determined to hitch forces and launch their very own company in 2018. Smith and St. George by no means anticipated to work collectively, not to mention begin a enterprise. However, after rising up with entrepreneurial dad and mom as function fashions, it was “simply form of in our blood,” says Smith, who serves as the corporate’s chief working officer.
On prime of that, St. George remembers the precise second she realized she needed to be a expertise agent. When she was 10 or so, she watched Jerry Maguire—the 1996 movie starring Tom Cruise as a sports activities agent—for the primary time, and one thing in regards to the title character’s grit and persistence caught together with her. “I assumed, ‘That’s precisely what I wish to do. I wish to assist folks in that approach. I wish to assist them obtain their goals,’” she says. “Being in that place to champion and empower folks was one thing that actually resonated with me.”
From the very starting, Smith and St. George knew they needed to do issues otherwise. They take a 360-degree strategy, which implies supporting purchasers with all elements of illustration—from day-to-day collaboration on important features to creating a high-level, big-picture technique for his or her profession exterior of their sport. Generally, which means appearing a bit like profession counselors.
“We spend quite a lot of time listening to the athletes and speaking to them about what they actually wish to do—the place are their different passions?” St. George says. “And quite a lot of them have by no means thought of that query earlier than. ‘My ardour is gymnastics; it’s fencing; it’s swimming.’ We actually must dig deep and suppose, ‘OK, do you wish to commentate in your sport? Do you wish to have a profession as a motivational speaker? Do you wish to be a coach in your sport? Begin your personal firm?’ There are such a lot of avenues we are able to go down.”
Manufacturers are catching on to Olympians’ star energy
Nowadays, athletes have extra profession alternatives than ever earlier than, due to the facility of social media, the rise of influencer advertising and the likelihood that anybody, in any sport, can go viral at a second’s discover. “We actually noticed this on the 2020 [Olympic] video games,” Smith says.
“That was actually the primary time the place athletes had been exhibiting what it’s prefer to be within the Olympic Village, what’s occurring behind the scenes and after they win…. Within the 4 years main as much as the 2024 Olympics, manufacturers actually began to catch on, and there was a large improve in spending on influencer advertising throughout the Olympic area…. It’s all due to social media and these athletes with the ability to present themselves [outside of their sport]. Now, everybody desires to work with them.”
However as a result of anybody and everybody generally is a celeb, that additionally means athletes must work more durable than ever to face out from the group—and that’s the place SMITH&SAINT is available in. The crew helps athletes navigate subsequent steps after they retire from their sport, in addition to within the 4 years between Olympic video games. “That four-year time interval is so essential—and it’s lengthy,” Smith says. “It’s simply with the ability to advocate for [the athletes] throughout that point and align them with like-minded manufacturers and long-term partnerships. With some athletes, it’s letting manufacturers know they’re going to compete within the subsequent Olympics, so how can we proceed to work with you over the subsequent 4 years and construct a significant partnership? We’re all the time considering of the longer term.”
Placing relationships first
The crew additionally places relationships on the middle of all the pieces they do—and their high-touch, uniquely customized, compassionate type is a giant purpose why so many high-level athletes wish to work with SMITH&SAINT. “Our first precedence is being there as a assist system,” St. George says. “We’re there to assist them by way of something.”
That individuals-first mentality additionally helps SMITH&SAINT internally. The company is small—with lower than 20 workers—however continues to draw a few of the business’s greatest brokers, creatives, attorneys and business-forward thinkers due to its tradition. “We wish to be the neatest within the room, essentially the most revolutionary within the room, essentially the most variety within the room,” St. George says. “Each single individual inside this firm is so particular and distinctive and pulls their very own weight and offers a lot worth to every of the people they characterize, and that makes us very particular and distinctive on this area.”
This text initially appeared within the July/August 2025 challenge of SUCCESS® journal. Picture by ©Veronica Costa Pictures
Discussion about this post