Transcript

Why So Many Millionaire Athletes Lose Everything (and How to Avoid It) 🏋️‍♂️ EP143

From The Money Mondays Podcast · Episode page · Watch on YouTube

· 17 min · 3,456 words · 44 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "Why So Many Millionaire Athletes Lose Everything (and How to Avoid It) 🏋️‍♂️ EP143", an episode of The Money Mondays Podcast published October 27, 2025 (17 min, about 3,456 words). It mentions 28 people, works and ideas, including Pro Athlete Community (PAC), NFL (National Football League), 2U, David Steinberg, Zeta Global.

What this episode is about

The discussion centers on the alarming trend of millionaire athletes who face financial ruin post-career, emphasizing the importance of education and mentorship in helping these individuals leverage their skills and resilience for long-term success beyond sports. Chip House Powek, co-founder of Proathlete Community, highlights strategies to unlock new opportunities for former athletes and ensure their financial security through informed investment and charitable giving.

Key takeaways

  • Grit trumps talent: 1% of athletes succeed by resilience, not raw skill.
  • Athletes retire at 31, left wondering about life's second act.
  • Judgment for extracurricular interests stifles athletes’ growth beyond sports.
  • Julius Thomas’ pivot from touchdowns to psychology: the post-sport testament.
  • Pro sports: not the last meal, but the appetizer for greater ventures.

What is discussed, and when

  1. – 3:00: Chip House Powek, Money Mondays, Zeta Global, Zeta Global Live Conference
  2. – 6:00: Being comfortable being uncomfortable, High-performance coaching, Julius Thomas, Justin Tuck
  3. – 9:00: Angel investing, Zeta Global
  4. – 15:00: CJ Watson, Latavius Murray, Norfolk, Syracuse, New York
  5. – 16:56: Packfluence

Notable quotes from "Why So Many Millionaire Athletes Lose Everything (and How to Avoid It) 🏋️‍♂️ EP143"

  • Money Mondays podcast where normally I'm inside of an RV motor home, but today I'm at the Zeta Global Live Conference.
    about Zeta Global · at
  • People that's here with me today is a, unbelievably successful tight end named Julius Thomas. caught a bunch of touchdown passes from Payton Manning.
    about Julius Thomas · at
  • When you apply that sort of rigor that they have to this whatever the new thing is. And being comfortable being uncomfortable is something that we spent a lot of time talking about, pack, because, they, as I said, they got so.
    about Being comfortable being uncomfortable · at
  • Whether it's real estate, stock market, cryptocurrency, angel investing, there's so many options. Why is it important for them to learn about it?
    about Angel investing · at
  • And I can tell you most people at this conference are super excited to meet CJ Watson and Shane Badier, right?
    about CJ Watson · at
  • He really unlocked his long-term future by opening up a really incredible rec center in the in north the Norfolk area where he's from and just watching it grow. today Latavius…
    about Norfolk · at
  • Chapter in Dubai. and one other thing I would love to say is we did announce something called Packfluence, which is pretty neat. It's a partnership with Cameo and it's an…
    about Packfluence · at

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

  • David Steinberg — Person · 3 mentions
  • Chip House Powek — Person · 1 mention · first at
    Sure. great to be here. Chip House Powek, co-founder, CEO Proathlete Community. it's like YPO for proathletes. So, it's education and mentoring for proathletes to help unlock.
  • Julius Thomas — Person · 1 mention · first at
  • Justin Tuck — Person · 1 mention · first at
    Going to found companies. Some people are going to get out and just go get a great job. PAC member Justin Tuck, great example. He left the league, now he's at Goldman Sachs.…
  • CJ Watson — Person · 1 mention · first at
  • Latavius Murray — Person · 1 mention · first at
    Center in the in north the Norfolk area where he's from and just watching it grow. today Latavius Murray is with me very successful running back. he played 12 years or…
  • Antoine Bethea — Person · 1 mention
  • Shane Battier — Person · 1 mention

Books & papers

Companies & orgs

Products & tech

Concepts & topics

Places & events

  • Norfolk — Place · 1 mention · first at
  • Syracuse, New York — Place · 1 mention · first at
    Longevity and he's built a really significant presence in his hometown of Syracuse, New York. and so like that's power, that that may be what some folks are going to do as their primary profession going forward. But you know at the end.

Full transcript with timestamps

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Money Mondays podcast where normally I'm inside of an RV motor home, but today I'm at the Zeta Global Live Conference. We have over 2,000 CMOs and CEOs downstairs for different brands and executives. One of them is sitting right across the table from me. So, I want to make these special edition episodes. Normally, these podcasts are around 30 to 40 minutes. These episodes are only 20 to 25 minutes because we're trying to go back to back to back. And there's a live event going downstairs. So, the speakers like my next guest need to go over to get speaking on stage. As you guys know, we cover three core topics.

How to make money, how to invest money, how to give it away to charity. This gentleman has not only done it himself, he's inspired thousands of athletes and executives to do the same thing out into the world. So, without further ado, Chip, if you can give us a quick two-minute bio so we get straight to the money.

Sure. Uh, great to be here. Chip House Powek, co-founder, CEO Proathlete Community. Uh, it's like YPO for proathletes. So, it's education and mentoring for proathletes to help unlock their their long-term future. Uh, they're incredibly elite people that candidly did not actually win because of their athletic ability. I know that sounds crazy. You think, no, they're proathletes. They actually won because of grit, rigor, drive, resilience, and they just need exposure to new opportunities. And when they get done playing, if if they're going the right direction, it's amazing what they can accomplish. So started it three years ago. Uh the company that I started before that u when I was 3 I'm 54 now.

When I was 37 I started a company called 2U. Uh one of the biggest online education companies in the world. So I took it public got it to close to a billion in revenue. Was a public CEO for 10 years. So left to do this and um you know I really think long term this will be the most important thing that I do in my career.

Wow. Why is it important for athletes to come together to learn? We have obviously heard that you know the statistic that 85% of NFL athletes end up going bankrupt within 5 years of losing the leaving the league. Whether that number is 74% 92% who knows the actual number. Let's just use that as a general number. That's staggering. Even if it was 20 30% that would be staggering and sad. Talk us through why you decide to do it and why it's important for athletes to consider joining groups like this.

You know the the community of people we serve they're remarkable and people don't understand how challenging the setup is for them. Uh so people when people hear the story of pro alete community they tend to think of that ESPN show 30 for30 broke where it's like oh these guys made so much money and then they lose their money right

um the challenge of being a pro alete like you're so good at this particular thing whether it's football or basketball or soccer you name the sport um and you you got really really really good at it at an early age and you get into a lane and at a very young age when you're done playing people tell you 31, you're retired. What is that? That's crazy. You're not I'm 54 and I'm nowhere near done.

No, you're ready to rock. Yeah, exactly. So, um, but what's interesting is while they're playing, they also get judged pretty severely for doing anything that isn't that sport. People say, "Oh, you're not serious." So, if you're playing football and you're caught doing some real estate, you're not serious about football. It makes no sense. There's really nothing else in the world like it. So, they're on a stage that is, you know, 80,000 people screaming their name coming out of their tunnel. they're judged pretty severely for for every little

every little move. And then, you know, when they're done playing, the phone stops ringing.

And so, um, bringing together proathletes who've had a shared experience, um, in this elite fashion and giving them exposure to new opportunities, you know, one of the people that's here with me today is a, you know, unbelievably successful tight end named Julius Thomas. caught a bunch of touchdown passes from Payton Manning. Um, you know, JT got his doctorate in psychology when he was done playing

and he leads a lot of the work at PAC related to athlete transition. Like it's a really challenging moment for these pros and for their families because you go from this massive sort of 80,000 people screaming your name coming out of the tunnel to the phone not ringing. you're very young and what JT would tell you is pro pro sports will be if done properly pro sports is not your last meal it's your first meal

there's a lot ahead and so you look at somebody like Julius you know he now has a company called optim optimal performance that's all about high performance coaching and that's the lane he's now in but he's doing incredibly well and so helping these guys and gals uh we have a ton of women in pack also u actually achieve a wonderful long-term future. You know, at this stage in my life, um I feel blessed to be doing something where I'm really making a difference. And you know, it's also wild to see what happens when you you apply that sort of rigor that they have to this whatever the new thing is. And you know, um, being comfortable being uncomfortable

is something that we spent a lot of time talking about, pack, because, you know, they, as I said, they got so good at their sport. It's like that they weren't just the best athlete in their hometown, they were the best athlete in their state. You It's crazy,

right? Um, 1% of 1% 1% of 1%. Um, and so, uh, giving them the the the push to go into whether it be, you know, nonprofit, go get a great job. You know, that's the other thing is I have a bunch of founders that come to pack. Some guys are some of the people like Julius are going to found companies. Some people are going to get out and just go get a great job. I mean, PAC member uh, Justin Tuck, great example. He left the league, now he's at Goldman Sachs. He's doing really well at Goldman Sachs. So giving them whatever that inspiration is uh is is is part of our job. And you know, the fact that there was no YPO for pro sports kind of blew my mind.

So we think we're on to something pretty big. We're we're getting close to 2,000 pros right now.

2,000. Yeah. So if there's a pro listening or someone that's friends or cousins or, you know, sons or daughters of a pro, how do they go sign up? How do they become a part of your world?

So uh if you go to proathlete community.com, you can u you can you can apply. we verify you as a pro and then you're in. Um, you know, I'm very proud to tell you that I'm I'm proud to be the CEO of this company, but I'm not a member. My COO played for five NFL teams. He was a very successful safety. Um, he's a member, you know, like you have to be a pro alete to be in pack. Now, I bring in a bunch of CEOs to do mentoring. So, uh, we've got an incredible event in March, uh, where we have something called the pros and CEOs golf invitational. and uh you know bringing together great CEOs and proathletes. It's uh a remarkable opportunity for networking both directions. The CEOs and the founders are super excited to be involved with the athletes and vice versa. So we formed a lot of great mentoring relationships uh including David Seinberg from Zeta Global who's been super active inside of PAC

which is how we met. Yeah, exactly. So David uh David's been a big supporter of PAC and we really really appreciate it. So,

so on the investing side, why is it important for athletes and people in general to learn about investing? Whether it's real estate, stock market, cryptocurrency, angel investing, there's so many options. Why is it important for them to learn about it?

Well, I mean, you know, at the end of the day, everything's about education. Like, you never stop learning. Um, and you know, there are so many different options for investing your money. You know, it's been fascinating for me because this is my fourth startup and sort of what I tell the players is like my lane with startups and I would tell you it's a really tough lane. Like, you know, startups take forever. Uh, many of them don't work. You know, most startups fail and so you might be 10 years into your journey. Now, my first company I started when I was 21 and I ran it for 10 years and we produced a PBS television show and gave a bunch of really famous people their first acting job and the show did well, but the business was really hard. So, we were selling DVDs at the time. It's all pre- internet.

And um we sold 5 million DVDs, but ultimately that company, you know, when I sold it, I sold it for a bag of magic beans. Like I, you know, it didn't I didn't have the experience that I end up having at 2U where I took it public and it got really big. The reason I go there is like that lane of startups is something that is very comfortable to me. But as I've gone through PAC, I personally have broadened my horizons in terms of my own investment strategies because I'm being educated by a bunch of experts on things like triple net real estate. I never realized there was such a thing that you could you could pass a empty lot in your hometown and pave it and put up a Chipotle. Like I that's a that was a brand new way to make money for me. I had never heard of it. um you know so whether you're into you know stocks, crypto, uh real estate, whatever it might be, just getting greater confidence by learning more is a big

part of what we do. So we've got all these different experts training them on, you know, some aspects of financial literacy, some aspects of, you know, deeper content like AI or real estate. And that's how that's how you succeed in life is like be comfortable being uncomfortable. like you of course you don't know everything but the more you learn the more successful you can be. And so uh gives me you know gives me pride to to to be able to help unlock not just their their head and their heart work but also help them be successful financially. So that's what we try to do.

So on the investing side they they got the money, they're retired, they're learning, they start to deploy. A lot of times it's the overhead that's been hurting a lot of athletes. they are taking care of their cousins, their friends, the friend from school, their friends friends, cousins from school as well.

What is it from the mentality perspective that can be done to help them learn as they're growing up to actually lower their overhead?

I think, you know, I mean, I think at the end of the day, it's about making sure that there are great people around them.

Yeah. Um now the people that are coming to PAC and that are applying to PAC and that are joining PAC are um you know they're they are they are self- selecting to invest in themselves.

Yeah. Uh and so that's one of the things we talk about is like if you invest in yourself you cultivate meaningful relationships. If you do those two things you'll elevate your life and those around you. So like that's part of what we believe and that cultivating meaningful relationships part is really important. So making sure that there are good people around you that have the expertise that you don't have. And you know as a as a successful CEO I would tell you that like I'm very comfortable knowing that I don't know everything and it's all about putting great people around me. Putting the right people around you to unlock you. Um well the opposite is also true. If you have the wrong people around you it it's a rough go.

Uh and you know my background you know my parents are amazing but I I don't come from any wealth. you know, I put myself through school and, you know, when I got to college, I didn't own a winter coat. I'd never seen snow. You know, I education completely changed my life and um feel very uh fortunate that, you know, I met my wife in college and we've been together. We just celebrated our 29th wedding anniversary. So, life is all about these relationships and about making sure that you've got the right people around you to succeed. Uh athletes are no different. I mean, one of the challenges for them is that, you know, the stage that they're on is so bright. Um and uh so you know you certainly have uh some of the wrong people are are going to be around try to be around them at times. I think one of the reasons why PAC has been successful is that they know that we're not in it to be another person trying to get into

their pocket. Um we're in it for community. I think the durable mode of pack is trust to be honest. I think they've I'm big believer as a startup language durable mode. If you can really build a durable mode, I actually think the reason pack is working is that they know that this community is actually about the community. It's not about me trying to get their money to invest or whatever. Um,

but you know, amazing what kind of expertise you can bring in. And that's one of the things that I tell all the pack members is like use what you got. And what they have is an incredible career as an athlete and the world wants to be around them. So if you start applying that the right way, you know, it's amazing what rooms you can walk in. You know, even at this conference, this conference is I mean every Fortune 500 company CMO is here. Like these are big big companies.

And I can tell you most people at this conference are super excited to meet CJ Watson and Shane Badier,

right? You know, so it's amazing what uh if if they apply that mindset the right way, what doors it'll open.

On the charity side of the podcast, we like to cover that topic. Why do you think it's important for athletes or business people in general to have some charity component into their world?

Well, I mean like from a from a purpose standpoint, um it it it's actually fascinating. Something like a third of the pack uh membership are super active in their foundations.

Uh and you know that some proathletes that is what they end up doing full-time. um you know very proud of uh Antoine Beth. I don't know if you know that player but really successful safety in the NFL and he came through pack and he really unlocked his long-term future by opening up a a really incredible rec center in the in north the Norfolk area where he's from and just watching it grow. Um today Latavius Murray is with me uh very successful running back. he played 12 years or something like that in a position in the NFL that you typically don't have that kind of longevity and he's built a really significant presence in his hometown of Syracuse, New York. Um, and so like that's power, you know, that that that that may be what some folks are going to do as their primary uh profession going forward. But um but you know at the end of the day like how much does money matter? Purpose matters more you know.

So, I I I feel um one of the things that's neat about what we're doing at PAC is the just helping these guys and gals uh figure out what that long-term, you know, I I always say I'm not going to be able to tell you, it's not my job to tell you what to burn for, but it is certainly my job to help you figure out that burn just like you had when you were playing. And uh charitable work is meaningful and so it's a big part of PAC. We actually have a series of nonprofit experts that actually help them structure it the right way because

that's a place where you can also get in trouble, you know, so helping them with the structure of their charitable activities is important, too.

Very cool. All right. So, where can people find you? Where can they find the company? Tell us all about it.

Uh, so proathlete community.com. You can find us on uh obviously on the internet, on Instagram. Um, it's it's broadly community. Um, I'm Chip Powk. C H I P A C K. Uh you can find me on Instagram or on Twitter. Um and we would love if you're a pro alete uh come join us. It's um it's it's an incredible honor to have close to 2,000 pros today. Uh and you know there's 770,000 pro athletes in the world.

Wow. And uh 300,000 of them uh in English language and we we actually don't think this will uh will remain just in English. Uh so we have a pack chapter in Madrid that just spun. We have a pack chapter in Dubai. Uh, and one other thing I would love to say is we we did announce something called Packfluence, which is pretty neat. It's a partnership with Cameo and it's an opportunity for brands. Where would you go if you're a brand to get 500 players to do an activation of some kind on social media? We think that's a really cool opportunity. Great. Yeah. So, we just announced that yesterday.

Got some brands for you. Yeah, that's great. Yeah. I I love it. So, that's uh a partnership with Cameo. And then we've got our big flagship event in March. If you're a CEO and you're interested in attending, just check us out at PAC. It's called Pack Accelerate. Largest collection of athletes, CEOs, and brands coming together.

What city is that in? It's in Phoenix. Very cool. So, that's late March. Very cool.

You got to come. I'm in. I'm in. All right, guys. As you know, we cover these three core topics about money, but it's because we grew up thinking it's rude to talk about money. I think that's ridiculous. We got to have these discussions whether it's with athletes, with children, your friends, family, and followers. We have to be able to have open discussions about money is part of our daily lives. Taxes, loans, should I lease? Should I buy? What should I do about my rent? What if I borrow $400 from my friend? How do I like these are questions of our real life things that we need to be able to talk about? And that's why it's important for this podcast. That's why it's important for you guys to talk about it with your friends, family, and followers. So, like, comment, subscribe.

We appreciate you guys. Check out Pack and everything that Chip is up to. And we'll see you guys next Monday here at the moneymunddays.com.

Questions about this episode

What is "Why So Many Millionaire Athletes Lose Everything (and How to Avoid It) 🏋️‍♂️ EP143" about?

The discussion centers on the alarming trend of millionaire athletes who face financial ruin post-career, emphasizing the importance of education and mentorship in helping these individuals leverage their skills and resilience for long-term success beyond sports. Chip House Powek, co-founder of Proathlete Community, highlights strategies to unlock new opportunities for former athletes and ensure…

What is mentioned in this The Money Mondays Podcast episode?

28 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Pro Athlete Community (PAC), NFL (National Football League), 2U, David Steinberg, Zeta Global, Durable moat. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Why So Many Millionaire Athletes Lose Everything (and How to Avoid It) 🏋️‍♂️ EP143"?

The episode runs 17 min; the transcript is about 3,456 words in 44 timestamped sections.

More from The Money Mondays Podcast

About this transcript: the episode's spoken words as captioned on YouTube, split into timestamped sections. Reclip.Me locates every person, work and idea in the text, keeps the time it is first named, and quotes the words around it verbatim. Last updated December 18, 2025.