Engage Founders Discuss the Democratization of Celebrity Speaking Engagements on the Impact Podcast with John Shegerian

The founders of Engage, a web-based platform designed to digitize the process of booking high profile athletes and celebrities for anything from speaking engagements to once-in-a-lifetime experiences, are featured guests this week on the Impact Podcast with John Shegerian. The show is hosted by Shegerian, Chairman/CEO of ERI, the nation’s leading fully integrated IT and electronics asset disposition provider and cybersecurity-focused hardware destruction company.

Engage was founded by blind USC long snapper Jake Olson, and his manager, Daniel Hennes. After Olson made history as the first completely blind player to play in a Division I football game, he and Hennes dealt with an enormous number of speaking and appearance requests. The traditional system of emails, phone calls, and scanning contracts was not suitable for the demand coming in. The duo began looking for a way to achieve the process online. When they discovered that booking an engagement was still based in the 20th century, they founded Engage as a way to completely digitize the booking process.

Olson, who today serves as Engage’s President; Hennes, who is Engage’s CEO; and Brendan Egan, Engage’s Chief Marketing & Technology Officer, all appear in the special episode of the Impact Podcast to discuss Olson’s incredible story, the various services Engage provides, Engage’s roster of household-name talent, and the recent Supreme Court ruling against NCAA, which opens the door to a significant increase in compensation for student athletes looking to monetize their fame.

The Engage team discussed its swift success amid the newly changed NCAA policies allowing college athletes to profit off their name, image and likeness (NIL) and how it is already advising more than 25 athletes on their NIL opportunities.

The team also spoke with Shegerian about diversity and inclusion and how executives with disabilities tend to be overlooked when it comes to inclusion.

“Engage is democratizing the celebrity speaking space in groundbreaking ways,” said Shegerian. “And Jake Olson is simultaneously breaking down all kinds of barriers as Engage’s President to change the way people with disabilities in executive leadership positions are seen by the media and general public. There are 61 million people in the US today who live with disabilities, and many of them have the same goals and aspirations as the rest of us and want to be ‘Just Like Jake.’ It’s important that they hear Jake’s inspirational story, and I’m excited that we are able to share it on the Impact Podcast.”

“Having known John for nearly a decade, there is no one I would rather have an in-depth conversation with on a podcast,” said Egan. “John’s interview skills and personality made an hour interview on Impact feel like a 5 minute casual conversation. Having the ability to talk about my background in marketing and share the story of Engage and the journey we have been down in front of an audience as large as Impact’s was a fantastic experience.”

“I really loved the in-depth technical questions about our business Engage while still highlighting the personalities of all the team members and all the fun stories of how we got to where we are now,” added Olson.

Every week, Impact Podcast guests are invited as thought leaders to share with listeners firsthand accounts of how they are able to make the world a better place on a daily basis.

Recent guests have included leaders from Verizon, Best Buy, General Motors, JetBlue, Comerica Bank, Goodyear Tire, Virgin, GE, New York City, Beyond Meat, Lipton Tea, Patron Tequila, Panasonic, Molson Coors, Seventh Generation, Ecosia, Waste Management, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, and a number of fascinating thought leaders and game-changers, including Martin Luther King III; real estate powerhouse and television personality Ryan Serhant; writer/comedian/author Jeannie Gaffigan; softball legend and ESPN baseball anchor Jessica Mendoza; PTSD treatment pioneer, Dr. Rick Doblin; ESPN radio personalities Sarah Spain and Israel Gutierrez; ultra-endurance athlete Rich Roll; sports journalism trailblazer Shelley Smith; legendary actor Ed Asner; and hundreds more.

The Impact Podcast with John Shegerian is available for listening on ImpactPodcast.com, Apple’s iTunes, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts, Audible, libsyn, and as part of iHeartRadio’s digital broadcast, reaching over 120 million users.

For more information, visit ImpactPodcast.com.

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