Love him or hate him, there is one thing that is undeniable about Floyd Mayweather Jr. – he is at the peak of his profession both as an athlete and businessman. You don’t top Forbe’s list of highest paid athletes in the world two of the past three years without having some business acumen. His last mega-fight against Manny Pacquiao made him over $180 million dollars in one night. His next fight against Conor McGregor is set to make him nine-figures in one night yet again. We stopped to ask ourselves, maybe there is a thing or two we could pick up from the man known as “Money May”. If it can’t get us into his tax bracket, maybe it could us to our next.
4. Go Counter-Culture to Create A Brand
Early in his career Mayweather was known as “Pretty Boy Floyd”. His promotion company Top Rank Boxing sought to mold him as the next Sugar Ray Leonard and/or Oscar De La Hoya. The thought process was to take another Olympic medalist and forge him a clean-cut image both Madison Avenue and Middle America could embrace. However Mayweather had other ideas. His goal was to be a boxer for the hip-hop generation, thus “Pretty Boy” became “Money May”. A brash, flashy, in-your-face bad boy boxer that did not hold his tongue and seemingly lived the hip-hop lifestyle. This was never more apparent than in his bout with Oscar De La Hoya. It was the first time the new persona was provided such constant and worldwide exposure. Prior to the bout Mayweather took full advantage of the promotional opportunities. Setting himself apart as the man with the proverbial “black hat” to De La Hoya’s golden boy image. The counter culture character he created was successful in not only promoting the bout, but also creating a star and a brand. People now tune in specifically to see if the bad guy will finally lose.
3. Broaden the Brand by Exposing it in Unconventional Ways
What Mayweather did after he won the De La Hoya fight is what is really impressive. He positioned the bad boy brand in different arenas thus exposing it to different demographics. A stint on “Dancing with the Stars” made soccer moms aware of him. His turn at WrestleMania made good old country boys in the flyover states know his name. He took the brand to places that were uncharacteristic. Once again, by fighting an MMA champion Mayweather his taking his name and brand to another arena and gaining world-wide exposure as a result. Not too dissimilar to when a certain 1990’s Presidential candidate named Bill Clinton, decided to play saxophone on a late-night talk show called “The Arsenio Hall Show”.
2. Recognize Your Worth
Like many before him after his medal winning turn in the 1996 Olympics, Floyd Mayweather went on to sign a lucrative contract with Top Rank Boxing, one of the sports longest tenured promotion companies. However, after a number of years, the big fights he craved (and big purses they create) were not forthcoming. So Mayweather paid $750,000 to buy his contract out and left the company. However, he just didn’t up and join another company as if he were an employee. Rather he employed the free-agent model. Allowing other promotional companies to bid for his services fight-by-fight, it not only raised his purses, but also created a number of new opportunities. However, it didn’t stop there, as his ability to put fans in the seats grew, so did his leverage and negotiating demands. He would proclaim himself as the “A-Side” to a bout and use it liberally to obtain any and every advantage he could in negotiations – from pay, to venue, to glove selection and ring size. Essentially, Mayweather came to recognize his worth and leveraged it accordingly.
1. Mayweather Mantra – Hard Work and Dedication
All the positioning and branding aside, if your product isn’t good, no one will want it. Many can come up with good ideas for a product, but not many will put in the hard work and dedication to execute properly. Which is one of the biggest challenges. Both admirers and detractors will tell you that Mayweather puts in the hard work and dedication to his craft. It’s essentially his mission statement. Although Mayweather portrays a party lifestyle. In reality, he is extremely disciplined. He trains incessantly, doesn’t drink, has a personal chef to keep his nutrition on point and doesn’t put on weight between fights – as many a fighter tends to do. Moreover, he is a student of boxing, when not in training he is always working/learning a new move to put another tool in the tool belt so to speak. It’s this approach, which has kept him on his game for nearly 20 years.
