Askia Taylor - Hard as Nails, Soft as Petals- Episode 35

Being a single Mom was NOT in Askia Taylors plan, but it led to her starting her business The Future of Division 1. Askia had to learn to navigate the path to the male dominated world of professional sports and now helps other parents to do the same. Join us as we talk about the anxiety of kids leaving for college and making their own mistakes, and hear how an acquaintance unexpectedly became a safe harbor when her life turned upside down. Show notes: Follow Askia on Instagram: @askiataylor Follow The Future of Division 1 on instagram: @thefutureofd1 Website: https://thefutureofd1.com Podcast: https://anchor.fm/thefutureofd1 Link to our new shop: https://future-of-d1.myshopify.com Link to our online course: https://www.thefutureofd1courses.com/ Askia would love to offer her course to the Warrior Women community. If Warrior Women sign up to take the course (currently priced at $1,500/the cost of one travel sports season) and pinky promise to share with other sports parents, we have a code they can use take it for FREE. $0. The code is: WARRIORWOMEN and it will work the entire month December. Guest Bio: Askia Taylor Professional experience - 20 yrs in Marketing and Advertising Got a start in media sales after an internship at KTLA-TV, moved to KCBS-TV then migrated into a career at the intersection where digital ad tech and ad agencies collide. She's built multi-million dollar campaign strategies in multiple categories including automotive, pharmaceutical, television & film, CPG and beauty. After launching Media Bella, a wildly successful media consultancy in 2008, she became pregnant with her second son. Days after her second son turned 4 months old, the children's father left her for another woman with $13.16 in the bank. He never returned. Left with two options and no financial resources, Askia chose to pack up her infant and pre-teen son, and move into the home of her oldest son's youth football coach - a man she barely knew. A choice she fondly recalls as the best she's ever made. Despite the harsh reality of her grim financial circumstances, the humiliation of abandonment, she kept her eyes on their futures. "I was moving and operating with zero clarity. All I knew was I needed to do what made the most sense for Dallas. He was priority number 1. My infant was easy, he was perfectly happy to be papoosed to my chest everyday. My oldest was my biggest concern because I knew he was painfully aware of everything that had gone on and since I was barely able to process our new normal, I knew he was struggling too. We didn't deserve what was happening to us and I was ill-equipped to help him. It was more pain and confusion than most 12 year olds should ever have to process and the only thing I could think to do was keep him in sports. He was the happiest version of himself in a jersey and I refused to take that from him. We battled through the pain by not avoiding it and we've never looked back." The Future of Division 1 was born out of a series of circumstances that happened to and around a single mother and her son, a Division 1 football recruit. A mom who had zero knowledge of the college recruiting process but dove in blindly to support her son through it - twice. The company name is a personal declaration that speaks truth to the futures of all facets of the Division 1 recruiting process and has now blossomed into a brand, sports content company including a podcast and web series (currently in development) with hundreds of athletes proclaiming their futures. The Future of D1 is the future of professional sports.