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[music] right, welcome back everybody. Uh, so excited today to be uh, on a new episode of Checking In. Got a great guest today. We got Baron Tipton, a wide receiver for the Mean Green. Yes, sir. Wide receiver. Nice. Uh we're super excited to have him with us today uh again on a podcast where we just talk about uh the influence of money. Uh you know kind of the the way that it has shaped our life, the way it's shaped some of our personal experiences, positive and negative kind of emotions that we get wrapped up with with money. Um like I said, really excited to have Baron today because we get to talk about it in a slightly different uh perspective. We kind of wrap it around uh athletics. Um Baron is uh one of our kind of brand ambassadors uh through the NIL program that we're super excited to develop a relationship with. So today is kind of our first day to to really pick your brain a little bit. So excited to have you here. Um can't wait to dive into this. So you ready? Yes, sir. I'm excited. Yeah, let's do this. Um we like to ask the question we we kind of start with the income segment which I kind of relate to the positive aspects of money. uh kind of the good feelings of it. We typically ask that first question of uh do you remember your first paycheck? Something tells me uh that wasn't too far off for you. Uh so we'll kind of hover around some of that stuff. Just curious when you were growing up, obviously you're a D1 athlete, so you're probably very structured and regimented with your schedule and routine. Did you even have time for a job? Um I really didn't. My first job was my senior year of high school in the spring when I didn't have any football or workouts. Okay. So, that was really the only time I got to work. But other than that, I didn't have first job for Yeah. my whole life pretty much. Yeah. Football was your first job, right? Yeah. Yeah. You're loving your job. Can I ask what uh what was your job? It was a a cryo place in Capell. Oh, okay. Cryo chambers. Yeah. Yeah. I had helping people recover. Family friends that uh owned a spot. So, I got to just run the front desk and help people recover, talk to them the whole time. It was good experience, good people skills to learn. Yeah, absolutely. Some uh some good people skills and also I'm I'm assuming that kind of played into some of your training, right? Did you ever do the chyro therapy? Yeah, all the time. Yeah. What you think of it? It's great. Great way to recover. It's so much easier than ice bath because it's a couple minutes versus like 10, 15 minutes. And then they have the normch boots after as well. So you can cry, then go sit in the normch boots, get the full recovery. Gotcha. Gotcha. Nice. Um I do have kind of a a funny question that thinking about sports as a job. Uh because I grew up, you know, playing baseball, did it in college, all of that fun stuff. But I always just just loved it, just played it. But I always had those friends who uh you know, their parents were like, "Hey, get five bucks for a double, right? 10 bucks for a triple." Did you ever run into that when you were playing? Um, there was probably a few times in in middle school and then like come just a couple of my first games I would say my dad was giving me a little incentive to I'll give you 10 bucks if you score a touch touchdown this game or something like that. But it happened a couple times. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. My my dad was uh or my parents I should say love them to death. Uh but they were certainly like no you're gonna play this because you love it right. Um, I don't know if they were ever tempted to do it or not, but I probably didn't have the skills to to be motivated that way. Uh, but it is interesting though because, uh, talking about the motivation to train, the motivation to work, the motivation to do all that stuff. Uh, are there any like differences when you're on the field as opposed to when you were working? Like what motivated you to do your best at your job? Um, at my job it was really just the discipline of of doing your job. It's the same thing on the field. I mean, you have the passion for football, so you want to do your best every single play. Um, same thing off the field. I feel like I just can't like live with myself if I don't give my all. So, that's that's how I would look at it. Yeah. Very nice. So, I'm going to ask the next question. Um, let's say you have an opportunity to go to an athletic program where there's uh tons of NIL money uh and one that isn't. What would motivate you? like passion of the game or uh a possible financial incentive. Let me put it that way. Yeah, that would be a tough decision. Uh if the time comes, then I'd have to make that decision. But I'd say just really the opportunity. I I'd go for more the love of the game, the the opportunity to play. I'd rather play than go somewhere and sit on the bench and maybe I make some money, but I don't get to do what I love to do. Oh, that's interesting. Yeah. No, I'm I'm right there with you. I think that's a that's a wise choice. Uh but it does does certainly beg those questions of like how is NIL and how is money and all that stuff changing kind of NC2 athletics and your perspective of it. I'm curious um now that you're in you're in that world, right? Has anything like surprised you about oh I didn't realize this was going to happen or you know NIL definitely changed my perspective on recruiting or where I should play etc. you run into any of that yet? I haven't run into too much, but I've definitely observed it and seen how it works and like it's more of a professional uh take on it because you have the NI, so you're you're really working a job at this point. Um, so I've seen it happen with some older guys that I've uh learned from in the past and Yeah. Yeah. Very nice. Uh, what what do you think? Let's say you've got um some some younger fans out there listening to you and they're like what should they prepare for? What should they look at? Should that change anything for them in terms of oh well now I need to build an image in addition to uh my playing time. Um I would say for for the younger guys just to focus on on the football aspect of it. And if that's what they really love, just focus on football and then all the NIL stuff will kind of come with it as you go. If you're focused on that, you can get into your head and start thinking about the wrong things. Um, only worried about, oh, I need to do this to get some money or something. If you just play football, other stuff will come. Yeah. It'll take care of itself. Yeah. Focus on the main thing. Yeah. That's awesome. Well, you growing up, um, we often talk about like what were the influences on learning about money, etc. Um, can you think of any like books or resources or family members or teachers or anything like that that helped shape your perspective on money? I'd definitely just say my parents. They they've been very smart with their money, I'd say. And they just from a young age, even with the little money I had growing up as a kid, they would always uh tell me not to spend it on random things that I don't need or just just only essentials and how to save my money versus just spending it whenever I get it. Yeah. To my parents for sure. Yeah. So, how how far did that lesson sink in? Are you instant gratification? Are you disciplined enough to like save and be like, "Hey, I want to go after this so I don't need to buy that, you know, Starbucks coffee. I can save it for my big goal. Yeah, I'm I'm definitely pretty disciplined with it. The one thing I would spend more money on would be like food and stuff for myself for my meals and maintaining my body. I need to get a bunch of meals in. Uh I burn a ton of calories at practice. So, that is something I would spend more money towards, but I don't really have an urge to go splurge money on random things that I don't need. Yeah. More It's more of an investment for you. Yeah. Yeah. and your um physical activity and all that stuff. Um that's an interesting point because a lot of times when we talk about other guests have talked about they don't mind spending money on food or the experiences or anything like that. Yours yours isn't necessarily experiences, right? It's uh you'll pay a little bit money for the high protein stuff, the high quality stuff. Yeah. You're not running to Waterburger or, you know, a fivestar Michelin restaurant. You want the protein, right? Yeah. spend money on on the essentials that I need and then I spend money on things for football. That's really it. Just stuff that can benefit me for what I'm trying to do. Yeah. Like Madden, right? Spend money on that stuff. Yeah, the football stuff. Yeah, absolutely. Oh, that's funny. You play Madden? Uh, not really. I don't really play video games too much. Okay. All right. What do you do for fun? Football. Go work out or something? Yeah. Oh, that's awesome. U So, once you're once you're done with practice, you go right back to the gym. Mhm. Yeah, pretty much. Well, I'll get some treatment in the training room. Um, get your cryotherapy. Get my cryotherapy. Yeah. All the recovery things, but um I've never really played video games that much. Even as a kid, I'd play for a little, but then my dad will always be like, "Why don't you go outside and run around or something instead of playing on the game all day?" Yeah. Yeah. So, you're much more of an outdoor active kid uh than indoors. For sure. That's great. Um well we do sometimes ask questions uh in terms of you you mentioned essentials um versus necessities or or uh non-essentials versus necessities etc. earlier where do you draw that line? What do you consider essential and what is like a splurge so to speak? Um, I feel like anything that can benefit me for football or for recovery or anything that I need to make myself better is probably essential. And then just things that I want for fun, you know, just to go do sometimes can be very fun, but sometimes it's just unnecessary. Yeah. Yeah. I see you're more of activities. You're not like a shoe guy or a music guy or something that nothing. I'll buy like some football cleat, but I won't go buy Nice shoes. Gotcha. Yeah. So, no Air Jordans in your closet, just just cleat. Yeah, just cleat. Great. That's great. Well, how has your you talk about your parents kind of influencing your perspective on money? Um, has your personal experiences in athletics changed your money? And let me be very careful how I ask the question, right? Like a lot of people put their future goals or their hopes like and I'm going to go pro, right? Um and people can get like like you said in your head about that like oh well when I make it pro I'll be able to get my you know whatever splurge that I'm that I'm big on. Is that how you're thinking about your future or are you a little bit more like hey I want to get my degree and this is my career and that's the path I'm I'm thinking about. If the football thing happens awesome. If it doesn't, I've still got my my direction. Um my mentality right now, I'd say because I still have three years left in football, so focused on that. Yeah. Um I'm also focused on making sure that my grades are up and I get a degree just so I could have that pathway and and learn as much as I can now. Um but I'm definitely focused on the football part. And then I'm not really too much worried about the money because if the football part goes well, that'll come later. Um, so just focus on doing everything I can right now. School and football. Yeah. Awesome. What's your degree in? Finance, actually. Oh, finance. Oh my gosh. This is I should have found that out earlier. Yeah, I should have said something. What uh what what tips or tricks are you learning? I mean, this is your freshman year, right? This is my I'm going into my junior year, but I'm just now taking finance courses this semester. if we talk again, I could I could give you a little more information. But, um, I've taken a bunch of accounting classes and just kind of learn like how money flows around, let's say. The accounting classes have definitely helped me just understand it more. And then we'll see how these finance classes go uh, this semester. Yeah. Yeah. No, you heard it here. We'll have to have you back in a couple years when you graduate so we can we can talk more finance. Um, for sure. How has taking these classes changed your perceptions on money? I mean, I know you're still kind of early in those those classes, but have you started to be like, "Oh, there's a common misconception about the way money flows, and I'm starting to realize it actually does, you know, x, y, and z." Does that make sense? Uh, okay. Should you rephrase? Sure. Yeah. Uh, we're just talking about how like your parents influenced your understanding of money. You might have gone into some of these finance classes with like, hey, this is how money works. this is how the economy works. This is how uh you know getting a paycheck affects your budget and you can change your incomes and expenses etc. But I took this class and it's actually kind of leading me towards you know looking at investing differently or looking at my budget differently. Have you run into that yet? Um I'd say I learned as much as I could from my parents. Um, but when it comes to just real world stuff, the stuff that you don't really learn until you get older, I definitely like like just the classes have kind of opened my mind more to how all that stuff works. Um, so maybe not learned something that I thought was one way and then went the other way, just more like grow my whole knowledge on it. So adding just a few like tips and tricks to your uh your quiver, so to speak, your your arrows. Um, nice. Um, what about so I'm a dreamer. Um, every time I drive by a lottery billboard, my my wife knows immediately when I go quiet what I'm doing, right? Because I'm like, if I won that, uh, this is what I would do, right? X, Y, and Z. I I I start planning out this is what I would save. This is what I invest. This is what I'd spend, right? Um, you ever like to dream that way? Like if the football thing works out, this is how you're gonna Of course. I've definitely thought about that road. Um, say that everything works out in your favor. I've definitely thought about what what I could do uh where I would be in 10 years, stuff like that. What's what's on top of your list? What's what's the first thing you'd buy? Let's say you get a let's say you just get a couple million dollar signing bonus. Yeah. What's the first thing you're going to do? Um, I'd probably I'd have to invest a bunch of it somewhere. Um, I need some help with that for sure, but uh I'd probably get a boat. a surf boat. Oh, nice. I've grown up on the lake with my dad. Um, just water sports and all that. So, that's probably one of my big passions outside of football. So, if I just got a couple million dollars, probably get a really nice surf boat and then go out on the lake. Nice. Yeah. Nice. That that's that's a good call. But what I really like hearing about that, too, is it's it's probably to spend more time with your dad, right? Yeah. Yeah. That's something that we do uh whenever I have time off there every day, every weekend. You're on the water. On the water. Nice. Have you ever heard of um Ryan Broyals? You know who Ryan Broyals is? He was a receiver at OU and then signed with Detroit and had five, six, sevenyear career or something like that with Detroit. Um, but he was kind of I don't want to say revolutionary, but he definitely had the mindset of I'm going to give myself a salary and live off that and then take everything else that I earned from the NFL, invest it and do all that. Now he's got a bunch of restaurants and businesses and stuff and and Norman, he was an OU guy. Um, so so I was just curious if you've ever thought about, yeah, this is what I would do, you know, kind of break up my salary this way. Yeah, I definitely have to uh look into all that, but um investing in a ton of properties and stuff. Uh just building my spreadsheet w as wide as possible would definitely be something I'd need some advice. I'd go talk to someone about where I should invest and things like that. That would definitely on the definitely be on the agenda. Yeah. Yeah. Figure out how to do that. Um we got a bunch of people here that'd love to talk to you uh at DQ about all that setting it up. Sit down. That's one of the things that we really like about our partnership with with you guys with and and Mean Green Athletics is just having the ability to come alongside and be like, "Hey, you guys need to start thinking about money here. We've got some financial literacy resources, etc." Um, so we we love that about about working with you all. Um, so yeah, in in terms of your future outside of football, right? You got a finance degree. What do you hope to do with that? Um, right now I'm just thinking anything really in the business world. It's going to be a business finance degree. Um, I really just wanted to learn how money moves around and understand how all that works for myself and for the future. Um, but I think I could do a lot with the degree. So, I just have to figure out whatever I'm passionate about and dive in. Yeah. So, you're thinking like accounting or like chief financial officer or you thinking more like day trader, investor, like I've looked into that because some of my teammates and friends are into that for sure. Um but yeah, maybe accounting. I don't know if it would be accounting, but something in the business world um with finance. With finance. Yeah. Yeah. You know, our president CEO um was a uh she ran track at Nice. Uh and started as a teller and now she was president CEO with a I believe she has a finance degree. So, we'll have to hook you guys up so you can you can share stories. talk to her. Yeah. She can get you some some um some advice there, some tips, and when you're ready, when you got a job waiting for you, right? Uh when when you're not playing football. Yeah, that would be awesome. Which hopefully is years from now for Yeah. Yeah. Keep going. After I get the boat and have some some fun. Nice. Yeah, I like that. I like the way you're thinking. Get that boat. I want an invite if you get that vote. Be out on the lake with you. Yeah, that's awesome. We could go right out here in Lewisville. There we go. Yeah, it's a little dangerous on Lake Louisville. Maybe maybe Grapevine, maybe. That's where I actually am. Grapevine by boat. Yeah. Yeah. Perfect. Yeah, that's a little bit smaller, a little bit uh less crowded. We'll try that one. Well, what are you uh what are you looking forward to for this season? Uh right now I'm looking forward to week week one going against the national champs. Um it's gonna be a great atmosphere to play in. Uh they just won the national championship, so it's gonna be packed. It's going to be loud. It's going to be a lot of fun. Yeah, that's where my head's at right now. Week one. Yeah. Yeah, we're excited for that, too. We can't we can't wait to to see you guys uh take those uh the champs on and and see what you can do. So, that'll be a lot of fun. Yeah. What about just uh the the season in general? Like, what's your favorite part of it? Is it the training? Is it the competing? Is it the you know, classroom stuff? You know, it's really all of it. I mean, if you play football, you know that it's mainly a practice sport because you get 12 games in the season, but you get significantly more practices. Um, so we're on practice like 60 right now if you include spring ball all leading up to this. So, it's really just the whole process. Uh, going through practice every day and then competing on the weekend is I mean, that's that's what I love to do is compete. I compete in any sport. It doesn't matter. But I just go out there, do my best, have some fun, play football. Yeah, absolutely. What's your favorite drill? What's When coach says, "Hey, line up. We're going to do this." And you get excited. What do you get excited about? Uh, probably one-on- ones. One-on- ones. Yeah, of course. Spoken like a true wide receiver, right? Skilled player. That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, what's your favorite uh football moment, your memory? It'll probably be senior year of high school. Just that whole play. We went three rounds into playoffs. So, I'd say just all three of those games was just so much fun being with my my guys that I've gr grown up with. Yeah. Um it was a lot of fun for sure. Yeah. The camaraderie that team Capel's ranked pretty high this year, aren't they? They got a really good quarterback this year. Yeah, that's what I saw. So, that'd be fun. Did you play with him or younger? Uh the quarterback after after the quarterback I played with. Gotcha. Yeah, that's awesome. Uh, well, we do like to kind of run through uh a segment we call like no-brainer, which is just I'm going to fire some questions at you. I just got a couple of them, but Okay. Um, goats. Favorite. Who's Who's your goat? Any sport. Any sport. Um, if I go with football, I'm going to say Jerry Rice. Okay. I've been a fan of him since I was in like second grade. I did a project about him. Um, and I just that's who I've looked up to in my sport for my whole life. I'm wearing number 80. Oh, nice. So, I got the same number as him. I've been number 80 my whole life as well. Nice. Well, we'll look past that. He was a 49er. But, uh, other than that, [laughter] yeah, that's solid. All right. Uh, narrow it down then. Uh, basketball. Good. Basketball. That's tough. See, I want to say Michael Jordan. Um, but there's a lot of debate between LeBron. I like to I kind of stay away from the debate because some people are really passionate about that. Yeah. But I'll go with uh MJ. Have you seen that movie? Uh what is it? The air. Mhm. Have you seen that? That's a really good movie. Really good movie. Yeah, I like that. Get a deep dive into how he's kind of Yeah, I was surprised. Uh and that gives you a real good insight, too, on how money flows, you know, in and out of athletics, right? Uh Dr. Jay's um mom uh was so influential in kind of changing how athletes get get paid. Yeah. So, it's a really really good movie. All right, let's keep going. Baseball. Baseball. I don't really watch that much. Oh, that hurts, man. That hurts. I really don't. That's what I watch. World Series, but I never really watch. All right, we'll give you a pass on that. We'll give you a pass. Uh uh favorite sports movie. Sports movie. Might be a little cheesy of an answer, but remember the Titans. It's just a go-to. I had a feeling you were going there. Yeah. In my head, I was like, uh, we are Marshall. Remember the Titans. I was going for football. There's a lot of good ones, but remember Tit Titans is just not defeated. Where would you put Happy Gilmore? Be careful. Be careful with this answer. Where would you put it? Probably up there. Right below uh Remember the Titans. There we go. All right. Seriously, number two. Yeah. Somewhere. I knew I liked you, man. That's one of that's one of my mine. So, yeah. I love that movie. Yeah. Yeah. Did you like the second one? You know what? The first time I watched it, and maybe we're starting to get controversial here, but the first time I watched it, I was like, "Oh man." But then I watched it a second time and third time, and all of the references and illusions that come up, I'm like, "Okay, this is a good one." So, I think I'm one of the few people who are like, "Yeah, that was a good movie." Yeah. I like that it was just it just kind of brought back Happy Gilmore. So, you got to watch it again. Yeah. And see like I like how they they moved his life 20 years later and just how you could see how he turned out. I thought that was cool. Yeah. It definitely feel made me realize um I'm of the older generation because I was like Happy Gilmore is supposed to be like the rebel, right? Like he he bucks the trend, but here he is defending, you know, the norm uh away from those rebels. So, it made me feel a little aged me a little bit, but but yeah. Um let's see. Uh what's on your reading list right now? Um you got anything? I don't. I read my Bible every day. Nice. Um but Uh, I just got a bunch of textbooks from the bookstore, so I'm really just reading uh things I need to read for school right now. Yeah. Powering through that. Reading the playbook. Oh, yeah. Oh, nice. I'm sure that's a pretty uh deep read, right? It's pretty deep. Takes you a while to get to it. Yeah, we we work through it. Uh, every week we'll just install a couple more. So, it's not like you're getting a 100 plays at once, but it'll get up it'll get up there for sure. Yeah. End of the season, it's you're running through a bunch. Yeah. 100 plays that you could call at any second. Yeah, that's awesome, man. That's awesome. Um, well, man, I really appreciate your time. I I know we don't have that much time. You're a busy guy. You got to get to practice and uh do all that fun stuff, but we certainly grateful for you coming and visit visiting with us today. Um, of course. Like I said, I need to hook you up with our president CEO so she can give you some advice on on what to do with that degree. Yeah, thanks for having me out. Absolutely, man. certainly appreciate you and um wish you best of luck this this season. Appreciate that. Awesome. All right, guys. Well, uh thank you so much for for tuning in and checking us out and uh like I said, grateful for for Baron and wish him the best of luck this season and we will um see you out at DACQ Stadium. Yeah. Go Mean Green. Absolutely. Go Mean Green.

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