Athlete Advice: Ryan Williams encourages players to 'attack interests' in NIL space

During his freshman year at Alabama, Ryan Williams became one of the biggest names in college football. That brought him opportunities in the NIL space, adding notable partnerships with Uber Eats and Hollister to his portfolio.

As he navigated the ever-changing world of NIL, there was a theme with Williams’ deals as his On3 NIL Valuation soared to $2.3 million. He pursued areas that interested him – and his advice to other athletes would be to do the same.

“If I was giving someone else advice, or just what I have learned, is that if you have interest in something, go attack those interests because you never know what you can get out of it,” Williams told On3 while promoting his NIL deal with Hollister. “If you don’t try, nothing’s going to happen. I would say if you have an interest in anything, go try to obtain those interests.”

Williams enjoys clothes. His mentality is similar to a famous Deion Sanders line: “If you look good, you feel good. If you feel good, you play good. If you play good, they pay good.” That’s what made the partnership with Hollister stand out, and he did modeling work with the company as part of its new Hollister Athletic Department line, which launched last week.

Ryan Williams learned from Jalen Milroe

Williams’ mentality of attacking his interests came from one of his teammates who also flourished in the NIL space. Jalen Milroe left college with a $2.6 million On3 NIL Valuation, building a portfolio of deals with companies such as Rhoback and Panini America.

Milroe saw opportunities that suited his interests, and he encouraged Williams to follow a similar path. But there was another important lesson there. Williams doesn’t want to just take deals for the sake of money. Instead, he wants to build a long-standing relationship with brands.

“That’s kind of where I learned, if you really have interest in something, take advantage of it and go attack it because he has a lot of interests,” Ryan Williams said of the advice Milroe gave him. “Whatever he has an interest in, he’s going to go conquer. That’s the main thing I learned from him, but also not just taking – because the NIL space can sometimes be confused with just money, money, money, money. Building not just a short-term relationship, but a relationship that you want to carry. Kind of like the loyalty thing and how he stayed for four years at Alabama and how Malachi Moore stayed for five years at Alabama.

“It’s more so like, if I want to do something with this brand, I don’t want to just do it for three weeks and just be [done]. I really want to build a relationship and focus on it long-term.”