Business management

The art of negotiation with Deji Akande

Deji Akande is the founder of sports talent agency Gateway Sports, representing many of the athletes competing for Team GB in Paris.

30 Jul 2024 . 1 min read

Working with leading global brands, Gateway’s USP is that they ‘represent world-class athletes to build legacies, not just careers’.

Deji told our host Angellica Bell that he’d always been passionate about sport and entertainment: “I did athletics from when I was 13, did football as well. I just love sport, period.

“When I was 16, I thought ‘I need to start a business. I wanna have my own marketing agency’. I watched Jerry Maguire; it was all because of that film”.

Deji’s Confession:

For his confession Deji took us back to his early days grafting to build his business, funding it by being an Uber driver at night.

“I would go back to being an Uber driver, with somebody's unfortunate vomit in my car at 3:00am in Central London. Me cleaning it up with petrol station plastic gloves, and wondering, ‘how did I get here?’.

"Then realising that the only reason I'm here is because I decided to start a business. I thought, wow, I've really gone for it!"

I think sometimes the word agent can come with some stereotypes. But if you are authentic and you really do care about your clients, the work will speak for you, and the people around you will advocate for you.

Deji Akande

Founder of Gateway Sports

Deji on the key to negotiation

“If you're negotiating, you're trying to convince an individual to help you do something. You need to be giving them a solution.

“I think too many times, people, agents, managers, athletes, whoever, or any sort of business, they're thinking about what they're gonna get, and they think about what they're gonna receive. But you need to be thinking what value am I gonna be giving to them? Focus on the value, being solution focused is super important”.

Watch the episode to find out more about Deji’s inspirational career and how he works with some of Team GB’s top athletes.

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