Stephen Nedoroscik by no means anticipated to develop into a worldwide superstar. However, whereas competing for Staff USA throughout the 2024 Summer time Olympic Video games in Paris, the American gymnast went viral—and his life modified perpetually. Over the course of some hours, Nedoroscik went from being an unknown, glasses-wearing, Rubik’s Dice-solving self-described nerd to a family title—with an endearing nickname as well, the “pommel horse man.”
Nedoroscik was overwhelmed by the sudden flurry of consideration—so, for assist, he turned to SMITH&SAINT, a Boston-based boutique expertise company. The feminine-founded, female-led firm sprang into motion, placing a workforce round Nedoroscik to assist him navigate the uncharted waters of his newfound fame. Since then, SMITH&SAINT has helped Nedoroscik launch a partnership with an eyeglass retailer, compete on Dancing with the Stars and use his platform to boost consciousness about males’s gymnastics and imaginative and prescient impairment.
“He simply stated, ‘I need assistance,’” says Britt St. George, the co-founder and chief government officer of SMITH&SAINT. “And since this was such a brand new world for him, and his life turned the wrong way up—for the nice—in a single day, he actually needed individuals who have been sort and pleasant and simply took a step again and stated, ‘How are you feeling about all of this?’”
Nedoroscik’s alternative wasn’t random: He signed with SMITH&SAINT due to the company’s confirmed monitor file of representing athletes on the most important stage—together with a number of of his Staff USA teammates. The company works with a few of the most recognizable names in American gymnastics, together with Nastia Liukin, Sunisa “Suni” Lee, Jade Carey, Alicia Sacramone, Kayla DiCello and Hezly Rivera.
SMITH&SAINT’s mission
SMITH&SAINT’s roster could also be a “who’s who” of gymnastics royalty. However the company additionally represents digital creators, in addition to athletes in different disciplines like fencing, swimming and dance, the place skilled alternatives postcollege or post-Olympics are restricted. The SMITH&SAINT workforce helps athletes develop into entrepreneurs, supporting them in all the things from launching influencer companies to negotiating title, picture and likeness (NIL) offers. In addition they assist their purchasers discover alternatives in TV or commentary and develop their private manufacturers—not solely on-line but additionally in actual life.
“We work with lots of people who don’t have the chance to signal profitable gamers’ contracts as a result of there isn’t a skilled league to enter for his or her particular sport,” St. George says.
“And that’s a very daunting factor. Whether or not you’re an Olympian who’s type of on the finish of your Olympic cycle or a collegiate athlete who doesn’t have a professional league to go on to, it may be a very scary time. But it surely’s additionally a very thrilling time due to social media, which supplies athletes the power to market themselves and pursue different profession paths.”
360-degree strategy to expertise illustration
St. George co-founded SMITH&SAINT along with her sister, Madison Smith. They have been each completed sports activities and leisure attorneys with expertise in influencer advertising and marketing once they determined to affix forces and launch their very own company in 2018. Smith and St. George by no means anticipated to work collectively, not to mention begin a enterprise. However, after rising up with entrepreneurial dad and mom as function fashions, it was “simply type of in our blood,” says Smith, who serves as the corporate’s chief working officer.
On high of that, St. George remembers the precise second she realized she needed to be a expertise agent. When she was 10 or so, she watched Jerry Maguire—the 1996 movie starring Tom Cruise as a sports activities agent—for the primary time, and one thing concerning the title character’s grit and persistence caught along with her. “I believed, ‘That’s precisely what I need to do. I need to assist folks in that approach. I need to assist them obtain their desires,’” she says. “Being in that place to champion and empower folks was one thing that basically resonated with me.”
From the very starting, Smith and St. George knew they needed to do issues in a different way. They take a 360-degree strategy, which suggests supporting purchasers with all features of illustration—from day-to-day collaboration on important features to growing a high-level, big-picture technique for his or her profession exterior of their sport. Generally, which means performing a bit like profession counselors.
“We spend a variety of time listening to the athletes and speaking to them about what they actually need to do—the place are their different passions?” St. George says. “And a variety of them have by no means thought of that query earlier than. ‘My ardour is gymnastics; it’s fencing; it’s swimming.’ We actually should dig deep and assume, ‘OK, do you need to commentate in your sport? Do you need to have a profession as a motivational speaker? Do you need to be a coach in your sport? Begin your personal firm?’ There are such a lot of avenues we are able to go down.”
Manufacturers are catching on to Olympians’ star energy
Today, athletes have extra profession alternatives than ever earlier than, because of the ability of social media, the rise of influencer advertising and marketing and the likelihood that anybody, in any sport, can go viral at a second’s discover. “We actually noticed this on the 2020 [Olympic] video games,” Smith says.
“That was actually the primary time the place athletes have been displaying what it’s prefer to be within the Olympic Village, what’s happening behind the scenes and after they win…. Within the 4 years main as much as the 2024 Olympics, manufacturers actually began to catch on, and there was a large improve in spending on influencer advertising and marketing throughout the Olympic house…. It’s all due to social media and these athletes with the ability to present themselves [outside of their sport]. Now, everybody desires to work with them.”
However as a result of anybody and everybody is usually a superstar, that additionally means athletes should work tougher than ever to face out from the group—and that’s the place SMITH&SAINT is available in. The workforce helps athletes navigate subsequent steps after they retire from their sport, in addition to within the 4 years between Olympic video games. “That four-year time interval is so essential—and it’s lengthy,” Smith says. “It’s simply with the ability to advocate for [the athletes] throughout that point and align them with like-minded manufacturers and long-term partnerships. With some athletes, it’s letting manufacturers know they’re going to compete within the subsequent Olympics, so how will we proceed to work with you over the following 4 years and construct a significant partnership? We’re all the time pondering of the long run.”
Placing relationships first
The workforce additionally places relationships on the middle of all the things they do—and their high-touch, uniquely personalised, compassionate type is a giant motive why so many high-level athletes need to work with SMITH&SAINT. “Our first precedence is being there as a help system,” St. George says. “We’re there to assist them by something.”
That folks-first mentality additionally helps SMITH&SAINT internally. The company is small—with lower than 20 workers—however continues to draw a few of the business’s greatest brokers, creatives, attorneys and business-forward thinkers due to its tradition. “We need to be the neatest within the room, probably the most revolutionary within the room, probably the most sort within the room,” St. George says. “Each single particular person inside this firm is so particular and distinctive and pulls their very own weight and supplies a lot worth to every of the people they characterize, and that makes us very particular and distinctive on this house.”
This text initially appeared within the July/August 2025 difficulty of SUCCESS® journal. Photograph by ©Veronica Costa Pictures
