and what's up guys my name is Alfredo Mancuso so those of you guys don't know inter news channel I'm a professional BMX rider I co-own and operate a clothing company called constant shift BMX website calls to come up a store in downtown LA called entre la a BMX mobile store and rent set up called the rig and I helped in the operation boxes of no jumper a lot of brands that you guys are very familiar with and very fond of for those of you guys that returning to the channel as you can see I'm dressed a little bit differently and I'm in my friend's recording studio he's got a lot of cool records here whatnot also you'll notice that I'm wearing my DC Shoes ring and if you haven't guessed my child today's vlog it may be more of an informative or educational vlog I guess you could say so let's get to it a lot of you guys always ask how do I become sponsors how do I turn pro how do I become successful how do I do what you do how do I create something start a brand whatever it is I've written a lot of notes on the subject and I want to share them with you today in your familiar with our brand you know that we're experiencing a lot of growth and we're trying to basically take BMX to the mainstream if you're new to this channel then we've accomplished that because now you're getting an insight of what it is to be a professional bike rider basically you get to see what it's like from my perspective to run a brand to manage athletes to have a store to have employees to experience growth experience shrinkage problems robbery you needed in the last six months on this channel we've grown a lot and today we're at 50,000 subscriber mark basically maybe a few hundred shot but by the time you're watching this I hope we're in the billion range job left as I was mentioning I'm reading a lot of notes on the subject of how to become sponsored how to become successful and what I think at least from my perspective got him into a position on that in life right now so the thing that you guys want to know the most about how to become a professional bike rider what it means what you get to do what your requirements are and that kind of stuff so first and foremost let me explain being professional is amazing there's so many people that look up to you just for basically having that title from your name a professional basically means that you're being compensated for your work so to be a professional plumber you can be a professional pilot you can be a professional medical care provider or doctor and you can be a professional on a bike who would have guessed it right all these years line is real toy bike and people like oh he runs a little kids like and not sound braggadocious but imagine someone asking me like oh don't you have a job what are you writing real kiss like well I don't think in their head they could register that you can make millions of dollars by writing it by being a professional by being in the industry by phoning companies whatever it is possible and one of the people that really really cemented that and made it so that people like myself actually have a place like this and it's actually I would say a few people if state Mira and Matt Hoffman both of those dudes are patch beyond successful videogames careers that are amazing and they're really great people that have done a lot for the sport and a lot from people in it and as you guys know I go on tangents a lot so I'm going to try and remain a focus for this one so again I'm going to be referencing my notes just so I have a frame of mind for you guys or if you guys can see this but these are some of the brands that I represent on operate whatever plug anyways going back to how to become sponsored this question again gets brought up so much in so many videos on people trying to cover it and I can tell you because of my experience I've gone on to every single level of it and I'm on all aspects of it because again we own and operate the come of which is the biggest and best BMX web site on that end I get to see so many new submissions of amazing riders but what is really going to stand out because at the end of the day there are a lot of really talented guys out there and they're not where they probably belong and I'll tell you what number one most important things about just riding bikes and if you want to make it a career or profession or whatever the number one rule is have fun it's a kid's bike guys you're not supposed to put all this stress on it because you know what happens it's no longer fun you're chasing this dream and when you're doing that and you're putting all these like stressors in your life it loses the magic and then to speak about it because the cool thing is like I want to ride and progress myself and become better and who knows maybe I become good enough I could get sponsored chances are like anything when the lottery getting hit by lightning all these things it's a numbers game and if there's 7 billion people on earth and you're one of 700 Pro fight riders and the chances of you becoming that one are very small but I will say the key to happiness is having a dream the key to success is making your dream come true and how do you do that well again having fun and why is it so important well a brand is trying to sponsor you because they want you to one way or another sell a product for them whether it's a t-shirt whether it's a grip the whole bike pads underwear whatever if you're you can sell something people want to be sold by someone that personable happy contagious after myself I've had a lot of people say in the past like oh man you know I can do what else does I can talk but to be honest not everyone is naturalized and I've been blessed with the ability to communicate my thoughts pretty efficiently and effortlessly other people might not you know they might have speech impediments they might be nervous to speak in public they might not be able to talk to a camera like I do but the thing about that is that if you are good at it then imagine every single person who had a skate park and extry tried at a jam or again email and YouTube or Instagram or Twitter whatever it is snapchat you're reaching out to people and you're inspiring them you're helping them become better and if you're doing that then a brand wants to affiliate itself with you so there you go number one be yourself have fun and be contagious most important to be honest number two be personable so what does that mean when people get put on a team their job is to basically inform a consumer about this brand and if you're starting to get slow and what slow means is that a brand is like hey this guy's pretty good let's try him out let's send him some merchandise and see if you puts it on if you represent it well you know you've got to look good in clothes look at Deegan and is he spreading the message and how do you do that you know I've seen in my day a lot of professionals or sponsored riders like received products do a good job showcasing it but then our complete dicks the kids escaped up and that is so counterproductive for what you're supposed to be doing because you're trying to inspire these kids to become better and ultimately purchase these products right up by whatever it is and if you're showing them that the spikes can handle all the abuse that you're really talented but then you really mean to them what does that do nothing you know that chain is going to automatically associate that brand with you being a sole not a good thing for sales coming from a business guy that actually does deal with sales and brands and stuff like that that's a big no-no so myself when I'm looking for a new rider for OSS to come out read whatever was that we're doing number one I want to meet him and I want to get to know him and see if he's someone that genuinely deserves it because it is a dream that we get to live our lives every day and do something that's so cool and inspirational to other people what I feel that is my duty to basically protect you guys the industry whatever it is for people that are in it for the wrong reason just making money that's not cool you can do anything just to make money you can be successful at a billion different things but this is a sport that's about having fun and being cool to each other and having a community so if you're coming into my sport and you're trying to just plop it without having the right reasoning behind it or investing in our sport and it's my job as a gatekeeper to keep you out so be cool have fun be personable and you're trying to make money off our industry you better be investing a lot because it's not going to cheap for you and it's not going to be getting ironically TC shoes dropped a whole BMX program in 2012 not cool guys but you know at least they fit something for 10-15 years they did sponsored Dave Mirra Chris toil Colin Winkleman Edwin Villarosa a lot of really iconic legend even though there are out now they did pay their dues for a lot at least but more on that later okay so now we've covered have fun be personable that kind of goes into charisma now as counterintuitive as it sounds the third on the totem pole is dried and let there's no tomorrow I can't stress the talent that is out on the world right now like anything life is about progression getting better and building on what your predecessors have done so you can imagine that the guy that came before my time set a pretty high benchmark the guys in my era raise that bar and the kids are doing it now or kicking it to another stratosphere so in order to be really good and you know basically stir things up and make a name for yourself and make an impact you have to be amazing basically and how do you do that stay on your bike ride your bike every day when Allen 16 17 or whatever I was riding literally anywhere from like eight to twelve hours a day so that's like a full-time job right but when you're having fun it doesn't feel like a job you're just doing what you're passionate about right guess what if you're doing that every single day there's no way you're not gonna progress even if you're not the most talented by terrific I never considered myself the greatest at anything and DMX or actually even anything in life my motto is jack of all trades master of none I've always been diversified you know like I'm always doing something while doing another thing while doing it on that so maybe I might not be as good as so-and-so but I might be more personable or I'm going to be more marketable or I might be out there more you know whatever it is you have to always kind of look for your place and your edge once you figure out your edge you really capitalize that and hone in on whatever it is that separates you and blow it up so for myself again you know I've wrote every single day as much as I could and I came from a background of sports so I went soccer football basketball all these different sports there's a rule of 10,000 up there I can't think it was off the right now off the top of my head made a little bit of later but basically you have to do something ten thousand times before you get great at it I've probably done well over ten thousand Boston I've been a professional since I was 17 so we're looking at like a 13-year career at this point and in order to be able to do that you have to be on your bikes again the more you're on your bike and more feels like an extension of your body and you're out there than whatever is fun to you whether it's trails flatland Racing Street Park vert mega ranks whatever is fun to you if you really are out there every day having fun and just riding you know going hard you're going to be good you're going to get better you're going to excel and you're going to get to notice and that's what's being sponsored is about bringing awareness to you into the brands are now trying to represent you this is something that I don't think a lot of people touch on but another really important aspect are your friends your crew your homies whatever you want to call it pink deadline talking [ __ ] the calming troops all these crews are about dudes going out with their friends and filming amazing stuff because why it's fun you're pushing yourself and it's rewarding to you guys to go out and film something and like watch it later with your friends going through it where it's like ah we're so nervous for you all of sudden like you went down the handrail perfect first try were like oh we did it you can feel this fire come out of someone when it's like oh my god it's a little trick I was like cheering for you it's the best feeling ever same thing when you put together a really amazing contest run riding trails and you're putting together like this lining never done before all this stuff just like reverberates between you and your friends and all these cool vibes so you start progressing more you start making a name for you and for your crew so like there's a lot you an up-and-coming cruisers doing it and that's awesome and I think DMX needs more of that now when you do have a crew the important part is basically kind of helping everybody along the way so there's going to be someone in the crew it's not the best bike riders but all of a sudden he's like hey I could the silver okay I can become the guide italic leads it I give you the driver the most talented one I could be the one that's good at everything and you know that's awesome you know like because it pushes you guys all and then it starts creating kind of like an entity where it's almost like a little micro company going back to the point if you have a crew you're going to get notice because it's more of you guys and it stops being something that people think that it's very self-indulgent because if you're one person and you're really trying to get out there you're basically having to promote yourself and talk about yourself or put yourself in this position where other do want to talk about you but it seems like you're like into yourself but I mean to be honest just you trying to get out there and be successful so people hate on you whatever you're trying to do you at the end of the day there's only one person you should really care about making happy semester stuff you know do things that are going to enrich your life everyone else around you they're either going to support it or they're going to move on another really important thing about getting sponsored or being successful it's just your willpower and just you sitting down and figuring out what it's gonna take for you to reach these goals maybe write it down somewhere at home on a chalkboard on a white erase board piece of paper whatever it is and just write your goal whether it's shrimp roe get sponsored make a full video part whatever it is like your goal is write it down look at it scaredy's make it so edit something that you're so focused on that you can't change you know and if you do that you're going to find a slew of things that you can add this list they're going to help get you it so again you want to be sponsored you make a list so now it's like what I have to do well first and foremost you have to be pretty good on the bike you have to be the best but you have to either be very creative very challenging go really high jump really far you don't want something that's going to capture people's attention right so look at a cross Callaghan he does really creative cool things look at CD he does really crazy big burly things and you can think of so many riders that basically fit into these brackets well pick one that you think you're most comfortable with and start emulating what you think got them this so if your CV can you down the biggest service you can have those a learning truck drivers these are putting them in everything so downstairs and upstairs off of RAM obviously you have to be able to do them on anything so if that's what you want to do focus on that all right guys that when you got a little too long so I'm going to cut it short there's going to be a follow-up for this video that's going to give you guys even more advice but I just wanted this me to be a little more concise so that's going to do it for today if you guys enjoy this video please do me a favor and subscribe to the channel leave me a comment and if you'd like even share the video I really appreciate all of you guys for taking the time to watch this and I hope it really helped as always thanks so much for watching and have a great one it's not that we have a short time to live but that we waste a lot not more time but that we waste a lot