Luke Fedlam, a mentor and guide for athletes in the new era of Name Image and Likeness(NIL) and a pillar of service in the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity joins me on Be a Baller Podcast. His story is a testament to the support of early influences, from a childhood longing for a briefcase to the immeasurable love of adoptive parents, shaping the man he is today.
In the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Luke illuminates the path to building a legacy that resonates with service and honor through his involvement in leadership with Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity. We talk about his community activism, his recent accolades, and the importance of recognizing the collective contributions to our individual stories. As you tune in, be inspired to create your own legacy, one that champions the well-being of others and stands as a beacon of hope and opportunity for generations to come.
Luke's journey is interwoven with faith, a steadfast companion through the ups and downs of his life. He shares his beliefs learned , from the son of a preacher to developing his own spiritual identity. Our conversation takes a personal turn as Luke uncovers the significance behind names and imparts the invaluable lessons from his time as a Division I athlete—lessons that now fuel his passion for mentoring the next generation. Enjoy the episode.
Luke Fedlam, a mentor and guide for athletes in the new era of Name Image and Likeness(NIL) and a pillar of service in the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity joins me on Be a Baller Podcast. His story is a testament to the support of early influences, from a childhood longing for a briefcase to the immeasurable love of adoptive parents, shaping the man he is today.
In the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Luke illuminates the path to building a legacy that resonates with service and honor through his involvement in leadership with Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity. We talk about his community activism, his recent accolades, and the importance of recognizing the collective contributions to our individual stories. As you tune in, be inspired to create your own legacy, one that champions the well-being of others and stands as a beacon of hope and opportunity for generations to come.
Luke's journey is interwoven with faith, a steadfast companion through the ups and downs of his life. He shares his beliefs learned , from the son of a preacher to developing his own spiritual identity. Our conversation takes a personal turn as Luke uncovers the significance behind names and imparts the invaluable lessons from his time as a Division I athlete—lessons that now fuel his passion for mentoring the next generation. Enjoy the episode.
To receive honors and to receive awards is it's nice. I'll be honest with you it you can't do it alone. For everything that I'm successful, with every benefit that I that I have, every every honor Award that I've received, someone else has also paid the cost for that.
Speaker 2:Welcome to be a ball where we discuss how to build a lifelong legacy. I'm your host, coach Tim Brown. Today we're talking about building a legacy in business and serving the community of our special guest, a Luke Fetler. Today on the show, luke will share his commitment to helping athletes navigate the new and complicated name, image and likeness in college sports. Luke also finds time to serve his community through Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity Incorporated Luke. Welcome to the show, coach Tim. Thank you so much, man Boy, you have had quite a life journey.
Speaker 1:Is it's?
Speaker 2:true? Oh man, I was doing some research. Oh boy I read that when you were eight or nine years old, you pleaded with your adopted parents, who are both pastors, for something very few guys. They didn't think about it. What a bike you want? A briefcase. I wanted a briefcase, yeah why was that so important, to have that briefcase?
Speaker 1:You know that's, it's um, it's hard to just put myself back in that eight-year-old, nine-year-old mind to say why specifically. But as I look back, for me it really was all about a briefcase, signified business success, drive. You had someplace to go and some things you had to carry with you. Like, for me, it was so much more than just, you know, just a kind of a random ask. It meant a lot. And and here I am now, you know, living my life in business and the law. I don't really carry briefcase.
Speaker 1:I put everything in my backpack now but but yeah, I think sometimes, you know, you need to just like we, you know, speak those things as though they were right and and and that's what that's how I think I was doing back at that age.
Speaker 2:So this is eight, nine years old. No, what did other kids think about you? Oh, Absolutely.
Speaker 1:But you know, I made that briefcase look good but but it was um, yeah, it was. It was something special and I'll tell you. You know, I referenced that story in an article I know a few years ago and a good friend of mine Actually my best friend actually got me a replica an actual replica of that briefcase From shoot 30 plus years ago.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's huge. You know, I know you grew up with adopted parents. Can you talk about how that experience helped you become the man, husband and father you are today?
Speaker 1:Oh, man, we gonna get emotional right from the beginning. I'll tell you, I Am who I am because of the opportunities that I had. I think that you know, we all are product of our experiences and we have moments in time where people come into our lives and they come into our lives, I think, oftentimes to really Help effectuate God's will in our lives. And I think that, you know, when I look at you know, being adopted it wasn't. I Won't say that it was this fairy tale story that just like, oh, all of a sudden I was adopted and everything was right with the world.
Speaker 1:There were still some challenges, but at the same time, I Am who I am Because of my experiences. I am the father that I am because I care so deeply. I've got two kids and I Care so deeply about them because I remember being a kid and feeling, like you know, being adopted, like it was I wanted, not wanted, and all those kind of questions. I'm the husband that I am Because I care so deeply about that, that, those bonds of love. So, yeah, I mean without question that that affected Really who I am today.
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Speaker 2:Can you talk about your faith in the role is played in your lifetime of success?
Speaker 1:oh, Wow, For the next three hours we're gonna have a conversation on faith.
Speaker 1:No, I'll tell you, it plays a significant role. It plays a significant role in who I am at the end of the day, you know, my parents were pastors, so kind of grew up a preacher's kid. But that was just the beginning of the story. Right at the end of the day, I think faith is is when it becomes real to you, right, and so faith really started becoming real to me in college, maybe late high school, early college, and, and it continues to play a role today.
Speaker 1:I'll tell you that I Think we all know our our shortcomings, we all know our faults, we all know that we're not perfect, but God is perfect and I try to always Remember to tap into that perfection throughout the day. So, while I don't have the, you know, like a Traditional, like regular prayer time, dedicated prayer time, I find myself praying throughout the day, all the time when I find myself in the car, even driving up here, right, having conversations and and and really just, you know, just thinking about faith and and all that because you know work is stress and work is challenge and the world that we live in is challenging, and so I think to be grounded in faith allows us to navigate really some challenging times in life.
Speaker 2:You know you also share a story about the meaning of your birth name, the impact it had on your life. You talk about that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so. So I was just to give a quick snapshot. I was when I was born I don't know who my biological father is and my biological mother really wasn't Just fully able to take care of me, had some mental health challenges, and so I lived with her and her boyfriend at the time for the first few years of my life, before I was in the foster care and then ultimately adopted, and my name before I was adopted was Rex Noble, and and when I was adopted my name was changed. My parents changed my name to Luke Fadlin, which is you know how I'm known today. They kept my middle name.
Speaker 1:My middle name was Alan before I was adopted, when middle name continues to be Alan, which is the name of my son, and and when when I was growing up, I really wasn't attached to this idea of Rex Noble. It didn't really mean much to me. You know, didn't think much of it. And then I remember in 10th grade or 11th grade, ap English With miss van loon, who was my teacher at the time, we we read about, we read about edifice Rex, and she was talking about edifice Rex and talked about how Rex and Latin meant King, and I almost lost my mind. So you mean to tell me Rex means King and my name was Rex noble, and so I just started thinking about what that meant to be a noble King, and I think names have meaning and names have power, and I was something I'll never forget and I continue to this day to just think about that and walk in. Who I am? I am a noble King.
Speaker 2:It's good. It's good something, how God has a way of. Bible says all things work together. Amen, for the good of those. That's right. Love the Lord called according to his purpose. There was a purpose behind that. Even your mom think that was a purpose. That's right.
Speaker 1:That's and that's what really kind of just blew my mind is to think, because I asked her Kind of where did she get the name Rex from? And she didn't really have much of an answer that I can remember, and so Just to to hear the power behind that man, all things do work together.
Speaker 2:Speaking of that, you know you were a division one athlete a little bit. Where's some of those lessons you learn from being a college athlete to help you today as you work with athletes?
Speaker 1:Sure, so I was. So I ran cross-country and track and I I competed for a year when I was in college Wake for us. I was fast, I was not. I was not ACC fast, but a little different. A little different but, but I will say, though, you know, we had a great high school program right, which truly allowed me to believe that I could. I could do anything, and Just thinking about it in high school and in college, just there's, there's something that comes with healthy competition.
Speaker 1:I'm a big fan of personal assessment and I've done many different assessments, and one of them that I've done is called Strength Finders and it identifies your strengths. It talks about how we are made up of our strengths and oftentimes we want to just focus on our weaknesses, to overcome them, when oftentimes we really should look at our strengths and use, continue to build and dive into our strengths. And my top two strengths in life are positivity and competition. And when I look at those two together and I think about my experience as a student athlete from a time management perspective, from a teamwork perspective, from a being able to manage all of the pressures, you know pressures that you faced and the stressors that you faced positive competition. For me was everything right, being able to be positive about the day when I would wake up in the morning. I still carry that to this day.
Speaker 1:When I talk to athletes today, I share with them that positivity, and part of the reason why is because, especially if you're an elite athlete at the most elite level, you've usually been that elite athlete for quite a while.
Speaker 1:If you're playing professionally, you've been identified since you were in probably middle school or even earlier, as an elite athlete, and so you end up having this, this, this, you know, this group surrounding you that feed into that, and oftentimes you can you can lose sight of your own identity outside of your sport, and so I continue to use positivity to help people understand like there's so much more to you than just an athlete.
Speaker 1:Lebron talks about being more than an athlete, but there's also studies that get into this idea of identity foreclosure in athletes and this idea that I've been identified my entire life as an athlete, that whenever that time comes to an end and that that identity is foreclosed upon, that I'm no longer an athlete. Then who am I? And that's what I think we know, especially talking about faith and everything like that's we know who we are in Christ Jesus right. So we know who we are and within our faith and so being being grounded in that, that, yes, you could be an elite athlete and have all the skills in the world. It's a gift. Yes, I feel I'm gifted in being an advisor, a counselor, a speaker, and so we want to make sure that we you know I continue to use that positivity and use those perspectives to positively impact the lives of others.
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Speaker 2:As a successful partner and head of the sports law practice group at Porter Wright, morris and Arthur LLP, you are known as a self-proclaimed protector of possibilities. That's right. What does that mean? It's what.
Speaker 1:I mean, I work every single day to protect the possibilities that athletes have. A lot of times people ask what do you do, or who are you, and it's easy for people to say that's Luke, he's a lawyer, I'm a lawyer, I'm a dad, I'm a husband, but I'm so much more than that, and when I took the time this may be seven, eight years ago, maybe even more to really think about what if I had to still down, what is it that I'm doing? Not just what is my job, what is my title, but what am I actually doing? I want to protect the possibilities that others have. So to me, I do that in two ways. One, as a lawyer, I'm literally protecting the opportunities that athletes have.
Speaker 1:I believe that athletes have an opportunity to have a positive impact on themselves, their families and their communities, and yet so often their targets to be taken advantage of. So I want to work every single day through legal means to protect them so they're not taken advantage of. But I also care deeply about education and I feel that education is one of the number one protectors that we have out there, and so people pay us for a lack of knowledge. We want to make sure that we're delivering knowledge, understanding and education to athletes. That's what I do on the work side. But that same opportunity and that same desire to protect possibilities.
Speaker 1:I look at my kids. They have all the possibility in the world to do great things, far beyond what I've ever done. I want to protect that every single day. When I think about the things that I do in the community, whether it's through fraternity, whether it's through boards that I sit on, I'm I'm a busy person. So the lens that I make a decision you know, the lens through which I look to make a decision as to what I'm going to spend my time with is this going to help protect somebody else and the possibilities that they have to go on and do great things? And if I can do that, then I know that I'm spending my time in well spent ways.
Speaker 2:Wow, we might as well pass the plate in this. You know a lot of people talk about this name, image and likeness opportunities for college athletes. They talk about it, but you're right there on the ground floor. Can you talk about that? And just a positive opportunities.
Speaker 1:Oh, absolutely. For those who don't know, name, image and likeness are, nil is the opportunity for student athletes to commercialize or lend for compensation the use of their name, their image, their likeness, the opportunity for an athlete to get paid in ways that student athletes at the college level have never been able to be paid before. So I have the opportunity to go and speak to colleges and universities, their athletic departments, in fact just flew in last night. I was with Texas A&M. Over the last couple days we worked with Michigan State, ohio State, schools all across the country, and I view it as a great opportunity. And I view it as a great opportunity not because, you know, people get so caught up in this idea of should college student athletes get paid? Should college student athletes earn money? Shouldn't they be doing what they do for the love of the game? But what that misses out on is two things. One, it misses out on the fact that student athletes are the product upon which a multi-billion-dollar business is being built, and so NIL is solely about athletes being able to go out and make money on their own Right.
Speaker 1:There are other conversations around revenue share and around student athletes as employees.
Speaker 1:We're not even talking about that we're just simply talking about.
Speaker 1:Should a student athlete have the same right as a student at a university who plays an instrument, and that student who plays an instrument can go out and do a concert and make money off of that.
Speaker 1:A student athlete should be able to go out and earn compensation as well, and so that's one thing that it's missing, and the other thing that it's missing is what a great opportunity to teach life skills that athletes so desperately need than by having name, image and likeness Right. So now we can start to teach things like financial literacy, budgeting, planning. We can talk about contracts and understanding something before you sign your name to it. We can talk about how are you making decisions. So we can help athletes understand this business that's happening around them, because with name, image and likeness come a whole lot of opportunities, but with those opportunities come responsibilities, and so the opportunity for us again to protect the possibilities of these athletes is to be able to teach them about business, teach them about money, teach them about legal concepts, so that they can protect themselves and that they can navigate this space effectively.
Speaker 2:That's well said. That's well said you know, as I think about all these things that you're doing for athletes and whatnot. But you know why is it so important for you to find time to give back to your community through your involvement with your fraternity, alpha Phi Alpha. Why is that so important to you?
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, really it is a matter of it's kind of the price that we should pay. Right, service is the price we should pay for the opportunities that we have, and so being able to give back is it's really something that's important to me. It's something that I've kind of always felt growing up, that I knew that I had opportunities. I had a kind of a crazy upbringing that that opportunities really helped set me up for success in life and I want to be able to provide those opportunities for others. Being involved with Alpha, I'll tell you, alpha Phi, alpha, fraternity incorporated.
Speaker 1:Our mission statement is. That statement is that we develop leaders, that we promote brotherhood and academic excellence while at the same time providing service and advocacy for our communities, and that takes shape in so many different ways. We have young like youth groups that we work on social, emotional learning. We work on just development in as they navigate high school. We do work where obviously we're going to be doing a whole turkey drive next week and ready for Thanksgiving, and we're engaged in some of the legal kind of various political issues that our communities are dealing with, and then just going out and serving, serving meals, and getting involved and engaged in a lot of different ways to advocate for our communities. To me, that's everything and the icing on the cake is to be able to plug in and doing it with a group of individuals who have that same mindset of. I want to make an impact, I want to make life better for somebody else. To be able to do that, to me is that is the gold standard.
Speaker 2:You know, speaking of that, you've received quite a bit of honors. Oh boy. Well, you recently the alumni brother of the year for the Alpha Phi attorney incorporate Midwest region, and then you're blessed to be the keynote speaker for the Columbus at the city of Columbus, dr Martin King Jr Margin program. He talked about those experiences and what that meant to you.
Speaker 1:Coach, tim, you really be doing your research out here, man, I'll tell you so. To receive honors and receive awards is it's nice, but I'll be honest with you, it you can't do it alone. For everything that I'm successful, with every benefit that I that I have, every, every honor award that I've received, someone else has also paid the cost for that. I always recognize my kids, my wife, because, even though it sounds great to go out and do the service work on top of the work that I'm already doing yes, that's oftentimes time away from the kids I'm so honored and excited because my son is Engaged with our junior Esquire's program in Alpha Phi Alpha. So you know, now we we get to, you know, engage in that together, which is which is awesome. So I always acknowledge that that other people have sacrificed, oftentimes, for the work that I'm able to do. I Will tell you, though, to be able to Be the keynote speaker for the city of Columbus for their MLK day Parade the March and program for me was just on a whole different level Martin Luther King Jr Was a member of the same fraternity Alpha Phi Alpha, fraternity incorporated and to be able to Adequately represent what I feel like he would want to talk about today and to be able to do that on stage Was just an incredible experience.
Speaker 1:And and the approach that I took was I talked about the two Columbus's Because he there are so many speeches that we could talk about, that he gave so many writings that you could go into, and we oftentimes have this very Flowery view of MLK, but he was also an antagonist that was driven for people to understand when there were inequalities in our system of living, our system of government, and so I wanted to take that same approach in talking about in Columbus. We have some of the most amazing opportunities. We have Intel that's bringing billions of dollars to central Ohio. We have, you know, a great, you know, one of the leading, you know institutions in Ohio State, right here. We've got so many businesses coming into central Ohio.
Speaker 1:We've great opportunities, but yet we have challenges. We have a youth violence challenge. We have challenges with affordable housing. We have challenges With homelessness and an unhoused population, so so there's some challenges too. But what does that mean? That means that we get to work together to fix and address those issues, but we can't address issues that we don't call out and that we don't recognize, and so I viewed it as my mission To call those things out so that we can have a renewed energy in going after and addressing those issues.
Speaker 2:You know this is a legacy podcast. Yeah, what does that word mean to you and what legacy are you building through your work in business and service?
Speaker 1:Yeah, legacy is a powerful, heavy, big word. It's something that I have been thinking about a lot lately. I've been thinking about what is my legacy? I think sometimes it's hard to say I'm going to go do this because it builds my legacy. But when you get asked a question like this, it forces you to kind of look backwards a bit to say what is it that I'm doing? What are decisions that I've made to positively impact my legacy?
Speaker 1:Now I will say, you know, for me, you know number one, it's family first and I look at, you know, opportunities and creating opportunities for my kids to be able to go on and, like I said, exceed me. But at the same time, when I think about impact and community, when I think about the work that I'm doing, oftentimes to leave a legacy, we, it means we are doing something that hasn't been done the same way previously. Right, because? Because legacy, if I were to just do everything that's already been done, then all I'm doing is just kind of getting on the same, the same kind of pathway as someone else, right? And so is that someone else's legacy then, or is that my legacy? So you have to think about what are the things that we individually are doing that. That is different than what has maybe either been done in our Lives or done in our communities or in our profession in the past, and so I think about this work that I'm doing with individual athletes.
Speaker 1:I I know for a fact from a legal perspective, being a sports lawyer, it would be far more lucrative for our firm, for me in sports law, to work with Leagues and unions and teams as clients, as opposed to the individual athlete.
Speaker 1:Right, leagues are spending millions and millions of dollars from a legal perspective, teams Millions of dollars from a legal perspective. Individual athletes are not spending millions of dollars in there and, in all honesty, if I'm doing what's right for them, right, we're protecting them on the front end so they don't have to go through litigation and have legal spend later, right, so so that does not. That is not the norm when it comes to right building out of practice, but for me it's legacy. For me it's an opportunity to say, yes, you can work with individual athletes, treat them like business owners that they are and help them be successful as they navigate life. I think about you, know the work in the community that I'm doing and how can we continue to be creative in this. So so I could talk for hours about legacy, and I will tell you that there's even more yet to come. So maybe, maybe the next season or a couple seasons from now, you'll have me back and we can talk more about it because I think there's some, some even greater things coming.
Speaker 2:You know this has been a great conversation. You know, as last, as we kind of work our way around the corner, what word of encouragement would you share with young people who may feel they have no hope and are on their own trying to figure out direction in life?
Speaker 1:Yeah, Don't give up, believe I'll tell you. I have no lawyers in my family, so that was new. I was in the military, so, and I joined after college, which was odd. I was working at an investment firm and 9-11 happened when I was working and I decided to join the Army National Guard Because I wanted to serve and give back in that way to our, to our community and then our larger country as well, and there were a lot of things that I have Navigated in life that I didn't have a blueprint for or that maybe I didn't have the guidance for.
Speaker 1:I will tell you we are more connected now in life and in society than ever before. Right when you and I were coming up, there was no LinkedIn, there was no social media, there was no way to connect with people in industries that we're interested in. What I would say to young people is even if you are struggling or you have despair now because you just don't see what the path is, think about what interests you, what do you like? There's so much out there, and now we can be connected with people that can help mentor us in those spaces. I have people that reach out to me on LinkedIn or they send an email.
Speaker 1:I mean most of my information, because I'm at a law firm, it's all public information. People can find me and people will reach out and ask questions, and I'm happy when I can make the time, I'm happy to provide some perspective, and so I would tell young people whatever it is that you want to do, whatever your biggest dream is, go after it. Don't give up on it. Don't, even though you may not see how I'm gonna get from point A to point B or point A to point M. It may not be a straight line, it may have some zigzags, but that's okay because you are a product of your experience, as we talked about before, and so all of your experiences, all of your conversations, that's all gonna help build up to the legacy that you leave in life, and so don't be afraid to go after it.
Speaker 2:Wow, luke, I wanna thank you for that boy with the briefcase. No, thank you for that boy. And now look at the man. Now, amen. And I know you see a lot of these guys. You see it like you, boy, it's just dreaming, just dreaming, dreaming. That's why I love bringing people on the show who can kind of share their life, because people see the glory but they don't know the story.
Speaker 1:Come on now. Now you preaching the word. That's right, I see us in our glory, but they don't know the story.
Speaker 2:They absolutely do. Now they know the story, so they can get to the glory.
Speaker 1:That's right, come on, they can go to work.
Speaker 2:Anyway, this brings us to the end of this episode. I wanna thank our special guest, attorney, luke Fallon, for sharing his heart to serve athletes and helping others in our community to make this community and world better. Thank you for joining us for this enlightening and informed discussion on building a legacy and business and service. Hope this episode was beneficial to you all. From listeners, always thanks for listening to Be A Baller Podcast.
Speaker 3:If you enjoyed this episode, please share this podcast with family and friends. Be A Baller Podcast is available on all major podcast stations. Be sure to come back next week as we continue to discuss on how to build a lifelong legacy. Until then, don't forget to Be A Baller. This podcast was created by coach Tim Brown, it was edited by Tehran Howe and produced and recorded by the video production class of Worthington Christian High School.