Growth, Vision & the Pursuit of Greatness | Roc Nation's Michael Yormark

Um, for those that don't know the origin story, your origin story, I know this is not probably what you were expecting, but how did you get from where you started to running not just, as you guys have explained it, not just a, a typical sports agency, but something that's changing the ecosystem for athletes, branding, and just about everything you can think about in 2026, 2027, 'cause it's, it's, it's a leap.

It's a leap of faith even for the athlete.

Yes.

Yes.

Listen, um, I sit here today, um, because of my passion, my commitment, and my work ethic.

I, I always tell people I'm, I'm not the brightest, uh, guy in the room, but I'm the hardest working.

And so I think in, in order to create anything that's great, that's meaningful, that has value, you gotta put in the time, you gotta put in the work, you gotta make sacrifices, and you gotta be super passionate about it, and I'm super passionate about what I do.

I've been in the business for 25, 28 years.

I'm probably more passionate about it today than when I started the journey.

So that's why I'm sitting here today sitting with you, sitting at SoccerX, and sitting, and sitting in this new magnificent stadium.

Yeah.

New stadium.

New stadium.

I know, it's a, it's a mouthful.

The ...

But is it because of tech and the way the world is changing over these 25, 26, 27 years as you're mentioning that have given you that energy, or is that just something you had growing up-

You know, I, I, it's, it's-

... you always had? Yeah, you know where I'm going with this.

Yeah.

Nothing influences this.

Right.

It's all about the DNA.

Yeah.

You know, I, I tell-

Always gonna be sports? Was it always gonna be sports in your DNA?

Um, for those that don't know the origin story, your origin story, I know this is not probably what you were expecting, but how did you get from where you started to running not just, as you guys have explained it, not just a, a typical sports agency, but something that's changing the ecosystem for athletes, branding, and just about everything you can think about in 2026, 2027, 'cause it's, it's, it's a leap.

It's a leap of faith even for the athlete.

Yes.

Yes.

Listen, um, I sit here today, um, because of my passion, my commitment, and my work ethic.

I, I always tell people I'm, I'm not the brightest, uh, guy in the room, but I'm the hardest working.

And so I think in, in order to create anything that's great, that's meaningful, that has value, you gotta put in the time, you gotta put in the work, you gotta make sacrifices, and you gotta be super passionate about it, and I'm super passionate about what I do.

I've been in the business for 25, 28 years.

I'm probably more passionate about it today than when I started the journey.

So that's why I'm sitting here today sitting with you, sitting at SoccerX, and sitting, and sitting in this new magnificent stadium.

Yeah.

New stadium.

New stadium.

I know, it's a, it's a mouthful.

The ...

But is it because of tech and the way the world is changing over these 25, 26, 27 years as you're mentioning that have given you that energy, or is that just something you had growing up-

You know, I, I, it's, it's-

... you always had? Yeah, you know where I'm going with this.

Yeah.

Nothing influences this.

Right.

It's all about the DNA.

Yeah.

You know, I, I tell-

Always gonna be sports? Was it always gonna be sports in your DNA?