How This Up-And-Coming WNBA Agent Uses Her Experience As A Former Professional Athlete To Run An Agency

Retirement is usually a happy occasion celebrating decades of commitment to a career. For professional athletes, though, it signifies a time when they have to choose between their health or pushing themselves an extra year; they have to succumb to the fact that they no longer have the competitive edge that they used to in the past. As a result, most professional athletes retire by the time they are 30 years old. As of late, more realize how important it is to establish a brand or company before they announce their retirement, but still, a staggering 78% are bankrupt three years after retirement. Yet, even with that bleak statistic, some former professional athletes thrive once they hang up their jerseys.

Taylor Burner, founder of Agency 3-2, an integrated marketing firm, is utilizing her experience as a seasoned overseas professional basketball player and marketing professional to develop creative branding campaigns. Her client roster includes Puma, Nike, Chloe Pavlech and Chris Johnson. In addition, the WNBPA recently approved her to be an agent. Although she is recruiting players now, she’ll be representing female basketball players on the court next season.

“I had to re-identify myself, and I feel like I’m almost still doing that, especially with my agency going on one year,” Taylor states. “I am still finding myself like, ‘Ok, I was a basketball player, but what am I now?’ Sports is still my passion, but how do I re-identify myself and find the next thing I can be great at?’ So that’s been the hardest part, separating myself from the game but still finding a way to be relevant. I’m on my way to that.”

Burner started playing basketball as an adolescent. After playing in college, she made it onto the roster for Team USA in the Maccabiah games, which is the Jewish Olympics. Israel agents reached out to her, and she signed her first professional contract before the Games ended. That year, Team USA won the gold medal. After two and a half years playing professionally, Burner made the decision to retire. Her body couldn’t handle the intensity required to succeed at that level.

Coming back to the States, she Googled open positions in the sports industry. She landed a role at a small social impact company out of Brooklyn and worked on creative programming for schools and community centers in underserved areas that got the kids up and moving. However, after two years, Burner was laid off.

Wanting to still work in sports, she took an internship with a sports marketing agency to get her foot in the door. Burner was one of the interns to land a full-time job after the training ended. She oversaw the agency’s business operations and day-to-day interactions with the clients. What struck her was the amount of time and effort put into the position didn’t equate to her salary against the revenue generated. She knew she had what it took to start her own business. Within a year, she launched Agency 3-2.

Burner is currently working on making DiJonai Carrington, a WNBA player for the Connecticut Sun, the first WNBA player in the metaverse. Additionally, over the past year, she’s been working on a Nike project in partnership with Hibbett Sports and City Gear, Support Her Sole. The campaign amplifies the voices of those who stand out by celebrating women who pave the way for others and play by their own rules. Additionally, it encourages Gen-Z girls and millennial women to knock down boundaries and create their own through self-expression and being themselves.

As Burner pivots within her career, she focuses on the following essential steps:

• Go for it. It’s never going to feel like the right time. If you’re waiting for the perfect moment, you’ll be waiting for a long time.
• Confide in people who have done it before you. It will take longer to achieve your goals if you try and do it all yourself.
• Take risks. It’s ok not to have all the answers at once. You’ll figure it all out as you move along in your journey.

“It’s ok not to have an answer right away,” Burner concludes. “It’s ok to have these times of transition, where you have ten balls in the air, and you’re waiting to see which one you catch. When I started the agency, I had worked for other people. And I had run a ton of revenue and businesses for big companies, but I had never done it on my own. It was a different type of having to believe in myself. It was, how do I run a finance system? Or how do I scale and build a company? These are all things that I’m literally learning as I go. But I’m learning that it’s ok that I don’t know the answer. I’ll figure it out.”