Tag: News

• Trump's proposed tariffs could cost Americans $500 billion annually, a think tank estimated.
• The cost of tariffs is often passed onto consumers as producers raise prices.
• A 10% tariff on imports could cost households an extra $1,500 a year, researchers say.

Donald Trump has touted plans to impose tariffs on imports in his campaign for a second presidential term, but those proposals could end up costing Americans half a trillion dollars a year, according to estimates from a Washington DC-based think-tank.

Researchers at the Peterson Institute warned Trump's planned taxes on imports could end up being a huge burden on working-class Americans. The former president's plan to impose a 10% tariff on all imports could end up costing consumers nearly 2% of US GDP, or an additional $500 billion a year, they estimated in a new paper. That's about five times the cost of Trump's tariffs in 2018, when he imposed taxes on imports of steel, aluminum, and other goods.

The plan would hit lower-income households harder, the researchers said.

"As fiscal policy, the Trump agenda amounts to regressive tax cuts, only partially paid for by regressive tax increases. A lower-bound estimate of costs to consumers indicates that the tariffs would reduce after-tax incomes by about 3.5 percent for those in the bottom half of the income distribution."

Economists generally agree that tariffs raise the cost of goods purchased domestically. That's because taxes on imported goods are often passed onto the consumer as producers raise prices – similar to a "one-time burst of inflation," the paper authors said.

"In contrast to Trumps' frequent, and mistaken, claims that foreigners bear the impact of tariffs, economists have long understood that tariffs burden domestic purchasers of imported goods," the paper said. 

Trump's tariff plan also includes a 60% tax on Chinese imports, but even a 10% across-the-board tariff would be the equivalent to an annual $1,500 consumption tax per household, according to an analysis from the Center for American Progress.

"If executed, Trump's latest tariff proposals would increase manifold the distortions and burdens created by the rounds of tariffs levied during the Trump administration (and sustained during the Biden administration) while inflicting significant collateral damage on the US economy," the researchers said.

Other economists have slammed Trump's proposed tariffs as a drag on the economy. The plan could cause inflation to spike and could spark a recession, economic experts have warned.

• The US Army upgraded its nearly 500,000 M4 carbines to more lethal and higher-tech M4A1 rifles.
• The M4 became controversial due to costly manufacturing and reliability issues like weapon jamming.
• The M4A1 has a heavier barrel, improved accuracy, and compatibility with better-performing ammo.

Meet the M4 Carbine: Over the course of many years, the US produced hundreds of thousands of battle-tested, upgraded M4A1 rifles engineered to more quickly identify, attack, and destroy enemy targets with full auto-capability, consistent trigger-pull, and a slightly heavier barrel. 

The M4A1 was the product of an extensive M4 Product Improvement Program, called PIP. The PIP for the M4 was a far-reaching initiative to upgrade the Army's entire current inventory of M4 rifles into higher-tech, durable, and more lethal M4A1 weapons.

An Army weapons developer involved in the PIP project said "the heavier barrel is more durable and has greater capacity to maintain accuracy and zero while withstanding the heat produced by high volumes of fire. New and upgraded M4A1s will also receive ambidextrous fire control," an Army statement said.

Refining the M4

The Army spent many years converting its fielded M4 carbines to M4A1 carbines; approximately 483,000, Army officials explained.

"Most of the enhancements resulted from soldier surveys conducted over time," an Army official told Warrior Maven for 19FortyFive. 

Over the years, the Army has made more than 90 performance "Engineering Change Proposals" to the M4 Carbine since its introduction.

"Improvements have been made to the trigger assembly, extractor spring, recoil buffer, barrel chamber, magazine and bolt, as well as ergonomic changes to allow soldiers to tailor the system to meet their needs," an Army statement said.

Today's M4 is quite different "under the hood" than its predecessors and the upgraded M4A1 was further refined to provide soldiers with an even more effective and reliable weapon system, Army statements said. 

The M4A1 is also engineered to fire the emerging M885A1 Enhanced Performance Round, .556 ammunition designed with new, better penetrating, and more lethal contours to exact more damage upon enemy targets.

"The M4A1 has improvements which take advantage of the M885A1. The round is better performing and is effective against light armor," an Army official told 19FortyFive.

Prior to the emergence of the M4A1 program, the Army had planned to acquire a new M4. Numerous tests, industry demonstrations, and requirements development exercises informed this effort, including a "shoot-off" among potential suppliers. Before its conversion into the M4A1, the M4 — a battle-tested weapon, and known for many successes — had become controversial due to combat soldier complaints, such as reports of the weapon "jamming."

Continuous Upgrades for the M4

For many years, the Army upgraded and improved its M4, with some plans never passing the conceptual phase. All of the progress, however, has informed the Army's current weapons. There has continued to be ongoing work to ensure the weapon is upgraded and maintained to the maximum extent. 

As many as four to five years ago, the Army did conduct a "market survey" with which to explore a host of additional upgrades to the M4A1. These previous considerations, which were performed under a program called the M4A1+ effort, were analyzed by Army developers and then shelved. Among the options explored by the Army and industry included the use of a "flash suppressor," camouflage, removable iron sights, and a single-stage trigger, according to numerous news reports and a formal government solicitation.

The M4A1+ effort was designed to look for add-on components that will "seamlessly integrate with the current M4A1 Carbine … without negatively impacting or affecting the performance or operation of the M4A1 weapon," a previous solicitation states. This kind of approach suggests the Army's ongoing effort to look both in a conceptual and technological sense at ways to sustain upgrades and improvements to the weapon in coming years. 

• A Ukrainian unit uses drones to drop mines inside Russia at night, per CNN.
• Ukraine's Code 9.2 drone unit claims it flew 24 Vampire drones in just one evening.
• Their drone dropped two explosives inside Russia that later hit two vehicles, per the outlet.

A Ukrainian unit fighting on a key battlefront is flying drones at night to drop mines inside Russia, CNN reported.

Soldiers from Ukraine's 92nd Brigade's Code 9.2 drone unit operated about four miles from the border with Russia's Belgorod region, in an undisclosed location in Kharkiv, according to the outlet.

CNN accompanied the unit into the field. It did not specify when the operation it witnessed took place.

Ukraine has often looked to unconventional means to fight back against Russia, using drones and other weaponry to target Russia's navy, front-line units, and oil industry.

In recent months, Ukrainian forces have faced increased pressure, as Russia has ramped up its attacks before new supplies reach Ukraine from its allies, including the US.

Russia has launched a renewed offensive in the Kharkiv region — where the unit CNN shadowed was located — creating what looks like a buffer zone along its border, the Institute for the Study of War said last week.

It is unclear if the nighttime mission was part of a larger battle plan for Ukraine, but the unit told CNN it holds the record for 24 sorties with Vampire drones in just one night.

CNN reported that the unit set up its equipment at dusk, limiting the risk of Russian drones flying over it before darkness made its tasks impossible.

As soon as darkness settled and the sky was clear, they were able to fly a Vampire drone carrying explosives toward Russia.

From a bunker, using a PlayStation-like control, pilot Sasha watched the drone fly across the border, despite Russia jamming, CNN reported.

Ten minutes later, it dropped two explosive payloads on a target stretch of road.

The unit said the mines hit an armored car and a soft skin vehicle the following day, CNN reported.

Throughout the war, Ukrainian forces have used drones to devastating effect, launching ongoing attacks on Russia's Black Sea Fleet, inflicting damage to its oil industry, and using them in attacks that were responsible for two-thirds of Russian tank losses.

Russia has also used drones alongside missiles to exploit shortages in Ukraine's air defenses and to target Ukrainian positions at night.

• A new line of frozen foods will cater to users of weight loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy.
• Nestlé's Vital Pursuit brand will include sandwiches and bowls.
• It's the latest example of consumer brands flexing for the rising use of Semaglutide. 

Frozen meals are one of the latest ways that big consumer brands are trying to cater to users of weight loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy.

Food giant Nestlé will start selling 12 items under its new Vital Pursuit brand by the fourth quarter of this year, the company said Tuesday. The lineup is designed for GLP-1 weight loss medication users and will include items like sandwich melts and grain bowls with chicken.

Each item will have a suggested retail price of $4.99 or less, Nestlé said, though prices can vary by store.

The meals are "portion-aligned to a weight loss medication user's appetite" and contain high amounts of fiber, protein, and essential nutrients, Nestlé said. They're also "well-suited to support a balanced diet for anyone on a weight management journey," the company said.

"As the use of medications to support weight loss continues to rise, we see an opportunity to serve those consumers," Nestlé North America CEO Steve Presley said in a statement announcing the meals.

GLP-1 drugs have become more popular over the past year. According to the American Pharmacists Association, about one in 60 adults got a prescription for one in 2023.

Vital Pursuit shows how the food industry is adapting to the rise of GLP-1 drugs. Last year, some industry analysts questioned what major food makers would do if the drugs became widespread. Semaglutide, the generic name for drugs like Ozempic, works by reducing users' appetite, an effect that the analysts said would hurt sales of packaged foods and snacks.

However, the smaller portion sizes of Nestlé's new line show one way forward for the companies.

"Let's say they go to smaller portions, then we evolve the innovations, and we design smaller portions," Conagra CEO Sean Connolly said in response to a question about the drugs during an earnings call last fall.

Nestlé is just the latest consumer brand to try to cash in on the popularity of GLP-1 drugs.

Online pharmacy Hims & Hers said Monday that it would start selling its own version of Semaglutide for as little as $200 a month. That price would undercut other forms of the weight loss drug.

Costco also unveiled a program that allows customers to get a prescription for a GLP-1 drug and a consultation on how to use it earlier this year.

• Walmart heiress Alice Walton is the second-richest woman in the world, with an estimated $84 billion net worth.
• She spends some of her fortune collecting art, including opening a museum, and breeding horses.
• Here's a look at her life, career, and fortune.

Alice Walton, the only female heiress to the Walmart fortune, is one of the richest women in the world.

The three Walmart heirs — Rob Walton, Jim Walton, and Alice Walton — have a combined wealth of more than $250 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

The 74-year-old Alice Walton has an estimated fortune worth $84 billion and ranks 19th on Bloomberg's list. She's the second-richest woman in the world, behind only L'Oréal heiress Françoise Bettencourt Meyers.

Despite the Waltons' high status, their personal lives remain largely private. Here's what we know about how Alice Walton spends her fortune, from collecting expensive art to breeding horses:

Alice Walton, the only daughter of Walmart founder Sam Walton, is one of the world's richest women.

Walton and L'Oréal heiress Françoise Bettencourt Meyers regularly alternate in the #1 spot.

Unlike her brothers, Rob and Jim, Alice Walton has never taken an active role in running Walmart and has instead become a patron of the arts.

Walton fell in love with the arts at a young age, according to a New Yorker profile. When she was 10, she bought her first work of art: a reproduction of a Picasso painting for $2, she told the publication.

After graduating from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, in 1971, Walton briefly entered the family business, working for Walmart as a buyer of children's clothes, she told The New Yorker.

But her career really began in finance, which led her to founding Llama Company, an investment bank, in 1988.

She has been married and divorced twice and has no children.

Walton has an immense private art collection, with original works from legendary American artists including Andy Warhol, Norman Rockwell, and Georgia O'Keefe.

"Collecting has been such a joy, and such an important part of my life in terms of seeing art, and loving it," she told The New Yorker.

In 2011, she opened a $50 million museum called Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, to house her $500 million private art collection.

When it opened, it had four times the endowment of the famous Whitney Museum in New York.

In 2014, the Walmart heiress dropped $44.4 million on a piece of artwork by Georgia O'Keeffe.

It was the most expensive sale of a work of art by a female artist in history. Walton later put it on display at her museum in Arkansas.

Walton has donated millions to the arts and other causes.

In January 2016, Walton donated 3.7 million of her own Walmart shares — worth about $225 million at the time — to the family's nonprofit, the Walton Family Foundation, Fortune reported. The next year, the charity gifted $120 million to the University of Arkansas to establish a School of Art.

She used to sit on the foundation's board of directors alongside four other Waltons.

Walton also has her own charitable organization, the Alice L. Walton Foundation, which donates to causes including the arts, education, and health, according to its website.

Walton has also put some of her money into politics.

She has traditionally given to Republican candidates and PACs, though Walton donated $353,400 to the Hillary Victory Fund, a joint fundraising committee supporting Clinton and other Democrats, in 2016, according to Forbes.

The two women met while Clinton was serving as First Lady of Arkansas and was the only woman sitting on Walmart's board.

Walton has been active in the horse breeding scene in Texas, but in 2015 she said she was going to devote more of her time to her Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.

"I've been stretched in too many directions and I want to get focused," Walton said, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in 2017. "I've got a house in Fort Worth, so I'm moving to town."

In 2017, she sold her Millsap, Texas ranch for an undisclosed amount. The Rocking W Ranch had an initial asking price of $19.75 million but was later reduced to $16.5 million. The working ranch boasted more than 250 acres of pasture and outbuildings for cattle and horses.

She'd also put another Texas ranch, the 4,416-acre Fortune Bend Ranch, on the market around the same time.

She also cut its listing price, to $22.1 million. The property has a modest three-bedroom home overlooking nearly five miles of river frontage.

Walton also bought a two-floor condo on New York City's Park Avenue for $25 million in 2014.

The condo, which had been owned by late financier Christopher H. Browne, has more than 52 large windows overlooking Central Park and the city, as well as a media room and a library.

In 2015, protesters gathered outside Walton's building to demand a $15 minimum wage for Walmart employees. In 2023, the median wage for workers at Walmart, the world's largest private employer, was $27,642.

Tanza Loudenback contributed to an earlier version of this story.

• Companies are cutting middle management roles, and millennials are likely to be most affected.
• Work culture has changed, and some companies see middle managers as obsolete.
• It could mean that junior staff won't receive the mentorship to advance up the ladder in the future.

Companies are increasingly ditching middle management positions, and it could be millennials who find their jobs are most at risk.

The great "unbossing" has been brought on by several factors, including cost-cutting, Gen Z's distaste for management, remote working, and increased pressure on performance.

The repercussions are that future generations entering the workforce may receive less mentorship while being put under more stress from above.

But it's not just junior employees that could be worse off.

Lara Milward, a neuro-leadership coach with expertise in how workplace culture is changing, told Business Insider it's the 30-somethings who are buying houses, starting to have children, and juggling "career progression and family life" that may find their jobs are suddenly axed.

"It could well be that that's the generation that takes this hit," she said.

Millennial middle managers are at risk

Joe Galvin, the chief research officer of the executive coaching organization Vistage, told BI the unbossing trend has come about due to the normalization of working from home, advances in tech and AI, and generational shifts.

"In the analog era, going back to, let's say, the eighties, you had to communicate manually to be able to align your workforce," he said. "Today, technology has made that all possible. And the behavior change that we saw during the pandemic was an accelerant to that."

Steven Baert, the CEO of Novartis, told Gallup that traditional leadership is "becoming redundant." The company's goal is to have a workforce that is motivated and encouraged to be effective rather than told what to do, he said.

It's now rare to see the traditional version of a boss who walks around an office and checks in on what all their employees are doing.

"That boss's job has changed tremendously," Galvin said. "How you manage relationships in a more digital environment is much more difficult."

While Galvin said the intent of reducing middle management is to streamline communication between employees and senior executives, the impact could be unfairly balanced.

Middle management positions accounted for almost a third of layoffs in 2023, according to an analysis for Bloomberg — an increase from 20% in 2018.

Analysis from Live Data Technologies also found that manager-level or higher roles made up almost 50% of all layoffs in 2023, a jump of 57.6% compared to five years ago.

As a result, confidence levels of mid-managers have dropped significantly, according to research from Glassdoor.

It just so happens that a lot of middle managers are millennials.

Aged between 28 and 43, millennials are often in their first management positions or on their way to climbing to more senior roles.

They were also hit the hardest during the Great Firing of 2022, making up 94% of laid-off workers.

"Since millennials make up a large portion of middle management, they, along with some Gen X, are most likely to be affected by this trend," Chris Lovell, a careers expert at SoFi Technologies and the founder of Careers by Chris, told BI.

"These are also the generations that were most likely taught to follow a traditional career path: go to school, earn a degree, and climb the corporate ladder."

Work-life balance has changed

Ironically, millennials are "less interested in corporate bureaucracies or hierarchies," Lovell said, which could be part of why middle management roles are being cut.

Data suggests that both millennials and Gen Zers are turning away from management positions, with a lack of trust in senior leadership, a perceived limited financial reward, and a greater focus on a work-life balance and time off.

Many current middle managers are also burned out with their teams being downsized, and an increased workload.

Gen Zers could also be shifting the culture of the workforce, putting more emphasis on their boundaries, their mental health, and wanting more autonomy.

"I think this collides with economies and the way that the world is going, that companies are cutting costs," Milward said.

"If we're thinking about a world of diversity, inclusivity, and including new generations, they are trying to move towards a more flat structure and less of the old-school parent-child sort of relationship."

However, Joel Wolfe, the founder and president of the customer service agency HiredSupport, told BI he believes this attitude from younger generations may be backfiring.

There is pressure on managers to constantly do better than they did the previous quarter, but millennials aren't necessarily performing at that high level. Millennial managers, in Wolfe's opinion, can be "difficult to work with."

"They have fixed schedules and aren't flexible, which is something difficult to adapt to, especially when you are working with different timezones," he said.

Millennials and Gen Zers are increasingly opting out of working overtime and going above and beyond for promotions, instead favoring more time off and leaving work at the door when they go home.

Wolfe said this may make them seem inflexible and thus vulnerable when layoffs happen.

"I prefer employees working when they have some tasks to do," he said. "I don't want them to sit in front of the screen and wait for the clock to strike 5 p.m."

The impact on Zoomers

Shoshanna Davis, the founder of Fairy Job Mother and a consultant who helps young people with their careers, told BI she's not convinced unbossing is a direct response to how younger generations perceive the world of work.

But it is likely to disproportionately affect Gen Zers in their first or second jobs.

"They are new to the world of work, and they do really need managers to help them find the ropes," Davis said. "Ultimately, eliminating this kind of middle management position means less guidance, less coaching, and less mentoring, which I feel like is still desperately needed in a post-COVID world."

Zoomers are already unenthused by management. They are the generation that coined the term "lazy-girl jobs" and strongly believe in the benefits of "quiet quitting."

Will fewer management positions be replaced by higher salaries? Will career progression stagnate for Gen Z, if they have no millennial managers to look up to? What does this mean for the generations after them? Davis isn't sure.

"If it's just truly a way to cut costs, and there's going to be no replacements, then what incentive is there for people to perform at work?" Davis said.

"I don't really see how that's going to pan out."

• The ICC's decision to charge Israel and Hamas leaders was made with help from Amal Clooney.
• Clooney joined of team of experts analyzing evidence of suspected crimes against humanity.
• Netanyahu and Biden condemned the ICC's decision; neither country recognizes the court's authority.

Human rights attorney Amal Clooney was part of the team that convinced the International Criminal Court to charge both Israeli and Hamas leaders with war crimes.

Clooney said the ICC's prosecutor asked her over 4 months ago to join the team analyzing evidence of suspected war crimes and crimes against humanity in Israel and Gaza, she wrote in a post on the website of Clooney Foundation for Justice, which she co-founded with her husband, actor George Clooney.

The findings from Amal Clooney and other experts led the ICC to announce on Monday that it was seeking arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, along with several others from both sides of the conflict.

"We unanimously conclude that there are reasonable grounds to believe that Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniyeh have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity, including hostage-taking, murder and crimes of sexual violence," Clooney wrote on CFJ's website.

"We unanimously conclude that there are reasonable grounds to believe that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity including starvation as a method of warfare, murder, persecution and extermination," Clooney continued.

The team of experts, including Clooney, wrote an op-ed in the Financial Times on Monday, calling the ICC's decision to seek arrest warrants "a milestone in the history of international criminal law."

"As a human rights lawyer, I will never accept that one child's life has less value than another's," Clooney wrote on CFJ's website. "I do not accept that any conflict should be beyond the reach of the law, nor that any perpetrator should be above the law. So I support the historic step that the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has taken to bring justice to victims of atrocities in Israel and Palestine."

Though the ICC — a global criminal court based in The Hague, Netherlands — has the power to prosecute world leaders, it relies on member countries to enforce its rulings. Both the US and Israel do not recognize the ICC's authority.

In a video statement, Netanyahu called the ICC's decision to seek warrants against Israeli leaders a "moral outrage of historic proportions" that would "cast an everlasting mark of shame on the International Court."

US President Joe Biden also weighed in, calling the ICC's decision "outrageous," adding that the US "will always stand with Israel against threats to its security."

• Josh Hawley is writing his fourth book — while running for a second term in the Senate.
• It's called "The Awakenings: The Religious Revivals that Made America—and Why We Need Another One."
• The Missouri senator has written books about masculinity, Big Tech, and Theodore Roosevelt.

Sen. Josh Hawley is running for reelection this year. He also happens to be in the middle of writing a new book.

The Missouri Republican is working on a new book entitled "The Awakenings: The Religious Revivals that Made America — and Why We Need Another One," his publisher confirmed to Business Insider on Tuesday.

A spokesperson for Hawley did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Hawley signed the agreement with Regnery Publishing in October 2023 and is set to deliver a manuscript no later than January 2025.

The conservative book imprint has published Hawley's previous two books, including "Manhood: The Masculine Virtues America Needs" in 2023 and "The Tyranny of Big Tech" in 2021.

The latter book was previously set to be published by Simon and Schuster, but the publisher cancelled the deal after Hawley led the objection to Pennsylvania's electoral college results in 2020.

The Missouri senator also wrote a book about President Theodore Roosevelt in 2008, while working as a clerk for Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts.

Hawley, who has positioned himself as a future presidential contender while pushing the GOP in a more populist direction, has long been an advocate for Christianity in the United States. His previous book, "Manhood," drew heavily on Biblical references.

In February, Hawley published an essay in the religious journal "First Things" arguing that the United States is a fundamentally Christian nation.

"America as we know it cannot survive without biblical Christianity," Hawley wrote at the time. "The rights we cherish, the freedoms we enjoy, the ideals we love together — all are rooted in and sustained by the tradition of the Bible. Christianity is the electric current of our national life."

The Missouri senator's annual financial disclosure, filed last week, indicated that he made $127,500 from book royalties in 2023. It is unclear whether that sum includes an advance for Hawley's forthcoming book or also includes composed of royalties from the senator's previous books. In 2021, Hawley made $467,000 in book royalties.

Books have long been a way for senators — particularly those with high profiles — to make extra money on the side. In 2022, six senators made more than their $174,000 salaries via book advances and royalties.

That included Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia, who made the largest sum of any senator in 2022 — $655,000 — while also embarking on a book tour months ahead of his high-stakes reelection race.

• Microsoft's Build keynote kicks off at 12 p.m. ET on Tuesday.
• CEO Satya Nadella is expected to give updates on Microsoft's generative AI products.
• Microsoft leaned further into its AI agent Copilot with new Copilot+ PCs announced on Monday.

OpenAI and Google may have held the AI spotlight last week, but now it's Microsoft's turn.

The annual Microsoft Build developer conference keynote begins at 12 p.m. ET on Tuesday, and CEO Satya Nadella is expected to unveil Microsoft's latest generative AI offerings.

That technology is anticipated to be the dominant theme, as it was on Monday when Microsoft held a press event and unveiled its new Copilot+ PC lineup, starting with the AI-infused Surface Pro and Surface Laptop. Focusing on hardware yesterday should give the company plenty of airtime to focus on AI software and features during Tuesday's keynote.

Copilot, the AI assistant tightly integrated with the company's Microsoft 365 software suite, competes against Google's Gemini AI for Google Workspace. Google last week had plenty to show off about the latest model, including a prototype of its impressive Project Astra AI agent, so don't be surprised if Microsoft trots out some rival demos.

Microsoft has also invested billions into OpenAI, which helped power the "new Bing" search product. We might hear some updates on that partnership, as OpenAI's latest GPT-4o AI model is already available in preview with text and image capabilities to Microsoft's Azure AI cloud customers.

Business Insider will be liveblogging Microsoft's Build keynote, so scroll on for the latest highlights.

• College athletes should be leveraging LinkedIn more, say athletes and experts.
• Student-athlete Sabrina Oostburg described the success she's had using LinkedIn to promote herself.
• NIL Athlete of the Year Chase Griffin also said even high-school athletes should be on LinkedIn.

The name, image, and likeness business has changed the game for college athletes who now need to self-promote on social-media platforms like Instagram and TikTok if they want to make money from NIL.

LinkedIn is another often-overlooked platform where student-athletes can promote themselves and score brand deals, athletes and experts told Business Insider.

The professional network has leaned into creator content and grown in recent years as a platform for influencers of all kinds.

Some student-athletes who have found success building their brands on LinkedIn include Tanner Maddox, a freshman football player from Villanova; Sabrina Oostburg, a track and field athlete from Belmont University; and Connor Printz, a former basketball player from Claremont McKenna College, according to Out2Win, an athlete-marketing-intelligence platform, which tracked the frequency of student-athletes posting on LinkedIn.

While Instagram and TikTok are crucial for athletes to showcase their creativity and build an audience, LinkedIn is better for connecting directly with brands, said Jack Adler, founder of Out2Win.

"LinkedIn is a better platform for actually connecting with those businesses because that's where a lot of the marketers spend their time," Adler said.

Oostburg and Printz told BI they've used LinkedIn to secure NIL brand deals and connect with agents or other professionals they want to work with.

College athletes have used LinkedIn to get brand deals and sign with talent agents

Oostburg said she landed two sponsorship deals through LinkedIn, including with the Nashville Zoo and a startup called Backhat. One of the partnerships was paid and both offered free products. She's also connected through the platform with social-media managers and business owners — and even her current agency, Raymond Representation.

Oostburg said some of her peers have laughed at her for using LinkedIn and don't see the value in it.

"I'm like, 'What are you guys laughing at?'"she said. "They don't see the vision of how you can use that for NIL."

Printz, meanwhile, has used LinkedIn to help build his personal brand and prepare for a sports career after college. Two months ago, he posted on LinkedIn his story about gaining over 100 NIL deals and over 1 million followers across social media. He said the post opened a lot of doors for him.

"It kind of went a little bit viral on there and people were reaching out to me every single day just wanting to talk," said Printz.

While Printz hasn't used LinkedIn to get NIL deals, like Oostburg, he found his agent through the platform while seeking NIL representation about six months ago.

"When I was looking for an agent, I just posted on there and had many, many people reach out," he said. "Luckily, that's how I connected with my agent."

Samantha Green, who founded the Athlete Con convention and works directly with student-athletes, said she advises athletes to post about their current NIL deals and contact brands on LinkedIn for opportunities.

"If you think about it seriously, anybody that's a head of influencer marketing at any brand is often on LinkedIn," she told BI.

Green said athletes can also make more of a name for themselves on LinkedIn than on other platforms.

"There are a million athletes on TikTok. There are a million athletes on Instagram. But who are the ones actually putting a business presence forward and building a brand as a professional while still being a college athlete?" Green said. "Few and far between are on LinkedIn, so you'll really stand out."

Chase Griffin, a UCLA quarterback who was named the 2022 NIL Male Athlete of the Year by NIL Summit and Opendorse, is also proof of the opportunities athletes can get on LinkedIn. Griffin, who's scored more than 30 NIL deals during his career, landed his first through LinkedIn. 

He advises any athlete in college or high school to create a LinkedIn profile because it can set them up for future success. 

"LinkedIn can play a huge role in making sure that you have a network vesting while you're still in college," he said. "That way, once you leave your campus, you're still tied to your network, and you've been able to put your accomplishments and accolades out in front of the companies that you're going to work for."

Griffin said his LinkedIn presence has helped shape his early career, and he plans to continue building his audience and content on the platform.

 "If you're doing NIL or not, as a college athlete, you're also a college student," he said, "and LinkedIn is the spot to be for college students."