How a Clemson track athlete scored nearly 20 NIL deals, including 2 for equity projected to earn her
- Makenzie Steele is a Clemson track athlete who posts running and food content.
- She's amassed around 60,000 followers across Instagram and TikTok.
- Steele has scored NIL deals with companies like Under Armour and Lululemon.
For Makenzie Steele, landing NIL deals with big companies like Under Armour and Lululemon required two things: posting consistently and putting her business email in her Instagram bio.
"I don't want to sound cocky by this, but I don't really reach out to a lot of companies," Steele told Insider. "Ever since I put that in my bio … more opportunities were able to come up because people just email you."
The 20-year-old Clemson University track and cross-country runner has secured nearly 20 brand deals through her Instagram and TikTok account, @goodfoodgoodrun. Steele started posting cooking and running content in late summer 2020 and has grown her platform to 42,000 Instagram followers and 23,000 TikTok followers.
Steele spent her senior year of high school online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which gave her more time to focus on content. She posted daily recipes and eventually incorporated Instagram reels, which started gaining more traction.
Steele got her first deal with a UK-based protein bar company and most of her other partnerships have been related to her food content.
Steele said she tries to make her content unique, like her series on baked oats inspired by Ben and Jerry's ice cream flavors and her smoothies that taste like different Crumbl Cookie flavors.
Her best performing recipe — for carrot, apple, and cinnamon banana bread — got more than 950,000 views on Instagram reels when she first made it and more than 1 million views on the platform when she reposted it about a year later.
Steele came into college with about 15,000 Instagram followers, which gradually grew, until the banana bread video blew up for the second time a few months ago and boosted her follower count.
Steele said she prioritizes simple, realistic meals that even a busy athlete can make. She's posted one-pan Caprese baked pasta, snickerdoodle granola, mini apple pancake bites, and lots of banana bread variations.
"When someone first sees my account, they're like, 'it's just banana bread and oats,'" Steele said. "And I'm like, 'Sorry! We love our carbs.'"
Anyone can make a reel about banana bread, Steele said, but once she started posting personal content about track meet days at Clemson and her favorite items from Trader Joe's, she felt a closer connection with her audience.
How Steele promotes her NIL deals and landed equity through a brand partnership
Steele is an affiliate for Under Armour, meaning she gets free products and earns a commission when her personal links and codes drive sales rather than getting paid a flat rate. She often promotes the company in Instagram stories where followers can easily access the links and buy what she's wearing.
Unboxing and shopping haul videos are another way Steele shows off her NIL deals, like she did to promote a recent Clemson and Lululemon collaboration.
Steele said she's only made a few thousand dollars from NIL deals so far, but she's recently worked with her agent to increase her earnings.
She inked a deal with the sports metaverse and gaming platform LootMogul that gave her equity in the company, and plans to sign in the coming weeks a similar agreement with another business that would offer her a stake in the company in exchange for serving as an ambassador.
"Those two deals together are projected to make more than six figures for Makenzie throughout the life of the deal," her agent Christian Addison told Insider.
NIL has given the marketing major firsthand experience in running a small business. Steele said she recently spoke with her agent about opening an LLC, then heard her professor mention LLCs in class shortly after.
"It's cool having the experience knowledge rather than just book knowledge," Steele said.
Steele is floating the idea of making Good Food Good Run merchandise and wants to publish more special-edition volumes of her online cookbook, hoping to one day compile them into a printed copy.
Her advice to other student-athletes interested in NIL: "There's an audience out there for you somewhere," Steele said. "You just have to find it by posting."
Watch: VIDEO: How to market your brand or small business with student athletes
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