Former UCLA Football Player with MBA Launches Sports Agency for World-Class Athletes
The Californer/10175756

LOS ANGELES - Californer -- LOS ANGELES, CA –Trae Smith, a former college football player turned business and career advisor with an undergraduate degree in International Development from UCLA and an MBA from Pepperdine University, has launched a talent agency targeted towards world-class athletes.  The Powerhaus Agency will be based in Los Angeles.

With an initial focus on football players, Smith believes that the combination of his personal experience playing the game at a high level plus his business education plus wealth management experience plus a real estate license puts him in a unique position to guide players not just when they're playing the game, but for the rest of their lives.

"Most people might be surprised to learn that the average tenure for a player in the NFL is just 3.3 years," Smith explained.  "My job is to help maximize the time and compensation my clients have playing professional sports, and to invest wisely so they're financially set for decades to come."

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Smith, a Los Angeles local who served as both quarterback and wide receiver for NCAA's UCLA while also making the Athletic Director's Honor Roll, launched his own football career at Birmingham High School, a charter high school in nearby Lake Balboa, CA, where he was named Offensive Player of the Year.

The leadership skills required of an agent are not new to Smith, who while at Santa Monica Community College not only led their football team to their first undefeated season in 35 years, but also found the time to launch "Generation of the Future," a group of fellow college students focused on hosting educational and fitness events for underprivileged youth from kindergarten through the eighth grade.

For this group, the business-minded Smith was savvy enough to land partnerships with UNICEF, Nike, Domino's Pizza and the Boys and Girls Club, and was able to boost membership by over 500% in three months and the organization's financial reserves by 300% before moving onto UCLA.

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Prior to launching PowerHaus Agency, also Smith cultivated ongoing relationships with Morgan Stanley for wealth management, the Compass brokerage for real estate investing, his alma maters of UCLA and Pepperdine, and the Sigma Pi fraternity, where Smith was president of his pledge class.  Smith believes that this comprehensive approach to a player's life, both on and off the field, is what will set Powerhaus up for success.

"Everyone in life could use a mentor, especially someone who has experienced the same challenges of a budding athletic career," concludes Smith. "My job is to help my clients achieve their dreams and plan for the future while also giving back to their communities."

To find out more, visit www.linkedin.com/in/traesmith/