You Don't Need to Wait Until Recruiting to Start Building a Personal Brand

There's a familiar pattern in youth sports.

For years, you're focused on the sport.

Get better.

Make the team.

Go to the tournaments.

Keep up with school.

Then, somewhere around high school, recruiting suddenly becomes a thing.

And that's when the questions start.

Does my kid need an Instagram account?

Should we make a highlight video?

How do we contact coaches?

What should they be posting?

Who should we follow?

And suddenly you're trying to build an online presence at exactly the same time that everything else gets more serious.

I think there's an easier way.

Start earlier, but don't make recruiting the point.

Your athlete's story shouldn't start when a coach is watching

Imagine waiting until your child is 16 to start documenting their athletic journey.

You can show where they are now.

But you can't recreate the last few years.

The tournament where they struggled.

The season when they changed position.

The first time they made a travel team.

The months they spent working on a particular skill.

The teammates they've grown up with.

The progress they've made.

Those things are part of the story.

And they're much more meaningful when they happen naturally rather than being recreated later for recruiting.

Starting early doesn't mean posting constantly

This is important because I can already hear parents thinking, "Great. Another thing I have to manage."

No.

You don't need to post every day.

You don't even need to post every week if that doesn't work for your athlete.

Start by getting comfortable.

Take some photos.

Save some videos.

Let your athlete experiment with what they like sharing.

Help them understand what is appropriate to put online.

Give them a chance to figure out their voice.

The habits are more important than the follower count.

Social media can become part of the journey

One of the things I like about starting early is that the content doesn't have to be about recruiting.

At 13, it might just be about loving the sport.

At 14, it might be about training and competition.

At 15, your athlete might start thinking more seriously about what they want from the sport.

By the time recruiting becomes important, they've already learned how to communicate about themselves.

That's much better than suddenly handing them an Instagram account and telling them, "Okay, now you need to build your brand."

And don't measure success by followers

This is probably the biggest mindset shift.

Your athlete doesn't need to become popular online.

A 14-year-old with 10,000 followers isn't necessarily going to have an advantage over a 14-year-old with 500.

The question is what those followers actually mean.

Are they teammates?

Other athletes?

People from their sporting community?

Are they engaging with the content?

Does the account tell a coherent story?

Would someone who didn't know the athlete understand what they're about?

Those are much better questions.

Give them a head start, not a job

I think that's the sweet spot.

Your child doesn't need another activity.

They need a little help learning how to use something they're probably going to use anyway.

And the earlier they learn to do that thoughtfully, the easier it becomes.

That's the thinking behind Luma Path.

We're not trying to create a generation of teenage influencers.

We're trying to help student-athletes build the skills to tell their own stories — and make the process simple enough that it doesn't take over their lives.

Because recruiting is only one reason to care about a personal brand.

Learning how to communicate who you are, what you care about and what you're working toward is a useful skill long after the last game is over.

Start early.

Keep it authentic.

Don't overthink it.

And let the athlete remain an athlete — not a content creator.