Meet Sener Korkusuz

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Sener Korkusuz. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Sener, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?
After having built a succesful tech business, I began looking for my next opportunity. I wanted to leverage all that I learned at Earth Skater personally working with hundreds of small business owners, helping them to realize the business of their dreams. Along the way, I tackled many difficult programming problems, as well as navigating a few difficult to work with clients, and quickly began to find confidence in my ability to overcome the obstacles standing in my clients way, while gaining invaluable experience working with different business owners across the country.

Football had always been a passion of mine since a young age. At 8 years old, I found out about my local Pop-Warner football team, the Leprechauns, in Sayreville, NJ and was hooked. Between the fun of playing the game, the friendships made, and the lessons learned from coaches, the experience is one of my best memories. So it was destiny, when all these years later, I was searching for what to do next in my career, I rememberd my old childhood friend Ryan had started a unique tackle football league with no pads and no helmets just like we use to play growing up.

My eureka moment finally came, it struck me like lightning, and is a day I’ll never forget. It was then that I knew together we could take this style of football to the next level, bring this amazing new game to the masses, and build a big business around the sport of no pads tackle football.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
The American 7s Football League® (A7FL), entering it’s 9th successful season in March, 2023, has re-imagined football for a young audience by pioneering a completely new format for America’s most popular sport: 7-on-7, no helmets or hard pads. The A7FL’s unique rules deliver mind-blowing highlights that appeal to younger viewers while retaining the toughness and excitement that fans crave. With its Spring schedule and signature look, the league attracts both football and action sports fans and skews younger than traditional football (76% in the much coveted 18-34 age demographic) with over 750K social media followers, viral videos that have amassed millions of views, and celebrity shout outs from Snoop Dogg and Deion Sanders.

For its 2023 season, the league is expanding to 32 teams and 8 Divisions (New Jersey, DC/Baltimore, Orlando, Los Angeles, Nevada/Las Vegas, Cincinnati, Columbus, and Boston). Each Sunday the A7FL will produce 3 “Games of the Week” to be distributed LIVE via national cable TV on Stadium (Part of Sinclair), Sports.tv (Part of Byron Allen Media), Fite, Fubo, Atmosphere (30K+ locations), Wave (120M+ social followers), along with LIVE coverage of the scoring drives and highlights from games around the country and our weekly podcast the A7FL 3 on 1. Founded in 2014 by CEO Sener Korkusuz and President Ryan DePaul, the league recently added UFC Co-Founder David Isaacs to its ranks.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
1) Mindset development, read books such as Napolean Hill’s the Wisdom of Andrew Carnegie, to understand how to begin to cultivate the success mindset, and the relentless passion required to achieve your goals.

2) Mentorship, as you begin to develop the mindset of success, begin to research and reach out to potential mentors, the people who have already achieved what you want to accomplish, to share your passion about what you are building with them

3) Networking, as you realize the mindset of success, and begin to understand that your mentors were once in your shoes, and that your mentors have mentors, you will understand the power of networking, and that connecting with the right people at the right time is one of the greatest secrets of success

Okay, so before we go, is there anyone you’d like to shoutout for the role they’ve played in helping you develop the essential skills or overcome challenges along the way?
My friend and mentor, Louis David Spagnuolo. Louis is one of the first people I reached out to for advice and guideance. I followed him for years on LinkedIn before we even connected, and as a successful entrepreneur it was not easy to get through to him so I had to be persistent. Persistance pays off, because eventually Louis replied to my offer of lunch and we met for the first time in Fort Lauderdale, a day I’ll never forget. After pulling up in a new Rolls Royce, the first thing he said to me as we sat down was, “You’re going to be a billionaire”, “You’re going to be more successful than me.” I still can’t believe he said that, and it effected me, because I believed it going into that meeting and to hear him say it, that moved me. Louis investment of belief in me was a game changer and I am grateful to him to this day.

Contact Info:

Image Credits
A7FL Licensing LLC

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