Trae Smith: From SMC to Sports Agency CEO
SMC Alumni Trae Smith talks time at SMC to being CEO and founder of Powerhaus Agency.
Trae Smith is a former Santa Monica College (SMC) and University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) student-athlete. During his last year at SMC, Smith decided to join the football team. Although he was not the starting quarterback, he was part of SMC's undefeated team that finished as state champions in 2015. He transferred to UCLA as a wide receiver in 2016.Today, along with being a sports agent, he is also the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and founder of Powerhaus Agency, a sports agency based in Los Angeles.
"It's really an honor," Smith said. "I have a duty to make sure these guys are performing on and off the field." He created Powerhaus Agency just three months ago. Since the agency's inception, Powerhaus has hired seven employees and currently represents 14 athletes across the country from UCLA to the University of Alabama and University of Pennsylvania. Smith mentioned that he now also works with professional athlete Joshua Kelley, running back for the Los Angeles Chargers.
"I love being a sports agent and working with all the athletes," said Smith. "It kind of showed me that there was another way to still be involved in sports.”
Smith's experience with football began during his sophomore year at Birmingham High School, where he played quarterback until he graduated in 2013. He explained that "screwing up academically" was the reason he attended SMC. "Being at a junior college really was like the birth of all of my hunger to want to really succeed academically," Smith said.
At SMC, Smith was solely focused on raising his grades and living a "4.0 GPA-student lifestyle". He was heavily involved in Associated Students. He also formed his own non-profit student organization, known as Generation of the Future, with a group that held weekly meetings in SMC’s Humanities and Social Science building.
During his last year at SMC, Smith decided to join the football team. Although he was not the starting quarterback, he was part of SMC's undefeated team that finished as state champions in 2015. After graduating from SMC with two Associate’s Degrees, notably one in Business Administration, Smith transferred to UCLA and walked onto the football team. Smith credited SMC as support for his accomplishments at the time. "It was really the people, staff, faculty, and deans at SMC who really encouraged everything I was doing," he said.
After his time at UCLA, Smith hoped he would have a chance to make the National Football League (NFL), but he never received a call from any interested teams. Rather than sit around and cry, Smith decided to attend grad school and obtain his Masters Degree in Business Administration (MBA).
After receiving his MBA from Pepperdine University, Smith got the idea to start a sports agency. While shooting a commercial for Therabody, which is a company that produces wellness technology and therapy devices, he encountered other athletes, including Fresno State Quarterback Anthony Arnou, on set for the commercial shoot.
During the second day on set, Arnou asked Smith to lend him a hand with developing his name, image, and likeness, which are the three elements that form a student athlete's right of publicity. Arnou also asked Smith to represent him and help promote Arnou as a product.
"I made an Instagram post about it and then it started getting a lot of buzz," Smith said. "I started making a logo and the logo turned into a business plan. The business plan turned into a pitch deck and it turned into me having more meetings.”
Smith gives SMC a lot of credit towards helping him get to where he is now. "It was the faculty at SMC, and the deans and associated students who really were my biggest resource and I’d credit a lot of my success and experience to that whole team and staff," he said.
Smith is now scheduled to take his NFL agent exam in July and he is preparing by studying plenty. He also anticipates that Powerhaus Agency will represent 45 to 50 quality athletes by the end of 2022.
