‍Episode Outline

• Mental Health and NIL
• Octavia’s Clothing Line on Bonfire
• Post College: The Pursuit of Playing Pro

*This transcript has been edited for readability

Slice and Pryce #01

Sam Green: What's going on guys, I'm pumped because today I not only have an incredible women's basketball player joining me, but she's also a former Niner. Octavia thank you so much for joining me. First and foremost, I need to know, how's Norm?

Octavia Jett-Wilson: Norm is great. I think Norm actually helped us during the tournament. He was pumping us up, getting us excited and everything so, Norm is great, per usual.

Sam: Per usual, I know. I mean, Norm hangs in there, I haven't been back in a while, so I had to get an update because I haven't seen Norm in years, to be honest. Octavia, listen, when I looked up your bio, like you're absolutely mind blowing. The amount of accolades you have is out of this world.

So I actually had to pull it up to read some of them, but be patient. It's going to take a minute because you have so many. I just got to go through some of them. All time program leader in games played, second all time in free throws made, third on all time scoring list, conference USA player of the year, conference USA tournament MVP, NCAA starting five, preseason co player of the year in conference USA and leading your team into winning the championship.

And honestly, there was a million more, I just had to pick a couple. All of this success on the court these past five years.

Mental Health and NIL

Sam: But not only that Octavia, you also made an impact off of the court. You took advantage of your name, image, and likeness, and created an inspirational clothing line. I need to know the story behind it.

Octavia: So I've always been kind of like a fashion person, of course. But I think with everything that went on with COVID and crazy time, nobody ever thought that would be the life we were living during the time. So I think once things like that happen, you kind of really take in your mental health and sort of pay more attention to it. I think more so now than ever in America period, we are starting to pay more attention to everyone's mental health. So it's a couple reasons why I try to start my little brand. But for one, I'm always trying to do things to impact others that are up and coming. I have three little nephews that is always running behind me. So just to be an inspiration to them would be the greatest thing I accomplished in my life.So just having things like that to motivate you. My mom passed away at a young age. So just having like things to motivate you as well, and being able to pay attention to your mental health and just have a passion for whatever it is that you love and want to do. It's kind of deep, but that's how I came up with the reasons why I do the things I do, like when it comes to playing basketball, like how passionate I am and competitive. Everybody has a story, that's just how I choose to tell mine.

Sam:  I love it. And Octavia, I feel like you had a unique kind of perspective from this because when you started your career, NIL wasn't even a thing, and then by the end of your career, the laws passed. So when was this clothing line created, how did those years differ? Because yes, you still had a platform playing as an athlete, but those laws weren't passed where you couldn't do too much with the platform. So from your perspective, what was that like?

Octavia: I think I kind of had a lot of help, like trying to get it together and just being able to... So I only had another year left to do the NIL thing and stuff. So I think my main goal was just to have my name even just put out there just a little more, going to start into the next chapter in my life, just having that I had to take advantage of it while I could. So it kind of just happened over a year, but I've always kind of been planning to do something. I just never really had the motivation to do it. So it kind of came from there.

Octavia’s Clothing Line on Bonfire

Sam: So Octavia, if people want to get plugged in with the clothing line, what's the best way for them to access that?

Octavia: Honestly, how I started was through MarketPryce, of course. They put me onto a lot of brands that I potentially always saw myself working with even like, I've always had a plan that even after college that I wanted to make money off of my brand itself. And I just gave it that extra boost. So I've always had something that I wanted to do because, like I said, I'm a person of fashion. So having the access to those things, like I made the shirts off of Bonfire, great website, create anything you want, literally anything. So shout out to them for that. And that's how I kind of got started in into knowing what I need to do further down the line to be a brand.

Post College: The Pursuit of Playing Pro

Sam: So did any of these partnerships that you made while taking advantage of your name, image and likeness during college, do you think any of them turned into anything where you're going to keep the connection going or turned into something more for post college?

Octavia: Yeah, definitely. Very few but I'm still trying figure it all out still. So the more I'm learning about it, the more I'm getting more things that I want to actually be a part of and help build other people's brands as well.

Sam: All right, well, Octavia on your Instagram, you said, "This is not a goodbye to Niner Nation, but a thank you and a farewell to this chapter of my life." You had so much success during your college career, but I don't doubt that the success is going to end there, but you're leaving us hanging. I need to know what's next for the Jett.

Octavia: Oh, what's next, of course I'm going overseas now. I've always dreamed of going pro whatever that looked like. So I am going to continue to play after this. Where? Cannot say yet, don't know yet.

Sam: I'm going to have to have you back on when you do know, so that we can keep everybody updated. Well, Octavia, thank you so much for your time. If you make it back to Charlotte before I do, please tell Norm I said hello and send him my best wishes. And in the meantime, we'll keep in touch. Thank you so much for sharing your story and using your platform to inspire others.