KSHB 41 News anchor Caitlin Knute is interested in hearing from you. Send her an e-mail.
—
Once just another Kansas City Chiefs fan, Amanda Carlo still cheers for the team. Now, she just happens to have some of the players on speed dial.
During this Women’s History Month, and as part of our Making a Difference series, we are profiling Carlo, who’s making history in Kansas City as the first and only local female sports agent.
Carlo has more than her fair share of Chiefs memorabilia, as well as a plethora of priceless memories.
"So going to work for the Chiefs was just a dream job, like unbelievable. That was so amazing," she admitted. "I think 10-year-old Amanda would’ve thought there’s no way.”
During that time, she worked directly with players, helping them connect with various nonprofits.
"And through my time there, nearly five years, I saw, I guess, a gap in the market that really inspired me to potentially be a person for the players that they could trust," Carlo said.
The players noticed, and soon they were the ones cheering her on.
"Several of the players and many of the former players I'd worked with were like, 'Amanda, you should really do this on your own,'" she recalled.
So, Carlo took their advice and made the leap of faith, forming her own sports management company, Gold Griff Athlete Agency.
"That’s one of the reasons I started this agency," she said. "They need all the trusted resources in their corner they can get."
Her first clients were big names from seasons past, such as Tim Grunhard, Dante Hall, Will Shields, Jamaal Charles, Derek Johnson and Christian Okoye, just to name a few.
"So we were able to align a lot of those former players with different partnerships, different opportunities, events, nonprofits," Carlo said.
She even helped Grunhard with his lifelong dream of writing and publishing his own book.
"It's truly the biggest honor," she said. "It makes me feel emotional thinking about ... for them to have that trust in me."
From there, her client list quickly grew to include current players, including George Karlaftis, James Winchester and Mike Caliendo.
"Amanda handles all of my marketing opportunities and social media accounts, and she really has taken a lot off my plate," Caliendo explained. "Having her in town, like if I have a speaking event that I’m going to, she’ll be there right there with me, walking me through so I know exactly what’s going on."
Carlo refers to proximity as her superpower, as the only major sports marketing agent in the Kansas City metro.
"I think these huge agencies that have the manpower in New York, in LA, and they have the rosters that are 300 deep. But do they know what’s going on in Kansas City?" Carlo said.
And it’s not just football players she’s helping. Her client list includes former Sporting KC standout Matt Besler; 16-year-old Meila Brewer, a new addition to the KC Current; former Chiefs assistant coach and current Detroit Lions assistant coach Mike Kafka; and the NFL Network's Cynthia Freeland.
"I’m always just bragging on my clients because I truly feel like I have the best ones, but they’re all just incredibly amazing people," Carlo shared.
And, no surprise, it turns out the feeling is mutual.
"100% of the time she’s there for me," Caliendo reiterated. "I’ve kind of witnessed from afar how she just goes all in. She doesn’t care that there’s not a lot of women in her field or that there’s not a lot of sports agents that are women."
In fact, not only is she not intimidated by the fact that less than 25% of all sports agents and executives in the field are women, she’s actively working to change that statistic by inspiring and helping others.
"Amanda has done a really great job of just empowering women to be educated about different sports. That way, you can see yourselves in them," said Taylor Banks, director of WIN for KC. "And then she also came out to Camp Win and was a guest speaker. So, it was really cool for her to talk to the girls, tell a little bit more about what she does, more about her journey. She wants to show girls that you can work in sports, there are different ways to work in sports."
Carlo also returns regularly to her alma mater, Missouri State, to speak to women interested in sports management.
"I have loved seeing over the years how many more girls and women are coming to those seminars. It just makes my heart so full," Carlo said with a bright smile.
Carlo even mentors some of those students, all as a way of inspiring more women to be fearless enough to follow in her footsteps.
—
