If Flau’jae Johnson had it her way, she would let her mom handle all business affairs for the duration of her career. And you better believe there’s a lot to handle.
The 19-year-old guard for the Louisiana State University Tigers captured the hearts and minds of millions when she helped lead the basketball team to clench a national championship earlier this year.
The pivotal role Johnson played in the harrowing win immediately led to her inking two NIL deals, one with fast-food chain, Raising Cane’s, and another with apparel and merchandise company, Campus Ink, to which she’s set to earn between $8 and $15 for each limited edition LSU jersey sold. This was confirmed in April. Less than a full month later, the list of deals have grown exponentially since then.
“Another one just came through,” Kia Brooks, Johnson’s mother said during my call with her in early May. She has been at the helm of securing all of her daughter’s partnerships, which have been flooding in as of late, to the tune of more than $2M. This feat is impressive in and of itself, but what’s more applause-worthy is the Georgia native’s self-taught managerial skills.
“I learned everything about this management process from working in a dental office, ironically,” Brooks shared.
The self-professed “hustler” handled operations for a Marietta,Ga-based dentist’s practice for years while running side businesses to care for her family. The single mother also prided herself on nurturing her children’s talents, often researching ways to amplify them. After noticing her daughter’s natural flair and love of music, Brooks began laying plans to grow Johnson’s burgeoning rap career. This led to the then 12-year-old teen appearing as a contestant on season 3 of Lifetime Network’s The Rap Game, a reality-based competition series hosted by hip-hop icon Jermaine Dupri. Two years later, Johnson competed on the 13th season of America’s Got Talent, and most recently she landed a spot on E! Network’s newest series, Raising a F***ing Star in 2022. All of this was arranged by Brooks, without the help of an agent.
“I’ve always been a leader, you know? I saw that when I was able to upsell dental customers on $30,000-$40,000 veneers and implants,” Brooks told me.
She worked full-time at the office while managing her daughter’s growing career, which included music obligations and social media partnerships she’d secured based on her online presence that boasted more than 2.3M across TikTok and Instagram. Brooks realized she needed to focus her full attention on her daughter’s career after a chance encounter with her boss at the dental office.
“I couldn’t make one of Flau’s games because I had to set up the dental office for the next day, but my doctor left and was like, ‘hey, I got to get to Jimmy’s game.’ And I was like, ‘dang. I’m really being left here so he can go watch his kids, but I can’t watch mine.'”
She said that moment was a turning point in her life.
“I don’t want to be the absent, hardworking single mom,” Brooks revealed. Johnson’s late father passed in 2003 when Brooks was pregnant. “I just feel like in the black community, we’re absent because we’re always working, trying to make ends meet. Other races make it to where they don’t have to miss their kids games.”
Fortunately, Brooks’s decision to pivot full-time to managing both sides of her daughter’s career has paid off tremendously. Not only has Johnson signed with Roc Nation as of 2020 and recorded a slew of hits, but through her athleticism she’s secured a Puma shoe deal and partnerships with JBL, Papa Johns, and Amazon, with the report valued at $956,000 annually. According to other reports she is ranked the fourth-highest valued women’s basketball player at $669,000 annually.
“No, I didn’t go to school for this but I feel like, at this point in my daughter’s career, I’m way more invested than any other seasoned agent will ever be,” Brooks, sharing that she voraciously studies the NIL landscape to keep up. But more than anything, she says the deal-closing streak stems from her ability infuse humanity into business.
“I’m a people person,” she said. “I’m personable and often, these huge brands ask for me by name even if we’re working with a partner who’s more ingrained in the business,” she said, sharing she’d tried working with an agent before but they didn’t demonstrate as big of a commitment she’d hoped for. “They have other clients their attention needs to go toward which is completely understandable. That’s why mama is here to pick up the slack.”
The powerful mother-daughter duo attribute the success to the faith they have in one another.
“Me and my mom built a lot of trust, and so she really make a lot of decisions on my behalf because we built up that trust, and she knows what I want to do, she knows what I’m not going to do,” Johnson told me. “And so just having that trusting relationship, knowing she got my best interest and knowing that we both have the same goal in mind make working together much easier.” She added: “{with my mother’s help} I just want to be a successful artist. I want to win a lot of Grammys. I want to keep playing basketball for as long as I can, win a lot more championships. But music, I really want to solidify myself as an artist in the game and get that respect on my name that I think I deserve.”