When Todd Graves, the owner and founder of Raising Cane’s, was opening a new restaurant in Miami in January of 2023, he knew exactly who he wanted to help promote the venture: the Cavinder twins. Haley and Hanna, then guards on the Miami basketball team, were pioneers in the burgeoning NIL market with millions of followers. Since then, they’ve completed their eligibility, done plenty more NIL work and launched their own app, TWOgether, a fitness and nutrition program they hope will especially appeal to young girls.
Recently, the twins sat down with Graves—a high school QB turned multibillionaire—to discuss their business philosophies and plans for the future as part of a video series called The Playbook, which was created by Entrepreneur and Sports Illustrated.
Graves: I learned so much from sports that I carried over into being a business leader. How did y’all carry over being college athletes into your social posting and then in the businesses you started?
Hanna: Haley and I are very consistent, routine-like people. College athletics teaches you that and sets the standard for that. So it was very seamless when we got into the NIL space and then in starting our TWOgether app—all those traits just kind of carried over.
I think that starts with college athletics: the discipline and the routine and the commitment to it, that you’re going to give your 100% to something.
Haley: So being an athlete and then going into business—do you think you were really routine-based? Do you have a daily routine or does it change?
Graves: I really don’t have a routine. My schedule is crazy. Two days ago I was with Luke Bryan at the Raising Cane’s restaurants in Nashville, raising money for charity. Doing that means a lot to me … but I’m gonna be up till 2 a.m. doing emails, right?
Hanna: Where did that drive come from?
Graves: So I don’t think entrepreneurs are created. I think entrepreneurs are born, like it’s an art. It’s in our DNA. I was the kid in the neighborhood that had the lemonade stand when I was old enough. So I was always interested in business and creating that economy. But what I like more about it is bringing people in to do that with me.
So you guys have a great personal brand. What is your secret sauce with creating these communities, where people who like to follow you then like to buy the products because they trust you?
Haley: With social media, there’s a lot of negative and there’s a lot of positive thinking. And I have learned that [you need] a community with positivity on social media apps. That’s what really helped us when we started our health and fitness side of things, really having a purpose in helping young girls who need help, whether it’s with nutrition or if it’s working out.
Graves: When NIL came around, how did you get that fire to do it—and do it right?
Haley: We understood that we could brand ourselves and make a career out of this and try to build a business with the same fire that we had [in basketball]. It was the same juice that keeps flowing—how we continue to want more and more and more.
Hanna: And female athletes, they don’t always get the same opportunity to go professional. When NIL did pass, at first it just started off as something fun when COVID was going on, us working on something that we enjoyed that took up time. We were bored in the house, didn’t know what to do and then when NIL passed, we started understanding that you can get all this revenue from different sources of income from social media.
Graves: What’s the next plan?
Hanna: Just constantly having more ideas. I don’t want to ever box us in.
Graves: You’ve got a 40-year plan. What is that?
Haley: Growing up, our dad embedded into us at a very young age that it’s not a four-year plan. It’s a 40-year plan. Save your money and invest it. And that’s always stayed with Hanna and me. We never touched our money with any NIL deal. The 40-year plan is what we always tell ourselves. So, yeah, that’s what it is. So talk to us when we’re 40.
Graves: It’s a marathon. Look, if you love what you do, you’ll do it till the day you die. I think [too] often in business, people value money and wealth more than purpose. People ask me, What’s your endgame? Yeah, there’s an endgame. I’m going to grow old and die with this business, and the kids are going to take it on and keep those values going. And then hopefully their kids, and we’ll just keep those values going forever.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Haley and Hanna Cavinder Are Ready to Build an Empire .