How Bobby Okereke Captains The Giants’ Defense And His Own Business

Heading into his first season with the New York Giants, outside linebacker Bobby Okereke was named a captain despite never having played a single snap for the G-Men. In return, Okereke rewarded them for their faith in him by posting 149 tackles (11 for a loss), 2.5 sacks, two interceptions, and ten passes defended — all while being one of only two NFL players (along with his teammate, Xavier McKinney) to play every single snap for their team on defense.

The beauty of Okereke is that his success wasn’t limited to the football field. A few months before the start of his tenure with the Giants, the soon-to-be sixth-year linebacker founded Presidential Travel Services (PTS).

But what is PTS, you ask?

“We are a full-service black car chauffeur and concierge company based in Miami, Florida,” Okereke told me in an interview for Forbes. “Since we do both chauffeur and concierge work, the drivers can not only transport their clients from place to place, but they can also run errands for them and all of that.”

PTS provides high-profile folks with chauffeur/concierge service when they are vacationing in Miami. Okereke, a high-profile individual in his own right, found himself frequently leaning on a service like this, and he saw a need for this kind of business in the market.

“Every offseason since I’ve been in the NFL, I’ve vacationed in Miami, and I was using a similar type of service,” Okereke said. “So, me being a purveyor of that service, saw the opportunity in that and figured that other high-profile individuals could use this type of service.”

But even more than seeing it as a market shortage in the Miami area, Okereke saw this as an opportunity to gain some much-needed repetitions in the business world.

“This was kind of an experiment. I felt called to it because it was a service I used, and I knew people would use it. But it was also a way for me to get some much-needed experience in running a business. It was kind of like baptism by fire. Now, I can take what I’ve learned here and translate that over to future endeavors,” Okereke admitted during a Zoom interview

That last quote is what makes Okereke such a fascinating character in the sports business world. In an era where financial literacy is at an all-time high among athletes, Okereke stands a cut above the rest.

Funny enough, despite his status as a Pro Bowl caliber (he was snubbed last year!) NFL player, one could argue that Okereke isn’t even the most well-accomplished person in his family. Okereke’s father, Kingsley, was the Finance Director for the City of Garden Grove (in California), and his three sisters acquired degrees from the University of Southern California (USC), Vanderbilt, and Harvard.

Okereke himself studied Management Science and Engineering during his four years at Stanford University, making him the perfect person to discuss how the skills obtained from being a high-level athlete can translate to a business setting.

During our conversation, he (along with his business partner, Sarah Singley — the Chief Operations Officer at PTS) offered some insight on how captaining the Giants’ defense has proven helpful in running PTS.

A Great Product and Service

Obviously, to be a great football player, you need to perform well (great service), and to get people to watch, you need to give fans something worth watching (great product). The same is true at PTS.

“Here at PTS, we offer a great product with great service,” Okereke exclaimed. “We have top-of-the-line cars — a 2024 ESV Cadillac and a 2023 ESV Sport Platinum Cadillac. And we pride ourselves on being able to meet any request, even with ones where we only get a 20-30 minute heads up.”

Being able to execute in this category is especially important because, as noted by Singley, a great deal of their business at PTS comes from word of mouth. “This is a very relationship-based business, and word of mouth is key. You are only as good as the last experience you have with a client,” Singley told me in an interview.

“We pride ourselves on being first class, always available with sophisticated cars so that our clients are great about spreading the word. As you know, referrals are always the key to growing a business.”

Clear and Concise Communication

To be able to offer a great product with great service, you need to be able to organize all the pieces you have on the chess board. Football is great practice for this, as oftentimes, you are trying to convey messages in high-speed action with the background noise of thousands of screaming fans. The crazy backdrop has helped this linebacker (one of the main communicators) on defense hone in his articulation skills.

“When you’re on the football field, you need to be a loud and effective communicator because everything is happening so fast. The clearer and more concise you are, the better chance you have for success,” Okereke explained. “Learning to do that in a high-pressure environment like the NFL really sets you up for the business world.”

Being a good communicator also helps you build strong relationships with the people within your organization and the ones you work with (which also helps with referrals).

“I have always grown through the strong relationships that I have developed through the years with different organizations that have supported me and my clients,” Singley added. “We have strong relationships with very high-end hotels, and we have been able to partner with quite a few, including other entertainment organizations, which gives PTS some high media coverage.”

Preparation

Do you know why NFL teams usually take six days in between games? Part of the reason is the grueling toll the game takes on their body. But the other part is the amount of intense preparation it takes to familiarize oneself with their next opponent. Some may see it as overkill, but getting in the habit of over-preparing like this lends itself well in the business context.

“The preparation that goes into a football game is the level of preparation you need to be successful in a business setting,” Okereke emphasized.

Adjusting And Overcoming Adversity

No matter how much you prepare for a coach/team, there is always going to be some tactic they throw at you that you didn’t see coming. When that happens, are you allowed to just give up and say that you tried your best? No, at least not if you intend to be one of the greats. The best players/teams are the ones that find a way to adjust and overcome unforeseen obstacles. If you do this enough, you build up enough resiliency to survive anything that comes your way in the business world.

“Football also teaches you how to adjust on the fly and deal with adversity. In a game, things aren’t always going to go the way you planned,” Okereke told me. “You need to be able to adjust to unexpected variables, which is something that also happens a lot when running a business.”

“Like in the car business, if there is an accident or something is wrong with a driver, you need to be able to respond to that adversity as the leader of our company. You need to be able to persevere through that challenge.”

Organization

The last skill that Okereke highlighted was (as the headline suggests) organization. When you are competing against the best athletes in the world, you need a borderline militaristic schedule to stay above water. The business world doesn’t require nearly as disciplined of a lifestyle, but being used to such harsh conditions does give you a competitive edge against the rest.

“When you enter a college football program, the way your day is scheduled from a lift to meetings to the cafeteria to back to meetings, you live a very structured life,” Okereke said in an interview. “Carrying that over to business has helped me be very successful because having that much structure in how you organize the pieces in your company makes you far less prone to error.”

As Oprah Winfrey once wrote, “There is not one experience, no matter how devastating, no matter how tortuous it may appear to have been, there is nothing that’s ever wasted.”

Being a professional football player who is paid millions of dollars each year (in 2023, Okereke signed a four-year, 40-million dollar deal) is far from a treacherous experience. But it is an experience, nonetheless. And the wise Okereke has parlayed the principles he’s learned in football (and his strong partnership with Singley) into a successful business at PTS.

Personally, I just can’t wait to see what he does next.

(Sidebar #1: In the future, Okereke and Singley hope to expand PTS to other major cities like New York City, Los Angeles, Phoenix, etc.)