Leon Powell, Jr. on His Life Passions, Career and What’s to Come

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Leon Powell Jr. might be young, but he has already had a huge taste of success. Whether it’s on the track, or outside the world of college sports, his passions for athletics and business have taken him to higher levels of success. The young businessman took time to share advice and personal details of this path to success.

Where are you from?

Leon: I’m from Texas. Arlington, Texas.

Oh, Texas! So what brought you to LA?

Leon: I got into UCLA, but I also got a scholarship to run track.

How long have you been running track?

Leon: I've been running track since I was about seven.

When did you figure out that you had this athletic talent?

Leon: Well I have a twin sister and two older sisters. My oldest sister, Brittany, was really good at track when she was younger. My twin Dede and I used to ride with our mother to pick up Brittany from track practices, and everytime we got there Dede and I would race each other - since then we both started to discover our talents. Dede was a lot better than me at track and that kind of pushed me to want to do better in high school. In my junior year in high school we got a new coach, Coach Paul, and he just really developed my track ability from there.

And this is your high school coach you said?

Leon: Yes.

Do you still keep in touch with him you still keep in contact with him?

Leon: Yes! We talk as much as we can and he often sends me encouragement texts. He’s definitely a role model and someone that I look up to.

Okay, so you're an athlete, but I saw that you own a business, correct?

Leon: Yes. I started a business about two years ago while at UCLA.

What is it?

Leon: It's called Cozy Caps LA, I started the company during my sophomore year. It was pretty much a retail company where I distributed, marketed, and designed hats and sold them locally at UCLA and all around LA . I also created a website to sell my hats so I was managing the eCommerce side of the business as well. The whole thing was ran from my small dorm room in Rieber Hall. I did that for two years and it really developed a lot of my communication and sales skills that I have today. That actually drove me to want to pursue a career in sales which was pretty similar to my role at my internship this past summer.

Your internship wasn't in marketing?

Leon: It was a digital marketing role but I was working closely with the sales team.

What was the internship? What did you learn?

Leon: I interned with ESPN in New York this summer. I was working with the sales and marketing team where I completed a competitive analysis project. I learned about sponsorship integrations and market funnel analysis.

How old are you?

Leon: I'm 22.

Oh, wow! You’re really young and you already have a business. So...you already have a passion for sports that you said you’ve had since you were seven running track and now you're going into the field of sales and being an entrepreneur. What is your first passion? Is it sports or your career?

Leon: I would say track, entrepreneurship, and then sales. Track will always be my first passion but I also love expressing my creativity and the idea of self-starting. Ideally, I want to have my own company where I can make a positive impact in some way or another. I just don't know what industry I want to get into, but I hope to get something started soon.

And would you like to talk about your job in the future? What are your plans?

Leon: Earlier this month I accepted a full-time offer with Google as an Associate Account Strategist in their Silicon Valley, Redwood City office. I was able to get the opportunity from a program I’m in - MLT, which has helped prepare me for where I am now. I look forward to completing my final year at UCLA before joining Google full-time in August 2019.

You mentioned “drive”. Is there anything that drives you?

Leon: I would say just having the support system that I have. I've had a huge support system along the way. My family is always supporting me and my MLT coach, Karen Williams - she is very supportive too. And also just being at UCLA. I have a huge support system (here) as well. I receive a tremendous amount of support from my track team, track coaches, the AS2 staff: Ric Coy, Grace Murray, Nick Thornton and a lot more people have given me support. I think that the support that I receive from all of these people just drives me to do all the things that I do.

It seems like people are deciding to be their own boss do you have any advice for young people? Especially young black entrepreneurs like yourself?

Leon: Yes, I would say don't be afraid to do whatever you want to do. Now is a perfect time to do something new and risky because we're young. It's okay to make mistakes and it's okay to fail. You can't succeed without failing because without failure you can’t continue to learn. Don't be afraid to pursue the things that you want to achieve. Don't worry about all of the pressures in your life right now and just take the initiative to do it. Anyone can come up with a good idea, but if you don't act on it, then it's just going to remain an idea. It’s not until you act on something that it becomes something real. Fail, learn, and try again - repeat this. Be relentless. Take the initiative to do whatever you want to do, stay confident and don't be afraid to fail because that's where success starts.