By Megan Venable

Hey y’all, meet Peyton Baxter. She’s a VFL, a Powell gal, a former UT cheerleader, wife and mother. She also knows a thing or three about NIL.

Throughout her college years, Peyton studied retail and consumer science with a minor in business. During her time in the College of Education, Health and Human Sciences, she also discovered a love of blogging about her favorite subjects: fashion, beauty, travel, etc. Thus, a lifestyle influencer was born.

This led to an internship at JTV. After hours at the job, she began creating content on a daily basis. Her mother, along with longtime boyfriend (fellow UT cheerleader and eventual husband) TJ, spent hours on Sundays photographing and videoing Peyton in various locations around her beloved Knoxville. She would then upload them to her increasingly popular blog, Love N Labels
(lovenlabels.com). She launched her blog in 2016 after graduating from UT.

In 2020, Peyton and TJ welcomed their “Covid baby,” Britton, to the world. Amid the global shutdown, a unique piece of legislation was enacted to allow student athletes to be compensated for their name, image and likeness without being considered professionals. As former student athletes, Peyton and her treasured big sister Brittany Williams were intrigued by the concept. With Brittany’s background in sports public relations and Peyton’s knowledge of the public figure space, the sisters were ideally situated to begin their work.

They discovered that most student athletes were being advised on their NIL contracts by their girlfriends or mothers, most of whom were just beginning to learn the system themselves. Wanting to surprise their grandmother with a visit from a UT basketball player on her birthday, they went to John Fulkerson and offered to remunerate him for his time if he were willing. After some thoughtful discussion and contract negotiations, Fulky became Bridge Management
Group’s first client.

The sisters have seen their roster grow to include many athletes in areas such as football, cheer, baseball and golf. “Bridge Management is more than a team; we’re a family,” says Peyton. “We want to be our clients’ mamas when they’re away from their mamas.” She prides their work to make sure clients’ needs are met in building their individual brands, but also be a resource for them however they may be needed. Brittany and Peyton named their group Bridge Management as a nod to the many bridges in Knoxville along the banks of the Tennessee River, additionally as an attribution to their work to bridge the gap between public figures and the NIL world. 

Peyton and Brittany have always enjoyed a close relationship with each other despite their nine year age difference. Not only do they thrive working together with Bridge Management, the women also have started a podcast they named “Highlight Real.” On each episode, they invite a guest “sister” (or “brother”) to discuss reality versus what shows up on an Instagram highlight reel. “I love to present my authentic self,” reflects Peyton. “I want to be that sister to someone who’s experiencing harsh reality if she doesn’t have someone to go through it with her.” She and Brittany often receive appreciative feedback from listeners who have endured the same real-life crises.

Going forward, Peyton plans to continue her work with Bridge Management, feed her own upcoming Peyton Baxter holiday gift guide blog, and team with Brittany on season three of Highlight Real. In the meantime, you can find her cheering on the Vols at tailgate parties or jetting off on family vacations to some of her favorite locales like Disney World. If you see her at any of these places, be sure to say hi. She’s always on the lookout for another brother or sister.