Jelani Jenkins was an NFL Linebacker but, like every athlete, he knew a second act was coming; he just didn't know yet what it would look like. His search for a career post-football brought him to PAC's Next Chapter U Combine in Austin, Texas in 2024, where he showed up as a member still figuring out what was next.
At Austin, Jelani found his footing in PAC's group coaching track, getting his first real exposure to what leadership coaching could look like. That exposure turned into something more serious: he enrolled in PAC's Intro to Leadership Coaching Career Accelerator. Working directly under Robbie, PAC's VP of Performance & Leadership Development, Jelani built the foundation to coach the whole person, not just a career: identity, relationships, purpose, legacy.
By the time PAC hosted Next Chapter U in Nashville in 2025, Jelani was back — this time on the performance and coaching staff. He facilitated sessions, led breakout groups, and ran his own small coaching cohort for PAC members. "I love everything that PAC is about when it comes to supporting athletes in the transition out of the game," Jelani said. "The biggest thing for me was the 'locker room' effect and feeling like I was in the locker room again. This community energizes me, it makes me feel good. And so, coming back to help out with the performance and coaching staff was something that I felt like was a no-brainer." He's since returned to coach at select PAC events, alongside a growing leadership coaching practice of his own outside of PAC.
That's the same feeling he pointed to when he returned to PAC Accelerate in Phoenix in 2026, this time as a speaker.
For Jelani, that's the throughline of his own PAC story. A member chasing what was next became a coach for some of PAC's biggest events, and that experience became the foundation for a leadership coaching practice all his own. As he put it, watching the next generation of PAC members catch the same spark he did: "As the community grows, so will the impact — and I just feel incredibly blessed to be a part of the magic."
"What excites me most is the athletes in the room who felt what I felt a few years ago at my first PAC event. That spark...that pull...that quiet knowing like, 'I can do this too.'"
~ Jelani Jenkins, PAC Member
That foundation has since grown into a full practice well beyond PAC. Today, Jelani works as a speaker and performance consultant, partnering with individuals and organizations on mindset, emotional resilience, leadership, and holistic well-being — whether he's on stage, coaching one-on-one, or working alongside teams navigating a transition of their own. His approach leans on a philosophy he's refined through his own journey: you don't need every step mapped out to reach excellence. "I stopped trying to know every step in advance and started focusing on my North Star," Jelani has said. "Success isn't in knowing every move; it's in trusting where our true purpose will lead us." It's the same mindset that carried him from athlete, to PAC member, to coach — one he now hands off to the high performers and organizations he works with far outside PAC's walls.
