Suiting Up with Paul Rabil

Suiting Up with Paul Rabil

By Paul RabilSportsBusiness
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Suiting Up with Paul Rabil episodes

  • Lessons in High Performance

    When I concepted and launched the podcast, I knew it would be fun to engage with my professional peers, but underestimated the value I would receive from sitting back and listening to their expertise and tips. Every guest I've hosted is a world-class high performer. She or he is mechanical, methodical, thoughtful, has high emotional intelligence, and shows incredible leadership traits. That said, I've found the common denominator and shared characteristic of all -- is hard work. Top athletes, entertainers, and entrepreneurs know how to work really hard. 

    In Part 1 of my 3-Part Suiting Up Podcast Musings, I'm going to highlight 5 guests from 2017's class of interviewees, telling you my bottom line to their best sound bites on high performance. You'll hear from:
    1. Scott Galloway on Building a Career
    2. DeMaurice Smith on Task and Calendar Management
    3. Venus Williams on the Importance of Nutrition
    4. Lyle Thompson on Training Tips
    5. Gary Vaynerchuk on Fighting Unfairly 
    Enjoy the show.
    And next week, we'll discuss leadership.

    39 min
  • Ryan Holiday: Author, Marketer, Entrepreneur

    When Ryan Holiday was 19 years old, he dropped out of college to apprentice under Robert Greene, author of The 48 Laws of Power. Next, he went on to become the director of marketing for American Apparel (where you might have seen some of the controversial campaigns he produced).

    Holiday then opened his own creative agency, called Brass Check, where he’s advised clients like Google and Complex, as well as prominent bestselling authors like Neil Strauss, Tony Robbins, James Altucher and Tim Ferriss (he was also Tim’s 4th ever podcast guest).
    Holiday's the author of six bestselling books, including The Obstacle Is the Way, Ego Is the Enemy, The Daily Stoic and Perennial Seller. 
    The Obstacle Is the Way has been translated into more than twenty languages and has developed a loyal following among NFL coaches like Bill Belichick and Nick Saban, world-class athletes, TV personalities, political leaders, and many more.
    Holiday and I sat together in our NYC recording studios to discuss life, business, sports, and the practice of stoicism. 
    I’m your host Paul Rabil and welcome to “Suiting Up Podcast”, a show where I delve into the stories of some of today’s leading athletes, entrepreneurs, entertainers, and authors, interviewing them, unpacking the psychology of their success, revealing skill sets we can uniquely adopt to improve ourselves.   

    1 hr 24 min
  • John Brenkus: Creator of Sports Science

    “Successful people are really stubborn. They won’t take no for an answer. They keep going, and going, and going.”

    Want to know the science -- check that, odds -- around Ben Roethlisberger's pass that landed in the hands of Santonio Holmes with only seconds left in Super Bowl XLIII? How about the torque and bend that occurs after Alex Ovechkin hits a slap shot? Sports Science will tell you why after making contact with the ball, Giancarlo Stanton’s follow through doesn’t actually matter. I always wanted to know what it felt like to get tackled by Ray Lewis. Sports Science has it covered.
    John Brenkus is a producer, director, and television personality. He co-founded BASE productions, which specializes in creating television programming for channels such as ESPN, National Geographic, and Spike TV. He’s the creator of Sports Science, and currently hosts his own podcast, The Brink of Midnight.
    Here’s more about my fascinating friend. He attended UVA and created his own major, Film Rhetoric Communication Studies, graduating with honors in 3 years. When it all began, he told his mother he wanted to do two of the hardest things he could think of: write a novel and make a movie. He did both.
    He tell us that sports and science are his "two greatest passions."
    Suiting Up Podcast is a show that explores the psychology, playbook of tools, and strategies of the most influential people in sports, entertainment and business. My job is to navigate the conversation. The guests bring the originality.

    48 min
  • Torey Pudwill: Pro Skateboarder and Entrepreneur

    “Skating is about putting all of your energy into something that keeps you creative.”

    This week’s guest is one of the world's top skateboarders, industry entrepreneur, and social media influencer. 
    Torey Pudwill began skating in California when he was 4 years old. At 14, he edited his first video series, "How To Go Pro", and began his trek to stardom. Since then, he's filmed 10 video parts, amassed dozens of sponsors, won X-Games medals and Street League competitions.  
    In 2011, Pudwill won Street Skater of the Year. Professional skateboarder and entrepreneur Jeron Wilson said, "I don't think you can say anything bad about Torey. He's one of those guys that's just one of the greatest skateboarders."
    On the show, Pudwill and I discuss the world of skateboarding, competitions, preparation, and more. At the start of the show, Pudwill discloses, for the first time publicly, that he has narcolepsy. 
    I’m your host Paul Rabil and welcome to Suiting Up Podcast, a show where I delve into the stories of some of today’s leading athletes, entrepreneurs, and entertainers, interviewing them and unpacking the psychology of their success.

    28 min
  • Samir Chaudry & Colin Rosenblum: How to Create Media

    “Storytelling is at the core of human connection.” 

    I’ve been working closely with Samir Chaudry and Colin Rosenblum for the better part of the last 5 years. Together, we created my youtube channel, worked through internal company marketing campaigns, ideated on new projects, and consulted on a number of others. They’re writers, directors, producers, onscreen talent, and entrepreneurs. I’m lucky to have met two guys with vast ingenuity, creativity, and work ethic. 
    On the first half of the episode, we talk about their respective backgrounds in sports, growing up on opposite coasts, and how filmmaking unexpectedly connected them. In the back half of the show, we delve into content development, advice for creators, which platforms you should be targeting, and why audience definition is the most important piece.
    In today's world, your ability to sell a person, company, product or service relies on your ability to sell. To sell, you need to market. To share. To tell. This requires a strategy, or in some cases a personality, a voice, a camera, a microphone, a pen, or a keyboard.
    Suiting Up Podcast is a show that explores the psychology, playbook of tools, and strategies of the most influential people in sports, entertainment and business. My job is to navigate the conversation. The guests brings the originality.
    SHOW NOTES
    4:10
    Origin story
    20:30
    The Lacrosse Network
    30:00
    How Colin and Samir met
    41:30
    Storytelling
    45:00
    Ideas for content development
    59:10
    How to create content

    1 hr 16 min
  • Lyle Thompson: Lacrosse Player, Native American Activist

    “The first thing I learned from my mom, and applied it to lacrosse…was passion. And I think passion is what leads to happiness.”

    Lyle Thompson is the all-time leading point scorer in NCAA Division 1 lacrosse history, a Tewaaraton trophy winner (our sport’s Heisman award), a pro lacrosse MVP, and NLL Champion. His legacy of success on the field will live on for generations to come.
    He grew up in the Onondaga Nation in New York, and was one of five children of Doloris and Jerome Thompson. Today, he and his brothers represent some of the best talent in the professional game, competing in both MLL and NLL, building large digital and social media audiences, and are bringing powerful, cultural awareness of their Native American roots to our sport.
    Lyle began playing lacrosse at a very early age, and on the show, we discuss how lacrosse carries spiritual and cultural experiences with the Onondaga and Native American communities. He recounts his early years playing in the backyard with his older brothers, accompanied by no net. The Thompson's couldn't afford one. All of Lyle's equipment was refurbished, yet he was the #1 High School recruit in the country...as a sophomore.
    On the show, Lyle shares with us his favorite workouts, how he fuels his performance, how he's changed his sleep pattern (since listening to our show, actually), and the impact of the traveling professional lacrosse circuit. 
    Perhaps the most intriguing part of the show begins in the back third, where Lyle and I discuss his activism as a Native American professional athlete – specifically his time at the Standing Rock protests during the North Dakota Access Pipeline disputes, as well as his stance on professional sports mascots that are discriminatory the Native American communities.
    Suiting Up Podcast is a show where I delve into the stories of some of today’s leading athletes, entrepreneurs, and entertainers, interviewing them and unpacking the psychology of their success.   

    1 hr 5 min
  • Dhani Jones: NFL Linebacker, TV Star and Entrepreneur

    "This is why, how, or what I need to do to be successful, and personally why I relate a lot of business back to the nuances of professional football."

    This week's Suiting Up Podcast guest is a former NFL linebacker who played 11 seasons professionally, making 2 Super Bowl appearances, college football for the Michigan Wolverines, winning a National Championship, and earned All-Big 10 honors for 3 straight seasons. He's a stud. 
    In addition to his football career, Dhani's had a massively successful television career, which he's supplemented with a career operating companies (he's owned and operated a coffee shop, ad agency, and staffing business), and more recently, investing in them. One of my all-time favorite Dhani shows was his Travel Channel series, "Dhani Tackles the Glove", as well as his VH1 show, "Ton of Cash". Today, Dhani's mirroring the success of "Shark Tank" with his own investor hosting national series hit, "Adventure Capitalists", which is regularly programmed on CNBC.
    I’m your host Paul Rabil and welcome to “Suiting Up Podcast,” a show where I delve into the stories of some of today’s leading athletes, entrepreneurs, and entertainers, interviewing them and unpacking the psychology of their success.
    Enjoy the show.

    1 hr 22 min
  • Sam Walker: Author, the Captain Class

    This week’s guest was a tremendous interview! Sam Walker is The Wall Street Journal's deputy editor for enterprise, the unit that oversees the paper's in-depth page-one features and investigative reporting projects. A two-time bestselling author, Walker's latest book, "The Captain Class", set out to answer one of the most hotly debated questions in sports: Who are the greatest teams of all time? He devised a formula, applied it to thousands of teams from leagues all over the world, and when he was done, trimmed the best of the best down to a list of the sixteen most dominant teams in history. 

    With the list in hand, Walker became obsessed with another, more complicated question: What did these freak teams have in common? As Walker dug into their stories, a distinct pattern emerged: Each team had the same type of captain — a singular leader with an unconventional skill set who drove it to achieve sustained, historic greatness. So he wrote a book that delivers to us this exact formula. On today's show, we talk about his discoveries, take a deep dive with into the history of success for each captain and team he highlighted in his book, and much, much more. 
    Walker's ability to identify these counterintuitive leadership qualities of the unconventional women and men who drove their respective team's to success is phenomenal. A must-listen show. 
    Suiting Up is a podcast that explores the psychology, playbook of tools, and strategies of the most influential people in sports, entertainment and business.

    1 hr 15 min
  • Hilary Knight: Team USA Hockey Player & Activist

    "I knew what we were fighting for was way bigger than us...and transcended our sport." Hilary Knight is the top women's hockey player on the planet. She's a multiple-time Olympian, 7-time gold medal winner of the Ice Hockey World Championships, all-time career point scorer and 2-time National Champion at Wisconsin. She has sponsorship deals with Nike, Red Bull, Visa, GoPro, and more. She's even practiced with the NHL's Anaheim Ducks, telling us "cracking a roster spot is next on the list."

    As impressive as she is on the ice, she's also highly marketable. However, her most impressive quality is her cumulating approach to impacting women's sports and giving back to the next generation of female athletes.
    In 2016, Knight and her teammates protested USA Hockey, demanding an equal compensation, accommodation, and marketing allocation to their male counterparts. They threatened to hold out of the 2016 Ice Hockey World Championships and the subsequent Olympic Games if they weren't treated equitably. Find out what happened next on this week's episode.
    I’m your host Paul Rabil and welcome to “Suiting Up Podcast,” a show where I delve into the stories of some of today’s leading athletes, entrepreneurs, and entertainers, interviewing them and unpacking the psychology of their success. 

    46 min
  • Dave Pietramala: Johns Hopkins Lacrosse Head Coach

    Dave Pietramala is widely regarded as the greatest defenseman in lacrosse history. As a member of the U.S. National Hall of Fame, he’s the only person to have won an NCAA national championship as both a player and coach, and the only person to be named both the NCAA player and coach of the year. Incredible.

    Pietramala – "Coach Petro" – recruited me to play under him at Johns Hopkins University in 2005, where we competed in three NCAA national championships, and winning two. Coach taught me how to work hard, compete, be humble, and respectful. He always harped on “the little things” – like keeping a clean locker room, hustling in between reps, being the first in line, and making eye contact. Each of these learned tactics translate into professional sports, business, and relationships.
    On the show, we take a drive down memory lane, revisiting learning moments and major adjustments from my freshman year in college. I was fortunate to step onto the field with one of the best senior classes our sport has ever seen, and one that completed an undefeated season, going 16-0.
    Coach Petro shares with us his origin story, why he chose to play at Johns Hopkins, and what the one-on-one battles were like with our sport’s greatest player, Gary Gait.
    In 1990, Pietramala’s coaching career began, taking his first coaching gig as an assistant coach for Gilman high school. From there, he earned a part-time collegiate assistant coaching position that paid him $3,000. To supplement his lower wage, Pietramala worked at an aluminum extrusion factory from 6am to 2pm. His subsequent coaching positions took him through the University of Pennsylvania, Loyola College, and Cornell, where he was named the NCAA Coach of the Year.
    In 2001, Pietramala took the head coaching position at his alma mater, where he’s helped revitalize the Hopkins program. He’s won two national championships, been to seven Final Fours, sixteen NCAA tournaments, and winner of the 2015 Big 10 conference championship.
    Other topics from our conversation include:
    -       What makes a high performance competitor
    -       The importance of feedback
    -       Pietramala’s biggest regret
    -       Recruiting: what Pietramala is looking for in a young lacrosse player
    -       I teach him how to use Twitter
    Enjoy the show.  

    1 hr 38 min

About Suiting Up with Paul Rabil

From the publisher's feed

As a pro athlete and co-founder of the Premier Lacrosse League, Paul splits his time between the field and office. Maybe the real life Jackie Moon? Esquire referred to him as "the man some might call the greatest lacrosse player of all time" and Bloomberg calls the PLL "a new way of thinking about sports."