My guest today is Jrue Holiday, guard for the New Orleans Pelicans, 2013 NBA All-Star, and an 11-year league veteran. Jrue is highly respected in the league as a selfless player on and off the court, as well as a caring husband, father, and friend. Jrue and I discussed how life in the NBA has changed over the course of his career, what being a rookie in the NBA is like, and how he, his wife, and his team go about helping those in need. We also discussed his pregame rituals and his training ideology. It was quite a treat to get 45 minutes, uninterrupted, with an athlete of Jrue’s caliber. I hope you enjoy listening to this episode.

Find Jrue:

• Instagram
• Twitter

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• LiveMomentous
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My guest today is Nakisa Bidarian, former CEO at Fertitta Capital and former CFO of the UFC. His remarkable upbringing helped lead him to become a successful consultant, investor, and operator. Before joining the UFC, Nakisa worked on acquisitions for an investment company funded by the government of Abu Dhabi. He then started working for Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta, the owners of the UFC, in the years leading up to the sale of the business in 2016. After their exit of the business, Nakisa set up and ran Fertitta Capital for 3 years.

On today’s episode, we discussed Nakisa’s unique upbringing, his variety of motivation and success factors, along with how he learns from challenges. We also touched upon some of the more exciting investments he has made over the years and how he helped operate the UFC. It was an honor and a privilege to talk to Nakisa and I hope you find this conversation as valuable as I did.

Find Nakisa:

• LinkedIn

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• LiveMomentous
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This is a conversation I had in early April with Jordan Mazur, Registered Dietitian and Performance Nutrition Coordinator for the San Francisco 49ers.  Jordan has been an amazing resource for us at Momentous, as well as a regular contributor to Men’s Journal. Jordan is also an active mentor with the Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Bay Area. We are always thankful for his input and his voice.

Find Jordan:

• Instagram
• Twitter

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• LiveMomentous
• Instagram
• Facebook
• Twitter
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My guest today is my good friend and colleague, Matt Chorney. Matt is the Director of Operations at Momentous and is, in fact, the company’s first and longest tenured employee. Matt is also a coach for the Jackson Hole High School track and cross country programs, and a passionate and accomplished distance runner and mountaineer.

Find Matt:

• Instagram
• Strava
• LinkedIn

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• LiveMomentous
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My guest today is professional distance runner Mary Cain. She’s currently 24 and living in New York. For those of you not familiar with her story already, we’ll take you back for a moment to 2013 when Mary was a 17 year old track & field phenom. She was breaking records left and right and signed with what was then considered the best track team in the world -- the Nike Oregon Project. To the surprise of many, Mary’s performances actually began to decline after training with the Oregon project full-time. She eventually left the team, and last November Mary came forward with her story of training with Nike in what we now know to be an abusive, destructive training environment, characterized with the coach’s obsession with lowering her bodyweight to improve performance.

To quote the New York Times article on her story from last fall, “Cain found herself choosing between training with the best team in the world, or potentially developing osteoporosis or even infertility. She lost her period for three years and broke five bones. She went from being a once-in-a-generation Olympic hopeful to having suicidal thoughts.” I’m sure this is never an easy experience for her to discuss, so I really appreciated her openness and her positivity. It’s so important for the sport to have positive voices like Mary’s, and we shouldn’t take those for granted.

Recently, Mary signed on with the Boston-based running brand, Tracksmith, not only as a sponsored runner, but as an employee. I was excited to ask her about this new form of brand athlete relationship, and of course about what her life has been like since coming out with her story. As a fan of the sport and as a fan of Mary’s, this was really a privilege for me.

Find Mary:

• Mary's NY Times Article
• Instagram
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Tracksmith

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• LiveMomentous
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I’m very excited to introduce my guest today as sports business analyst, Darren Rovell. Darren currently reports for The Action Network, a sports betting start-up based in Los Vegas, and previously he reported for ESPN for more than 12 years. He’s widely considered one of the most influential journalists in sports. Being the sports and business nerd that I am, Darren is one of my absolute favorite follows on social media. You can check out his twitter and instagram here. 

Today I talked with Darren about things like how he’s handling the change in lifestyle, current events in sports, and mental health. Darren is a public advocate for mental health awareness and discussion, both through his own platforms and through his involvement in the #SameHere movement.

Find Darren:

• Twitter
• Instagram
• Facebook

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• LiveMomentous
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Our latest episode of The Momentous Podcast features Nick Symmonds. Nick is a former professional runner turned entrepreneur. He is a 6-time American Champion, 2-time Olympian, and a world silver medalist in the 800m. Nick is now the CEO and Co-founder of RunGum, an energy gum company based in Oregon. He is also a passionate fly fisherman, mountaineer, and YouTuber.

In this episode, our CEO Matt Wan and Nick discuss things like Nick’s collegiate running days, building a professional running career, founding a direct to consumer brand, expanding a business to brick and mortar retail, and channeling a lot of his marketing efforts to YouTube.

Find Nick:

• Youtube
• Instagram
• Twitter
• Facebook

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• LiveMomentous
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• Facebook
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My guest today is Paraag Marathe, President of Enterprises and Executive Vice President of Football Operations for the San Francisco 49ers.

Paraag is in his 20th season with the 49ers and, among a slew of other things, serves as the team’s Chief Contract Negotiator and Salary Cap Architect. Paraag worked alongside 49ers CEO, Jed York, to recruit and hire current 49ers head coach, Kyle Shanahan, and General Manager, John Lynch. Off the football field, he oversees any of the 49ers outside business ventures like the recent purchase of a minority ownership stake in the English Championship League soccer team, Leeds United. 

In today’s episode, we discuss the current climate of North American sports, what the NFL plans to do to restart the season, what Paraag looks for when he’s hiring someone new, and his thoughts on this year’s NFL draft.

Find Momentous:

• LiveMomentous
• Instagram
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Youtube

Today my guest on the show is Rachel Springate. Rachel is the co-founder and managing partner of Muse Capital, a venture capital firm based in Los Angeles that focuses on early stage consumer investing, and one of a very small number of female-led venture capital firms in the US.

Rachel started her career at Superbrands where she developed relationships with the world’s leading Marketing Directors such as Coca-Cola, Jaguar, Apple, Aston Martin, and Disney. She was then headhunted to start the corporate sales division of the leading luxury lifestyle group Quintessentially, where her largest deal was the Amex Black Card. After meeting and being inspired by renowned artist manager and angel investor Troy Carter in 2012, Rachel moved from London to NYC and into the technology space consulting young technology companies with their Business Development strategy and execution.

In today’s episode, Rachel and I talk about the intersection of her personal life and business experience. We spoke about what it was like becoming a new mom while raising initial funds for Muse Capital, her early beginnings in the industry, what it means to be a great investor, how to learn from unavoidable rejection, and how she keeps perspective amidst all the competition.

Find Rachel:

• Muse Capital
• Instagram
• Twitter

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• LiveMomentous
• Instagram
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Youtube

Today my guest is Performance Coach, Jamal Liggin. Jamal is the owner of JLT in Los Angeles (Jamal Liggin Training), a performance training organization that builds custom training programs for professional athletes from the NBA, NFL, NHL, MLB and UFC. For the past ten years, Jamal has been called on regularly by countless superstars to build their training programs, including Odell Beckham Jr., Saquon Barkley, Von Miller, and even DJ Khaled.

In today’s episode, we discuss things like injury assessment in athletes, training groups versus individuals, developing buy in from an athlete, how to coach athletes mentally in addition to physically, and how much Jamal values family.

Find Jamal:

• JLT
• Instagram
• Twitter
• Youtube

Find Momentous:

• LiveMomentous
• Instagram
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Youtube