Paul Epstein | Former NFL and NBA Business Executive, Leadership and Sales Expert and Best Selling Author

Paul Epstein

Former NFL and NBA Business Executive, Leadership and Sales Expert and Best Selling Author

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Paul Epstein
Biography

Paul Epstein has spent nearly 15 years as a professional sports executive for multiple NFL and NBA teams, a global sports agency, and the NFL league office, where he has broken every premium revenue metric in Super Bowl history, opened a billion-dollar stadium, and founded the San Francisco 49ers Talent Academy, where he became known as the “Why Coach.”

As an award-winning keynote speaker named one of SUCCESS magazines top thought leaders that get results, Paul’s impact continues off stage providing leadership development and culture transformation programs for companies and teams including Amazon, Disney, Johnson & Johnson, NASA, the Los Angeles Lakers, and the Dallas Cowboys—and his work has been featured on ESPN, NBC, Fox Business, and in USA Today.

He is also the best-selling author of The Power of Playing Offense and is slated to launch his second book in 2023, Better Decisions Faster.

Paul Epstein
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Paul Epstein
Featured Keynote Programs

The Power of Playing Offense in Defensive Environments
Leading with Confidence during Uncertainty

Global upheaval, unrelenting change, and economic uncertainty have us all playing defense.

The result: confidence gaps that drive defensive mindsets and actions at organizations all over the world. But what if you had a playbook for playing offense — proactively pursuing and achieving meaningful goals and breakthrough performance — while everyone else is sheltering in place?

This is exactly what Paul delivers in this flagship keynote inspired by 15 years of leading teams in the NFL/NBA and his bestselling book, The Power of Playing Offense: a Leaders Playbook for Personal and Team Transformation.

Every audience member will walk away with a 5-pillar Playing Offense framework and WIN MONDAY playbook, curated for universal insights and actionable takeaways to implement in any industry or organization.

Keynote Outcomes
Inspire your team to leverage purpose as a driver of commitment and performance
Cultivate a culture of resilience to endure any climate of heavy change and uncertainty
Understand the best and ‘next practices’ of trust building, collaboration, and growth
Know what the greatest leaders do, and how to scale these behaviors across organizations
Identify the keys to attracting, engaging, and retaining talent with confidence
Takeaway Resource for Attendees: Paul’s 52 Week Action Plan to WIN MONDAY

Making Better Decisions Faster
How to Overcome Paralysis and Inspire Action

Even the most elite performers can rush to bad judgements, become paralyzed by indecision, or get worn down by decision fatigue.

In this keynote, Paul reveals the streamlined three-step process he’s used to turn around major sports franchises — from the locker room to the boardroom. Avoid decision traps, move forward clear and confident, and make the best out of your MVDs: Most Valuable Decisions.

Discover the key to making fast and effective decisions for the questions that keep you
up at night:

Should I choose Strategy A or B?
Which candidate should I hire?
What should I spend my time on?
Do I take this deal, or call it off?
What are my goals for next year?

The secret? The Head-Heart-Hands equation: a simple and repeatable process that taps into the power of our three most basic human tools for making better decisions faster.

Keynote Outcomes
Flip fear and uncertainty into clarity and confidence
Empower leaders and talent to become highly decisive, aware, and intentional in their actions
Acquire an operating framework designed for speed, efficiency, and winning time back
Build high-trust teams through heightened authenticity and collaboration
Leave with a playbook where everybody knows what to say “yes” to and what to say “no” to
Takeaway Resource for Attendees: Paul’s 52 Week Action Plan to WIN MONDAY

Scaling Championship Culture
Leadership & Growth Insights from the NFL & NBA

Culture can only scale when EVERY person in it takes full ownership, accountability, pride, and a commitment to daily excellence.

That’s the spirit of a champion, and culture (when done right) is our ultimate competitive advantage.

This keynote is inspired by Paul’s 15 years as a culture-building practitioner in the NFL & NBA (including multiple national awards for his work as Founder of the San Fracisco 49ers Talent Academy), then stress tested across his training and consulting practice to deeply examine: what do the greatest cultures in the world have in common?

The biggest needle moving insights are revealed in this talk.

Warning: this is not a classic ‘top down’ approach to culture. This is a framework where every individual owns their local culture, feeling seen, valued, and recognized.

As a result their buy-in, performance, and contributions skyrocket as individuals, and it spreads deep and wide through your organization.

Welcome to a championship culture, that scales.

Keynote Outcomes
Learn the nuances of culture building for a team of 50 vs a team of 50,000.
Understand the keys to a YES IF culture over a NO BECAUSE culture, inspiring growth and collaboration across teams
Scale a values-obsessed team that can endure any market disruption or adverse environment
Discover future-proof insights around recruiting, engaging, and retaining your star talent
From organizational to individual purpose, learn to align and connect both
Takeaway Resource for Attendees: Paul’s 52 Week Action Plan to WIN MONDAY

Closing the Confidence Gap in Sales
A Masterclass to Build Momentum and WIN

A Masterclass to Build Momentum and WIN

Sales is the lifeblood of every organization. Without it, there is no business to operate. No people to employ. No purpose to fulfill. No impact to ignite in the market.

CONFIDENCE is what makes it all possible.

Paul realized how confidence can be the ultimate separator and competitive advantage needed to win as a sales leader in the NFL and NBA, breaking the all-time Super Bowl revenue record, surpassing billion-dollar goals while opening new NFL stadiums, and transforming cellar-dwelling NBA teams from 28th in league revenue to 2nd within a single season.

This keynote unpacks exactly how he and his teams did it. The lessons and insights are industry agnostic and universally applicable.

It’s the perfect blend of sales mindset and winning psychology, coupled with tactical toolkits to maximize confidence and achieve breakthrough performance…immediately.

Keynote Outcomes
Learn the best practices of elite performers and how they separate from the pack
Identify the confidence gaps that get in the way of optimal and sustainable performance
Discover the needle-moving habits and rituals required for daily growth and success
Understand the secrets and tactics of overcoming adversity and navigating uncertainty
Acquire a process to unlock your mindset, lead with authenticity, and drive purposeful action
Takeaway Resource for Attendees: Paul’s 52 Week Action Plan to WIN MONDAY

Paul Epstein
Featured Books

The Power of Playing Offense: A Leader's Playbook for Personal and Team Transformationby Paul Epstein

The Power of Playing Offense: A Leader's Playbook for Personal and Team Transformation

by Paul Epstein

Paul Epstein, founder of Purpose Labs, successfully steered business teams that executed billion-dollar NFL campaigns, broke Super Bowl revenue records, and generated league-leading sales results for cellar-dwelling NBA clubs. He then served as a consultant for the largest brands in business and sports.

But after experiencing his own personal and career transformation, Epstein embarked on a mission to tackle a crisis of leadership. Now, in The Power of Playing Offense, Epstein invites you to meet him at the 50 and get real about taking a people-first approach that elevates purpose, performance, and impact.

As the “Why Coach” inside the San Francisco 49ers front office, one question kept Epstein up at night: Who is coaching the coaches? He noticed a crucial gap in the development of leaders: they were expected to lead others before they learned to lead themselves. In an effort to fill this gap in the market, Epstein curated this interactive playbook—and its corresponding website WWW.POWEROFPLAYINGOFFENSE.COM—for influencers and leaders like you, with more than 50 activities, tools, and strategies you can implement on Monday morning.

The Power of Playing Offense will help you level up your leadership and transform your team from paycheck driven to purpose driven, from adversity to achievement, from disengaged to inspired, and from success to significance.

The end game: a life and career of fulfillment and impact.

Better Decisions Faster: Unshakable Confidence When You Need It Mostby Paul Epstein

Better Decisions Faster: Unshakable Confidence When You Need It Most

by Paul Epstein

“Your ultimate guide to confidence and courage—one decision at a time.”

—Mel Robbins, New York Times bestselling author of The Five-Second Rule and The High 5 Habit

Foreword by Marshall Goldsmith

Make better decisions faster with the Head + Heart = Hands Equation

The average adult makes more than 35,000 decisions in a day. Most are mundane, but there are a handful that separate businesses that boom or bust, careers that succeed or fail, relationships that make it or don’t, and lives of happiness or hopelessness.

These most valuable decisions (MVDs) represent the gap between a green-light life and a red-light life.

In more than fifteen years as an NFL and NBA executive, Paul Epstein saw firsthand how, when faced with such an overwhelming number of decisions, even elite performers can rush to bad judgments or become paralyzed by indecision.

In Better Decisions Faster, he draws from the green-light wisdom of Fortune 500 CEOs, Olympians, Shark Tank entrepreneurs, world-record holders, Ivy League professors, and Navy SEALs to reveal a revolutionary new system for maximally efficient and confident decision-making.

The solve is the Head + Heart = Hands Equation—Head (mindset) + Heart (authenticity) = Hands (action)—which taps into the three most primal and powerful aspects of our humanity to tackle such MVDs as:

» Strategy: A or B?

» Job: stay or go?

» Deal: do it or don’t?

» Team: hire or fire?

» Financial: invest or pass?

» Time: spend on X or Y?

» Relationship: in or out?

You’re just moments away from making these decisions better, faster, and with unshakable confidence. The playbook is in your hands.

Paul Epstein
Featured Reviews

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