Meet

Paul Epstein

Award-Winning Leadership and Team Performance Expert

Former NFL & NBA Business Executive
Best-selling author of The Power of Playing Offense and Better Decisions Faster
Shares the winning playbook used to help others make high-impact decisions, develop unshakeable confidence, and lead with authenticity while navigating uncertainty

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$20,000 - $30,000

Virtual Fee:

$15,000 - $20,000

Travels From:

California

5.0 | 2 Reviews

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Overview
Biography
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Speech Topics
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Speaking Topics

Paul Epstein Speaker Biography

Paul Epstein is a former high-level executive for multiple NFL and NBA teams and a 2x best-selling author of The Power of Playing Offense and Better Decisions Faster. In 2022, he was named one of SUCCESS magazine’s top thought leaders who get results—alongside Tony Robbins, Brené Brown, Gary Vaynerchuk, and Mel Robbins—and his work has been featured on ESPN, NBC, Fox Business, and in USA Today.

In nearly 15 years as a leader in the world of pro sports, Paul helped take NBA teams from the bottom of the league in revenue to the top two, broke every premium sales revenue metric in Super Bowl history while in the NFL’s league office, opened a billion-dollar stadium, and founded the San Francisco 49ers Talent Academy, where he was known as the “Why Coach.”
As an award-winning keynote speaker, 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.

He’s also the founder of the Win Monday community (an elite personal and professional development network) and host of the Win Monday podcast, where he interviews high-profile guests who reveal their secrets of confidence and work-life mastery.

When he’s not on stage as a global keynote speaker, Paul is a proud father of PJ and Lucca, married his best friend on the field of Levi’s Stadium, and has a slight obsession with bacon—just don’t make it too crispy.

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Featured Videos

2025 Speaking Preview Video for Paul Epstein

Keynote “Event Experience” | Paul Epstein – Win Monday

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Speech Topics

WIN MONDAY
The High-Performance Habit that Fuels Momentum, Growth, and Success

Monday isn’t just another day. It’s the most reliable performance habit of your entire week. Every seven days your team gets the same reset. The only question is: does that reset spark winning actions and momentum or default to comfort and stagnation?”

Win Monday vs. Waste Monday. We always get to decide.

According to research inside Win Monday’s Habit Lab this performance gap is the reality for most organizations—as 86% of employees consider Monday their worst day of the week, yet 98% of people that accomplish something meaningful on Monday feel momentum their entire week. What if Monday became your team’s competitive edge?

In this keynote, former NFL and NBA executive and bestselling author Paul Epstein reveals the weekly habit that separates champions from everyone else — flipping Mondays from missed opportunities into momentum drivers that lead to lasting growth and success.

When winning Monday becomes your organization’s “go-to” habit, you win everything that follows.

Actionable Outcomes
– Learn how to apply the WIN MONDAY™ cycle that inspires action the Monday after your event
– Discover the keys to building good habits, and breaking bad habits
– Shift your organization’s identity from TGIF dreamers to TGIM doers
– Transform Mondays into a catalyst for momentum, growth, and success
– Strengthen commitment, ownership, and accountability, so everyone shows up aligned and ready to win
– Build a repeatable, scalable habit system that spreads across teams and fuels championship culture

Ideal Audience
– Leadership audiences looking to scale organizational success through a habit-based system that drives consistent action, weekly accountability, and repeatable results.
– Sales teams that desire a proven process to perform under pressure in high-change environments, consistently rise to a standard of excellence, and drive explosive growth by starting every week strong.

The Power of Playing Offense in Defensive Environments: Performing with Confidence through Change and Adversity

In today’s business environment, competitive threats, unrelenting change, rising customer expectations, and economic uncertainty have us all playing defense.

The result? Confidence gaps are created that drive defensive mindsets and actions in organizations across 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 sales teams in the NFL & NBA and his bestselling book, The Power of Playing Offense. 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.

ACTIONABLE OUTCOMES:

-Navigate change and uncertainty with enduring confidence

-Drive peak performance in challenging market conditions

-Maximize team-wide trust, connection, and alignment

-Build cultures of grit and resilience to battle through storms as one team

-Empower organizational decisiveness and bias to action

Audience Takeaway: 52-Week Action Plan to WIN MONDAY™

IDEAL AUDIENCE:

Leadership audiences looking to inspire positive change across their teams, culture, and organization

Sales teams aiming to sell with confidence, whether they’re an underdog striving to gain market share or a market leader working to maintain momentum and avoid complacency

Winning Customers : Attracting and Retaining Fans for Life

How did Paul lead his teams to consistently sell out billion-dollar NFL stadiums with 70,000 fans in historically losing markets? Or transform an NBA team’s revenue performance from 28th to 2nd in the league – despite being labeled by ESPN as “the worst brand in sports”? The answer lies in a powerful, scalable belief system that can be applied to any sales or service environment: Every seat has a story.

This shift from blanket ‘catch all’ campaigns to a dynamic customer-to-customer approach driven by customization, care, and championship service, led to sold-out stadiums and record-breaking revenue, that didn’t hinge on wins or losses. In the sports industry, every seat and fan had a story. In your case, every client has a story. The question is: “Will you get to know it?” Achieving customer success doesn’t depend on perfect market conditions – it depends on consistently making each customer feel valued and seen. This keynote is HOW to do it, one story at a time.

ACTIONABLE OUTCOMES:

-Learn a playbook to transform a customer into a raving fan

-Discover four key traits that build trust in the short game and long game

-Use a listening strategy that elevates clients, encouraging them to invest deeply in the relationship

-Explore synergies between sales and service teams that unlock future growth potential

-Know the exact questions to ask when it matters most, so touchpoints turn into transformation points

Audience Takeaway: 52-Week Action Plan to WIN MONDAY™

IDEAL AUDIENCE:

Tailored for all customer-facing or influencing roles, including sales, sales enablement/ops, service, customer experience, and marketing/strategy

The focus will vary depending on the audience – whether it’s about driving customer acquisition (sales), enhancing customer satisfaction (service/experience), or developing strategies to attract more customers (marketing/strategy)

Making Better Decisions Faster: Overcoming Paralysis and Inspiring 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 used to turn around major sports franchises — from the locker room to the boardroom. Avoid decision traps, move forward with clarity and confidence, 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.

ACTIONABLE 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

-Walk away with a clear playbook that defines what to prioritize and what to decline.

Audience Takeaway: 52-Week Action Plan to WIN MONDAY™

IDEAL AUDIENCE: Leaders looking to approach key business decisions – strategy, talent, goals, planning, priorities, resources, and investments – with confidence

Scaling Championship Culture Standards of Excellence to Build a Win Monday™ Organization

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 championship culture (when done right) – and can be your ultimate competitive advantage.

This keynote is inspired by Paul’s 15 years as a culture-building practitioner in the NFL and NBA – including multiple national awards for his work as Founder of the San Fracisco 49ers Talent Academy. Through extensive testing in his training and consulting practice, he has identified what unites the world’s most remarkable cultures.

The biggest needle-moving insights are revealed in this presentation, centered around a foundational battle cry to WIN MONDAY™.

This is not your average ‘top down’ approach to culture – rather, the program introduces a framework that empowers every individual to take ownership of their local culture while ensuring they feel seen, valued, and appreciated.

As a result, individuals become more engaged, perform at their best, and make meaningful contributions that resonate throughout your organization.

ACTIONABLE OUTCOMES:

-Foster a culture of excellence and a winning mindset that resonates and scales across the entire organization.

-Learn the nuances of culture building for a team of 50 vs a team of 50,000

-Drive growth and collaboration across teams that are aligned and unified

-Learn a framework to shift mission, vision, and values into transformational action

-Build a championship environment that attracts, engages, and retains your star talent

Audience Takeaway: 52-Week Action Plan to WIN MONDAY™

IDEAL AUDIENCE: Company and association leaders, as well as HR professionals, focused on creating and growing a championship culture through a consistent standard of excellence across the entire team.

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Reviews

5.0 | 2 Reviews

5 Stars

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1 Star

Paul Epstein delivered an exceptional keynote at Ignite 2025, and his message truly resonated with our sales team at every level. His energy, authenticity, and powerful storytelling inspired action, and the insights he shared have had a lasting impact on our organization.

Our COO called it the best keynote he has ever attended, and it’s easy to see why. Paul’s “Win on Monday” mindset has become common language among our teams, driving a renewed focus on consistency, accountability, and showing up at our best every single day. His ability to connect with the audience and deliver a message that is both motivational and immediately applicable made his keynote a defining moment of our event.

We are incredibly grateful for Paul’s contribution to Ignite 2025 and highly recommend him to any organization looking to ignite passion, performance, and a winning mindset within their teams.

Fullsteam | February 13, 2025

You were a spectacular edition to our meeting! Your energy, passion, expertise and storytelling were just what we needed to close the last day! You connected the ‘now’ to the ‘what is possible’ for our team to be more effective in their role, both for themselves personally and those they serve! You are authentic and just as amazing off the stage as you are on! Thank you, Paul, for everything, and I look forward to continuing to work with you on follow up to this meeting and in the future!

GoTo Foods | June 19, 2024

Books

Better Decisions Faster: Unshakable Confidence When You Need It Most

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

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Working in the NFL, there is no bigger believer in the value of a “go-to” playbook than me. If you are a leader who is inspired to build the leaders of tomorrow, build high-performance teams, and build gold jacket culture, you’ve found your “go-to” playbook when you join Paul in the journey of Playing Offense.

Robert Gallo, Senior Vice President, Club Business Development, NFL

Many of us have been promoted from player to coach and were never provided a playbook on how to lead. Playing Offense was curated to solve this problem. The impact it will create for your team, career, culture, and life, is infinite.

Santor Nishizaki, Award-Winning Chief Executive Officer, Formerly With NASA And Disney Imagineering

Playing Offense challenges us all to lead with purpose, authenticity, and courage—characteristics that make Paul the ideal coach for this transformational journey to know who we are and why we serve. Paul was able to plant deep-rooted seeds that blossomed into self-awareness and change for my team.

Michele Kajiwara, Senior Vice President, Sales & Service, AEG / Staples Center

Paul’s work with our hotel’s management team has been invaluable, inspiring individuals of all different tenures and experience levels to find their purpose and become more fulfilled leaders. The impact on our organizational culture has been tremendous and the fundamental lessons from his workshops have become a core part of our organizational DNA.

Matthew Lehman, Fairmont Miramar Hotel & Bungalows, Former General Manager

If you are looking to transform your business and life, look no further. Knowing Paul for years, I have watched all his expertise and thought leadership culminate into Playing Offense. Finally, here’s a message filled with coaching tips and tools that feels as if it were crafted just for me.

Rob Sine, Chief Revenue Officer, AXS

Playing Offense delivers a tactical blueprint for how to unleash the full potential of talent in yourself and others, detailing where the performance of people can be maximized, allowing our superpowers to be on full display.

Gail Stoltze, Executive Vice President, Human Resources, AEG

What makes a great leader? Mountains of books have been written on the traits, skills, and qualities that provide this answer. In my mind, one easily rises to the top: The Power of Playing Offense.

Eric Yuan, Founder & CEO, ZOOM Video Communications

Paul’s keynote exceeded all my expectations and my team was profoundly moved by Paul’s authenticity, and by the leadership principles he taught us using amazing storytelling skills. Paul helped Amazon understand the core values at the center of leadership such as Compassion, Character, and Trust.

Oumar Diagne, Former Amazon Sr. Manager, Honeywell, Sr. Director Global Operations Finance

“Paul’s energy is infectious, his stories touch the heart, and he instills a mindset to be your best. We all walked away with actionable tools to navigate uncertainty, battle through indecision, and perform with confidence, leaving us with a rallying cry to WIN MONDAY.”

Google Cloud, Head of Sales

“Paul’s keynote exceeded all my expectations and my team was profoundly moved by his authenticity and heart-based storytelling. He helped Amazon understand the core values at the center of leadership such as compassion, character, and trust. Point blank, Paul’s the best speaker we’ve ever had!”

Amazon, Finance Director

Paul’s energy is infectious, his stories touch the heart, and he instills a mindset to be your best. We all walked away with actionable tools to navigate uncertainty, battle through indecision, and perform with confidence, leaving us with a rallying cry to WIN MONDAY.

Google Cloud, Head of Sales

Ever since Paul Epstein’s keynote to our commercial sales team, the PLAYING OFFENSE mindset and 5-pillar game plan has had infinite impact in the field and beyond. Our team was inspired with purpose, became more resilient, built more trusting relationships, and our culture is that much stronger thanks to Paul. Couldn’t recommend him more!

Johnson & Johnson, Commercial Marketing Leader