In this episode of The Rainmaking Podcast, host Scott Love speaks with Paul Epstein, former NFL and NBA executive, keynote speaker, and author of Better Decisions Faster. Paul shares insights from his book, which offers a practical framework for making high-quality decisions quickly—an essential skill for professionals at critical inflection points. Drawing from his extensive leadership experience in the sports industry, Paul introduces the Head, Heart, Hands Equation, a simple yet powerful tool that helps professionals overcome decision paralysis, fatigue, and overwhelm. He explains that by aligning mindset (head), authenticity (heart), and action (hands), individuals can confidently navigate pivotal decisions without falling into the trap of indecision.
Key topics include how the Head, Heart, Hands Equation works—where green lights indicate full alignment and go-ahead decisions, red lights signal a stop, and yellow lights require assessing gaps between head and heart alignment. Paul also discusses the dangers of lingering in the "yellow light" zone, leading to missed opportunities and long-term stagnation. Additionally, he shares his formula for building unshakable confidence: Confidence = Values × Action, encouraging professionals to journal weekly by connecting chosen values to intentional actions. Paul emphasizes the importance of emotional intelligence, self-awareness, and taking full ownership of decisions to achieve sustained business success. This episode is packed with actionable insights for professionals seeking to enhance decision-making skills, build confidence, and unlock long-term business growth.
Visit: https://therainmakingpodcast.com/
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Paul Epstein is a former high-level executive for multiple NFL and NBA teams, and a 2x bestselling author of The Power of Playing Offense and Better Decisions Faster. In 2022, he was named one of SUCCESS magazine’s top-thought leaders that get results — alongside names like Tony Robbins, Brené Brown, Gary Vaynerchuk, and Mel Robbins. His work has been featured on ESPN, NBC, Fox Business, and in USA Today.
Today, Paul is on a mission to help individuals and organizations make better decisions faster. As the leading speaker on confidence in decision-making, he brings an always-on-offense mindset to a world that’s increasingly playing defense.
It’s his message and game-changing perspective on-stage that’s made Paul an award-winning keynote speaker, with his impact continuing off-stage providing leadership development and culture transformation programs for companies and teams including Amazon, Disney, Johnson & Johnson, the LA Lakers, and the Dallas Cowboys.
Beyond work, Paul cherishes time with his family, 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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[00:00:00] You're listening to the Rain Making Podcast.
[00:00:09] You're listening to the Rain Making Podcast.
[00:00:16] Hosted by High Stinks Headhunter, Author and Professional Speaker, Scott Love.
[00:00:24] You're listening to the Rain Making good idea can change your life forever. Thanks for listening everybody. And if you've got time, leave us a nice five star review wherever you hear this podcast. And now here's my conversation with my friend, Paul Epstein. Thanks for listening. Hey, this is Scott Love with the Rain Making Podcast.
[00:01:42] I've got my good friends and fellow author and speaker,
[00:01:45] Paul Epstein with me today. and let me go in reverse order. Fast and faster are very different things because oftentimes when I say better decisions faster, people will come back and say, well, you know, when I've made decisions too fast, it's hurt me. I was too impulsive. I was too emotional. I was too, and I'm like, hold on, hold on, hold on. I didn't say fast. I said faster. So part of what's inside of the book,
[00:03:01] and this delves into the better is I didn't just's wrong? Then it's wrong, make a decision, make your best decision. And I like the fact, and you even mentioned this, I'm going to dig into this, you gave us a frame. Action step, step one, step two, step three, and how to go through this. And so tell me more when you talk about are hard. They are challenging. They are why we have stress and anxiety about decisions. And so I wanted to write the playbook for how to conquer and navigate the messy middle of yellow.
[00:05:42] That's great. And let me let me ask you this, when you've worked with professionals,
[00:05:45] and I want to talk a little bit about all give an example. Yeah, sure. A lot of times we hear the word rainmaker.
[00:07:04] And in my case, NFL and NBA executive, I your heart in this scenario knows they're not a key burn. They're not. And that's not going to change. But what happened was, I kept them because that's how business usually works. It's a very head driven type of an industry. And because of that, then TikTok years go by. And now I've got culture problems.
[00:08:21] I've got morale problems. I've got energy in the head. And so that's the good yellow because when your heart is on board, that does have the potential to become a green. That's really interesting, Paul. So let's say there's an executive or a rainmaker in a big firm or small firm or
[00:09:40] self-employed with a small team of people and they're coming to a decision.
[00:09:44] And they have to make a decision whether it's should I terminate this client If you were their coach and you're coaching them, how would you advise them on making that decision? Simply put, you use the Head Heart Hands equation in any decision that has significance, value or greater consequence. But here's the reality. Greens and Reds, they're pretty straightforward. It's simply an awareness game. What I am doing by introducing the Head Heart Hands equation
[00:11:02] is I'm giving folks a tool light, neither on board, red light, one of the two yellow light. And that's where I just think that the big gap, Scott, what I see, especially with rain makers, is we obviously have achieved and succeeded at a very high level. That's why we're rain makers. But often, especially early to mid career,
[00:12:21] at least for me, I was trained to be very head focus
[00:12:25] and hands focus. I know damn well that whether you're an attorney, a rainmaker, and fill in the blank, trust is the currency of life. And you cannot have high trust relationships if people don't know that your heart is in, that your heart hairs. Otherwise they're just going to use you. If it's if it's nothing but head, I'm just going to extract value.
[00:13:40] It's a transaction.
[00:13:41] There's no trust.
[00:13:42] There's no partnership.
[00:13:44] There's no relationship.
[00:13:45] The only way you get those through the head and the heart and eventually get to the hands? I'm a massive fan of journaling and even more so, zooming out from decisions. This is actually so the subtitle of the book, Better Decisions Faster, the subtitle is Unshakable Confidence When You Need It Most. And Scott, and I know you do coaching as well, so do I.
[00:15:00] A lot of folks call me the confidence coach.
[00:15:02] And I have a formula for confidence and I journal on the back end how to implement this.
[00:15:07] So I'll break this down. Let's say you chose a value of joy. You would journal something like, for the week ahead, I will live my value of joy by cooking my favorite meal. Cool, like super small, simple. Anybody in the world could do it. It brings them joy for me. I'm throwing some bacon on a pan. All good brings me joy. Now, let's change it up a little bit.
[00:16:20] Instead of joy, let's go with courage.
[00:16:23] Because as a rainmaker, you need courage.
[00:16:25] So I would journal something like,
[00:16:27] for the week ahead, We never get to week three or four and we don't have a processor system like a journal and so moved by gen 10 It's gone, right? So in this case you would journal joy for consecutive weeks You would journal courage for consecutive weeks and you commit to an action in that we connected to the value What happens is week one you're just gonna do that one action because it's new We too. You'll do one or of the men I talk to that are very successful is that in the back of their mind, I don't want to show emotion. I don't want to be fun. And I think that's kind of changed in a way. Some of my best clients are the most self-aware men I've ever seen that understand the nuance and the delicacy of human relationships and lead in a way so that people have those positive
[00:19:04] feelings about coming to work every day. for the first time ever, knowing my why and my values. It was my first exposure to self-discovery. It was my first exposure to personal transformation. I felt like a different human being, and I've never been the same after that retreat. But here's one thing that I did that others didn't. And here's why I believe my life transformed, while maybe others would describe that retreat as,
[00:20:21] it was cool, it was fun, it was insightful,
[00:20:24] it was inspirational.
[00:20:25] For me, I said, no, it changed my life.
[00:20:27] Very different. After three, you talk about, I think it was building greater confidence. Well, I don't want to, yeah, you're road map to unshakeable confidence. Table stakes, values, and promises for a green light lifestyle. You're absolutely right because nobody holds back when they've got the green light lifestyle. Tell me when you say table stakes, what do you mean by that exactly?
[00:21:40] I believe for all rainmakers out there, there's three table stakes on how we should approach
[00:21:45] every single day of our life. person with high EQ. So that's awareness. Ownership is look, life is hard, adversity, setbacks, hurdles, challenges. And you know who never wins long term, victim mentalities. And so if good things are going to happen and bad things are going to happen, you got to own both. You made a mistake. Own it. It's somebody else's fault. You own it because
[00:23:00] there's no point in pointing fingers, right? Like I heard a beautiful saying recently, by design and those that live in operate by design have intention. So the table stakes AOI awareness, ownership and intention. Paul, you have given us so much here and thank you for everything you've shared. I mean, this is truly life changing information. And like I said before, it's very simple. Anybody can take these ideas, implement them, take action
[00:24:20] and see the result of that. So if we could kind of bring it to a close here in terms of three
[00:24:24] action steps, and that's how I close come back to that. I have a quiz, I'll share where to find it in just a second. But here's why I think it's important. In order to grow, in order to evolve, in order to be a rainmaker,
[00:25:40] you've got to know where you stand.
[00:25:42] So where is your confidence?
[00:25:44] If I was to challenge and invite every rainmaker
[00:25:47] out there listening on are one to 100 today. And then I give you tools on how to raise your dimmer switch over time. That's great. And I took that quiz, Paul. I learned a lot about that. And I can't wait to dive in a little bit more. And we're going to put that link on the show notes.
[00:27:00] So for everybody listening, you can go there.
[00:27:02] And I'd highly recommend everybody listening
[00:27:04] order the book that Paul has.
[00:27:06] And Paul, tell us, are there any other offerings I speak with purpose. I speak as a calling and I invite the entire world to meet me at the 50 and let's lock arms and let's create a special experience together. That's great, Paul. I can't wait to have you back on the show. Thank you for all the great ideas that you shared. It's certainly been a life impacting conversation for me.
[00:28:20] And I'm sure for other people listening today.
[00:28:22] Thank you, Paul.
[00:28:23] Thank you.