Unplugged with Brandon Steiner

About Jim Boeheim and Syracuse Basketball: In the Zone: For more than forty seasons, Jim Boeheim has been one of college basketball’s most successful and compelling figures with the second-most victories of all time behind only Mike Krzyzewski. The Hall of Fame coach has led the Syracuse Orange to five Final Fours, including a memorable national championship in 2003. In Jim Boeheim and Syracuse Basketball: In the Zone, Donald Staffo examines the career of the storied SU basketball coach and the elite program that he built. Boeheim’s accomplishments as well as his considerable charitable work cannot be denied, nor can the sanctions that occurred under his watch. Both sides are covered in depth―the highs and lows that have made Boeheim a legend and Syracuse a basketball power. After taking over the program in 1977, a decade after his own playing career at the school, Boeheim transformed it into a national power behind such stars as Roosevelt Bouie, Pearl Washington, Sherman Douglas, Rony Seikaly, Derrick Coleman, Carmelo Anthony, and C. J. Fair. Staffo brings to life the wild environment in the old Manley Field House and a packed Carrier Dome. All the unforgettable moments are highlighted, including the 2003 championship win over Kansas, the epic six-overtime classic over UConn in the 2009 Big East Tournament, and the surprising run to the 2016 Final Four. It also analyzes Boeheim from a point-counterpoint standpoint as well as the image of the Syracuse basketball program compared to other hoop powers. Jim Boeheim and Syracuse Basketball is a revealing look at a basketball legend. Purchase the book on Amazon at: https://amzn.to/2FOfPrC About Donald Staffo: Donald Staffo is the author of ten books and more than 2,100 articles published in a wide variety of national and regional magazines and newspapers. He covered Alabama football and basketball for thirty years for the Associated Press and other publications and lives in Tuscaloosa.

2x NBA Champion Lamar Odom joins Brandon Steiner to discuss the highlights of his NBA career.

Dan Klores joins the show with Brandon Steiner to discuss his love for the game of basketball and why he wanted to create, "Basketball: A Love Story," a 10-part, 20-hour documentary released in partnership with ESPN that featured 165 interviews from legends of the game of basketball.

Longtime Chief Communications Officer for the Madison Square Garden Company, Barry Watkins, joins the show to discuss his career with Brandon Steiner. Watkins, who left his role with MSG in 2017, has started Clairvoyant Media Strategies (www.clairvoyantstrategies.com). About Barry Watkins: Mr. Barry Watkins has been Special Advisor of The Madison Square Garden Company since July 2017. Mr. Watkins has been Director of Vector Group Ltd. since March 09, 2018. He served as the Chief Communications Officer of The Madison Square Garden Company until July 2017 and served as its Executive Vice President since January 7, 2016 until July 2017. Mr. Watkins served as the Chief Communications Officer and Executive Vice President of Communications & Administration at Madison Square Garden L.P., Madison Square Garden Network and Madison Square Garden Inc. Mr. Watkins oversees all aspects of Madison Square's communications and government relations activities, as well as its extensive philanthropic efforts. A 32-year MSG veteran, Mr. Watkins serves as Chief Communications Officer, responsible for communications activities across all of the company's divisions, including the Knicks, Rangers, Liberty, Sports Properties and MSG Entertainment. He oversees MSG's senior public relations staff as well as strategic communications planning and execution for all company announcements, corporate strategy, financial reporting and events at all company venues. Mr. Watkins also manages MSG's VIP Services, Corporate Events and Photography areas. Over his long career with the company, Mr. Watkins has played an integral role in shaping the communications strategies for some of the most important and high-profile events and announcements in the company's history. These include the 1994 New York Rangers Stanley Cup victory, the unprecedented, three-year Transformation of the Madison Square Garden Arena and the acquisitions of Radio City Music Hall, the Beacon Theatre and the Forum in Inglewood, CA. He has also guided the media relations efforts surrounding the company's partnerships with Tribeca Enterprises, owner of the Tribeca Film Festival and Azoff MSG Entertainment and was a key contributor to MSG's successful spin-offs, first from Cablevision Systems Corporation in 2010 and then from MSG Networks Inc. in 2015. In addition, Mr. Watkins has been heavily involved in MSG's larger philanthropic efforts, directing communications for several of the company's prominent benefit concerts -- The Concert for New York City, From the Big Apple to the Big Easy and 12-12-12, The Concert for Sandy Relief. Mr. Watkins also helps drive MSG's ongoing commitment to the community. As chairman of The Garden of Dreams Foundation, the non-profit that works closely with MSG, Mr. Watkins leads the charity's commitment to make dreams come true for children facing obstacles. A fixture at MSG for more than three decades, Mr. Watkins started as a student with the New York Rangers in 1983. After being hired by the team's public relations department full-time in 1986, he went on to run the department three years later. Following the Rangers Stanley Cup victory in 1994, he joined Madison Square Garden Network (MSG Network) in 1995, where he served as Vice President, Marketing and Public Relations, before being named Senior Vice President of Communications in 1997, followed by Executive Vice President of Communications in 2010. Mr. Watkins is a graduate of St. John's University.

David Grzybowski joins the show to discuss his new book, Mr. All-Around: The Life of Tom Gola. Tom Gola is a Philadelphia Big Five basketball icon. He led La Salle to the NIT championship in 1952 and the NCAA championship in 1954, and holds the NCAA record for most rebounds in a career. Gola also helped the Philadelphia Warriors win the NBA championship as a rookie in 1956 and was named an All-Star five times before retiring in 1966. But Gola also had many amazing achievements as a coach; his La Salle Explorer teams were a large part of the national basketball landscape. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1976. In Mr. All-Around, avid sports fan and reporter David Grzybowski provides a definitive biography of Gola. He uses exclusive interviews he conducted with Gola in 2013 and features anecdotes by many figures of Philadelphia and basketball history, including John Cheney, Fran Dunphy, and Lionel Simmons. After the NBA, Gola transitioned to a second career as a politician, serving as Pennsylvania State Representative and Philadelphia City Controller. His dedication to public service involved joining politician Arlen Specter on a campaign that revolutionized political marketing within Philadelphia. Mr. All-Around is an affectionate testament to the life, career, and legacy of one of Philadelphia’s most beloved sports legends. About David Gryzbowski: David Grzybowski is a former television news reporter for WPHL in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he covered the 2015 Papal Visit by Pope Francis, the annual Mummers parade, and the 2016 Democratic National Convention as well as the 2016 Villanova Wildcats NCAA championship. He was also a reporter at WNCN in Raleigh, North Carolina, where he covered the 2017 University of North Carolina’s NCAA championship title and Hurricane Matthew.

Dr. BJ Miller, Jr. is a hospice and palliative care specialist who treats hospitalized patients with terminal or life-altering illness at UCSF Medical Center. He also sees patients in a palliative care clinic, and the Cancer Symptom Management Service, of the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. Miller, a native of Chicago, studied art history as an undergraduate at Princeton University. He worked for several years for art and disability-rights nonprofit organizations before earning a medical degree at UCSF. He completed an internal medicine residency at Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara, where he was chief resident, and a fellowship in Hospice and Palliative Medicine at Harvard Medical School, working at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. In his work, he connects art, spirituality and medicine in end-of-life care. Miller is an assistant clinical professor of medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine. He has a grant from the Fetzer Foundation to help integrate spirituality with the health of mind and body into medical education. Miller has been featured on Oprah Winfrey's Super Soul Sunday and has given a TED Talk featuring the Zen Hospice Project. Zen Hospice Project is changing the experience of dying through a human-centered model of care. Miller will have a new book released in 2019.

Sports marketing guru and author of "Aiming High: How a Prominent Sports and Celebrity Agent Hit Bottom at the Top" discusses his battle with addiction. Aiming High is the astonishing story of sports and celebrity agent Darren Prince, who battled addiction while representing some of the most iconic figures in the world. After a drug overdose, many demoralizing nights, and mornings where he couldn't get out of bed without a prescription in hand, Darren hit rock bottom at the top--and in the process discovered the true meaning of success. Purchase the book on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2z4VAQX Darren Prince has been in the sports and entertainment industry since he was 14 years old. He built a multi-million dollar baseball card company and then became a leader in private autograph signings. After selling his company he launched Prince Marketing Group in 1996 representing Magic Johnson, Smokin Joe Frazier, Dennis Rodman, Chevy Chase, and Pamela Anderson for marketing opportunities such as endorsements, corporate events and licensing. Over the last 20 years PMG has continued to add such legendary talent as Hulk Hogan, Charlie Sheen, Ric Flair, Roy Jones Jr, and the late Evel Knievel.

New York Yankees World Series Champion pitcher and 2007 AL CY Young Award winner CC Sabathia joins Brandon Steiner to discuss his career in baseball.

The outcry surrounding CTE is missing something critical: the science to justify it. When post-concussion syndrome forced star NFL running back Merril Hoge into early retirement in 1994, research on football-related head injuries wasn’t a priority. At the time, football was heavily influenced by a tough guy culture, and little was known about concussions and their potentially dangerous effects. Then the tragic death of Hoge’s ex-teammate Mike Webster in 2002 launched a wave of fear after an autopsy determined he suffered from an obscure brain disease—chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). The media pounced. Concern over player safety soon became a war on football at every level, with one scientist even declaring youth football “child abuse.” In an effort to set the record straight, Hoge and board-certified forensic neuropathologist Dr. Peter Cummings explore the hidden agendas and misinformation fueling the CTE hysteria machine. Armed with extensive research, critical insight, and expert interviews, they address some of the common myths surrounding the disease, examining significant flaws in the often-cited studies and exposing the sensationalistic reporting that dominates today’s CTE dialogue. Compelling, accessible, and ultimately revelatory, Brainwashed exposes the biases and unsubstantiated claims crippling true scientific advancement in the area of CTE research. This is a must-read for anyone who cares about the future of youth sports and the survival of our nation’s most beloved game. About Merril Hoge: Merril Hoge is a former NFL running back who worked as an analyst at ESPN for twenty-one years, helping launch ESPN2, NFL Live, and Fantasy Football. Hoge is chairman of the board of the Highmark Caring Foundation and on the board of the Chuck Noll Foundation for Brain Injury Research. Active in concussion research and in the prevention and treatment of brain injuries, Hoge testified at a congressional hearing on football head injuries in 2009 and was appointed to the NFL Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Committee in 2010. In 2018, Hoge helped launch Your Call Football and is the author of Find a Way: Three Words That Changed My Life. He lives in Fort Thomas, Kentucky.

Lee Salz, author of the #1 sales book on Amazon, "Sales Differentiation: 19 Powerful Strategies to Win More Deals at the Prices You Want," joins the show to discuss the state of sales today and how salespeople need to rethink their strategy. Buy now on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2NH2FLV "If we don't drop our price, we will lose the deal." That's the desperate cry from salespeople as they try to win deals in competitive marketplaces. While the easy answer is to lower the price, the company sacrifices margin--oftentimes unnecessarily. To win deals at the prices you want, the strategy needed is differentiation. Most executives think marketing is the sole source of differentiation. But what about the sales function of the company? This commonly neglected differentiation opportunity provides a multitude of ways to stand out from the competition. This groundbreaking book teaches you how to develop those strategies. In Sales Differentiation, sales management strategist, Lee B. Salz presents nineteen easy-to-implement concepts to help salespeople win deals while protecting margins. These concepts apply to any salesperson in any industry and are based on the foundation that "how you sell, not just what you sell, differentiates you." The strategies are presented in easy-to-understand stories and can quickly be put into practice. Divided into two sections, the "what you sell" chapters help salespeople: Recognize that the expression "we are the best" causes differentiation to backfire. Avoid the introspective question that frustrates salespeople and ask the right question to fire them up. Understand what their true differentiators are and how to effectively position them with buyers. Find differentiators in every nook and cranny of the company using the six components of the "Sales Differentiation Universe." Create strategies to position differentiators so buyers see value in them. The "how you sell" section teaches salespeople how to provide meaningful value to buyers and differentiate themselves in every stage of the sales process. This section helps salespeople: Develop strategies to engage buyers and turn buyer objections into sales differentiation opportunities. Shape buyer decision criteria around differentiators. Turn a commoditized Request for Proposal (RFP) process into a differentiation opportunity. Use a buyer request for references as a way to stand out from the competition. Leverage the irrefutable, most powerful differentiator...themselves. Whether you've been selling for twenty years or are new to sales, the tools you learn in Sales Differentiation will help you knock-out the competition, build profitable new relationships, and win deals at the prices you want.

ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter wrote a book about a subject that has nothing to do with football. Instead, he focused on "The Man I Never Met," a story about Joe Maio, his wife's first husband, who tragically passed away during the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City. Purchase "The Man I Never Met: A Memoir" - https://amzn.to/2QPY3VS A powerful true story of loss and hope by one of the biggest names in sports media. On September 11, 2001, Joe Maio went to work in the north tower of the World Trade Center. He never returned, leaving behind a wife, Sharri, and 15-month old son, Devon. Five years later, Sharri remarried, and Devon welcomed a new dad into his life. For thousands, the whole country really, 9/11 is a day of grief. For Adam and Sharri Maio Schefter and their family it’s not just a day of grief, but also hope. This is a story of 9/11, but it’s also the story of 9/12 and all the days after. Life moved on. Pieces were picked up. New dreams were dreamed. The Schefters are the embodiment of that. This book will give voice to all those who have chosen to keep living. It’s gratifying and beautiful. But also messy and hard. Like most families. Except that one day every year history comes roaring back. How do you embrace that? How do you honor that? The Man I Never Met is also a peek at Adam Schefter, the man behind the headlines and injury reports; a real person who has a real family. His book will follow in the path of recent ESPN books by Tom Rinaldi and the late Stuart Scott – books that have transcended sport to examine the raw emotion of life.

ESPN sports columnist and New York Times Bestselling author Ian O'Connor joins Brandon Steiner to discuss his new book, "Belichick: The Making of the Greatest Football Coach of All Time." Buy the book on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2A43eMm About Belichick: The Making of the Greatest Football Coach of All Time: The definitive biography of the NFL’s most enigmatic, controversial, and yet successful coach Bill Belichick is perhaps the most fascinating figure in the NFL—the infamously dour face of one of the winningest franchises in sports. As head coach of the New England Patriots, he’s led the team to five Super Bowl championship trophies. In this revelatory and robust biography, readers will come to understand and see Belichick’s full life in football, from watching college games as a kid with his father, a Naval Academy scout, to orchestrating two Super Bowl–winning game plans as defensive coordinator for the Giants, to his dramatic leap to New England, where he has made history. Award-winning columnist and New York Times best-selling author Ian O’Connor delves into the mind of the man who has earned a place among coaching legends like Lombardi, Halas, and Paul Brown, presenting sides of Belichick that have been previously unexplored. O’Connor discovers how this legendary coach shaped the people he met and worked with in ways perhaps even Belichick himself doesn’t know. Those who follow and love pro football know Bill Belichick only as the hooded genius of the Patriots. But there is so much more—from the hidden tensions and deep layers to his relationship with Tom Brady to his sometimes frosty dealings with owner Robert Kraft to his ability to earn the unmitigated respect of his players—if not their affection. This is a man who has many facets and, ultimately, has created a notorious football dynasty. Based on exhaustive research and countless interviews, this book circles around Belichick to tell his full story for the first time, and presents an incisive portrait of a mastermind at work. About Ian O'Connor: Ian O'Connor is a senior writer at ESPN.com, a nationally-acclaimed columnist, and the author of three previous books, including The New York Times bestsellers Arnie & Jack and The Captain: The Journey of Derek Jeter. He has finished in first place in more than a dozen national writing contests.

A conversation about taking the fear out of selling with bestselling author, sales coach and professional speaker Phil Jones. About Phil Jones: Phil entered the world of business at the tender age of 14. With nothing more than a bucket and sponge, he went from single-handedly washing cars at weekends to hiring a fleet of friends working on his behalf, resulting in him earning more than his teachers by the time he was 15. Soon after, at just 18, Phil was offered the role of Sales Manager at fashion retailer Debenhams – making him the youngest Sales Manager in the company’s history. His early career went from strength to strength, as he worked with a host of Premier League Football Clubs to help them agree sponsorships and licensing agreements, to then being a key part of growing a £240m property business. But in 2008, after several years of being one of the most in-demand young sales leaders in the UK, Phil decided it was time to dedicate his future to helping others to succeed. He took everything he had learnt about selling/sales from his previous roles, and created a one-day workshop, where he trained over 2,500 people in his founding year before eventually licensing his training to the UK, Switzerland, Australia and New Zealand. As Phil plunged deeper and deeper into the world of training businesses, and worked with more and more organisations to improve their results – he was becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the style of information that the marketplace was glorifying. Every body is selling something, be it an idea, a product, a service or an outcome yet the term “Sales” was often about hype, it was celebrating ruthlessness and it was all about unethically persuading and influencing people to get what they wanted. The only thing that ever seemed to matter was the short term RESULTS, with no second-thought for the impact on all people involved. Since then, Phil has made it his life’s work to completely demystify the sales process, and bring both simplicity and integrity to a world that is often full of big egos and even bigger lies. With this as Phil’s core mission, he has gone on to deliver over 2,000 presentations in 56 countries across five continents, training more than two million people (Both sales and non-sales professionals, Leaders and Experts) to learn how to have more influence, confidence and control when steering their conversations. Phil’s unique philosophy of using specific word choices to teach his audiences “Exactly What To Say” in order to influence, persuade and drive outcomes, has made Phil one of the most practical and in-demand business speakers on the planet. Phil currently lives with his wife Charlotte between their homes in New York City and their retreat in the Buckinghamshire countryside, has two beautiful daughters and a rather surprising passion for Yoga.

Brandon Steiner is joined by sales expert Troy Tutt, current VP of Partnerships at InviteManager, to discuss their emerging product and his career.

New York Times Bestselling author Jeff Pearlman joins Brandon Steiner to discuss his new book, "Football for a Buck: The Crazy Rise and Crazier Demise of the USFL." The book is now available wherever books are sold. Purchase on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2zxeFf1 About Football for a Buck: The Crazy Rise and Crazier Demise of the USFL: The United States Football League—known fondly to millions of sports fans as the USFL—was the last football league to not merely challenge the NFL, but cause its owners and executives to collectively shudder. It spanned three seasons, 1983-85. It secured multiple television deals. It drew millions of fans and launched the careers of legends. But then it died beneath the weight of a particularly egotistical and bombastic owner—a New York businessman named Donald J. Trump. The league featured as many as 18 teams, and included such superstars as Steve Young, Jim Kelly, Herschel Walker, Reggie White, Doug Flutie and Mike Rozier. In Football for a Buck, the dogged reporter and biographer Jeff Pearlman draws on more than four hundred interviews to unearth all the salty, untold stories of one of the craziest sports entities to have ever captivated America. From 1980s drug excess to airplane brawls and player-coach punch outs, to backroom business deals, to some of the most enthralling and revolutionary football ever seen, Pearlman transports readers back in time to this crazy, boozy, audacious, unforgettable era of the game. He shows how fortunes were made and lost on the backs of professional athletes and also how, thirty years ago, Trump was a scoundrel and a spoiler. For fans of Terry Pluto’s Loose Balls or Jim Bouton’s Ball Four and of course Pearlman’s own stranger-than-fiction narratives, Football for a Buck is sports as high entertainment—and a cautionary tale of the dangers of ego and excess. About Jeff Pearlman: Jeff Pearlman is the New York Times best-selling author of eight books, including The Bad Guys Won!, Boys Will Be Boys, Showtime, Sweetness and Gunslinger. He lives in Southern California with his wife Catherine and children, Casey and Emmett. He is the host of the Two Writers Slinging Yang podcast and blogs regularly at jeffpearlman.com.