New York Lizards attacker Paul Rabil has been the face of American lacrosse since the late 2000s, in large part for his play on the field and being one of the top goal scorers in Major League Lacrosse history.
Yet, the two-time MLL MVP is no slouch when it comes to the digital world and life online, an area he’s devoted time and energy towards to not only build an audience and loyal following but also monetize through his different business units, including a subscription-based service called the Paul Rabil Experience.
Rabil joined the SportTechie Podcast where he discussed his entrepreneurial spirit, developing a social media presence, noteworthy technology he’s following and honing an authentic voice, among other topics.
Lacrosse Star Paul Rabil Joins The SportTechie Podcast
Paul Rabil isn’t just a lacrosse pro. He’s building his own brand online — and monetizing it.LISTEN: https://itun.es/i67Q5Hx
Posted by SportTechie on Wednesday, May 24, 2017
When asked by host Bram Weinstein about how he’s leveraging lacrosse for his benefit but also the sport as a whole, Rabil dove into the social and online components of his “brand,” saying that “there’s no secret formula or blueprint” for creating content and engaging with followers.
“I think it’s similar to any company or entrepreneur or in this case since we’re doing this podcast here, any podcaster really starting from scratch and you have to hone in on your authentic voice,” continued Rabil. “If there are people out there who have similar interests as you and in my case, that similar interest is the sport, which we know there are people based on youth participation all the way through college and pro, then having that conversation with them first and figuring out the best medium to do so based on the demographic you’re trying to talk to, how good the content is, quality content and then cadence. I’ve invested my time, energy and resources in having ongoing conversations on multiple platforms and being authentic but also investing in creativity, doing highly-produced content as well as original content that’s off-the-cuff and even live streamed. It’s a work-in-progress, honestly…I think it just takes a lot of ambition and consistency.”
Later in the podcast, Rabil said when agents and advisors are initially working with young athletes, “if you can get them active on social, that’s the quickest way to communicate with an audience and build an audience in a really organic way,” similar to what Rabil has done on Twitter where he currently has over 70,000 followers. On Instagram, he has nearly three times the following.
The 31-year-old Rabil, whose been one of the few U.S. professional athletes to consistently leverage YouTube with creative content, additionally said that he likes posts regularly on social and online “because we don’t get coverage from mainstream media.” Additionally, he cited both three-time NBA champion LeBron James and New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski as two different examples of superstar athletes who authentically engage with their fans and supporters on social media.
“I think what athletes do well and let’s just use the NBA as an example, LeBron James does a terrific job. He has his own style, and then there may be another NBA player that may post as regularly as LeBron or irregularly but under an entirely different tone,” Rabil said. “And so, I think identifying or using those examples as finding what’s authentic to you, finding what makes you you, I think is really powerful. I think one we hear about fairly regularly is the Gronkowskis of the world. Probably what most agencies and coaches would advise athletes not to do, be as brash and kind of like irreverent as Gronk is. The interesting dichotomy is his head coach for New England, coach (Bill) Belichick, is opposite of that as well. Gronk does his job on the field and does it really well. Coach Belichick is mature enough too, and he talks about this. He’s like, ‘OK, I’m not a college coach. I’m not responsible to the Gronkowskis in terms of his family like a lot of coaches preach taking their kids in during college. He’s going to do what he wants as long as does his job on the field. That’s what matters to me, and that’s what I’m waging.’ Gronkowski, his style works. I would say that’s very authentic to him.”
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Rabil added that he thinks more athletes are slowly figuring out that while your personality and authentic self may shine through on social based on your interactions, that doesn’t mean that you’re disrespecting your opponent, showing a lack of sportsmanship or even not taking your respective sport seriously. He said that while some athletes haven’t approached the digital landscape in the same way as younger athletes — like retired NFL quarterback Peyton Manning — Rabil has a great deal of respect for individuals like Manning who have been able to “build this larger-than-life humanized brand” off the field.
The Lizards attacker ended the conversation with Weinstein, saying that wearable technology is a niche within the industry that currently stands out to him right now.
“There’s so much application on the professional level through just the general fitness-goers as we’re living and entering into more of a healthy lifestyle cultural world where people are striving to be fit, eat well and sleep well,” he said. “Those three things are probably the main targets of a number of these wearable companies. Underneath all of that is data. We have exposure to a media company called Whistle Sports that we got in earlier on. They’re a multi-channel network that has kind of pivoted away from the YouTube model to more of a broader, new, modern media company and agency. We keep coming back to no matter where our investments go, how well you’re capturing data and serving the information from that data back to your users to retain them and create a better experience and a lower churn.”