Introducing Extraordinary Happens: a podcast about sports, business and life

Listen to athletes and executives share their journeys about breaking through and leading change

Over my 36-year career, one of the most important things I’ve learned is that people are the drivers of making extraordinary happen. Yes, of course brands are important. Products are important. Execution is critical. As a good company, you have to have all of those things. But if you want to do something truly world class, you have to have people who want to make it happen. And the same rings true in sports.

In my job, I’m inspired every day by the conversations I have with extraordinary people in the sports world. Many of them are MVPs or CEOs today, but they started off as seemingly ordinary people. They are people who had a dream and then worked hard, made sacrifices, challenged convention and broke through. They are people with stories of ambition, creativity, leadership and change.

Today, I’m excited to share these stories with you through my new podcast series Extraordinary Happens: Competing in Sports, Business and Life. Our premiere double episode features Green Bay Quarterback Aaron Rodgers, Fox NFL Reporter Pam Oliver, Chiefs Safety Eric Berry and Broncos Linebacker Von Miller.

In episode 1, Aaron talks about not letting others define your reality and building on successful moments – no matter how small – to help you progress and achieve your dream. And Pam talks about enjoying the journey and releasing your attachment to the outcome.

In episode 2, Eric talks about his incredible season and extraordinary comeback to the game he loves after his 2014 cancer diagnosis. And Von talks about how you really have to fall in love with what you’re doing to enjoy the journey and become great.

This podcast is about diving deeper into what inspires the people who are leading change in sports both on and off the field. The default in sports media is to focus on sports stats and win/loss records, while business news looks at stock prices and sales figures. My hope is that Extraordinary Happens will fill a void in sports business coverage and be fun and entertaining along the way.

I’ll post new episodes of Extraordinary Happens about every two weeks here and you can listen on iTunes and Stitcher.  I’m looking forward to sharing incredible stories with you. You can hear more about my vision for the podcast below. Thanks for tuning in.

Lauren Grancio