Name: Raphael Poplock
Position: The Players' Tribune Exec VP/Partnerships & Business Development
Age: 36
Where I’m from: Catskill, N.Y.
Where I call home: Long Island
Focusing on right now: Optimizing every facet of our business -- from strategy and content to product, audience development, revenue and partnerships -- to ensure long-term growth and success.
Best advice: You’re only as good as your team. Hire the most passionate and diverse set of talent, and continually train and empower them.
A must for a new hire: Positive attitude, hard working, passion, team player and the ability to take feedback. Culture fit is also a must -- I often tell folks to make sure they are truly happy with the company or group they are about to join, as you’ll usually end up spending much more time with colleagues than friends and family.
First thing in the morning: I check my email and fantasy squads and spend quality time with my wife RACHEL and oldest baby girl JORDANA. My little one, ALLIE, sleeps in pretty late. I have a pretty decent train ride, so that's when I'll catch up on industry news and get mentally prepared to come into work.
Talking tech: Social has been the biggest game changer over the last five years in the industry. Not only do you communicate with your friends, but certainly from a business standpoint, if you don't know how each of these individual social platforms work, you're going to be in trouble. I try to use as many social platforms as possible.
Must-have music: My top-rated iTunes playlist is quite a trip -- classic, cheesy '80s, all-time best artists like PEARL JAM and BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN. It depends on what kind of mood I'm in. Later in the day I may throw some BIGGIE on there or WU-TANG, and then when I'm home it's probably something like "Let it Go" from "FROZEN."
Food for thought: I love food, and there’s nothing better than sharing amazing dishes to get a full taste of a menu. Anyone who knows me, when they eat with me, they know we're going "splitskies" and sharing. At home, I'll cook very basic food for the kids like eggs and macaroni and cheese and pasta.
How I unwind: I’m all about spending quality time with my girls. Since I don’t always get to spend as much time with them as I’d like during the week, I try to load up the family fun on the weekends. I can’t wait for the weather to finally break -- I love some backyard and playground time.
Day in the life: The beauty about what I do is that my days are never the same. Meetings are always front and center, but the subject matter varies. Internally, while there are always real-time topics to discuss, we spend a ton of time on strategic, forward thinking conversations.
