“College-football playbooks weren’t half as tough as the leadership drills Marc Nudelberg just put me through.”

Former Division-I coach-turned-performance strategist Marc Nudelberg sat across from me and proved that the grit it takes to build championship teams on Saturday is the exact same grit businesses need at 7 a.m. Monday.  From becoming the NCAA’s youngest coordinator at 26, to re-engineering sales cultures with his firm On The Ball, Marc has turned the locker-room 1% rule, get a little better every day, into a bottom-line growth engine that works long after the stadium lights go out.

Marc explains why discipline beats talent once you hit the pros, how to reverse-engineer giant goals into today’s non-negotiable behaviors, and the boundary system he uses to protect his three priorities: self-care, family, and the business.

💡 In this episode, we dive into:

✅ The real 1% rule: translating Tuesday’s invisible reps into Saturday’s visible wins

✅ Preparation • Personalization • Persistence: Marc’s 3-P framework for recession-proof business development

✅ Warren Buffett’s 5/25 filter, and why your to-do list probably needs a shredder

✅ Failure as fuel: what getting fired taught Marc about owning outcomes he didn’t cause

✅ Time blocking like a coach: turning 20 NCAA hours into a masterclass on modern time management

Marc also shares the mindset hack that detaches action from emotion (“Feel tired, run anyway”), reveals how to turn no-pay grunt work into career-defining opportunities, and reminds every leader that caring enough to tell the hard truth is still the ultimate competitive advantage.

Follow along on social media: 

Website: https://moshepopack.com/

Twitter: https://x.com/MPopack

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/MPopack

Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@mpopack

Subscribe to the Common Denominator podcast on audio:

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/common-denominator/id1565857789

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/49iQi2FZsIYdzZEs0HwM70?si=155631409c70417c

Timestamps:

00:00 Control What You Can Control

02:42 The 1% Philosophy in Leadership

05:49 Goal Setting and Daily Behaviors

08:46 Time Management and Prioritization

11:57 Discipline and Consistency in Performance

14:45 Learning from Failure

20:54 The Importance of Emotional Awareness

23:52 Creating Value Through Hard Work

28:04 On the Ball: Coaching for Improvement

29:52 The Common Denominator of Great Leaders