Paul Shirley spent nearly a decade playing professional basketball, suiting up for 17 teams around the world, including the Chicago Bulls, Phoenix Suns and Atlanta Hawks. But the lessons he carried away from professional sports had less to do with basketball and more to do with how people accomplish difficult things.

After leaving professional basketball, Paul turned to writing and discovered that many of the habits that had helped him compete as an athlete. His work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Esquire and El País, and he is the author of three books.

Paul’s presentations are particularly relevant for organizations and teams navigating distraction, competing priorities, ambitious goals and the pressure to constantly do more.

He's the author of six books, including Can I Keep My Jersey?, Stories I Tell On Dates, The Process is the Product, and The Art of Focused Work, and he founded The Process, a workspace that helps creatives, entrepreneurs, and independent workers build systems to manage distractions and focus on meaningful work.


Where he's spoken:

Iowa State's Student-Athlete Services Cyclone Speaker Series

Corporate/team engagements via PepTalk (client roster includes EY, Oracle, Capgemini, AstraZeneca, HSBC, Coca-Cola, Mercedes-Benz)