162: Adnan Virk - ESPN Broadcaster: Why You Should Always Say Yes

The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

Ryan Hawk

Business, Careers, Management

4.9 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 25 September 2016

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Episode 162: Adnan Virk - ESPN Broadcaster: Why You Should Always Say Yes

Adnan Virk works for ESPN. He is the first Muslim Sports anchor to be hired by ESPN. Adnan is one of the most versatile talents in all of ESPN. He is one of three main anchors for Baseball Tonight. In the baseball off-season, he has hosted SportsCenter and Outside the Lines. He is known as someone who will always say "yes" when a leader calls and asks him to fill in. He has filled in for Keith Olbermann, Mike and Mike, SVP & Russilo, and many others. He is a "cinephile." Adnan has an immense love for film, regularly picks the Oscars, and does movie reviews on radio and TV. Recently, he started his own podcast titled, "Cinephile - The Adnan Virk Movie Podcast." He interviews actors and reviews movies. Some of his guests have been: Robert DeNiro (that story is discussed in depth on this episode), Viggo Mortensen, Denis Leary, Will Arnett, and more. His love (and knowledge) of movies is evident during this conversation.

Episode 162: Adnan Virk - ESPN Broadcaster: Why You Should Always Say Yes

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The Learning Leader Show

"You will always have a job if you can do a lot of things. But you REALLY get paid if you can do one thing extremely well." - Mike Greenberg

In This Episode, You Will Learn:

The Top 5 Tom Hanks movies (we respectfully disagree but had fun discussing)
The reason he became a sportscaster
How he got his job at ESPN
Why he chose to study Broadcasting in college
Where his love of film came from
Originally wanting to be a director and the moment when he realized he should do something else (and why)
What he learned writing his first script -- "You have to be economical with your words"
The impact his movie knowledge had on his co-workers at ESPN -- And opportunities it created for him
Being a "generalist" -- How and why it's helped him
Movie Reviews - Big, Top Gun, Rounders, Cast Away
"You will always have a job if you can do a lot of things. But you really get paid if you can do one thing extremely well."
His interview preparation process
A great Robert DeNiro story - Meeting him, interviewing him, and what happened after it was over
The greatest part about having a podcast
Understanding the goals you have for each interview -- Having a plan
- Have to be prepared
- Research (a lot)
- Be prepared to go anywhere
"Whenever there is an opening, always show up. Always be there for your boss. Be known as the person who says yes when your boss calls. Don't tell them about the trouble it takes you to say yes, just do it. Show up."

"Whatever your passion is... You have to find it. And do it. You need new challenges and goals to be entertained."

Continue Learning:

To Listen to his podcast: Cinephile: The Adnan Virk Movie Podcast
To Follow Adnan on Twitter: @adnanESPN
To Follow Me on Twitter: @RyanHawk12

You may also like these episodes:

Episode 078: Kat Cole – From Hooters Waitress To President of Cinnabon

Episode 071: Nate Boyer - Green Beret, Texas Football, The NFL

Episode 047: David Marquet - "Turn The Ship Around"

Episode 107: Simon Sinek – Leadership: It Starts With Why

Did you enjoy the podcast?

If you enjoyed hearing Adnan Virk on the show, please don't hesitate to send me a note on Twitter or email me.

Episode edited by the great J Scott Donnell

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Transcript

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0:00.0	I really wanted to be a director. I wanted to be like Scorsese and I want to make my own movies.
0:04.0	Now the son of Pakistani immigrants, they're not going to give me $40,000 to go to college and whatever the health study film means.
0:10.0	So I figured the smartest way to do it was to say I'm going to go for
0:13.0	Broadcasting radio and television arts because I did really like broadcasting and I
0:16.8	figured you know what I love movies and sports so if I get a job in either one I'm pretty much good to go.
0:21.4	So I went to radio and Television Arts, Ryerson University,
0:24.8	downtown Toronto, where I was born but we moved and I was so young I was six. This was really
0:28.9	my true experience of being in Toronto this big city which was kind of overwhelming at the time.
0:34.4	But I remember the first day of class we went around the room run and they said to us, what do you
0:37.4	want to do?
0:38.4	And some kids would say, I want to be an actor, some kids I want to be a director.
0:40.6	And I said, I go, I'm going to be a director and I'm going to do what Robert
0:43.0	Alman did after Nashville and the player and shortcuts which was be a TV
0:47.6	director that he segued to movies. Our leaders born or are they made? Our
0:52.1	Our host Ryan Hawk believes that leaders can be made through determined, focused work on learning the art and science behind the makeup of other successful leaders.
1:01.0	Now it's time to inhale knowledge and exhale success. You're listening
1:05.2	to the Learning Leader Show I am Ryan Hawken. Thank you so much for being here.
1:27.1	What a fun, enjoyable and entertaining conversation I had with Ad NAN Verk. Adnan is a sports reporter and host with
1:36.6	E-P-N. He is the host of baseball tonight as well as E-SPN college football coverage. You also find him filling in
1:44.8	for many of the talented people at ESPN, Mike and Mike, Keith Ulmerman, Ryan
1:50.4	Rissillo, SVP's always there, always shows up and that was a part of our conversation,
1:55.0	a few of the other topics we got into, the advantage to being a generalist versus a specialist.
	...

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