Ruben Rapi: Use These Four Ways to Grow Your Club
Rowing has a way of getting into your system and shaping everything that comes after. For Ruben Rapi, that started when he was seven years old in Greece, and led him all the way to the U23 Swedish National Team.
But it was stepping away from elite competition that gave Ruben a new perspective on rowing. Not just as a sport, but as a community that, in many places, is struggling to grow or adapt.
Today, Ruben and his brother Ahmet – also a former Swedish National Team member – are working with clubs around the world to strengthen the foundations that help them thrive. This conversation goes beyond performance. It’s about what rowing clubs actually need to succeed—and how small, intentional shifts can make a big difference.
GUEST:
Ruben Rapi | Co-Founder, Grow Your Club
IG: @rubenrapi / @grow.your.club
growyourclub.com
This episode was made possible in part by RowSource and our Supporters.
QUICK LOOK
00:00 - Introduction
01:56 - Ruben’s rowing week on a scale of 1-10: 6 - filming marketing ads in his 1x
02:31 - The Huddle
03:06 - The Hot Seat
04:36 - Ruben’s rowing origin story: At age 7, followed his 9-year-old brother Ahmet into the Ionnina Rowing Club to keep busy
13:37 - Being competitively motivated from the start led to a spot on the U23 Swedish National Team
17:22 - The challenge of volunteer-run clubs: presenting/offering good services
18:57 - Four basic core elements your club needs to have in place to thrive
20:51 - Four ways to bring more rowers into your club; and considering how your club operates
30:45 - Test case: Indianapolis Rowing Club partnered with Grow Your Club for a 120-person LTR in place of multiple smaller LTRs
34:30 - No matter your club size, create an environment that coaches and rowers want to be a part of beginning with preparation, execution, and then conversion.
40:33 - Badly run beginner programs are a waste of time
41:51 - The importance of well-planned and implemented communications
43:34 - Ruben and Ahmet’s “why”
45:37 - Steady State Network news and notes
Episode Mentions
🎧 = Listen to a Steady State Podcast episode
BUSINESSES
Grow Your Club
CLUBS & TEAMS
Hammarby Rowing
Indianapolis Rowing Club 🎧
REGATTAS
USRowing Masters Nationals
ROWERS
Martin Helseth 🎧
Stefanos Ntouskos
Ahmet Rapi
Lisa Stickley 🎧
SCHOLASTIC & YOUTH PROGRAMS
Ionnina Rowing Club
USROWING
National Learn to Row Day
WORLD ROWING
World Rowing Championships
World Rowing Cup
Steady State Podcast is hosted and edited by Rachel Freedman and Tara Morgan. Tara provides additional audio engineering, books show guests, and is our sponsor and donor coordinator. Rachel writes our scripts and e-newsletter, and manages the website and social media. Our theme music is Open Mind by Soundroll.
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