Octagon Marketing Americas President JOHN SHEA spent a portion of this work week traveling from his home in Fairfield, Conn., to Houston and N.Y. for meetings. This weekend, he and his wife LAURA will be immersed in sporting activities for their five children -- ranging from 8-14 years of age. He acknowledges it can be quite the task, considering there can be upwards of 13 games per weekend. Shea, a two-time member of SportsBusiness Journal’s “Forty Under 40,” says there is rarely an occasion where the kids do not have overlapping game schedules. Therefore, he and Laura typically spend Friday nights outlining what is on the agenda for the upcoming weekend. He calls it a “divide and conquer” action plan. Shea jokingly said, “You could say this helps me realize how focused things are, or how boring my life is.”
FATHER OF MINE: My wife and I hope to spend Friday night going to see the movie “ENTOURAGE.” My oldest son, who is 14, is now our built-in babysitter. Going out for dinner and a movie gives the two of us time to catch up, but I would not exactly consider that “nightlife.” The latest the kids allow us to sleep in on weekends is 6:30am. They are up and active. Our morning ritual on weekends is a local place called The Country Cow for breakfast on the go. A Saturday morning bacon, egg and cheese is a great way to kick off the weekend. On Saturday, I am going to coach my daughter’s final soccer game of the year. I will follow that up by watching my sons play baseball. Saturday night we are going to a charity keg party for an excellent cause. Sunday will start off much like Saturday. But this time I am coaching my son’s soccer team. After that, I will hopefully spend sometime time in the afternoon with my dad watching the U.S. Open, God willing.
HIGH ON A MOUNTAIN TOP: I try to strive for that balance between work and family. My wife and I recently snuck away for a quick weekend at a friend’s wedding up in Vermont. Most of our visit was spent with friends and family, but we did get some alone time. We have a house in Vermont. In the winter, we enjoy skiing and snowboarding on Okemo Mountain. My kids all compete in some snow discipline, so we spend a lot of time on the mountain. But we try to get there as much as we can year-round. In the summer, we hike and swim. But when I am traveling, I spend that idle time listening to music, watching movies and catching up on e-mails. I listen to a little bit of everything, but U2 is my favorite band. However, my kids help me to stay somewhat current on the music scene.
DO YOU BELIEVE IN MAGIC? Since I often work 12-hour days, I occasionally sneak in a run before I go to the office. I also still pretend to play soccer a little bit. My only routine weekend chore is to try and avoid the chores. Sadly, the one ritual I have is reorganizing our garage every weekend. To say we share the cooking responsibilities would be unfair to my wife, but I will pick up some of the duties on weekends. Now that we are in grill season, I will spend a lot of time at the barbeque. We are a meat and potatoes family, so there are a lot of N.Y. strips hitting the grill. What little time for TV on the weekends there is, I dedicate to sports and occasionally catching up on my DVR. I use Twitter as my go-to from a news standpoint and for information. The other apps I use are primarily for functional purposes. Reading that is not work-related is spent with my kids. My son right now is devouring a series called “MAGIC TREE HOUSE.” Sunday night is designated for e-mail clean up, but typically it is spent looking at the calendar for the week to lay the ground work for upcoming meetings.
