If anyone knows the cliché of no two days being the same when you work in sports, it’s TJ ADESHOLA. As Twitter’s Head of U.S. Sports, Adeshola has to make sure he keeps tabs on what is going on in the world of sports. Overseeing a “small but mighty” Twitter Sports team, Adeshola’s days are always interesting. He caught up with THE DAILY midway through his Tuesday to talk about what his schedule looked like, which included announcing the Jordan Brand Classic’s first-ever Twitter livestream that will debut on Saturday.
12:00-1:00am: We had an NBA Twitter live show extend past midnight where the Clippers came back from a 31-point deficit to beat the Warriors, and that second half was live from Twitter. I was texting guys with the NBA and with Turner, providing real-time feedback. After the game, I took what I like to call a “power nap.”
6:30am: To no surprise, one of the first things I do is pick up my phone and check Twitter, but before that as soon as I wake up, I’m really big on affirmation and so one of the things I do is I wake up and I express gratitude and excitement for seeing another day.
Adeshola oversees a Twitter Sports team that he describes as "small but mighty" TJ ADESHOLA
8:00am: Usually I’ll head over to a gym in Harlem but today I went to a local coffee spot, Caffé Latte, went through some emails and had an early phone call with our global head of partnerships KAY MADATI discussing an exciting meeting we have with Fox in L.A. tomorrow around our Women’s World Cup partnership.
9:00am: We just brought on a new member to our team that we’re really excited to have on, and we’ll welcome them to the team, give a rundown of what to expect, objectives and what lies ahead.
12:00pm: The team will go out for a welcome lunch to Soho House in the Meat Packing district. One of the things I’m very passionate about is fostering a strong team environment, because when you’re working toward a common goal, you want that comfortability so that you’re all aligned.
1:30pm: There’s a new Starbucks Reserve near the SoHo House so I’ll pop in there for an afternoon pick-me-up, and then I’ve got a call with our partners in Chicago, Stadium, who just released a documentary on DERRICK ROSE, which they’re using as a springboard to launch some new NBA programming.
2:30pm: I’ll head back to the office for a call with the NBA and with Turner Sports, and we’ll talk about our new live programming, NBA Twitter Live and our strategy for the rest of the playoffs.
4:00pm: I’m an advisor for a group called Twitter Blackbirds, which is a business resources group focused on showcasing some of the great work of people of color at Twitter, and it’s become this really cool family-type group. We’re hosting DESUS and MERO, who have a show on Showtime, at Twitter N.Y. for a meet and greet.
5:00pm: I’ve got a meeting to recap the Masters. TIGER WOODS’ win was just unparalleled on Twitter. He absolutely owned the timeline. One thing I really love about sports too is that it’s the one place you can have PRESIDENT TRUMP and PRESIDENT OBAMA totally agree and congratulating the guy.
6:00pm: As I mentioned, we’ve got a meeting with Fox in L.A., and now I’m starting to sweat about whether I’m going to miss my 8:30 flight. I’ve got TSA Precheck, CLEAR pass, all the preventative measures to avoid stressing as much as I usually would. I’ll make my way to JFK at 6:00, and during my ride, I appreciate being able to use the time to catch up on texts I may have missed, scroll through the Twitter timeline and make some calls.
8:30pm: Once I’m in the air, it’s my happy place where I can dig out of the email abyss. After I complain about in-flight WiFi for a few minutes, and once it works enough, I’ll dig in and check my email, crank out some deliverables and fine tune the materials we’re presenting to Fox for the Women’s World Cup coverage.
12:00am: I’ll end up getting to L.A. around midnight local time, and I always like to end the day the same way as I started it, with gratitude and a commitment to myself to be better tomorrow.
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