About my job: It affords me opportunities to participate in the sports I’d want to be doing with my free time anyway, mainly snowboarding and surfing. Marketing and Web development projects often take us to the Rockies, Sierras and some of the best surfing locations in the world. And the opportunity to take advantage of these trips — before or after a lot of hard work is put in — I never take for granted.
About sports: Sports for me are still very much about the fun, the actual play. I think this only happens when the sports you are working in are the same ones you genuinely have a passion for.
About pro sports: The confidence of pro athletes. I have never met any who did not honestly believe that they were going to win their next event or game. Pro athletes have another physical and mental gear which the rest of us don’t have.
About college sports: Appalachian State
About competing in this business: I almost never consider our competition. I learned that from Hank Janczyk, my college lacrosse coach. There just wasn’t time to prepare our own team and prepare for the opposing team. So, you’re best off simply getting yourself as ready as you can be. For me, that means preparing the best pitch or helping develop the best client strategy and not being swayed by what a competitor might be doing.
An insight: MySpace, YouTube and Facebook are not networks or billboards for your ads or traditional marketing tactics. I know you don’t believe me. There is no room for the explanation here, so please get up right now from your desk and go ask your 20-year-old intern to explain. This magazine will still be here when you get back. I’m serious. Go!
A timeless idea: Consumers make the only decision that matters, not marketers or anyone else. In 2003, when conservative talk-radio hosts achieved a near-total ban on the music of the Dixie Chicks and country music stations in nearly every state flatly refused to play the group’s album “Taking the Long Way,” their songs became the most downloaded on iTunes that year.
A marketing idea: Steve Martin’s advice to people trying to break into the entertainment industry is to be so good that you can’t be ignored. I believe in this type of meritocracy, even in marketing. Make a product that is so good, interesting, creative or valuable that it must be noticed and then be truthful about it.
A brand: Life. Look out for them. Started as a influential retailer and now beginning to dominate cutting-edge streetwear.
A trend: Mustaches
An innovation: Run-flat tires.
A competitor’s idea: I don’t know when they did it, but years ago, Surfdog Entertainment bought the café that was connected to its office. I love coffee and always thought that was brilliant. Maybe Fuse should buy the Muddy Waters café in Burlington or Smooch café in Fort Greene, Brooklyn! I love those places.
An idea or invention I wish I had thought of: $4 coffee
A fantasy job: To own the Knicks. I’d name Brian Gregory (University of Dayton) the coach. He was my roommate in grad school, and I think I still owe him money on the last month’s rent. I’d give every season pass holder a free year because this year shouldn’t be counted. You don’t need to always win in New York, but you do need to be tough and give it 100 percent, whether you are playing GM or power forward.
People: President Obama
Above all else: When people make the decision to put their money where their mouth is or use their skills for a cause bigger than themselves. I am in awe of Newark (N.J.) Mayor Cory Booker. I doubt there is a single person in this country with more opportunities than he who has put more on the line or made more sacrifices. He is an absolute leader.
Hero: Jeff Clark, who surfed alone, miles from shore, in the 50-degree water and 25-foot waves of Northern California’s Mavericks for 15 years before anyone else decided it could be done and joined him. I barely walk to my bedroom alone after watching the news.
Players: Eli Manning. I’m not even a Giants fan, but no one should ever get as much heat as he got. What was it that fans didn’t like exactly? Shut up and admit it: He’s much tougher than you!
Teams: J.E.T.S.
City: I love New York, because it has everything. But Burlington, Vt., is about as good as it gets for livability. Six places for coffee on Church Street, dogs in the workplace and Stowe Mountain’s “Bypass” trail so close you can hit it before work when it snows.
Possession: Everyone says iPod here. The answer is Zune.
Music: Kimya Dawson and/or the Moldy Peaches. If I could write like that I would not be in sports marketing. And Ray Charles.
Books: “The Geography of Bliss,” by Eric Weiner of NPR. It’s a true original and defies easy categorization. “Letters to a Young Artist,” 23 letters written by leading artists in response to a letter from a recent art school graduate. The literary journal Watchword.
Gadgets: Garmin personal navigation system
Vacation spot: Tamarindo, Costa Rica
Movies: I just rewatched the documentary “Metallica: Some Kind of Monster.” This has almost nothing to do with music but everything with how creative people find a way to produce something artistic and worthwhile, despite their selfishness and destructiveness.
Artist: Brooklyn-based Scott Lenhardt (www.slenhardt.com). Not that I suppose he cares much, but everyone should be buying his stuff.
Food: Steamed crabs and Natural Light
Dessert: Bento box at Matsuhisa in Aspen
What I would like …
To change: The lack of diversity in sports marketing is pretty staggering. The question is, what are properties, teams, leagues, agencies and others going to do about it? I think the answer is going to be “not much” until we find a way to unify our well-intended but individual efforts and develop an industrywide campaign.
To reintroduce: The concept of the well-written and truthful RFP. If you’re a brand and you don’t have an actual project with a timeline and a budget, then you don’t have an RFP. And if you don’t have an RFP, treat your peers who work at agencies with respect by not contacting them and wasting their time asking them to develop ideas for you. By the way, if this is offensive to you, you are probably an offender.
What I don’t like …
In sports business: The use of eminent domain to seize private property to build an arena. If you want a brownstone that a family in Brooklyn has lived in for 40 years, pay them fairly, like 10 percent of Jason Kidd’s contract.
In sports media: How it makes its own kings and queens before the athletes themselves determine who is best and who should garner the most coverage.
