Dan, Your experiences up to this point has enriched your life from the things that you've learned, that you've taken on and shared with those around you.
We are you in your career journey to today.... You are the co-founder for a company called 4FRONT.
You and I have been friends for a very long time, and it's been so exciting to see 4FRONT really grow and evolve as a global sports & entertainment brand agency. What compelled you to start 4FRONT?
You're also responsible for the development of the careers of the team, and they really become family.
Those were those key lessons and above all, for Mike, his mantra both in life and in all the organizations and teams that he's involved in, he really believes one, every day is opening day, and two that fun is good.
I think sometimes we get so wrapped up into the day-to-day that we forget that every day is an opportunity to celebrate both the team and life, and we got into this business to have fun and it's okay and you give yourself permission to celebrate those."
There is an interesting era in your career that not many people know about.... you were a co-owner of a Minor League baseball team.
Share with us what did you learn from that experience?
Well, one, I really learned the value first and foremost of friendship. Mike Veeck, who's another angel in my life, who many in the industry know and look up to, he owns about seven Minor League baseball teams. I really learned a lot from Mike about how to treat people, how to think differently as a marketer, and really kind of challenge to constantly pushing yourself and be a creative storyteller. I had the honor to do a lot of work with Mike in some of his teams and one day, a couple of weeks before Christmas, Mike sat me down, I like to joke, it was a little bit of a Willy Wonka moment, but for me at a really early age he gave me the opportunity to be part of the ownership of one of his teams.
What it taught me is, I take the responsibility of the public trust that exists there. You are such a part of the community, you are such a ... I always like to say at the front porch of the community, and it's your job as the owner to really accelerate the heartbeat of that town in everything that you can do.
Our mission really is to help sports and entertainment organizations drive revenue really through creativity and innovation. If you think about going back to the early days in my career and how we see color, maybe organizations internally sometimes see black and white, that was really the spark that started us. I'm fortunate I've got wonderful business partners in Josh Kritzler who's very much a scientific mind and very much a business savvy individual .
I'm the storyteller, and Eric Fernandez, who's got a great background as a head of global sponsorships for AT&T, really kind of bring this powerful collection of people, and then our larger team, to help teams really be at the forefront of everything that they do.
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