Jimmy’s Blog

For tonight’s class, our students presented the first of two class projects. The assignment was to create a marketing plan for Washington’s WNBA team, the Mystics. Earlier in the semester, Ted Leonsis, the majority owner, spoke to our class.   I asked him if the class can do a project for one of his teams.  Well, the Capitals are selling out nearly every game.  So, they don’t need much marketing help.  But, the Mystics, on the other hand, need help, especially with ticket sales.

Overall, the eight groups of students did a pretty good job.  It certainly wasn’t an easy assignment since the WNBA is having some difficulty with TV ratings and ticket sales.   It’s particularly hard in city like where there’s so much competition for the entertainment dollar … Redskins, Capitals, Wizards, Nationals, United, Georgetown U, U of Maryland, AU, GWU, etc.  Plus, on top of that, the Kennedy Center, Warner Theatre, Shakespeare Theater, etc.

I managed AOL’s partnership with the WNBA over a 5-year period.  And, I’m good friends with a number of their all-star players, including Swin Cash, Sue Bird, Ruth Riley, Alana Beard, etc.  And their President, Donna Orender, is a long-time friend.

I’m a big fan of the WNBA.  I’ve watched with admiration as the league continues to grow and evolve.   The talent level continues to get better and better.

Lots of guys bash the WNBA and LPGA.  But, the truth is, the style of play of the WNBA is how a vast majority of men play the game, r.e. rare dunks, good passing and teamwork, lots of movement and cuts.  Similarly, most male golfers hit in distance much more like LPGA golfers than PGA golfers, who frequently bomb 300-yard drives.

Plus, the WNBA players are so much more gracious with their time and commitment to community service – as opposed to many of the prima donna NBA players.

Lastly, with my recent experience in Diversity and Inclusion, it’s great to see the growth of female sports.  Title IX was indeed a major law that has had far-reaching impact.   It’s great to see so many females being active in sports — from the youth leagues to high schools to college to professional leagues.  We are all better off for it.

Today was my last day at AOL.  It’s been a terrific 14-year run.  I feel blessed and fortunate to have worked at such a great company.   Yes, we’ve been taking heat from a lot of people over the past years, but I take great pride in being a part of the AOL family.

I’m leaving to launch my own relationship management agency — JLynn Associates, focused on Sports and Entertainment.   A vast majority of time was spent in Business Development and Account Management for AOL’s numerous strategic sports partnerships, including the NFL, NBA, NASCAR, MLB, NHL, WNBA, Turner Sports, HBO Sports, Sports Illustrated, ABC Sports, WWF, PGA, Athlete Direct, STATS, SportsTicker, NTN, etc.

I feel like it’s now time to better leverage my sports rolodex — so after discussing this at length with my group of advisers and confidantes, it’s time to move on.  Plus, I’ve worked at major media companies for nearly 20 years now — I’m interested in trying something new and different.

I have so many wonderful memories from my AOL days.  Yes, I was fortunate to attend Super Bowls, World Series, NBA All-Star Games, NBA Finals, Olympics, World Cups, Stanley Cups, NASCAR races, etc.  And, I very much enjoyed the past couple of years working on our Diversity and Inclusion efforts.

My key takeaway is the people I met — I was fortunate to work with so many terrific and talented people.   I met one of my primary mentors in life at AOL — and I’ve mentored over 40 co-workers over the years.  And, I’ve met many friends who are and will continue to be life-long friends.  Also, a large number of former clients have also become very good friends.

My nickname, at various times, was the “Mayor” of the AOL campus and “Mayor” of the sports industry.   Yes, I’m a people person.  But, it’s because I was surrounded by so many terrific people at both AOL and within the sports industry.

Thus, I owe a deep debt of gratitude to AOL.  I’m proud to be a 14-year veteran of AOL and will continue to be a member of the AOL family for life.   I wish my colleagues there tremendous success.  And, I look forward to connecting with and working with some of my former co-workers.

Thank you, AOL, you have made such a large, positive influence in my life.  I would mention names of people that positively impacted me, but that list would be far too long and I wouldn’t want to leave anyone off the list.

It’s been a roller-coaster ride … from being the third-ranked online service provider when I joined … to acquiring the largest media company in the world a few years down the road … to the ups and downs over the past decade.   But, it’s been well worth the ride … and I leave the campus today with enormous pride and joy.  It’s all good.   Peace.

I spent the entire day on the Georgetown Law Center campus.   We were there for Georgetown’s Sports and Entertainment Symposium.

I participated on the first panel, “Effect of the Internet on the Sports, Entertainment and Media Worlds.”  I shared the panel with four distingushed attorneys (I was the lone MBA) on the panel.   I thought we had a terrific exchange of ideas on how the internet and new media are affecting the music, film and sports worlds.  We did our best to talk about our areas of expertise as well as provide career advice to the law students.

Then, we held a luncheon that honored the esteemed Sen George Mitchell, who graduated from GU Law in the mid 60’s.  He’s truly one of the great people in this country — his body of work is amazing.   He’s already done so much for the US … and will continue to do as President Obama has asked for his expertise in dealing with the situation in the Mideast.

I moderated the third and final panel session, which was titled “The Behavior of Entertainers and Athletes and How it Affects their Employment Contracts.”   We had a superb group of panelists — Damon Jones, Club Counsel, Washington Nationals; Derrick Mayes, CEO, Executive Action Sports (and one of Notre Dame’s all-time greats); Ben Block, who works on NFL issues for Covington and Burlin; and Matt Winkler, Assoc Dean of GU’s Sports Industry Mgt program.

We discussed a number of issues, including the upcoming NFL / NFLPA collective bargaining agreements, Michael Vick, Michael Phelps, salary caps, rookie wage scales, steroids, etc.

This was our 2nd Sports and Entertainment Symposium — I’m already looking for to next year’s event!

We held our Super Leaders board meeting earlier tonight, led by our founder and role model, Brig Owens.  Brig is a remarkable person who has been overseeing Super Leaders for over 22 years – that’s an incredible commitment to the DC community.

The mission of the SL program is to “identify and train a team of students in selected schools to resist the negative pressures of their home, school and neighborhood environments.  SL develops these students to be positive role models and peer leaders in the effort to prevent substance abuse, violence, teen pregnancy, AIDS, academic failure and other problems effecting their peers and younger children.  The program also focuses on life skills and physcial fitness initiatives.”

300 – 500 students are enrolled each school year, reaching more than 5,000 students through outreach and student leadership.

Our Executive Director, Ms Frankie Crosby, is a fantastic person who oversees the program, including the weekend retreats.   She is another role model and leader in this community.   We are fortunate to have Frankie and Brig showing us the way.

The board is comprised of a number of leading business executives from the greater DC region.  It’s great to see the dedication of this entire group to “give back” and to help create a more level playing field for the DC children from lower-income families.

I’m honored to be part of this team.

Yesterday was the first day back on the Georgetown campus after Spring Break.    Normally, we don’t have a full class right after the break since some students are still coming back to campus but we had pretty much a full group last night.

For last night’s class, for the first time this semester, we had two guest speakers.   Since every speaker thus far this semester has been a male, I invited two female friends of mine to present to the class.

The first guest speaker is not a sports figure, but since sports is entertainment, I figured the class would enjoy hearing her recent experience as a contestant in Miss America.

Kate Marie Grinold, the reigning Ms Washington, DC just finished in the top 10 in the recent Ms America pageant in Las Vegas.   She described in detail her terrific experiences as a contestant.  What’s remarkable is that KM had never participated in a pageant until the one last Spring for Ms Washington DC, yet she still managed to land a top 10 finish — which is outstanding!

The second guest speaker, Christine Brennan, is one of the top sportswriters in the country.   She writes currently for USA Today — and she’s also written 7 books, including a best-seller about women’s ice figure skating (Nancy Kerrigan – Tonya Harding).

Chris is a terrific person and wonderful writer.  She went to Journalism school at Northwestern – with her dear friend, Michael Wilbon.  She covered the Univ of Florida and Univ of Miami in the early 80’s, including the championship they won in ’84 (and when they first started calling themselves the “U”).

She then joined Wilbon at the Washington Post.  She made history in ’85 as the first female sportswriter given press credentials to enter a NFL locker room (she was the beat reporter for the Washington Redskins).

Chris was part of an all-star team of sportswriters at the Washington Post, including Wilbon, Tony Kornheiser, John Feinstein, Sally Jenkins, Len Shapiro and so many others.

Chris is a true trail-blazer and pioneer in the sportswriting world.   To see more her work, you can read her on Thursdays in USA Today or go to http://www.christinebrennan.com.

Wow, wow, wow!  The AU Eagles did it again yesterday.   They beat Holy Cross to capture the Patriot League Championship and made it to the NCAA Tournament for the 2nd year in a row.  Last year was AU’s first-ever time to the Big Dance.

Congrats to Coach Jeff Jones and his team, mostly the 7 seniors who played superbly throughout the season.

AU’s Bender Arena was packed yesterday afternoon for this thrilling event.   Per Patriot League rules, the visiting team is allocated 1/3 of the tickets, so it wasn’t all AU fans, but it was a rollicking atmosphere.

DC Mayor Fenty was there w/ his twin sons … as well as most of DC’s sports media types.   AU might be the only DC area team going to the NCAA Tourney this year, which is hard to believe.  But, hopefully, Maryland will make it too after their terrific win over Wake Forest last night.

Last year, the over-matched AU Eagles battled gamely against the supremely talented Univ of Tennessee Volunteers.   The Vols only led by 1 point w/ 6 minutes left but they went to beat the Eagles.  It’ll be interesting to see who AU is matched up against this year.  We’ll find out tomorrow evening on “Selection Sunday.”

But, before we get to the selection show, there’s still a ton of college hoops to be played today / tomorrow, including the thrilling Big East and ACC tournaments.   When I woke up this morning, I was bummed to see the windy, rainy weather in DC, but now I’m okay with it since I’ll be in front of my TV this afternoon watching great hoops action (just like I’ll be doing the next couple of weekends with the NCAA March Madness)!   It’s all good.

I was very fortunate the past two evenings to take part in a couple of terrific gatherings as part of the Venture Philanthropy Partners family.  As I’ve written before, VPP is a terrific philanthropic organization that is the brainchild of Mario Morino, the “Godfather of Philanthropy” in the greater Washington, DC area.  He co-founded VPP in ’99 with Raul Fernandez and Sen. Mark Warner.

On Wednesday evening, VPP held an event at the Monocle in Capitol Hill.   The event featured a “Conversation on the Hill with Senator Warner.”   As those of you that have heard him speak can attest, Sen Warner is a terrific and motivating speaker.   He led a terrific discussion about his first 60 days in office; the differences between being a US Senator vs a Governor; the nation’s economic crisis and several other intriguing topics.  Also, it was terrific to hear thought-provoking questions from several of DC’s leading business executives that were in attendance – as well as the responses from Sen. Warner.

Then, earlier tonight, VPP held a Speaker Series event with Matthew Bishop, author of “Philanthrocapitalism” and New York bureau chief of The Economist.  Mario led the discussion with Matthew, then opened it up to questions from the VPP family.  Again, this was a thoroughly intellectually-stimulating hour.  Bishop shared anecdotes from his interviews with Bill Gates, Ted Turner, Warren Buffet and others.

To me, the key takeaway, as noted in previous blogs, is that in these turbulent economic times, we can’t forget about the importance of philanthropy, community service and “giving back” to others.   One can 1) donate time, 2) donate money, 3) donate time and money or 4) do nothing.  A majority do nothing.  Many can’t donate money now due to the rough economic period we’re going through, but one can certainly donate time.  There are many, many people that need our help.  So, if you can donate time to help others, it will be greatly appreciated by those that you are helping.  And, it will give you a good inner feeling, too.

Thank you to Mario, Raul, Mark, Jack Davies, Carol Thompson Cole, Eleanor Rutland, Tim Wierzbicki and the whole VPP family for showing us the way.   VPP is a fantastic organization and I’m proud to be a member of the VPP family.  If you’re interested in learning more, pls go to http://www.venturephilanthropypartners.org.   Peace.

Chinese food. Who doesn’t like Chinese food?   So money.   Over the past week, I’ve eaten w/ friends at two of my favorite Chinese restaurants in the DC area — Peking Gourmet in Bailey’s Crossroads and Miewah in DC.

Lots of people Peking Gourmet at President Bush’s favorite Chinese restaurant but locals know it as the place serving the best Peking Duck in the area (although Duck Chang’s in Annandale has been a long-time favorite for the past couple of decades).  Man, that meal at Peking Gourmet was off the hook — hot n sour soup, fried dumplings, pork fried rice and the house specialty – the Peking Duck.  The place is highly recommended.

Miewah and City Lights are my two fav Chinese places in the city.  But, I prefer Miewah since it’s easier to park and the place is consistently good.  My go-to meal there is hot ‘n sour soup, spring rolls, and the chicken and broccoli.

I also have to throw props to China Garden since that’s where we hosted our fabulous Asian-American LEAD dinner last month.   That’s a terrific, traditional Chinese restaurant.

Of course, none of this is like eating at the authentic Chinese restaurants in Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong.  Holy smokes — some of the traditional dishes there are unlike anything I’ve ever seen here in the U.S.  My friends in China love to order these dishes and watch me squirm as I attempt to eat what they ordered.   They love to tease that I eat Chinese food like an American.  Guilty!

We had our 4th annual Capitol Movement Project performance at the historic Lincoln Theatre in Washington, DC last night.  It was another superb performance from this inventive and entertaining dance company.

With a cast of 90, featuring adult and youth dancers, males and females — the 2 1/2 hours seemed to fly by.  It was a thoroughly entertaining evening.

I’m on the CMP Board of Directors – so to help support CMP, I purchased a block of 25 tickets.  Each and every one of my friends enjoyed the show.  Many asked they can become involved.  To learn more, pls go to http://www.capitolmovement.org.

I had 5 of our Asian-American LEAD students there.   Four of the children are high school students who perform in a hip-hop group and the fifth is this wonderful fourth-grader who loves to sing and entertain.  I had a great time taking them back-stage after the show to meet the CMP co-founders, Stephanie and Amber as well as many of the performers.  They loved it!  And, I’m going to work on getting these students signed up for the CMP classes and workshop this Spring and Summer.

U St in Washington, DC used to rival Harlem  as the top place for African-American music acts.  After the riots in ’68, things went downhill and the area suffered.  But, over the past decade, there’s a been a great transformation taking place on U St — and it’s terrific to see the many new businesses that are now thriving in this historic part of town.   So, having the CMP show back again at the Lincoln made it a wonderful night in the Nation’s Capital.