We had the good fortune of connecting with Jon J Franklin and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jon J, what’s the most important lesson your business/career has taught you?
That career movements go up and down. When you are getting going in your career, you believe and anticipate the momentum will always be towards success. But we learn that there are low points and high points and that success is bred from multiple challenges and set backs. From this you learn a few things. No matter the challenge, you can never stop. And the corollary is always go. Take the meeting, Go to the event. You never know what lies around the next bend and how it can impact you.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
My Career has been focused on diversified sports marketing. I have been an agent to World Champion and Olympic Gold Medal athletes and combat sports competitors. I expanded to sports promotion and sports television rights sales. I have worked at multiple Olympics including a stint as Broadcast Supervisor for Boxing at the 2012 London Olympic Games. Along the way I have promoted hundreds of events and managed sponsor activation’s for some of the World’s most well known brands such as Rolex, Barilla, Cafe de Colombia, Monster Energy and many more. I have served as CEO to a number of Global Sports Leagues and have opened offices in far flung territories such as Japan and Netherlands and more. I have learned that all opportunity comes with challenges and you must take your job seriously but you cannot take yourself seriously. Challenges and challenging people must be met with good humor and a openness to connect with the people and willingness to work towards solutions that are not necessarily the ones you might have championed.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Of course, this would depend on the friend and the season. Our signature move is snow skiing at A-Basin in the morning and waterskiing at Denver’s Aloha Beach in the afternoon. Followed by beach BBQ and uber to late night cocktails upstairs at Union Station. A bit of mountains, beach and downtown action.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
In memory of Mark H. McCormack, founder and CEO of IMG, and author of “What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School”. I was fortunate enough to work for Mark at IMG the first 15 years of my career. IMG was a place where we were all encouraged to be in-trapreneurs in our business areas and to take calculated risk with an understanding that not everything worked and we would all learn how to be better executives along the way. A heady exciting culture where we did not fear failure.

Website: www.skiracing.com www.worldproskitour.com

Instagram: jonjfranklin

Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/jonjfranklin/

Twitter: @Jon_J_Franklin

Facebook: Jon J Franklin

Other: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_J._Franklin

Image Credits
Credit all photos: NMF Creations

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