Meet John Petrocelli

We were lucky to catch up with John Petrocelli recently and have shared our conversation below.

John, we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?
I attribute my resilience largely from realizing that hard work can deliver results and be a tremendous learning opportunity. I’m a major advocate of public education having attended a public high school and a state university (UMass). I grew up with very modest means where every cent mattered and there was no room forexcesses. That instilled in me a strong work ethic and a desire to grow, achieve and learn as much as I could. I began working as a young teenager with a paper route and was constantly working either one or sometimes two jobs throughout my high school and college years, especially during the summers and breaks.

This week I listened to a podcast interview where the host, Bob Lefsetz, was interviewing a former boss of mine, Tim Leiwecke who in 2012 as CEO of AEG, bought my company, Incited Media. In our initial meeting about the acquisition Tim directly laid out how AEG wanted to proceed and how AEG ‘would get of our way’ and let us run our business. He was true to his word and over the subsequent years got to see him lead and elevate AEG. In the interview he reflected on his career and his background citing his mother had died of cancer when he was 7, had 5 other siblings andhad to work to help the family make ends meet. He worked in a bakery in the early mornings and had another job after school. He went on to continue to work and build an incredible career even without a college degree. Today he is building and running some of the most successful arenas in the world. His resiliency is beyond impressive to me and I try to emulate and learn from others like Tim. A few months ago I read an article about a billionaire owner of the Boston Celtics speaking at the UMass Boston graduation and giving $5,000 to every one of the 2,500 members of the graduating class, half for them and half for them to pay it forward to a cause of their choosing. As a read the article I realized this was Rob Hale, whom I had worked for in Boston in my 20’s when he was a CEO in his twenties. Rob was and is a believer in hard work and he built a telecommunications company up, that went into bankruptcy, started over and built an incredibly successful business. Working for Rob fueled by resiliency and reading this story brought back memories of the early days of telecommunications and the all-out efforts we made to take on the largest carriers in the world as a start up. Both of these leaders are massive advocates of supporting causes and philanthropies which are hallmarks of resiliency and I have tried to support causes along the way and with our business today at Bulldog DM.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
We are the world’s most experienced livestream studio. We provide all the turnkey services that a client would need to master the world of livestreaming. We just celebrated our 10-year anniversary and have centered our work on premium experiences presented by brands and platforms. We power experiences that include concerts, festivals, performances, conferences, product launches, movie premiers, and ecommerce events.
Recently we enabled all of the performances at Pharrell’s Something In The Water festival livestreamed on YouTube and presented by Walmart. In addition, we produced and powered Wells Fargo’s One Night Only concert series with AEG that featured artists: Fitz and the Tantrums, Colony House, M83, Us the Duo and Michael Franti + Spearhead. We livestreamed a Charlie Puth intimate performance, as well as NBA All Star pregame concert with the Kid LAROI, the Final Four tip off concert with Megan Thee Stallion and the College Football Playoffs music festival with Saweetie, Pitbull and Jonas Brothers – all for AT&T.
We’re expanding into immersive experiences, Vtuber performances, live media campaigns and spatial audio. We also formed a partnership with Film2Future, a non-profit organization dedicated to empowering underrepresented youth through film education, career mentorship and paid positions in the entertainment industry. The strategic collaboration aims to bridge the gap between the entertainment industry and this select group of aspiring young filmmakers, providing them with the necessary tools and opportunities to succeed. We will hire Film2Future alumni in paid PA positions, contribute our livestreaming expertise in Film2Future classes and serve as advocates for Film2Future.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
The three most important qualities in my journey have been:

  1. The ability to listen – in a start up this is critical both internally and externally. Internally it’s important take in everyone’s perspective and viewpoint to make better and more informed decisions and externally we’ve been able to hear our client’s challenges and goals and thus collaborate on how to help address both.
  2. The ability to manage a sales campaign, largely based on what was learned in our listening to our external clients and prospects. This has helped set us apart and to become not just vendors to our clients but moreover partners.
  3. Creativity – We work at the intersections of art, music, technology and marketing which is an incredibly dynamic role especially in a live environment. I learned a great deal from my time working with Prince earlier in my career and how we was able to bring his creative visions to fruition and tune out any noise and dial in his focus. Working with music artists and creators has only reinforced our commitment to creativity. Also we work with major brands and their marketing leadership who are some of the greatest marketers in business today and its always fascinating when these entities align in these projects and create incredible moments and experiences.
    My advice for people starting out is to expand your vision, take on different roles and tasks early in your career and do not be afraid to fail, as that is where the true lessons and learnings kick in. I also believe it’s important to hone your sales and marketing skills as early as you can as those are traits that will always be in demand and being aligned with revenue is a conduit to opening up potential roles in your career as well as your network.

Before we go, any advice you can share with people who are feeling overwhelmed?
I play competitive adult baseball in Los Angeles and found this to be a great outlet and break from work and running a company. Playing on a team also reinforces collaboration across a group trying to achieve a goal. I’m a pitcher and pitching forces me to clear my mind entirely and strategically focus on how to attack a hitter. Typically, people playing adult baseball tend to all be good hitters and as I’ve gotten older, I’ve had to add and develop additional pitches like sliders and change ups to get hitters out.
A quick 30 minute visit to a batting cage is an incredible way to decompress for anyone and I highly recommend it.
I try to bike ride multiple times a week to recharge and refresh and have two English Bulldogs that are calming and entertaining presences in my life.

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