Jamie Horowitz co-founded Omaha Productions with Peyton Manning in December 2020. He serves as the agency’s president, which focuses on creating unifying and uplifting content.
Previously, he was WWE’s EVP of digital and Development. Horowitz led WWE’s authentic programming slate and digital projects.
Horowitz shaped the strategy for WWE’s social media output and off-platform content distribution in this potential.
Before that, he was the EVP of Content, North America, for DAZN, where he led content creation and strategy for the company’s North American business.
Sport is the great escape, and people like to argue about it. That’s why people consume it.
Jamie Horowitz
This included the innovative development and manufacturing of DAZN’s studio suggestions and operating with Sylvester Stallone on unique boxing documentaries and movies.
Before that, Horowitz became President of FOX Sports National Networks. Horowitz oversaw programming, advertising marketing, and scheduling for FS1 and reinvented the FS1 daytime strategy.
Horowitz became an ESPN senior executive in his profession, advancing revolutionary everyday sports talk suggestions of “First Take” and “SportsNation.”
Horowitz began his career in sports television as an Olympic Researcher for NBC Sports, leading as much as and for the duration of the 2000 Sydney Summer Games. He graduated from Amherst College. He changed into a widespread point guard in the basketball group.
How do you ensure a productive day?
My spouse Kara and I experience like there are no slow days. We have three energetic boys, aged 14, 11, and 8. My alarm goes off at 5:00 a.m., and I make a cup of espresso even as I take our canine outside.
Then, I try to solve emails beginning around 5:15 am. I start early because there is a lot to do; however, I want to maintain past due afternoons and evenings flexible due to the fact I need to attend all the boys’ sports and educate them in the nearby basketball leagues.
What’s your approach to bringing ideas to life?
The most underrated part of finding new thoughts is infinite research. Over the years, many of the suggestions that my groups have launched that were considered unique were frequently simply the aggregate of a few other shows or ideas that had worked in one-of-a-kind genres or eras.
The research part of the adventure isn’t usually fun – it’s quite a few content material intake and going with the flow charts trying to connect diverse ideas.
But as soon as we understand the beats of what makes something work, we regularly discover the great course to fulfillment.
Which trend excites you?
Over the past couple of years, there may be a robust movement to empower creative people to do creative matters.
That’s not the manner it always turned into. Media was once much more top-down – which means networks had a factor of view on the arena, and everybody had to fit that version.
The whole enterprise is more bottom-up now. I guess it’s an herbal derivative of social media technology in which creators speak immediately to enthusiasts.
It’s an extraordinary evolution for the patron because instead of looking to serve all enthusiasts with one sort of content, we can now hyper-serve fanatics with specific pursuits.
What habit boosts your productivity?
I agree with the management concept that if you need to improve at whatever, you must degree and tune it.
I attempt to be relentlessly self-essential and continuously investigate if I am no longer just operating harder but operating smarter. I suppose that steady evaluation of my performance allows me to remain extra efficient.
What advice for your younger self?
Who you surround yourself with has a sneaky massive effect on your profession and existence. If you surround yourself with excessive achievers, getting up at 5 a.m.
If you go to a training session, then work first in the office, that mindset sneaks into your life. If you hang out with less-centered people, you could emerge as going the other way.
A relentless cognizance of who you spend time with also tells your hiring choices. “People are your most vital asset.
” Former ESPN President George Bodenheimer said that for years. When I turned in my 20s at ESPN, I thought it would become something a pleasant boss could say. But as I got older, I realized how profound his declaration was.
There is a well-known clip after the Patriots beat the Seahawks to win the Super Bowl 2015. It became the sport where Patriots Coach Bill Belichick famously stayed calm within the waning moments while there seemed to be confusion on the other sideline.
After the win, Patriots Wide Receiver Julian Edelman hugged Belichick and stated: “You are the greatest instruct in the world.”
And even at that moment, at the peak of his powers, Coach Belichick is aware of sufficient to say to Edelman, “Players Win Games.” It’s genuine.
All the leadership strategies within the international arena are worth very little except that you have super players.
So, I might tell my younger self to focus on who you dangle out with, who you figure with, and who you hire.
Tennessee Basketball Coach Pat Summit stated first-rate: “Individual success is a fantasy. No one succeeds all by way of herself.
” Once that is done, you realize you should continuously check who is around you as it dramatically changes.
What’s an uncommon belief you hold?
I agree that the quality leadership philosophy is to oddly haven’t any philosophy. I assume it’s extra powerful – though tougher – to try to recognize every person and then tailor your management to that character. As Red Auerbach once stated: “You have to study whose butt to kick and whose butt to kiss.”
What do you recommend doing regularly?
Constantly assume a long time. So often, humans are preventing every closing element in a deal. My default function is to offer in on everything.
I need to make sure that whoever is sitting across the desk from me leaves feeling proper and desiring to make more offers down the street. I am barely ever trying to “win” a negotiation.
Life is long; stay friendly with everybody, treat humans with respect, and apprehend their wishes – we are all in the protracted game.
How do you handle overwhelm?
Play sports activities. My breakout has continually been playing sports. Drinking, tablets, partying — none of that has ever been my breakout.
Going to play a superb sport of pick-out-up basketball, competitive tennis, or even a grueling run is what lets me get away, after which I refocus again.
What strategy has grown your business?
I spend a variety of time reminding the group that “being right isn’t the most critical component.” So regularly, people are in this street looking to be right about something.
Then I ask, if showing a person which you had been adequately ruined your relationship with them, would you consider that a win? Focus much less on being proper and more on figuring out your goal, and then we can discuss the lovely path to getting there.
What’s a valuable book or podcast for you?
I love Malcolm Gladwell’s podcast Revisionist History. It’s fascinating as it forces us to confront the concept that things we have been sure about won’t have been what we imagined all along.
Gladwell describes Revisionist History as “a manner to look at the unnoticed and the misunderstood.” He writes: “Every episode re-examines something from the past — an occasion, someone, an idea, even a music — and asks whether we were given it right the primary time. Because from time to time, the past merits a second chance.” I love that concept.
I suppose it’s helpful to constantly reassess if we were given things properly. So many awful selections are made because the first conclusion became incorrect, and now we are making a sequence of decisions alongside an avenue we have not to be on.
I think it’s helpful for humans and corporations to continuously know how much there may be to research. Former NFL Coach Bill Parcells had a smart — although complicated — word that may guide perspective: “When you don’t realize that you don’t recognize, it’s lots special than when you do realize that you don’t realize.”
He is proper. A mystery of being a success is attempting to discover what you don’t understand and also wondering what your notion of being true won’t be.
What’s a recent favorite movie or series?
I am presently watching two shows. My two older sons are binge-looking at The Office on Peacock, and I am thoroughly playing a 2d pass on the collection.
The comedy hasn’t elderly at all. I am also selfishly watching QUARTERBACK on Netflix with my whole family. Working on that display became one of my career’s most fun experiences.
We documented what it became like to play quarterback inside the NFL by following Kirk Cousins, Marcus Mariota, and Patrick Mahomes for the entire season.
I instead recommend that if you produce an NFL docuseries following quarterbacks, you have to choose in advance the guy who ends up winning the Super Bowl and the MVP. I agree with the name of that approach: luck.