Today I’m psyched to have Brian Daley in the studio for Wicked Business Boston. Brian is not only the director of social media for Jeffrey Glassman Injury Lawyers, but also a professional skateboarding videographer as well as a content creator for such brands as Puma, Red Bull and others. As always, Wicked Business Boston is a digital blog that gives a voice to the people who make the city of Boston so great.
🔉 Listen to Audio Excerpt:
So, Brian, first, how did you get involved in, I am going to bring up skateboarding right off the bat because for me that’s how, when I see you, that’s what I think of. How’d you get involved in skateboarding? What inspired you to turn it into a career, if you will?
Yeah, so I grew up skateboarding. I pretty much sucked at the regular sports and somebody put a skateboard in my hands in the neighborhood and I kind of got the hang of it a little quicker than I was with my golf swing. So, got into skating like that and then I kind of just looked at it as a hobby forever and fast forward down the line, I started working for Red Bull doing content creation for social media. One or two restructures later I ended up filming in the streets pro skateboarders professionally, which I guess would, on my resume it said “professional skateboard filmer” for a little bit. So yeah, just kind of like hobby turn career, like a 10-year window.
What would you say is the skateboarding lifestyle like? How is it in Boston? For me, it seems pretty under the radar, if you will.
It’s actually grown a lot in Boston. It’s always been kind of looked at as an alternative kind of edgier sport I feel not even a sport, but now it’s in the Olympics and it’s actually a high-performance sport now. It’s very much acknowledged in every major city in the world. So, I think it gets the respect it deserves in less of a niche world and in more of a kind of traditional sports world, which I don’t even think it belongs in the traditional sports category, but if it’s going to get the acknowledgement then sure.
You built a career out of storytelling. What part of this being, sorry, was part of this being in the right place at the right time?
“I think I have to thank my job at Red Bull for kind of kickstarting my career in the social media world.”
I’d say, “definitely.” I think I have to thank my job at Red Bull for kind of kickstarting my career in the social media world. Before that, I was over at Shutterfly boxing department, screwing around pretty much a dead-end job. And then I was at a party with some more people from Shutterfly. Bumped into this dude that was on the show Tosh Point-O back in the day who worked at Red Bull. I recognized him because he was from Watertown, I’m from Watertown. And then yeah, I essentially got a job offer from him like a week later, flew to LA and my life just pretty much changed overnight and that’s kind of where it all started. So definitely some luck. I think a smile and a hello goes a long way with some of this stuff. And the end of the day when you’re a social media producer, anybody can hold a phone and film somebody. They want somebody that is going to make the talent just feel like ready to go, good to go, and someone that’s just chill, I guess. So, I think being normal helps a lot too.
My sister, always ask me, do you love what you do and I’m going to ask you the same thing?
Absolutely, yeah. I mean, I’ve got to travel the world through social media. I went to film school. I wasn’t the greatest with camera operating, not that good with audio. And then once the iPhone became an acceptable platform to be using to actually produce, I took it and ran. And I think just the timeliness of social media, you want to be the first people to talk about something if something big happens. That’s where we learn our news now really is social media. So just being speedy with the editing on my phone, just being timely, ready to go, ready to post. Yeah, I love it. It’s kind of like working at a news station in a way.
Tell me about your experience as a video producer for Red Bull Skateboarding. What were some of your most memorable projects?
I’d have to say… What was my favorite thing that I did at Red Bull for skate? So, I pitched an idea, so my team wanted everyone to come up with an idea that was going to be the next viral thing and I pretty much half-assed it kind of forgot I had to present something. So, I get into the meeting and I presented as an answer to the Barstools Sports Pizza Review. I was like, why don’t we do a skate park review show? So, I had Joey Brezinki, one of Red Bull’s pro skaters there. He’s been sponsored by Red Bull. He’s been in the skate world forever, really well-known pro. He was the host and we got to travel around the US reviewing skate parks and it was me, my co-producer who was one of my best friends, Joey and then the co-host of the show. So, the four of us just got to screw around for a year essentially going and reviewing skate parks and the viewers were crazy. They were through the roof, and we weren’t spending any money doing it. It was just being produced in house and all that Red Bull was paying for was an Airbnb. So, it was really cool travel with a couple of pro skaters and a good friend of mine. That was probably my favorite thing I ever did with a Red Bull.
You mentioned this, I’m going to jump ahead. What’s the story behind your, “Here Comes The Pizza series, which came first? This or the ”One Bite Pizza Review” with David Portnoy of Barstool Sports?
Oh yeah, a hundred percent. David Portnoy was first there, but yeah, it was like mid-tier Covid, we’ll say six months into when the Covid thing was going down and where it was takeout only, pickup only, I started realizing that there’s a niche community of foodies in Massachusetts. South Shore has the Bar Pizzas, North Shore has the roast beef three-way sandwiches. So, I just wanted to target that and hit the South Shore because that’s where I got a house down in Kingston in there. So that’s where I spent a lot of my time. So yeah, I just started filming those episodes with my buddy Pat The Filmer (Pat Haggan). We were just bored during Covid. I wanted something to do really. So yeah, it’s pretty funny though. People still recognize me to this day as the kid with the truck. Cuz, I shot up in the back of my truck.
How do you balance your work as a skateboarding influencer with running a media agency? I mean, if that’s what you, would you consider it a media agency?
***My mistake…Brian does not run a media agency…***
I mean I’m a full-time employee at Glassman, I’d say maybe with a full-time job, but how does that mix? Does that kind of…
Yeah, I mean I guess that’s a better question, how as an influencer working for a specific company, how do you blend the two? I mean your job is as a content creator for them, but does it bleed into other things you’re doing?
Definitely. The thing about marketing I’ve noticed is that it’s a full-time job. It’s kind of a 24/7 thing. If anything happens and we have to be timely about it, we got to jump on immediately. So, it can get a little “blendy” there. But for the most part, I kind of like having my work life balance figured out. Definitely, (I) try to get out and skate as much as possible. It’s really my biggest form of exercise other than running. So, I’d say it’s a huge, it takes a little bit of kind of mending to work in a law firm and also be a skateboarder at the same time and not the easiest sell. Definitely, definitely, wore long sleeves for the first couple months to hide these tattoos. But yeah, I’d say it works pretty well.
Your YouTube channel mentions live skateboarding event, greater Boston. Can you tell me more about organizing and promoting skateboarding events in the area?
Definitely. That’s my favorite thing that I got going. That’s a passion project of mine. I have a brand called Not Finna, and started as street art. I watched “Exit Through the Gift Shop” which is a Banksy documentary from about 10 years ago and I started getting a feel for wheat pasting in the streets. The graphics pretty much Kinkos essentially gluing them on walls in the street and unfortunately that’s illegal. So, I had to kind of pivot and essentially we just had a little culture skate culture brand and I ended up linking up with the Weedaker Group based out of New Dia Cannabis Mall over by Fenway Park and they wanted to give me a chance with “Not Finna” to do something to make it bigger and I took ’em up on it. And inside of New Dia, quarterly we did four of ’em this year. We had a 16-person game of skate tournament where the winner leaves a thousand bucks on a big printed check. It’s over the top. Entrance music, absolutely theatrics going down to New Dia. So yeah, it all happened this year and we’re coming in strong for 2025 with it. So, it’s unbelievable mending the skate brand with cannabis. Meanwhile a little law firm for my nine to five. It’s just there’s so many different angles coming out of it. It’s wild.
What would you say the demographics are for skateboarding? I mean, male, female, young, old, what’s the average age range? Who’s doing it?
You see so many different ages now. I’ll go to my local skate park and there’s a guy there that’s got to be in his fifties, maybe late fifties. Then you see little kids, there’s a little kid skating in the Olympics winning gold medals, eight years old and then you got, there’s a lot of girls who the female skate community here in Boston is really powerful and it’s great to see. So, it’s really all over the map. Everybody’s getting into it. It’s the fastest growing thing right now.
You’re the social media manager at Jeffrey Glassman Injury Lawyers. Can you talk about how this job came to be?
Yes, definitely. So, before I was at Glassman I was kind of, my role was the creative director at this place, Purely Boston. You may have seen it before. It’s kind of like a meme, blonde Boston local sports news, something like that. Pretty much I needed something with more structure. At one point I realized my relationship with my girlfriend was getting more serious and I couldn’t have my office be out partying at the bars, filling recaps of us getting shit faced. So, I started shopping around looking for a job and actually one of the producers that was on Purely Boston Fast Frank, he saw that there was a job opening at the law firm he worked at. So, the kid that I worked with, Purely Boston, stuff that he does as more of a hobby, he ended up getting me the job. So now I see him inside the office wearing a blazer every other day.
That’s funny. What advice would you give to aspiring skateboarders or influencers of any kind who want to build their personal brand? I know it’s skateboarding, it’s the same. I see kids always out there recording themselves doing stuff, but in general terms of building their own brand, I mean you started from ground zero and you did what you did, what would you suggest?
I would just say if you’re trying to gain credibility on social media today, you just have to be talking about stuff that people want to hear, and you can’t get obsessed with the sound of your own voice. I see so many influencers looking like clowns out there, especially here in Boston, forcing it. I post less than your average influencer. I wouldn’t even consider myself an influencer to be honest with you, but I’d say just be chill and just talk about stuff that’s interesting and make it more journalism based and not, you trying to get a laugh out of random people you’ve ever met.
You talked about skateboarding in the Olympics. How do you see the introduction helping the sport overall?
It’s got to be huge. The thing about skateboarding becoming more of a globally recognized sport, some of the bigger players are getting involved now. So, some of the core skate brands from back in the day like Birdhouse Skateboards or say Element or whatever else, they’re getting pushed out. Even shoe brands coming in, like Nike has a full skateboarding program. Red Bull’s very involved with skateboard. These billion-dollar industry or these billion-dollar companies are coming into what used to be a core niche industry. And are reaping the benefits, which is great as they’re bringing money into it. But it’s wild to think that New Balance is a player in the skateboarding world and it’s insane. Every big shoe brand has a skate shoe now.
The only park I can think of, again, I don’t know it but is under the Zakim Bridge there.
Yeah.
Are there any others here in Boston?
Oh yeah, there’s a bunch of ’em. Yeah, that’s Lynch Skate Park under the bridge. That was under, not even under construction, that was in the planning process since I was in middle school. I remember going to Ski Market Underground on Comm Ave. to skate in their half pipe that was inside and there was an orange bucket to donate to this skate park that was going to be the Charles River Project Conservatory Project or something and you’d throw two bucks in there and we’re talking like 2006 and finally I think about 2012, that might be totally off of that, but it took so long to finally get that thing off the ground. I swear since 1999 they were talking about making that skate park and finally popped up the other bunch is, a couple in Somerville. They just built a really nice one in Watertown and it’s wild because I was spending so much time being an advocate for the Waltham Skate Park project. I kind of grew up in the Waltham scene for skating. I was told at city hall meetings, I was in the newspaper a few times. I was becoming a political activist for Waltham Skateboarding. Meanwhile when I’m not paying attention, they build a $2 million skate park for Watertown, my actual hometown. And I’m like, what is going on? Yeah, they pop up like crazy. There’s a new skate park in Weymouth they just put in. It’s massive. They’re all over the place. There’s probably like 60, 70, 80 even in Mass I’d say. And probably more.
I’m going to end with some rapid-fire questions for you. Favorite skate shop in Boston?
Where’s that?
That’s actually an appointment only skate shop. A small business run out of the Brighton area, but I don’t even know if I could say where it’s located, but it’s an appointment only skate shop. It’s the coolest shop around and you can order online on their website.
Favorite Local Skater?
Favorite local skater? John McParland.
Why is that?
He’s just such a good dude. He’s making such a buzz in Boston right now. He’s coming out with some crazy footage. He actually won my tournament that I put on the second one that we did. Yeah, he won the second one. He came in third on the most recent one. He’s just a great dude. He’s just the least. Some skaters are a bad vibe, especially local skaters. Even if you see them and you know who I am and I know who you are. This is like the opposite of that. The John McParland is just great guy and he’s a great skater.
Favorite Skate Shoe?
I’m going to say DC Lynx Two.
Favorite Skate Park?
Where’s that?
It’s in Somerville, mass. It’s the old Lincoln Park. It’s a skate park, but everybody uses the basketball court where they built a bunch of DIY stuff. So, it was a perfectly good skate park right on the other side of the basketball court. But everyone chooses to use the basketball court. I think it’s hilarious. That’s where all my friends go.
Favorite Pro Skater?
Favorite pro skater? Tiago Lemos. Shout out to the shoes.
Where’s he from?
He’s, I think he’s from Brazil. I’m not sure originally, but he is got some of the best sponsors. Most of sponsors and New Balance make just some of the best gear. So, I had, I got to shout out Tiago.
Favorite Skate Video?
Favorite skate video is “Flip, Extremely sorry.” Came out in 2003.
Awesome. Well, that’s it. That’s it for you today, Brian. Thank you so much for coming in. I appreciate it. And thanks for participating in Wicked Business Boston.
Thank you for having me. It was a pleasure.
Thanks so much.
Check out Brian’s You Tube channel at NotFinna. He’s on Instagram @Notfinna as well as @Wickedfast.
