Running With My Head Down: Entrepreneurial Lessons from Frank Fiume, a Pioneer in the Youth Sports Industry

My guest on this episode of Talking Business Now is serial entrepreneur Frank Fiume, a pioneer in the youth sports industry and the founder of i9 Sports—the country's leading franchise of youth leagues and camps. The company has generated more than $300 million in sales, with 2 million participants in 900 communities across 30 states nationwide. The business catapulted Fiume to national recognition, and Entrepreneur magazine ranked i9 Sports as the #1 children’s fitness franchise. Fiume has been featured on Fox Business News, HBO Real Sports, and in dozens of publications and national news media outlets, including USA Today, Sports Illustrated, and The Wall Street Journal. Fiume sold i9 Sports in 2017 to a private equity firm, but remains a minority shareholder and member of the board of directors. Fiume recently released his first book, "Running With My Head Down: An Entrepreneur's Story of Passion, Perseverance, and Purpose." In this episode, we talk with Frank about how his boyhood fascination with baseball while living in a tenement apartment in Queens led him to create an adult softball league on Long Island that eventually led him to found i9 Sports. Tune in as Fiume shares many of the lessons he learned about himself and business throughout the years, including: The Entrepreneur Identity Crisis The Lonely at the Top Syndrome The Executive Burnout Phase The Affluenza Affair Handling Critics and Crisis The Influence of Family and Friends Achieving Spiritual Awakening CONNECT WITH FRANK FIUME LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/frankfiume/ Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/frankfiume Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/frankfiumeii/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frankfiumeii Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices