Risk, Reward, and Reinvention: Brian Petrovek’s Maine Story

Today we are speaking with community leader and former sports and entertainment executive Brian Petrovek, who happens to have spent some time in lovely Yarmouth, Maine, which is where we are recording from today. But good to see a fellow, at least for a moment or Fellow clipper. Clipper, Well, it's great to be back. Yeah, thanks for Fond memories of our time in For sure. Absolutely. Well, thanks for coming in and having this conversation. Thanks for having me. I mean, I think I've heard your name floating around my consciousness for enough decades that I'm like, oh, you're actually a person indeed. Actually have a conversation with you. And even more so with your connection with our daughter. Yes, that's right. So obviously we interviewed Jenny not too long ago and she was fantastic on air. I love that she was the chief enthusiastic for her current job. And so yes, I would like to be the chief enthusiast. I'm just going to name myself chief enthusiast, but so does she get any of that from you, Brian? I would say she gets more of the enthusiast from her mom. Are you going to give us a little more information on that? Who knows? Well, I think it is that Jenny, the bubbling, but the type a piece of the equation perhaps for me, but I think it's the charm and the enthusiasm and it's the get up and go approach to living and working. That I'm sure comes from mom as well. But yeah, so the blend of the two, hopefully that's working out well on Jenny's behalf. Yeah, well, I truly enjoyed my conversation with her in talking about all the work that's being done in Portland and the hospitality industry and Canopy Hotels. And I think it's interesting to me to know the work that you are doing now. So for many, many years you were at the executive level and you were working in professional sports and your area was primarily hockey, but you've taken a turn, you're in the next phase of your life. And what I'm hearing a lot now learning about your work is you're doing a lot with the arts, you're doing a lot with service, you're doing a lot in the community. So tell me about that transition for you. Well, it is interesting when you characterize a professional career being in sports, it is hospitality, it is the experiential stuff. What are you doing with your time on a discretionary level? And sports and live entertainment certainly fit into that space. And I think for Jenny, having grown up in that environment, seeing what her dad was doing to a certain degree, the two were very much tied together. So I've always looked at it as we're providing an experience that isn't necessary to somebody's life. It's a choice. And to be in that kind of a business is one that was always ever changing and challenging, still a business, but something that was far different than worrying about or being concerned about buying groceries. You didn't have to buy a ticket to a hockey game. It was a choice you would make. So we were always making sure at least trying to, that the experience we were providing for the dollar was at a high standard. So I think that perhaps carried through to what Jenny was picking up on when she expressed an interest in hospitality, which she did when she was here at Yarmouth High School. And she certainly gets it and has been having great success along the way. So I think now with the move away from the day-to-day sports executive piece, you just take learning and the focus on the customer and this experiential part of what you're trying to provide and just never lose it. And it's always an evolving, challenging space to be in. So I love that you're giving your wife, Jenny's mom, Sarah, some credit for this because I think when I've heard and what I've read about your life, it's very similar to what I know of others who are in this arena, which is truly a lot of flexibility, a lot of moving around, a lot of putting yourself in the place where the work is done, which means that whoever the other part of your relationship is your significant other is doing that with you and is very much part of that work. So the fact that you're saying, well, Jenny could have gotten it from really either side and probably a combination of both, that tells me that this was in some ways a family business that you were doing, even though you were the one that potentially had, you had the title, but it sounds like your wife Sarah, was very involved. Absolutely. And I think the opportunities Jenny has had just growing up here, her peers, her friends, the people she's met, the college experience, and she's had as great opportunities in the professional space as she went into the business from Vail Resorts to coming back here, little time at the Westin, obviously with Fathom and with the experiences that come from a relationship with Hilton. So I think she's smart enough to know how to pick and choose those little nuggets that can fit into what she naturally finds as ways towards success. And the beauty of it, as Sarah and I both sense, is she gets more mature and learns more and moves her way up the ladder. She's just continuing to find a way to look at it as a lifestyle. It's a job, it's a profession, but she just bubbles over it. And her focus and her enjoyment level is one that I think we feel really good about that it's not the, oh, what am I going to do today? I got to go back into that place. How do I make the experience of our guests even better? So that enthusiast piece of the equation just comes naturally, and I think the longer she does it, she gets better at it, but she's not overcomplicating it either, which is great to see. This is probably one of the longer amounts of time we've spent talking about a child who also was a guest on a show, although you're not the first. We've had other people who had a parent come on and a child come on. But to me it's actually really important because as someone who also has adult children, I mean, when you spend a lot of your life working and trying to make things better for the people around you who are not your children, you're doing it. That's good and important, but also part of the reason you do it is for your family. So when you see your adult children come into the world and thrive and become good human beings, I mean, for me at least, I don't want to speak for you or anybody else, but that's been immensely rewarding. Yeah, I think you're right. And sometimes you don't appreciate that as much. You look at things in a way that's just overly complicated, and I think she's, and all three of our kids look at their lives as opportunities, and we've all faced challenges, but how do you reposition those challenges into opportunities? And I've seen that throughout my career. I'm sure you have. Jenny has at her age, and she'll see it differently now with technology and some of the other challenges that perhaps Sarah and I didn't have as young professionals or as young parents. But I think she's got that grounding to where she can be nimble enough, but keep it simple, keep it basic, which is some of what I've been able to learn in my professional path. And now that I'm looking at other opportunities, it is one of those things where you just want to keep it simple, you want to peel it back. I think one of the comments I may have made in the survey was just more of an appreciation with first principles. It's just like if you got a problem, just peel it back to its core, what are the basic pieces of it to eliminate some of the obstacles? And I think Jenny, in the way that she runs her life and her business and bringing up her kids, she shows that each and every day, which is kind of cool, and she'll get better at it, which is nice too. Well, I love hearing about this and I love hearing about the ways that you are impacting. It's kind of the next generation that you know about. Sure, there are other people that you're impacting in the next generation. But I want to go back a little bit in your life to where you began, where you came in, you were a high level hockey player, and you went to Hotchkiss, you went to Harvard, and you had a passion for the sport. And I want to hear about that because it sounds like something that occurred when you were younger set you on a path for what would become your life's work, and that does, it happens sometimes, but not always. So talk to me about Yeah, no, I think looking back, youngest of three, so two older brothers playing the sports, the younger brother is the one that gets thrown into the net so the two older brothers can shoot the pucks at them, that kind of thing. So it's kind of one of those, it kind of starts there and then all of a sudden it's just the appreciation at a young age for being in that position in this sport is kind of cool. You're the one probably most responsible for the win or the loss. So a little bit of risk reward at a pretty young age, and then you quickly realize everybody else is on the ice for 30, 45, 60 seconds, then they got to get off. I'm in a position where I could stay there the entire time, never leave the stage and have that opportunity that no other member of the team has. So the position, the sport, I latched onto it for some of those reasons early on and was just really fortunate to be able to take a little bit of talent with the interest to become a student of the game. When I was young and just entering into the sport, I was privileged to be in a youth hockey organization that just happened to have a teammate whose dad was the coach of Boston University, Jack Kelly. Jack had an incredibly successful professional career both at the Collegiate and the NHL level and Jack taking his kids to the same practice sessions that my dad was taking me. I'm 8, 9, 10 years old, Hey, your kid's pretty good. How's he doing in school? How interested is he in the sport? And boy, maybe because of Jack's relationship with somebody at Hotchkiss who he had gotten to know when Jack was at Colby and this particular person was at Bowdoin, gee, maybe your son should take a ride up to Lakeville, Connecticut and see it as an eighth grader, whether a boarding school environment would be of interest because he might be a pretty good little player and he's doing pretty well in school. That all started me down this path of really getting into the sport and being able to combine an opportunity to progress and develop at an elite level to be able to compete at a Division one Ivy League college eventually, but also have the opportunity to go to an elite boarding school where I could learn and to read and write. So it was that the convergence and the connection of sport and education at a very young age, that was really the opportunity to get on that path and never look back. So pretty lucky. I do like what you're saying about, so you're very fortunate. Obviously you had the right environment, you have people paying attention to you. I think there is something about taking the opportunity though that, I mean, somebody can say, please come to school here, or Please come play hockey for us. But in the end, it's you taking that opportunity to pursue something that I think the credit only goes to you. Well, I don't know if I would take all that credit. I think I was given through my parents and the sacrifices they made to provide the Hotchkiss experience to understand and appreciate. It wasn't just me, but being given the opportunity to have that space and that freedom to make a decision As an eighth grader, if my mom were sitting here right now, she'd say, there's no way I want you to leave home. Right. That was tough. But that was one where I realized if I don't do this now, I could be looking back and regretting this for a long time. So that was a choice at a young age, and I really wasn't sure what I was going to get into. I didn't realize how rigorous and how competitive the academic side of it was going to be. I just knew I was going to go to a place where I could practice every day in a rink that was right on campus with a coach that happened to play the same position I did at an Ivy League school when he was playing. It just all came together to where I was given the opportunity and I was lucky enough to make the right decision. And I think those four years were the ones that are probably the most formative because of the challenges that were presented both academically and athletically in a setting that I never ever imagined myself to be in. I was on a path to stay in Norwood, Massachusetts and go to Norwood High School and play on a hockey team that was a state power year in and year out. But this was something that was unexpected and wasn't one that my teammates at the time expected me to take. So there was a little bit of what's he doing? Who does he think he is? So there was a little bit of a challenge there growing up at a young age when it was time to come home and realize that you were too good for our hometown team, and you had to take that journey into the Berkshires to figure out what you wanted to do as a high school student and athlete. But timing is everything. Opportunities when they present themselves, you got to just have the freedom to be able to make those decisions and get the support from your parents and from others that you needed to make it a success. But no regrets, that's for sure. So I'm thinking a lot as you're talking about the kids that are currently in the various sports systems within Maine in particular, just because this is where I grew up, and obviously going to Yarmouth High School, and you are familiar with Yarmouth, the Clippers, our hockey team was always very good. NYA is in our town, North Yarmouth Academy. That school system, that school was very good. It produced Eric Weinrich, who obviously he was an NHL player. But what I love about your conversation about opportunity is that Maine is similar to Massachusetts in some ways, and that there is this strong culture of sports and supporting kids in sports and trying to make sure that if they have talent that we do bring them up through. And I think that's really important, especially in a place like Maine where some children do have a lot of opportunities just from the get go, others don't have as many opportunities, And they really have to make the opportunities for themselves. So kind of trying to build that culture within not just areas like Yarmouth, which already have a lot of resources, let's just say, but also other parts of the state that don't. Talk to me about your thoughts on that. Well, yeah, I mean, it's not a level playing field, and some of it is circumstantial and serendipitous. It's why did you end up in the place that you ended up and some of the things you can control and some of the things you can't. And it is just hard to, I guess, evaluate if you're not provided with the opportunities, how do you grab onto them? How do you find your way to them without having the resources and the support? And there are places in the state, to your point, that don't necessarily have those resources, those opportunities as places like Yarmouth do. And that's a difficult road to hoe. And it's one that there are no easy solutions to providing everything to everybody. And I think when opportunities come up, those who are being provided with them just have to be smart enough to grab 'em. Life is short. And I can only imagine the environment, the competitive environment, the peer pressures today that are different from when our kids were going through Yarmouth school system and competitive colleges compared to what they're now with technology and everything else that's coming into play. But no easy solution. I think that's where everybody has to take a look at appreciating what they have, being grateful for it, and being able to not miss out on opportunities if they're presented. And that's easier said than done, but we all face those challenges every day in our lives, whether it's through choices we make and how we're going to be educated, where we're going to live, the types of work we're going to get into, how much of our life is dedicated to the profession versus to the community and to family and all those other things. But it is hard, and I think I'm appreciating more of the opportunities that I've had that I had over these years now that I'm outside of the professional world, and perhaps I did in the 45 years I was running companies and trying to raise kids and grow a relationship in communities, but I can only imagine what a 14-year-old is thinking about today versus what I was thinking about when I decided to go to boarding school. It's a different world. I agree with that. And I also think I've been impressed with whether it's sports, whether it's being in the arts. I mean, I actually have been impressed with the level of commitment that many Maine parents have made to their children, whether they are in resource rich towns or not. I mean, we've interviewed people, children from who have grown up around the state, and a lot of it does come from that early family community support the teacher who recognized something in them. And I think that for me, it may not completely balance out the resource richness of some places and less a resource and others. But I think it's not unimportant because I think when you feel like people support you, when you feel like your parents are willing to drive you to the hockey rink at five o'clock in the morning, which is by the way, one of the reasons my son was never a hockey player, I was not willing to do that. It didn't work out, did it? No, that was not a thing that we were going to do with my family. But I do think there's something really strong about a lot of pockets of Maine that strong families, strong communities, people, strong teachers, strong coaches, that people really do want what's best for the children of the state. I mean, that's just my observation. I'm wondering what you think about that? Yeah, and I think influencers, it's just interesting how today's kids are being influenced by so many other different types of people and not just their parents or their coaches or their teachers. The spokes that come into play for a 14-year-old are so many and different and more intense than they've ever been. And I can only imagine that process that a youngster, a young person has to go through to distinguish who am I going to listen to this time or this part of the day? For what reason on what topic? And how does it influence the decision that young people need to make when they're making choices as to what they want to do with their time and where they want to potentially head with their education or profession. So it is not an easy environment to be in, no matter how old or young you are. I'm being influenced by people at my age that I didn't expect to be, but I think I'm equipped enough to be able to evaluate the influencers in a way that experience and wisdom can allow me to do that versus what a young person is attempting to do today with so many influences coming from so many different angles without even considering the power of technology. So again, I think it is, it's how you deal with that, with all those different sources of influence and how young people can make those choices without getting overwhelmed with pressure. And I got to do this because they're doing this, or my teacher says I have to do this. And that's a hard situation for folks to be in to make those choices. And I think that's where, coming back to my reference earlier with, when you're faced with these opportunities and challenges, it's dumb it down. It's first principles, what is it within each of the things that we're dealing with, that in and of itself is important and simple and true and basic. And I think the more we can think about things like that, whether it's challenges or opportunities, the better off. I think we're going to be able to be and to live our lives in a way that makes sense. So as you've been exploring this next part of your life after all these years at the highest level of leadership within this industry, and now moving into a time of really significant service and community connection, which I think always existed, but now it's more of a focus for you, what would you say is your simplification of your approach? I mean, as you're exploring what your options are, what are the things that you are thinking of at the most basic level that are causing you to feel like, yes, I'd like to move towards this project. I'd like to take on this project. I'm going to engage at the board level in this area. What considerations have you had? Good question. I think the love of being where we are in Portland and the experience that we had when we bought the team with the Pirates in 2000, the 14 years that we were shepherding the business, the opportunities that I had, not just to try and make the business successful and sustainable and profitable and all those things, but to be able to take the business platform into opportunities to engage in community-based social services, whether it's United Way or Portland downtown, district, chamber of Commerce, all that stuff, and bring all of that into play in the aggregate has just given me more energy. And I think focus now that I'm back here again to try and focus better on the community piece piece. So I don't have to deal with running a team. I don't have to deal with negotiating a lease with the county on the civic center. I don't have to worry about looking at opportunities to build a new building and sell more season tickets and sponsorships. So we're back into the space where we were trying to do all of that over the course of those 14 years without having to deal with any of it, but appreciate all what we were trying to do with our platform and our connection to the community with places and organizations like United Way, Downtown District, City, Chamber, things like that. And just focus exclusively on that particular part of the equation and figure out, with what I've learned, with what I've been able to experience over all these years, how do I come back and try and identify an opportunity where I can really say to myself, I've played a bigger role in trying to make this particular piece of Portland better. And what is that going to be? Is it just having a seat at the table? As I look at a role and a responsibility that I've just recently engaged in with coming back as a board member of the Cumberland Club, a city club, right? It's a gem of downtown Portland about to celebrate its 150th year, and what role can I play in making that club and that organization better for the purpose that it has in adding quality of life to the community? That's one thing. Look at living where we're living right now in the heart of the old port and looking at the challenges with social services and the homeless and housing and a whole bunch of things that just come with the challenges of trying to make the experience of living in the Old Port better, safer, looking at opportunities that maybe will come with an expansion of a museum, whether that's as a donor, whether it's just as a contributor, whether it's as a interested party who could weigh in on an idea and feel that, gee, I've played a part in what is going to be an amazing expansion of a three centuries old gem that many communities don't have. Is there an opportunity there? So it is kind of looking at exclusively, where can I play a part that I wasn't able to play as well as I maybe wanted to when we were owning and operating a sports franchise that now I can come back and play in a more powerful, impactful way. And I think that's what I'm trying to figure out in a way that makes the most sense to me and where I can give back in the most effective way possible to say to myself, boy, this second chapter was one that was really cool, really brought things full circle, and to be able to leave the place better than we found it when we got here and in the year 2000 and had an opportunity to buy a hockey team. So I think the coming back with being, and the Cumberland Cup is a good example. I was on that board for almost 10 years from 2003 to 12 or 13 when I finished my term as president. I've been away from it for 10 years now I'm back. And I'm looking at it in a way that's different and have a chance to contribute to it in a different way, again, as a second time board member. And to be able to think about reapplying some of that interest 10 years away from when I did it before and seeing what's changed and what hasn't, and seeing how I can play a role that's perhaps a little bit different and more impactful than I was able to do before. So that's kind of the focus at this point. And I had an opportunity, as you may know, when we were running the franchise to do a little teaching, I spent three, almost better parts of three years teaching some courses at USM in their new sport management program. That was cool. That was interesting. So I'm back here and I can easily, perhaps, not easily, but think a little bit more critically about maybe getting back into the classroom, maybe taking some of what I thought I was getting better at as a teacher of some courses at USM, UNE has now as gotten a little bit deeper into that whole part of their mission and what they're delivering to the community in sports and business. So the teaching aspect is one that I'm thinking a little bit more about of late than I was perhaps when I retired four years ago. But I think it's all of that available to somebody like myself who can come back to a city like Portland and look at the opportunities to give back and provide some value and to do what I've always been trying to do a better job at, which is making it better. You can't always make it perfect, but I think I have a rare opportunity now that I'm not fully engaged in a professional setting where I can find a path toward doing it a little bit differently and better than I was doing it before. So it's pretty exciting. I've been doing podcasting for 15 years, and I've interviewed just a lot of people who have Maine connections, who are very creative. And with Radio Maine, what we say is that we explore and celebrate creativity in the human spirit. So obviously when we bring an artist in, and I know that you have an interest in art. I know that you've talked about Rothko, and you've talked about the fact with me that Sarah has an art history background. You have a Portland Museum of Art Connection. So obviously there's that element of creativity. But if somebody, well, let's say I was going to ask you, how does creativity factor into the work that you have done in the past and the work that you're doing now? And I'm interested to hear this in part because having spoken to Jim Brady, who is a businessman and also is a former Olympian, his version of creativity is very different than when I speak to one of the Portland Art Gallery artists. So how would you say that creativity plays into the work that you've done before Brian, or what you're thinking of doing in the future? Well, again, I think it's being able to think outside the box, being able to color outside the lines when the opportunity arises. And I think that's how I've kind of looked at the creativity thing. It's being adaptable, it's being able to evolve, but having the ability to color within the lines when it's, do it simply, let's do it efficiently, let's do it effectively. Let's do it based on data. It is all the business 101 things that you're taught, whether it's through your academic programs or whether it's just through experience to where you got to keep it simple. You got to keep it basic. But being smart enough, intuitive enough, creative enough to be able to know that just because I've done it this way before, and just because they've done it this way, best practices are great, but to be able to be creative enough to look differently at something than somebody else has before to make it even better. And I think that's part of the competitiveness in me as an athlete that I've been able to take into the professional realm to see things that others have done without being constrained through formula through you have to, because it was done this way and it's been successful, and find ways to bring different approaches, different methods to the madness to be better at it. And I think that's the piece where the competitive part of me at a very young age has been able to appreciate where opportunities to do it differently come into play. I'm a risk reward guy, and that's where creativity has come into it with me. It's, I guess interpreting and exercising a creative opportunity in a risk reward environment from a business perspective. And I think I can appreciate where Jim Brady would come from in the way that he looks at his businesses and his opportunities in some ways similar than perhaps to what I do, but creativity in the risk reward sense is kind of where I latch onto it. Any final thoughts? I feel like there's so many different places that we could go with this conversation, but has anything come up with you in your mind in the time that we've been talking additional, a question that I haven't asked you perhaps, or something that you think people would be interested in knowing about you before we finish? No, it's kind of interesting. You haven't asked about regrets or worse experiences or otherwise. But no, I think, Well, since you brought that up, Well, no, it shouldn't. I mean, What would your regrets be? Because I think it's a great question, actually. You have no regrets. No regrets. No, I think again, would've could have, should have. I mean, we could spend the entire day talking about those. If I had known what I know now, would I have done what I did then? Probably not. But I think having the opportunity to do different things at different times to make mistakes and learn from them, maybe more so than I had imagined, but I think I've been the beneficiary of being able to be adaptable enough to not look into the rear view mirror, I think. And I think that's probably the piece that I'll leave you with. It's just there's so much of time and regret and what ifs that people seem to get borrowed by that I've been, I think, fortunate to not have to be overly concerned about, I think as we maybe mentioned before, it's more a matter of now, it's what I'm saying versus what others are saying, and trying to be reasonable and smart enough and intelligent enough to take the high road and understand and be grateful for what I've been able to accomplish over these years. So I mean, for me now, as we were just talking about how do you take this last chapter of a life that's short and bring it all together in a way that it truly is going to be more meaning